Wine Blast with Susie and Peter

We're on the road again. This time, diving into Pays d'Oc IGP - we're talking scenic southern France, and a little-known but intriguing origin story involving California, Algeria, violence, desperation, stubborn visionaries...and victory rescued from the jaws of defeat. Oh, and 'Liberté!' Helping us paint the picture are Jacques Gravegeal (an exclusive interview, rare for...

SUBSCRIBER BONUS TASTER : 27 wines - 18 top tasters - an epic blind tasting featuring just one grape: Chardonnay. From all around the world - Grand Cru Burgundy to vintage champagne via Western Australia, Sonoma County and even Japan. Who would be the big winners? And, more importantly, why?! That's what we're getting into in this intriguing subscriber-only bonus episode on The Greatest...

Fifty years on from the historic Paris tasting that revolutionised wine - what's changed? And what will that mean for the next 50 years?! Those are the searching questions we're asking (and attempting to answer) in this special episode to mark the 50th anniversary of the legendary Judgement of Paris tasting in 1976 where unknown Californian wines triumphed against the French greats in th...

Is natural wine dead? Or is it thriving? What even IS natural wine these days?! Most importantly, what's next for this multi-faceted yet misunderstood category?  Helping us answer these searching questions are writer and winemaker Rachel Signer , journalist Simon J Woolf and wine producer Ben Walgate . We also indulge in a bit of impassioned debate between the two of us - this being a particu...

Buckle up, we're heading back out into wine country, this time to the intriguing Adelaide Hills wine region in South Australia. It gets talked about a lot - but what's it really all about? Is it all about piercing, textural Chardonnay? Or fine sparkling wine? What about the perfumed Pinot Noir, the scented Shiraz..? And let's not forget the likes of Gruner Veltliner, Nebbiolo, Gamay...

Grab your magnifying glass and white coat, we're getting microscopic - but this goes well beyond fermentation. We're exploring the cutting-edge techniques whereby the power of yeasts is being harnessed in fields as diverse as viticulture, winemaking and shipping. Even without the microscope, this is an eye-opening episode... Wine is facing many challenges. Climate change. The cost of liv...

Sauvignon Blanc is one of the wine world's most divisive grape varieties. On the one hand, it's hugely popular for its aromatic charm and upbeat appeal. And yet some people can't stand it, sommeliers actively steer their customers away from it and connoisseurs turn their noses up at, 'the gin and tonic of wine'.  But is it possible that this is all just a bit, well, premat...

SUBSCRIBER BONUS TASTER - A privileged tasting of 100-point wines gets us thinking about scores, so-called perfection in wine, the risks of premature evaluation and how points for wine...somehow miss the point. First up - the wines: Cristal 2008 , Pichon Lalande 2016 , Ornellaia 2013 , Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill 2013 and Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial Blanco 1986 . We report on these and oth...

August 2025, a torrid Bordeaux summer: cue thunderbolt. Lafleur , one of Bordeaux's most acclaimed wines, sensationally quits the Pomerol and Bordeaux appellations. At the heart of the issue: water. Truth is, vines need water to survive and produce good wine. Not too much, nor too little. But climate change has thrown a giant spanner into the works - places that used to have just enough rain,...

Meet John Baker , Sydney wine merchant turned Indiana Jones turned author of Stalin's Wine Cellar , one of the most eye-opening wine stories you're likely to hear.  In the first part of this real-life account, John recounted how he'd got a tip-off about a mysterious wine cellar in Tbilisi, Georgia, apparently chock full of the greatest wines in the world, some more than a hundred ye...

It's not every wine story that comes with lashings of guns and cash and enforcers and heart-rending breakages - plus the odd death threat. Not to mention unicorn wines aplenty. But this one does! Which is why it's a must-listen. John Baker was a Sydney wine merchant with a sideline in fine and rare wine when opportunity came knocking in the form of a mysterious wine cellar in Tbilisi, Ge...

SUBSCRIBER-ONLY BONUS CONTENT (short taster) : What makes a successful medical inventor develop a parallel life aiming to fundamentally change the way we drink wine? How does frustration + a needle + some spare argon = a business that's sold more than 2 million units and is involved in pouring a glass of wine every second of every day?! Welcome to the world of Coravin - and its inventor, Greg...

In which we get over-excited by not only announcing the winners (and sharing the best entries) from our epic Wine Blast One Million Giveaway - but also by exploring the world of Coravin: a potential game-changer for wine. To understand just how Coravin is changing the world of wine, we're joined by Coravin inventor Greg Lambrecht and Tiny Wine co-founder Harry Crowther . The implications are...

SUBSCRIBER-ONLY BONUS CONTENT (short taster) - Sam Neill leads a double life. He's not Batman, or Bananaman. He's ConvivialWineChap (trademark pending).  On the one hand, he's world-famous actor Sam Neill, acclaimed for his starring roles in Jurassic Park, Peaky Blinders, The Piano and all that jazz. On the other, he's proud proprietor of Two Paddocks Wine in Central Otago, New...

New Zealand wine stands at a fork in the road. One path leads towards corporate behemoths churning out industrial quantities of mass-market Sauvignon Blanc; the other features increasingly refined, site-specific wines across a range of styles that compete with the world's very best. Which will it be? In this New Zealand Wines of the Year feature, we take you behind the scenes after tasting hu...

Peter Fraser, head winemaker and general manager at Yangarra Estate Vineyard in McLaren Vale, Australia, died in a house fire on 27th November 2025, aged 51. Peter was not only tremendously well respected, he was also tremendously well liked. As a person, he was affable, gentle, modest, genuine, ready with a laugh. As a professional, he was dedicated, conscientious and hugely talented. A champion...

Australia's McLaren Vale is a wine region undergoing a thrilling reinvention based largely around new-wave old-vine Grenache and a motley crew of eclectic grape varieties like Fiano, Falanghina, Mencia and even Saperavi. If you want to find out why these wines, 'play with your mind', 'suit the way we live' and should be considered, 'great wines of the world,' tun...

So what do a boxer, a ballerina and a burlesque dancer have in common? You're gonna have to listen to find out... We're very excited to be bringing you this mini-series on McLaren Vale, the historic South Australian wine region that's gone from identity crisis to full-on wine renaissance in just a few decades. It's a fascinating story, involving ancient vines, determined winema...

Books that caught our eye this year include Schott's Significa (yes, 'forbidden soup' is as grisly as it sounds), The Cheese Connoisseur's Handbook (yum) and Wine, Soil and Salvation in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament (biblical). This is a show of generous proportions. Partly to give you a chance for some extra listening indulgence. But also to allow us proper time to hear f...

Treats galore in this show! Because not only are we announcing our stellar Wines of the Year, we're also launching a HUGE giveaway to celebrate Wine Blast topping ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS . It's a major milestone for the pod so we wanted to say thanks to you for making it possible. Up for grabs are prizes worth more than £1,000 - from a set of Jancis Robinson Original wine glasses and decan...

What do Hermitage, The Sex Pistols, Tavel and Pink Floyd have in common? They all, ahem, featured at a particularly funky recent London tasting of top Rhône wine appellations, or Crus, aimed at reminding us how delicious and diverse these wines can be. And how fun, too. So join us as we explore the best wines of the Rhône Valley, from Côte-Rôtie to Condrieu via Vacqueyras and Vinsobres, discoverin...

We all know champagne - but what if you fancy a wine like champagne but maybe less pricey, more fruity or just different? The good news is: there's never been more choice, as production blossoms in regions as diverse as Serbia, China and India. Our stellar guide to the intriguing world of traditional-method sparkling wine beyond Champagne is Essi Avellan MW , one of the world's foremost...

We're in the middle of, 'the mystery of the world's most expensive bottle of wine.' We've seen the auction, met the protagonists, got a vivid taste for the heady wine-boom time of the 1980s and 90s...hell, the cork has even dramatically dropped out already (an appropriate metaphor if ever there was one). That's all in Part 1. Now we get stuck into the heart of our sto...

Picture the scene. Christie's auction house, London, December 1985. A dapper auctioneer is expertly tantalising the stellar audience with a bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite engraved with the initials of US founding father Thomas Jefferson. It duly becomes the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold, going for £105,000 ($156,000).  But it's what happens next that is the really intriguing bit...

Fancy a story about warriors, monks, family strife, an undercover grape variety, risking financial ruin for stubbornly sticking to stylistic guns, and deliciously drinkable fine wine? Thought you might. So join us as we get a privileged glimpse into the San Leonardo wine estate in Italy's northern Trentino Valley, not far from Verona and Lake Garda. Our guides are estate co-owner and manager...