Reading · Second Press: A Wine-ish Podcast

this week we are straight back into it after a crazy busy fortnight, reflecting on a proper buzzy london wine fair and why the trade feels like it is finally finding its feet again.

it was an episode recorded with a heavily compromised voice on dan’s part, and a couple of technical audio-recording woes, but we managed to push through to bring you three cracking guest interviews straight from the exhibition floor.

listen on apple podcasts

the news this week kicked off with a major leadership change at winegb, where charlie holland has been officially appointed as the new chair. charlie was the ceo of gusbourne and is now spearheading a new project with jackson family wines, charlie feels like exactly the right guy to bring some real unity and leadership to the uk industry right now. dan bumped into him at the fair, where he was keeping it quiet but in seriously good spirits ahead of the official announcement, and he’s coming on the show in a couple of months too.

we then turned our eyes to the london wine fair itself, which enjoyed a remarkably upbeat and vibrant iteration this year under hannah’s independent management. as richard highlighted in his excellent piece on the buyer, this new independent model has made the whole event much more agile. hannah told us herself that when they want to try something fresh or interesting, they can just crack on and do it now, which gave the whole room a freshness and excitement that has been missing for a while.

on a heavier note, top chefs are banding together to call for vat to be slashed to 10% for pubs and restaurants, matching standard continental practices. the statistics for hospitality venues closing down are sobering; even resilient, multi-decade operators are finally throwing in the towel because between national insurance rises and property taxes, it is just getting too hard. eating out shouldn’t be treated as an elite luxury; cutting vat gives independent venues some vital breathing room and keeps tables full.

our first guest was larry cherubino, reflecting on nearly 35 years in the game as a winemaker’s winemaker from western australia. larry started out as a farm boy, caught the winemaking bug, and has now spent decades running large-scale wine operations and managing an international consultancy across california, italy, and new zealand before launching his own independent venture twenty years ago.

his perspective on margaret river is refreshingly grounded: western australia makes less than 5% of the country’s total annual crush, but commands over 20% of the premium market. it is the ultimate textbook example of a maritime climate, naturally insulating the vines against the harsh weather spikes and frost that plague other global regions. larry’s philosophy is a massive departure from the old-school australian stereotype of heavy oak and over-extraction; his focus is entirely on clarity and varietal precision. lately, his production insights have focused on climate-resilient alternative varieties, particularly thick-skinned northern and southern european grapes. by utilising concrete and terracotta vessels for the past 15 years, his estates manage to preserve a natural tension and acidity that frequently leads sommeliers to mistake his chardonnays for classic white burgundy in blind tastings.

if he could make wine anywhere else, he’d be in piedmont working with nebbiolo, but what he is doing in the great southern right now is pure class.

we then turned to dan’s mw study buddy matthew brown, the current brand ambassador for wine of virginia. matthew and dan go through their international travels on the mw program, and it was great to see him over in the uk. now, matthew absolutely loathes the term “emerging region” and let’s be honest, the uk trade is a bit tired of that phrase too, preferring to say virginia is finally finding its true voice.

his perspective is shaped by a wild, mid-atlantic climate with clay-heavy soils that draw frequent comparisons to bordeaux, but the topography is the real secret. they have coastal spots turning out incredibly crisp chardonnay, alongside high-altitude mountain slopes that produce beautifully fresh, luminescent cabernet francs. people come to the fair with total blinkers on about east coast american wine, but the moment they actually taste these lower-abv, crunchy styles, their heads completely turn.

matthew’s a massive acid-focused guy who admits his own cellar is packed with bordeaux he never opens, while his recycling bin is full of the gruner veltliner he drinks every day while chopping onions in the kitchen. his dream for virginia is refreshingly commercial: he doesn’t care about shifting massive volumes here; he just wants a few meaningful placements in trendy london spots so he can finally sit at the top table with the cool kids. given the brilliant camaraderie among the producers out there, they absolutely deserve the stage time.

our final chat was with the absolute star that is sarah abbott mw, who kindly let us grill her at the end of a long, exhausting three days. sarah has been everywhere at the fair, and her perspective is refreshingly trade-focused. she started things off by sharing how much it pisses her off when people in the industry just whinge and stay grumpy about the event instead of backing it. she was looking after wines of georgia this year and saw first hand that serious, top-tier buyers are coming back with a real appetite, leading to genuine, tipping-point conversations.

she also took a gentle swipe at the outdated "buyers-only" restriction at trade tastings. buyers work in a complete ecosystem; they won't list a wine if their front-line sales teams aren't excited, or if the media and pr discourse hasn't already primed the throughput.

sarah notes we don't have structured talent development paths in wine, so shutting out the younger generation on the floor is just stupid. on a more personal note, we learned that when she isn't fixing the wine trade, sarah is a massive homebody who loves her dogs and lets off steam by doing a "funky disco wiggle" around the kitchen or dragging her classic english husband to salsa classes. an absolute legend.

wrapping up our own personal highlights from the floor, it was actually dan’s very first year standing behind a podium pouring rather than wandering around. because flint vineyard makes a lot of charmat method sparklings, he spent a bit of time benchmarking the category across the show, extending a specific nod to luke at everflyht, who is diversifying into charmat alongside his traditional method wines. brad, on the other hand, went on a mission to taste a new wave of claret-style bordeaux. the bordelais are making these incredibly fresh, vibrant, crunchy dry reds with funky, un-bordeaux labels designed to make the region accessible and fun again. it might be a contentious word for some traditionalists, but the liquid in the bottle is brilliant, regardless on your thoughts on the name they chose.

community feedback has been incredible so far, with the podcast edging towards 5,000 downloads within its first nine episodes.

a quick shout-out from hatch mansfield, who kindly sent over a commemorative world cup taittinger brute reserve box, plus a football for brad’s kids!

over in the listener feedback corner, previous guest henry jerrfreys sparked a lively debate in the comments by claiming that any wine education beyond wset level 1 is purely showing off. dan, as an mw student, naturally begs to differ, so if anyone out there has a full doctorate but only a level 1 certificate, please write in so we can officially call henry out.

while we take the business of wine seriously, we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously. catch you in a couple of weeks!

feel free to share with a friend

matt also accidentally lands one of the best lines of the episode: