I’ve made a wine documentary for BBC’s Inside Out!

Despite the fact so many of us regularly drink and enjoy it, wine rarely features on UK television. So I’m really pleased to be part of a 10-minute documentary on the historic 2018 vintage in England and the advent of London’s urban wineries for BBC London’s Inside Out. Watch the video here.

As a nation, we can still view wine with suspicion, like it’s some kind of ‘elitist’ drink compared to locally-produced beer and spirits. But the spread of vineyards across the UK close to peoples’ homes and the growth of urban wineries is helping to demystify it. And as more of our family and friends are employed in this flourishing industry – growing, making or selling the wines – we’ll soon realise it’s just another craft drink made by normal British people like you or me. And we’re good at it– especially when nature gives us an incredible harvest like this one.

This is my first stab at presenting, and it turns out TV drops you into some unexpected places: riding tractors at dawn, snipping bunches from vines (my first time believe it or not), foot-stomping grapes in a press… It’s also much harder work than it appears, particularly ad-libbing pieces to camera – it’s amazing how easy it is to mangle your words when you have an unblinking lens in your face!

Thanks to Dippy Chaudhary, Victoria Holden and Andy Richards at Inside Out for giving UK wine some room to breathe.

Watch the documentary on Inside Out, 7.30pm Monday 29th October, BBC London –available on iPlayer shortly after.