Summary

It’s like trying to eat your favourite food with tweezers. Or listening to your best tunes with a goldfish bowl over your head.

If you buy a nice bottle of wine then serve it wrong, you’re wasting your time as well as money. In this episode, we tackle the thorny issue of how to serve your wine right, with a couple of helpful tips to remember. It can make your wine taste so much better!

Roped in to give their expert views are Master Sommelier Laura Rhys and hotelier Robin Hutson. The discussion covers temperature (including our infamous 20-20 rule), glasses, decanters, gadgets, corked wine, calmness, people and… keeping it real. (Sample quote: ‘Wine’s there to be enjoyed, no point analysing it to bl**dy death.’)

There’s also a rude Dutch interlude to start and, to finish, we resume our quirky Wine A-Z, decoding wine speak. This time it’s C for Chardonnay.

‘I love chilled reds in the summer. I’ve got a chilled red Pinot Meunier in my bag ready for the riverbank.’ Robin Hutson

Running Order

• Introduction: 0 – 6.56
• Interview with Laura Rhys: 6:56 – 18.16
• Interview with Robin Hutson: 19.59 – 25.49
• Discussion on how to serve wine right (and wrong): 25.49 – 37.31
• Wine A-Z: C is for Chardonnay: 37.32 – 43.17
• END: 43:59

‘It’s about understanding what temperature does to a wine. A cooler temperature dulls perception … so for a good white Burgundy, a warmer serving temperature means you get more out of your glass.’ Laura Rhys MS

Starring

• Laura Rhys MS, global ambassador, Gusbourne
• Robin Hutston, CEO and Chairman of The Pig hotels and Limewood
• Susie and Peter

‘I break glasses.’ Laura Rhys MS

Notes

• Chardonnay’s use as a baby name peaked in the 1990s at 47 babies per million. But by 2019 it was rated as the fourth worst baby name.
• In this episode, Susie brings up a long-running bone of contention from one of our first dates. When Peter got the wine all wrong…
• Fancy hearing the most brilliant (and slightly blasphemous) Dutch expression for ‘delicious’? Then listen in…
• Chassagne-Montrachet and fish pie comes up more than once. It’s not a coincidence.
• Do you use a Coravin? We’d love to hear your views.

‘We’re not afraid to admit we’re total Chardonnay tarts.’ Susie Barrie MW

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