Tag Archives: radio

Lebanon and a truly inspiring wine story from the BBC

Today the BBC Radio 4 broadcast a special programme on the wines of Lebanon, presented by Jeremy Bowen, called ‘Vines on the Front Line‘. The result was actually a very interesting human story, not one of grapes, and I was impressed.

Jeremy Bowen, BBC

Jeremy Bowen, BBC

To listen to the report, click on the link below:

(at least if you are in UK, not sure if it works elsewhere. If I find a permanent download file, I will add this in here later too.)

Vines on the Front Line, BBC Radio 4

My view:

Jeremy is best known, at least in this household, as an international correspondent for the BBC, reporting from the Middle East on conflicts, power struggles and diplomatic wrangling. He is definitely not a name I would have associated with wine reports, but, as he said himself,

“Grapes have been part of my life as a correspondent”

… and I can well imagine!

There are many directions a programme about wine in Lebanon could have gone. It could have been an excuse to treat the people involved as freaks in the context of a war – bombs and suffering sell news better than wine stories after all. It could have been another ‘introduction to wine’ programme rehashing basic wine knowledge with a bit of politics thrown in to make it a bit different.

Instead, Jeremy Bowen’s people skills, and his ability to sniff out real, personal stories, were well matched to his political and historical knowledge, and used to make us understand that what people are doing is neither odd, nor crazy, but actually part of a culture that is older and more enduring than the political, religious divisions that dominate our news of this region. There’s a lesson in there!

I like the fact that he doesn’t actually spend time giving us any detailed tasting impressions, or discussing wine making practices other than a few references. Wine doesn’t have to be about that. What makes Lebanese wine different is the combination of ancient & modern history, the attitudes to wine culture and the imported technology, the recent struggles to keep these traditions alive, and by people whose passion is simply demonstrated by the fact that they continue to do it despite the political, and violent personal, setbacks.

I’ve listened to the programme 3 times. I want to go out and drink some Lebanese wine and learn more about it. That’s the mark of a good programme. Well done Jeremy. Well done BBC.

Can we have a few more like this please?

By the way, if you are inspired to try some Lebanese wines too, here’s a list of key wineries and their UK importers who might be able to help locate a local stockist to you (list courtesy of @LebanonWines)

Enhanced by Zemanta

Wine Conversation on the BBC

BBC Pods & Blogs

BBC Pods & Blogs

A brief note to let you know that for the next few days you can listen to my less-than-dulcet tones on the excellent BBC show called Pods & Blogs

I was invited to speak a little about what is happening online with wine blogs and a couple of pointers for choosing wines for Christmas. Hopefully I can make a return visit in 2009 to update Jamillah Knowles on the news emerging from the 2009 European Wine Bloggers Conference – more news on that very soon.

As I mentioned on the show, there are interesting things underway at http://wineblogger.info thanks to lots of effort by Ryan and Gabriella Opaz of Catavino, so keep an eye on that too.

By the way, if that wasn’t already too much of me, I also participate from time to time in another fun podcast on wine called New Wine Consumer with Randulo, Evelyne Resnick (author of Wine Brands), daveac and many other friends including Ryan and Gabriella. Unlike the BBC content, this is archived for longer, so you can check out lots of past episodes as well as the most recent one which happened to be on Spanish wines.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Wine Biz Radio

Oooh! I’m a radio star!

Well, in truth I was allowed to babble on well beyond my due 15 minutes of fame on Wine Biz Radio – a great radio show emanating from California

For anyone involved in the wine blogging community, Wine Biz Radio, and its hosts Randy & Kaz, will already be well known.

This is Randy in the photo – a perfect face for radio, wouldn’t you say? 🙂

For everyone else, this is a two-guy radio show that airs every week on live radio around California where Kaz (winemaker, sound effects maestro and all-round entertainer) and Randy (resident geek [sorry Randy!], lion tamer [sorry Kaz!] and winemaking student) look at stories of interest to wine folk.

Mostly this is US & California specific, but as Randy in particular is linked in to all the online communities on twitter, Open Wine Consortium, Wine Blogging Wednesday, and more, then it touches on wider issues as well (Kaz gets dragged kicking and screaming into these too from time to time).

This week, in an (unusually) pre-recorded show, I called in and got a chance to share my thoughts on UK wine drinking, Dinastia Vivanco, Garnacha, the European Wine Bloggers’ Conference and even babies and growing up in Italy. Yes, pretty random!

If you get a chance (and have a little time spare – you can always forward to my eventual arrival at around 25 minutes in), check it out!

Wine Biz Radio – A new Paradigm

Thanks Randy & Kaz