Ah. Review on ThirstForWine.co.uk
The new programme has an issue though, but they may have turned the weakness into an opportunity ? or at least partly.
The BBC is enforcing its guidelines to avoid mentioning or endorsing specific brands, and while that may be OK for a cut of pork, or balsamic vinegar as a cooking ingredient, it is not helpful for wine. Consumers expect to know what wine is being drunk and tasted so they might find it and buy it.
Other programmes, such as Saturday Kitchen, also include wine content, and presenters such as Olly Smith, Tim Atkin, Susie Barrie and Peter Richards show a single bottle and because of this, it is almost exclusively selected from UK supermarket shelves so that it is available to a majority of the show?s audience.
Food & Drink gets around the issue of where to select wines from by having Kate Goodman focusing on the provenance of the wine itself, educating the audience (in a gentle way) about styles of wine rather than promoting individual bottles ? and therefore studiously ensuring the brand is not shown, but being able to use wines only available in smaller merchants, and at a much higher average price point. Last night?s wines were a £13 Dao red from Portugal and a £13 German Riesling.
[if you want to know what I believe the wines were, visit my That Wine on TV site - just a play-thing at the moment]
A bit like making Film 2013 without naming any specific films then.