We’re back for a special bonus episode before the year is out with the legend that is Oz Clarke.

Here in the UK there aren’t many names more synonymous with wine than Oz Clarke. He started his wine career some 40 years ago, back when only a small percentage of the UK population were drinking wine. 

Whilst he was at university, he started competing in wine tasting competitions and before long was on prime-time TV show Food & Drink together with his partner in crime Jilly Goolden, teaching the masses that wine was far from complicated and should be enjoyed by everyone. 

He has since written over one hundred books about wine, is a judge at The International Wine Competition and is, of course, a huge advocate for English wine.

We talk about how he fluked his way through his first live blind tasting on TV, what wines you should be drinking this Christmas and why he will forever be on the hunt for new flavours in wine.

“Predictability and homogeneity I find pretty tiresome in wine,” he says. “I like unpredictability, I like to take a bottle of wine and think, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to get’.“

You can follow Oz on Instagram @oz.clarke and on Twitter @ozclarke and, if you want to get your hands on a copy of his latest book with £5 off, visit acadamieduvinlibrary.com and enter EDIARIES5 at the checkout. 

About The English Wine Diaries

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