The Hour - Scottish Television
by Tom Cannavan
Broadcast each weekday evening at 5:00pm across the Scottish Television network, The Hour is a news and magazine programme. I am the resident
wine expert, in the studio or on location each Friday to taste a selection of wines with the show's hosts and guests. Scottish visitors can tune into the show,
but everyone can catch up online via STV's catch-up service at programmes.stv.tv/the-hour/wine.
watch again online - part 2
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Champagne time
In this show, broadcast just before Christmas, we taste some festive sparkling wine. But rather than go down a more predicatble seasonal route of evaluating supermarket 'bargain buys',
we instead feature three premium Champagnes, including one from the small house of Gardet, everyone's favourite tipple, Bollinger, and the deluxe cuvée from Perrier-Jouët, the Belle-Epoque 2002. |
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Dessert wines
Despite our famous national sweet tooth, it is surprising that so few of us Britons drink dessert wines, either with or instead of a pudding course. Here I visit the Lake Hotel at Menteith
to sample three desserts, from a relatively light apple tart, to a dark chocolate mousse, to a sticky toffee pudding, and match them to an Austrian Beerenauslese, a sparkling Moscato and an Australian Liquor Muscat. |
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Wines for Christmas lunch
In this episode I escape from the studio once again and make my way back down to the Lake hotel at the port of Menteith in rural Scotland. I choose a selection of moderately-priced wines to match with a traditional
Christmas lunch of salmon, followed by turkey and all the trimmings and finally, Christmas pudding. Wines include white Burgundy, Rioja and an organic Port. |
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Beaujolais
Ex rugby star Scott Hastings joins Michelle McManus and myself in a show broadcast on November 20th - just one day after the 'Beaujolais Nouveau' had appeared on UK shelves for its
annual debut. We taste a nice example from Georges Dubeouf, as well as sampling a 2008 Beaujolais with more time under its belt and looking at an Italian take on the Nouveau style - a 'Novello'
teroldego from Trentino. |
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Wine boxes
'Bag in box' wines had a pretty poor reputation - filled with mediocre plonk and sold as cheaply as possible. But there's a revival of the wine
box, thanks partly to environmental concerns - wine in boxes weighs a lot less than in bottles, so carbon emissions used in transporting it are lower too. We look at three
boxes, ranging from a cheerful southern French red at just £12.99, to a Bergerac at over £40. |
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Fish or beef?
In this broadcast I escape out of the studio and head down to the beautiful setting of the Lake Hotel at the Port of Menteith in Perthshire. In the dining room I taste through two delicious dishes based around fish and
beef to test out the adage of white wine with fish; red wine with meat, trying different wines to see how they match - especially when considering the accompaniements to the dishes.
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Chenin Blanc
Actress Barbara Rafferty joins us in the studio to taste through three examples of the Chenin Blanc grape. Chenin's home is the central part of the Loire Valley, but there is a lot planted in South
Africa too, where one in five vines is Chenin Blanc. We taste two excellent Cape examples from Boschendal and Springfontein estates, then move to the Loire for a delicious and just off-dry Vouvray.
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Tempranillo
Though many of the world's most renowned wine grapes originated in France, there are a huge number of interesting grapes that are native to other European countries too, including
Italy, Portugal, Greece and germany. Spain's most famous native grape is undoubtedly Tempranillo, the main player in Rioja and other famous regions. But Tempranillo is finding lots of fans in
California, Argentina and Australia too.
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Semillon
Semillon is another one of wine's unsung heroes in many ways, being one of the key components in Sauternes and the famous white Bordeaux of the Graves, as well as being a major player across
Australia, from the Semillon / Sauvignon blends of Margaret River to the fine Semillons, both sweet and dry, in the Hunter and Barossa valleys. Here, three Aussie examples are tried and tested.
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Cabernet with Clarke Peters
A fun week with Carol Smilie and legendary American actor Clarke Peters (The Wire, Damages) joining myself and regular host Stephen Jardine to taste Cabernet sauvignon. The wines included a special parcel just sourced by
Majestic at a bargain price, a fine Languedoc Cabernet from Asda and a teriffic Margaret River blend of Cabernet and Merlot from Corney & Barrow that slipped down a treat.
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Aromatic varieties
This week I aks the shows guest host Michelle McManus and comedy actor Tony Roper to try a little experiment involving basil leaves, that proves just how important our noses are not only to our sense of smell, but
to our sense of taste too. We also
try three particularly aromatic wines, including a southern French Muscat, and Alsace Gewürztraminer and a Torrontes from Argentina.
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Grenache
In this show I present three wines made from the Grenache grape - a variety that rarely gets the limelight in France or Spain, where it
is an important component of wines like Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Priorato. There is one wine from Spain (where the grape is known as
Garnacha) and two from Australia: one dry red wine from McLaren Vale and a delicious ten year old tawny fortified wine from Grant Burge.
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Going green
In this episode legendary music maker and ex-manager of the Sex Pistols, Malcolm MacLaren, joins myself and show's co-host for the week, Jenni Falconer, to taste organic and vegetarian-friendly wines.
Malcolm has strong opinions on what he likes and doesn't like, and takes me to task for my choices: a cheap party fizz from Aldi, Australian Fiano and an organic Chianti from Marks & Spencer.
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Pinot Grigio and Gris
One of the hottest tickets of the moment in terms of white wine sales, particularly by the glass in pubs, restaurants and bars, Italy's Pinot Grigio can be sublime stuff, but all too often it is pretty
bland and 'safe' rather than exciting.
Here I present three Pinot Grigios/Gris from Romania, New Zealand and Alsace, to show the surprising diversity of styles that are possible with this grape variety.
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Merlot and more with Lulu
Singer Lulu joins us in the studio to taste through a range of Merlot wines. Merlot can reach the highest heights of fine wine, but can also make quite bland reds
that are inoffensive, but also rather unremarkable. So I have selected just one classic Merlot-dominated Bordeaux, but also a more unsual Merlot/Riesling blend and a wine made from Merlot's long-lost cousin, Carmenère.
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go to
go to latest shows in part 1
go to
older shows in part 3
