Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
The two things I like to do most on my weekends are to drink loads of wine and to watch shows starring handsome British actors. So naturally I have to believe that Hulu dropped the first season of The Wine Show onto its service today just to appeal to little old me.
The Wine Show is, you guessed it, a show about wine hosted by Matthew Goode (an English actor who has appeared in Downton Abbey, The Good Wife, and who played Jane Austen’s infamous rake Mr. Wickham in Death Comes To Pemberley) and Matthew Rhys (a Welsh actor who stars in The Americans and who played Jane Austen’s famous romantic hero Mr. Darcy in Death Comes To Pemberley).
Even though you might think the show’s primary appeal would be watching two handsome British actors sipping wine, it’s actually a brilliant docu-series about wine. In fact, it’s kind of the most perfect show about wine I’ve ever seen. Unlike, say the Somm series of films, which kind of go out of their way to preserve wine’s rarefied mystique, The Wine Show wants to teach you how to enjoy your wine better. It makes sense! Somm is all about sommeliers, those seemingly magical people who make their living knowing more about wine than you. The Wine Show is a vehicle for a couple of witty Brits who want to know as much about what they’re imbibing as you do.
A major focus of the show isn’t put on Goode and Rhys, but their expert pals. Joe Fattorini takes us to famous vineyards all over the world and brings the bottles back for the hosts to enjoy. Another pal, Amerlia Singer, delves into the mechanics of making wine. The show also appraises the gadgetry, interviews wine-makers, and, yes, features Goode and Rhys being silly about wine. Fattorini has dispatched the duo on an epic trip throughout Italy so the novice wine enthusiasts can learn more about the nation’s history with the vine.
And that’s what the show is really all about: It’s a fun journey to learn more about wine. To wit, the series has a detailed website that helps viewers learn even more about the vintages featured on the show. British audiences have the added opportunity to purchase all the bottles using direct links to Amazon.co.uk. (Did you know you can order wine on Amazon? I somehow didn’t know you could order wine on Amazon. This could be dangerous.)
Season One of The Wine Show is on Hulu now.
