Looking for a quick, easy way to keep up with the most interesting news stories of the week then look no further than the new Wined Up Weekly podcast from Katie Canfield and Matthew Gaughan.
Tell us about yourselves and your own careers in wine?
We met working at Hangingditch wine merchants in Manchester right at the beginnings of our wine careers. That immersion in a small, vibrant independent wine shop taught us so much about wine – tasting it, selling it, the challenges of persuading customers to love wine as much as we do – and still provides the foundation of how we think and talk about wine today. Since then, we’ve collectively worked in every facet of the industry: production, hospitality, import, retail, education, marketing and PR. Now we’re in Sonoma County, California, studying to become Masters of Wine.
Tell us about Wined up Weekly. What’s it all about?
Wined Up Weekly is a podcast which sums up the important wine news of the week, sharing headlines and details of a story while also giving our personal commentary. Communicating stories from around the world allows listeners to keep up with the latest trends and events in under 15 minutes. And as a podcast, people can listen in on the go.
How did you come up with the idea?
Listening to news podcasts – such as National Public Radio’s Up First (US) – made us think: “Why is there nothing like this for wine?”What better way to keep up-to-date with the world of wine than on your commute through a podcast?
In the news this week: Katie Canfield and Matthew Gaughan share their views on the week’s news
Have you seen or heard similar programmes in other sectors?
As mentioned above, NPR’s Up First podcast does a daily digest of the most important headlines relating to international politics, economics, etc. We were also inspired by podcasts such as The Totally Football Show and The A to Z of David Bowie, both of which present factual information while having interaction between different presenters who give their informed opinion in an informal, approachable way.
What’s a typical format for your show?
We start with the headlines from the week, then we delve into the stories with a brief discussion at the end of each one. At the end, there’s also our wine of the week – after all, we’re all here because we love drinking wine. Each episode is 10-15 minutes – a bite-sized round-up.
Will you be looking to release this at a particular time every week?
It’ll be available every Monday, summarising the previous week’s news.
What sort of subjects and topic areas do you expect you will be covering?
Everything! Business news, harvest news, controversies and talking points, trends. Anything and everything related to wine from around the world.
Who is is aimed at?
Anyone in the wine industry who wants to keep on top of what’s happening in the world of wine.
How can people get involved – are you looking to do interviews or for people to submit story ideas?
Early days yet, so it’s just the two of us. But we’d love to have people who work in the wine industry come on and talk about the latest news from their position of expertise. And if people have on-the-ground stories, we’d love to hear them!
How are you making it pay?
Hopefully we can build an audience that will attract interest in sponsorship or partnerships – but of course our take on the news is always going to be independent and our own.
How do you hope it can grow?
You can follow us on Instagram (www.instagram.com/winedupweekly) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/winedupweekly) to help us grow. Listeners can subscribe and rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and we’re also on Spotify. At the moment, we do it because we love talking about wine and so that we ourselves keep on top of the news (important to do when you’re preparing for the MW exam). We want to get people talking about it – so please leave comments!
Where would you like Wined up Weekly to be in a year’s time?
We’d like the podcast to run as professionally and smoothly as possible – we’re still learning. And we’d like the podcast to be required listening for those in the wine industry.
- If you would like to get in contact with Katie and Matthew then contact them through kt.canfield@gmail.com.
- You can download and listen to Wined Up Weekly here.
