On today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries podcast is TV chef and author, the icon that is Rosemary Shrager.
In the early to mid-noughties Rosemary rose to small screen fame with guest appearances on cooking shows before landing her own prime-time programme on Channel 5 called Castle Cook. She’s rarely been off our TV screens over the past 20 years appearing on shows such as Ladette to Lady, I’m a Celebrity, The Real Marigold Hotel and Cooking with the Stars to name just a few.
Throughout her career, Rosemary has run cookery schools across the country and has written countless cookbooks. More recently however she has turned her hand to fiction, writing three food-themed murder mystery novels and, she tells me, may well write one focused on wine, in the future.
We talk about her love of fine wine from France and her collection of Mouton Rothschild bottle labels, how she feels English sparkling compares to its French counterpart and the latest novel in her Prudence Bulstrode murder mystery series.
Rosemary's latest novel, Too Many Cooks is out on February 15th, published by Little Brown, a division of Hachette UK. To find out more about Rosemary's latest online cookery masterclasses, recipes and books, visit rosemaryshrager.com or follow her @rosemaryshrager on Instagram and Facebook and @rosemaryshragerchef on YouTube.
This episode of The English Wine Diaries is sponsored by Wickhams, The Great British Wine Merchant. Visit wickhamwine.co.uk to see their award-winning range of English wine with free delivery on orders over £40. The English Wine Diaries listeners can also get 10% discount on their first purchase by entering the code TEWD10.
Thanks for listening to The English Wine Diaries. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave a rating or review, it helps boost our ratings and makes it easier for other people to find us. To find out who will be joining me next on the English Wine Diaries, follow @theenglishwinediaries on Instagram and for more regular English wine news and reviews, sign up to our newsletter at thesouthernquarter.co.uk.
On today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries podcast is TV chef and author, the icon that is Rosemary Shrager.
In the early to mid-noughties Rosemary rose to small screen fame with guest appearances on cooking shows before landing her own prime-time programme on Channel 5 called Castle Cook. She’s rarely been off our TV screens over the past 20 years appearing on shows such as Ladette to Lady, I’m a Celebrity, The Real Marigold Hotel and Cooking with the Stars to name just a few.
Throughout her career, Rosemary has run cookery schools across the country and has written countless cookbooks. More recently however she has turned her hand to fiction, writing three food-themed murder mystery novels and, she tells me, may well write one focused on wine, in the future.
We talk about her love of fine wine from France and her collection of Mouton Rothschild bottle labels, how she feels English sparkling compares to its French counterpart and the latest novel in her Prudence Bulstrode murder mystery series.
Rosemary's latest novel, Too Many Cooks is out on February 15th, published by Little Brown, a division of Hachette UK. To find out more about Rosemary's latest online cookery masterclasses, recipes and books, visit rosemaryshrager.com or follow her @rosemaryshrager on Instagram and Facebook and @rosemaryshragerchef on YouTube.
This episode of The English Wine Diaries is sponsored by Wickhams, The Great British Wine Merchant. Visit wickhamwine.co.uk to see their award-winning range of English wine with free delivery on orders over £40. The English Wine Diaries listeners can also get 10% discount on their first purchase by entering the code TEWD10.
Thanks for listening to The English Wine Diaries. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave a rating or review, it helps boost our ratings and makes it easier for other people to find us. To find out who will be joining me next on the English Wine Diaries, follow @theenglishwinediaries on Instagram and for more regular English wine news and reviews, sign up to our newsletter at thesouthernquarter.co.uk.
Hello and welcome to season nine of the English Wine Diaries podcast. I hope you've had a great start to the year and are ready to get stuck into more stories from the world of English Wine.
I'm your host Rebecca Pitkan, journalist and founder of the Southern Quarter and online magazine all about English Wine. Join me as I sit down with a special guest and talk all about their English wine journey.
From sommeliers to vineyard owners, hoteliers and some rather familiar faces too. Discover how a love of wine, particularly that made on British soil, has helped shape their lives and careers.
Welcome to the English Wine Diaries. The English Wine Diaries is kindly sponsored by Wiccams,
the great British wine. merchant. Did you know that while England has become renowned for growing the traditional champagne varieties of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Mournier,
we also go grapes such as Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and a whole other bunch you might not expect. Fancy a muscat from Cornwall, a gamé from Kent or perhaps a chesula from Sussex.
Wickham's has a huge portfolio of English wine and has won awards for its collections. So whether you're after one of Britain's well -known favourites, or want to try something a little off -piste,
check out wickhamwines .co .uk. And listeners of the English wine diaries get 10 % off their first order by entering the code TEWD10 at checkout.
That's TEWD10. fame with guest appearances on cooking shows before landing her own primetime program on Channel 5 called Castle Cook.
She's rarely been off our TV screens over the past 20 years, appearing on shows such as Ladette to Lady, I'm a Celebrity, The Real Marigold, Gold Hotel and Cooking with the Stars to name just a few.
Throughout her career, Rosemary has run cookery schools across the country and has written countless cookbooks. More recently, however, she has has turned her hand to fiction,
releasing three food -themed murdery mystery novels, and, she tells me, may well write one focused on wine in the future. Rosemary, thank you so much for joining me today.
How are you? Very well, indeed. And thank you for having me. This is my subject as well. Pop, I've got a lot of subjects. This is definitely up there with the top three. Fantastic. We're going to have a jolly old time then.
We certainly are. Now, what I didn't mention in that intro is, like me, you live in Sussex, which is arguably the heartland of English winemaking. When you first moved here,
were you aware of the number of vineyards on your doorstep? Well, yes, I was. I, funny enough, well, I wasn't quite aware of the number, but I was aware of the wine, wineyard,
because I remember coming down in the 60s. 60s, late 60s, no early 70s. And it was just begun, chapel down and things like that,
sort of just begun. And in fact, my husband and I, we went and had wine tasting. And it was such fun. But obviously, it was very naive in the sense the way it was done.
It wasn't like all trendy today. They have restaurants. This was just like a very sort of very simple thing. And it was fascinating. And of course,
but realize that wine even then was very expensive because obviously, the quantity of wine wasn't being delivered as much as they could do. So obviously,
with all the wine with the quantities, how much was available. So the price was extremely high and still is but of course it is getting better now but the volume you know it's all down to weather it's all down to this but yes I started going very early on we used to come down to Kent and that's where we started and I loved it I love the whole thing I love the whole uh I love the vineyard I love the brindy
vineyard experience I mean in fact we went on a wine tasting round uh right rather Burgundy, not Burgundy, Claret's, and all around there, in France,
tasting all the different wines and going to places like the Contest of the Pichela land and all these different wines that we both adored. And when we got there,
it was so funny, we didn't, we wanted to go to Mouton Rothschild's because we hadn't realised we had a book. So, of course, we never got in there, but it was great fun and... and so you can see my passion for wine and both my husband and I.
And in fact, I started collecting labels and all the Mouton child restaurant wine, Mouton Rothschild's labels, which I have framed. I have built different artists every year.
I really love the fact they've got a different artist every year to do the labels. And I thought it was a very clever thing to do. And I loved it. So I just kept them. Thank you so much. I didn't realise how valuable they were today.
So for you, your love of wine is more about just the taste of the wine. For me, wine is an experience. Always has been. Now, don't get me wrong.
I'm like everybody. I put a lot of wine away. And sometimes, I mean, I'll never forget one night, I was very young, came downstairs. I couldn't couldn't believe they're about five bottles,
I don't know how we did it. I don't know how we do we drunk. But obviously, you know, for me, but obviously, the most the older I'm getting, well, I got was getting, I obviously didn't want to drink that sort of wine.
I never did drink really that sort of wine as such, apart when we were going for it. But now it's more of a treat. And now I I only,
because it doesn't agree with me, I think it's 'cause I did drink a lot when I was young. It doesn't agree with me now. And I'll tell you a really interesting experience I had. And this was my first,
very first love of wine, understanding it. When I was 21, he was my boyfriend then, my husband, I said he came to me.
I had my 21st Laissez, Laissez -en -Bats -de -Durse. and there's one does. And so we went in to choose the wine. Now, I said, Michael, you might choose that wine 'cause I don't know anything about it.
So of course, not really. So of course, they said, okay. So he went for the Pichela land. Now, that was, we had that wine that night.
I had no idea. My poor father, how expensive it was going to be. and he said you could buy a house with a bill I got in the end you know from that gypsy flare place I had everybody and I only had 12 people for dinner but it was a fun evening and all in all it was just one of these moments that I thought this is delicious I would never have chosen that and I sort of and slowly but surely I learned how to
write the man I'm you know modernizing the wine and how to keep wine and what to do with wine. And I think my husband did attempt to make wine. Of course, that didn't work out very well. So,
of course, so wine has played the very big part in my life. So that was my first experience of understanding what good wine was all about, really good wine was all about.
And then, of course, having a career in cooking and food and wine go hand -in -hand as we do. all know. Completely. How have you used that passion for wine in your cooking and how have you kind of how have you seen them kind of tying together as your careers progressed?
I think this is really important to understand. People say cooking wine, cheap wine, but if you're doing something for yourself, all right, I always think you should drink wine,
have wine in your mouth. say, casserole or something, that you can drink. Don't put wine that is gonna be disgusting. So I always think that's really important. So if it's disgusting to you,
it's gonna be disgusting in the dish. That's what I think. That's number one. Now it doesn't have to be incredibly expensive. Not all good wine is pricey because you can get some very,
very reasonable wine at very good prices. So to understand what you like to actually drink, cook and what you like to do, you need to understand the strength of wine.
That's number one, because it's a very strong wine. You need to understand that it will really penetrate into your meat, how it goes. If you want a lighter wine, you get a pino, a burgundy type wine,
so it's much lighter. So you've got to understand, you know, the wines you're putting into your dish and what you want out of that dish. And that's what actually I do.
I get wines, not the pricey, pricey ones, but they are not bad wines at all. Wine and food are incredibly important because wine changes when you eat food.
So basically you can have something and it totally changes the taste. And from something that might not have been very nice in your mouth, it turns out to be very good in your mouth. So it's understanding how the things works and that's what it's all about.
Now the other thing is it's very difficult to put wine with chocolate but of course and things like that so you sort of the only thing you know I do tend to do I do drink a champagne with my chocolate that's what I do and you can do something like with toki or something but having a good so turn I would not do that with chocolate because it just does not work.
full stop. For me, it doesn't anyway. And then, but there are so many different ways of sort of having wines and you can change,
you can change the process because wine is alive, it's breathing, it's out there, it's in the air, it's oxidizes, you know, it sort of gets in there when it's opened and you leave it in the glass and let it sort of...
of do its thing. And it's fascinating. That's why I love it, because I love to experiment with it and just see what it's like. And also, I do think if you go to a restaurant,
you should, if there's a sommelier there, and there's a top -right restaurant, they do have a sommelier. I would always go to the sommelier, that is, ask the sommelier, say, what would you recommend?
Because the sommelier, they know their business. So that's how you can learn. - Obviously we are famous for our sparkling wine. Now we're becoming famous for our sparkling wine.
How do you think it fares against champagne and what's your opinion of sparkling wine? - I think we have some of the best sparkling wine in this country. Now,
I think what is happening is our concept of wines has changed in this country as well, because I think since the pandemic especially, we want to go local.
But the problem is, they are still very, very expensive. Now, as I said at the beginning of the podcast, it is all because they can't do a big enough yield.
That's the problem. So the price that elevated up, they have to be to survive. But it's a shame. I would like to sit, come down. But as far as the quality is concerned, you've got places like Gasporn,
where I think they do the most unbelievable champagne. You've got something Belfort wines, which I think are fabulous. I mean, you know, those, and also what is so nice about it,
you can do, they've won awards, they've won over the French. I mean, they are the best. And all these Belforts, belphos, Guzzborn, you know, all these other things. Nightimba, when that came in,
nightimba. I mean, we all love nightimba. So, I mean, you know, they really are good wines and they know how to produce it. As far as I'm concerned, the French aren't the best.
We are, we are climate. What is interesting about our climate, and you'll know this too. It's getting warmer, we all know that, but, it's, I mean, getting perfect conditions for wine and for champagne.
Now, this is obviously just happened over the last few years and it's brilliant for us. So it's one, it's a bonus, so that's a bonus for us of the champagne world,
but not for them, but a bonus for us. So I think that we should try and go for things like both for wine and for champagne. that lovely rosé champagne they have.
In fact, I'll tell you, it's in both of them, that just is some champagne there, which is lovely. So, and they have, what I love about this, you can go to these vineyards and they have the most,
it's so sophisticated today, they have restaurants where you can go and have these wonderful lunches and you sit in the next to the vineyards, just like being in France. I mean, what more pleasure can you get on a sunny day going to a vineyard and going to actually sit outside,
drink the champagne or drink the wines, whatever they do. It is so lovely. You don't need to go to France. You just stay in Britain, just stay in England. And down here,
we are so spoiled. We are literally, we are so spoiled. And, you know, I feel very privileged and very lucky to have it all. all. You mentioned there that obviously down here we're very very privileged in the climate that we have and the amount of vineyards that we have.
Now you were up in Yorkshire for a while. That's right and there are vineyards up there believe it or not. Do you think that wine growing and vineyards is going to come more pervading across of across the UK.
- Yes, but our problem is, is the land. Having as you know, having land, enough land to grow all these vineyards. I mean, you know, I think finding space, 'cause I think they are moving their vineyards to here and buying up here and buying vineyards here.
And that's what I find so interesting. So, I think the availability will become much much more in the future, but I think prices will come down a little bit.
They will never be because the process is a long process. And also, don't forget, there are still vineyards that are picking by hand, that are doing everything by hand, and it's a totally different process than they have to do.
And also, what is interesting is, I think they're vineyards, and it's there's a vineyard company that actually puts their wine into tins rather than bottles.
So, and they say it's more biodegradable because you can actually reuse tins whereas glass is more difficult 'cause when you actually recycle glass, it's incredibly expensive.
So of course it's actually cheaper to do the tin. Well, it's supposed to look a bit like, when you remember when the corks came in, out and we were and we were all saying, I'm never going to go. I'm never going to go to a screw top.
I'm never going to do that. Cork the cork. No, I'm always going to have corks that we're all into can't wait to get the screw to screw top can't, you know, can't be bothered to take, get the screw,
wind the screw out. And so, you know, we love our screw tops now. So, you know, things, what I'm trying to say, it's a all the time we are evolving,
whether it be in the north of England, Yorkshire, that I don't know their wines, but I think the south is a perfect position for growing wines. I'm putting the vines down and putting the different grapes down,
etc. And there's a lot of Pinot Noir, there's a lot of Chardonnay down here, they are going for different grapes, they are, they are for different growths now.
It's just interesting. They're experimenting a lot more. And I think that is reflective of the price, isn't it? It's all these different factors that contribute to that.
You mentioned at the top of the podcast about your first experience of coming to Kent Sussex area and experiencing an English vineyard. Can you remember was that your first taste of English wine and can you remember what you thought?
Yes it was and that was my very first taste of English wine and what did I think about it? Yeah I was okay it was okay I was I was impressed they were doing it I didn't know then what I know now I was just a naive young woman who didn't know a lot about that particular wine but now they've totally moved on and they produced the best wines ever.
So yes, that was my first experience of understanding, wasn't enamoured as such, wasn't bad, wasn't, you know, I would drink it. But then I do feel that,
yeah, but they've moved on a lot. And I think that was shuffled on. And that would have been, was that, so that would that have been still? wine then or was it I was tasting still wine then yeah it was still wine then yeah it was definitely still wine so and you know I can't remember for life for me we went twice I remember because we were we we love going to vineyards so it was just one of these things I
think we went twice on a Sunday so we just you know that's it we just went down to taste some wine but now I think is a nice outing to go now you can do it but yes I would say but you know then my sophistication got in and my husband really it's because my husband had a love for wines too and so and he's the one who taught me quite a lot about wines you know oh yeah wonderful so that's it yeah.
So let's talk about some of your favorite wine memories then because you know have a fair few if you-- - I do, I do. I think one of my favorite ones was Shatter Gloria was a surprise.
I think it's absolutely delicious. And I felt it was an underrated one and that was on a wine tour.
And I thought this is just unreal. And I wanted to-- to bring masses back but I think we were we were feeling very poor at the time and we couldn't so we couldn't really afford it so it was a shame but I do try but it's and get Chateau Gloria now but it's very expensive so all these good French wines are very expensive um I think one of my one of my surprises was a burgundy pomade Now,
pomade is one of the, it's very troughly earthy and I'll never forget first experience a pomade.
It was so delicious. I thought, oh my goodness me, I just simply love this. And to actually have something like that, and if anybody can get hold of it.
a mud try to and you can actually pull it out and drink it. But obviously if you leave it in the glass a little bit that's great. So you know what I say about Bergen is,
but it is a delicious wine. It's got that it's got that earthy and changes as you go. It's the makeup of it is simply amazing.
It's the it's it's the whole makeup of how it sort of breathes and how it works. Some people probably wouldn't like it. I love that strong, that taste,
that earthen taste and that delicious depth of wine. It's not black currency, it's nothing like that. It's more, it's more, it's got this wonderful, it's just troughly,
it's troughly because I love troughles today. I was going to say so, would that be a one? that you drink on its own or definitely with food? - Oh no, with food. I think that's the other thing.
If I have a really good bottle of wine, I definitely would always drink, eat food with it because it changes. You know, the thing is you have to experience the wine.
You've got to eat with the wine, but then it's important to eat the food, the right food with wine. So you've got to have... you know maybe I'll take a steak or something like that or even lamb or anything so it enhanced the wine rather than do you know I'd rather than do anything bad to damage to it while you're drinking it you just have to you have to sort of think what the wine is like and then and then
basically drink it and just enjoy it but I'll tell you a funny story with wine my husband bought this really expensive but of wine and he bought two, one for cooking and one for drinking.
And of course, what did I do? I used the one for drinking. He was horrified, horrified. He nearly, I think at that moment, our marriage was on the rocks.
- But I bet it made the food taste, going back to what you said before, made the food taste absolute. amazing. It was unbelievable. But I tell you, I had such a hard time and he never again let me have a good bottle of wine.
Obviously, it was like 40 years ago, but he never let me have a bottle of wine near me that we were going to drink for the evening ever, would only ever have,
you know, the cooking, not cooking wine, but, you know, it's still drinkable. drinkable. We had the cheap wine for dinner, but that thing was still drinkable. That's what I said. You can still drink it. That takes me back.
But I'm the chicken drink. Yeah. Taking you back to that. So, for you, talking about sort of less expensive wines, where do you go sort of locally to get good, you know, your favorite sort of wines,
not necessarily expensive ones, but, you know. So, okay, I'm going to tell you supermarkets, I think do amazing wines. They have amazing deals. Waitrose,
Marcus and Spencer, they all have incredible deals. So I think, and they have some wonderful wines as well. I mean, you know, you can get some very good flurries, which if you've got a good flurry,
then it's great. You know, Beaujolais, it's fantastic. Get a Beaujolais, get a, you know, a Morgan or something like that, you know, you can do these really good Bochalais and they're very reasonable as a,
as a quaffable wine. I would go to, I've got a friend, Jasper Corbett, who is a wine man. And he's a very good wine man,
he really is. And it's called Compass Wines. And I always love drinking with him because he just just takes me through the wine and it's like poetry and you can drink this wine and the way he says it and the way he talks about I love it.
I absolutely love it because with him it's an in love situation, you know, he just loves his wine. He totally understands his wine and to me that's what it's all about. So if you were to ask me who would I want to drink with?
that's who I want to drink with who can give me all that knowledge you can give me all that information about the wine as we're drinking it and um that's what I love and uh in fact funny enough the last when he was here last we had the most delicious oxtail oh it was yummy and we had the most delicious wine you know I mean but we started off with a delicious pontrache which was wonderful I love my Montrachet.
I do Montrachet. It's Gorge, one of my favourite wines. Montre, Paul Roger Champagne. Oh, these gorgeous things. I love it. But now we're talking about British wines.
British wines, just as good. Well, I was going to say, what's, do you say his name is Jasper? Jasper, Compass Wines, Jasper. Yeah, what's his view on English wines, do you know? I know, he loves them.
He does as well. well. - Oh yeah, oh yes, yes, yes, yes. He thinks they're brilliant. He's not a wine stop by any means of the imagination. He thinks they're absolutely brilliant. He said, you know, there's some wonderful wines out there.
No, funny enough, I think all the wine people I know are encouraging the growers. I mean, they all want to sell them. They all want to get out there. And that isn't equally as important.
You know, it's like somebody having a record, but they want to sell them. to put on radio one or something or radio two and they want them to play it. Well, it's like you want the wines play people,
the wine you can get from Bond and things like this, you want them to sell it as well. So I'll talk about the English wines and they all do it because it's important and all do it for their local areas as well.
You can, you go to these shows, you show these amazing wine people. and they're promoting their local people at vineyards. And I think that's so lovely. That's what it's all about.
We need more of them, more events, more shows, lots of beverage. That's what I say, lots of beverage. What about that? So again, it's all about on your doorstep,
isn't it? And I think that's what's so lovely about the English wine scene is that it's somewhere, as you said before, you don't have to go to France, you can just. literally, you know, in many cases, walk down the end of the lane and you might find,
you know, what other vineyards are local to you? And are there any that you've kind of particularly, you mentioned Balfour? Balfour wines, yes, that's probably the nearest,
that Gasporn, we've got Binningdon, don't forget. I've got Binningdon wines. And they've been doing it for years, Binningdon, haven't they? Well, I think they were one of the first. weren't they?
And they were one of the first, but they do everything by hand as well. I mean, it's amazing. They do lots of different things as well now. And Binnenden wines are great. I think,
for me, it's Gusbourne, who's really top there. Gusbourne, I think, for me is and Belfour wines. And I think those are the three. Gusbourne, Binnenden and Belfour are the three greatest wines I know.
for me locally and I'll go to them any day. I think Night Timber is very good when that came out and I knew,
you know, when Kate and William got married, I had to do a thing about what I thought they were going to serve at the reception.
So I did speak these cocktails, these all one day. things and all this food. And I got things from each part of the country, like a smoked salmon from New East,
you know, Pete's smoked salmon and I said there's going to be night timber there. And I didn't know I was right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So basically, I knew they would go for an English brand because it was important they did that they got something from all over the country.
And have you ever done any sort of partnerships with any English one? for any of you? I would love to. Yeah, I'm getting on a trip. I would love to. Oh,
my goodness me. I would love to have my name on my champagne. I've been going on about it for ages saying, why can't I have my own champagne? Marcus Waring has his own champagne, all these other people are there.
Why can't I have my own champagne? Seriously? Well, you never know. Watch his face. You never know. There you go. It's out there in the open now. Yeah, it's out there in the open. me please, 'cause I love my champagne,
I love it. I will live off champagne if I can, live off champagne. Yeah, I can't help myself. - Now, I want to talk to you a bit about your slight change in direction over the last few years because you've gone into writing fiction and tell us briefly about why you made that change in your life.
bit about your murder mystery novels. Right. It didn't come from me. It came from my agent. Funnily enough, I was at school with her, Heather O 'Brown, and she phoned me up and she said,
"Rose me. How would you like to write a murder mystery?" And I said, "Don't be so silly. Stop it." Well, up until then, I had been writing quite a bit for So Magazine.
I had my own page every book. I had everything so and I wrote for the mail I did mail one and I did all sorts of things so I had been writing over the years not particularly good at it but I actually had been writing and so she said well give it a go and I did have an idea in my in my mind I said okay look I'll put something on paper so I put something on paper and it was exactly the only thing I knew
was all about cooking so I decided I thought all right I decided to come up with a prudence bolsteroid who was me so I had to I had to take it to something I knew I didn't go into anything different so the synopsis was that it was me I was a sleuth and I always and I always wanted a campervan always always.
Well, I have to say I gave myself a camper van. So, which I could go around the country in. So then of course I was a 65 year old,
I had retired and I wanted, but I couldn't stop cooking, which is exactly what I'm like. So if I ever go and stay with anyone, I'm in that kitchen, whatever happens, you can't keep me away. So I gave myself a camper van.
that. And then I thought, right, who's gonna be my assistant, my granddaughter. So I phoned Suki up, said, "Suki, would you mind being my assistant in the book?" She said, "No, if I called her Suki." And then I,
so she was my assistant. So then I had to think how she was going to become my assistant 'cause she was naughty. So he had a choice between me or the police. So then I decided who's going to be my assistant.
well, I've got to get another person in, Martin would be my assistant for 10 years. And we called him numbers. So I said, right, you're numbers in the book. You are numbers.
So I had my four, okay, well, I had my three, I had me, Suki and numbers. So they were, that was the theme, okay. And then it was how it's good to do so all I know all I thought I'd better do is do country weekend a shooting party Which is all very normal for me.
So, you know from the past so I didn't shoot So people get murdered and then I decided to murder a chef So I murdered a chef and she woke up in the room. Oh, she didn't wake up actually she died in the rhubarb patch So then it became but it didn't just happen like that because it's not easy anybody think thinks they can write a book,
the answer is it's difficult. And so what I did was I phoned my, having got a three book deal straight away, which shocked me considering I wasn't a writer, I then said to my agent,
you need to find an editor for me who can help me write and who can help me do it. So basically I got this person in who showed me the way basically and showed me how to do it.
I had no idea. One thing writing for on a products or lemons, whether they come from or what menu is going to do. Another one is murder mystery. It's fun.
All I'm praying is I get another three book deal. And if you do, you've already said to me, Rosemary, that you may focus one on wine because you've got the three at the moment on what I want to do is one on wine.
okay? I'm not telling you what it's about, it's all about and it's set here in Sussex. Fantastic. So I thought what would be lovely because I've had Cornwall is my third,
Yorkshire is my second, Cotswolds is my first. So basically it's going to be Sussex so each time and I'm hoping because I want to do the Death by Chocolate as well.
I want to get to the Caribbean and do death by chocolate. I've got to ask, what would be Prudence's drink? What would she be drinking? Oh, she loves her cocktails. Yeah,
she loves her cocktails. I mean, she loves dry martinis. She loves, she's quite sophisticated. She's, she is quite sophisticated in her drink. It's not so much wine as small cocktails.
And she's hasn't earned to be a bit tiddly at times. You can say very glam, but then the tiddly might offset that. Well, funnily enough, I actually, Prudence,
I, she dressed like Prulie. Oh, really? She's fantastic dress sense, I love it. Well, that's, I said, Prudence, because I'm not like that. So I put Prudence in big beads and,
and all the bright colored glasses and so I decided to dress like Prulie. in the book. She sounds absolutely fantastic and a character that I would absolutely love to share a bottle of wine or a martini with.
She would absolutely love that. She is a goer. She made me old -fashioned. She may not like the internet. She may think it's better to look up than look down.
You'd learn far more looking up than you do looking down. down. So of course, I mean, she's confiscated Suki's mobile phone or lots of times.
So basically, but she's good fun as well. She's good fun. She sounds fantastic. But bringing it back to you, Rosemary, for my sort of final question of the podcast, which we ask everybody who comes on.
Okay. If there was one wine that you could not live without, what would that wine be and what why? I'll tell you why there's one wine I can't live without because I would have to be a wine I can drink a lot of because I'll probably need to be totally pissed all the time I need to be pickled you know so basically I'm going to be well preserved so as I knew as I'm going to be a well preserved person I need to
be able to get wine I can afford and I can do it so I think a good Pinot Noir you can just pull it and drink it and and that's it.
There'd be no point in having no point in having all these lovely great clarits that I love and great wines because you'd have to have food with it. So give me give me a drink that I can actually open the cork and squat and quaff it down and enjoy it still.
still and of course we're producing Pinot Noir in England now. We are, we're doing Pinot Noir, we're doing don't give me a Chardonnay, I'm not a big Chardonnay drinker but the Pinot Noir that I can just click the cork open or scan screw it open and just probably preferably unscrew it so I can just drink it straight away.
Rosemary thank you so much for your time it's been absolutely wonderful to hear your wine journey and Thank you for joining me and good luck with the books. And I hope to maybe join you at a Kent vineyard tour sometime soon.
Fantastic. You never know. It might just happen. Okay. Bye. Thank you for having me. That was the utterly delicious Rosemary Schrager who is clearly passionate about the vineyard on her doorstep on the Kent and Sussex border.
The latest instalment at the Kent vineyard. her Prudence Bolstrode Murder Mystery series, Too Many Cooks, is available in all good bookshops from 15th of February. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the English Wine Diaries which is kindly sponsored by Wickham Wines.
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cheers!