Review: The Wine Show, ITV

I come from a pretty standard working-cum-middle class family. Daughter of a nurse and telecoms engineer, born and raised in Birmingham (the second most populous UK city) and I didn't go to Uni, which statistically puts me in the majority, as more people don't have degrees than do.
So I think that puts me in a pretty good position to represent the average person, something which I think people working in wine sometimes forget about.

In a nutshell the programme came across exactly as I was hoping it wouldn't, pretentious.

The programme is sol d on the back of two posh actors who for the duration of the series live in a huge Italian villa. (I do fully appreciate that is this TV and things should look beautiful!) but the cast along with other things, like the first item being about the very obscure Vin de Constance (a good feature but perhaps best placed further into the series when viewers are feeling more comfortable) and the use of a £300 Coravin (again interesting info but maybe not straight away, bearing in mind that most watching will have just twisted a screw-cap to pour their accompanying evening glass of wine) followed by the swift comment of 'Just buy a £300 bottle...' did little to dis-wade the idea that the wine industry is snobbish, lacking in diversity and only for those of a particular socio-economic group.

That all being said there were lots of good points to the show. The production values, notable enthusiasm and knowledge of JoeFattorini and the actual content of the items were great, it just needs to be pitched slighly differently, especially when considering that it is sponsored by Aldi and scheduled before 'You've been Framed' (On ITV)

As a wine lover I really hope that this series does well, but as an average person I need it be tweaked in order for me to continue watching.