It’s a scientific fact that the best way to drink wine is completely alone. Some of the best times of my life have been spent with a big glass of heavy red, sitting in total silence, staring at nothing as reality begins to shift and fall away until it’s just me and the expanse.
Actually that sounds kind of bleak and lonely, doesn’t it? (Of course, the thing about wine is, as long as you have the wine, you’re never truly alone.)
Anyway, the second best way to drink wine is to pair it with a good movie or TV show. This going to sound obvious, but one of the best kinds of shows to watch is a wine show.
And you don’t get more wine show than The Wine Show, where British actors Matthew Goode and Matthew Rhys try wines from around the world with the help of a couple of experts, Amelia Singer and Joe Fattorini (aka Joey Fatts – that’s my nickname for him; don’t steal it). Like a jaunty pinot noir, the charm goes down smooth. The Matthews are easy to look at and easy to listen to. They know something about wine – but not so much that they can’t have a laugh.
But who are these guys?
Well, Goode has been in a lot of movies and TV shows, but none more exciting (as far as I’m concerned) than his recurring roles as an extremely handsome man in The Good Wife and Downton Abbey. He has piercing blue (brown?) eyes that could look right into your soul, whether he was holding a glass…
Or a menu…
But he also had a kindness about him that said, “I’m good looking but I’m also nice – and I’m not afraid to get in trouble. For love.”
Hey, I'm looking into your soul. Source: The Wine Show
"I’m good looking but I’m also nice – and I’m not afraid to get in trouble. For love.” Source: Downton Abbey
Who wouldn’t want a man like that?!
As for Matthew Rhys, he’s husband part of a husband and wife Russian spy team in The Americans. He’s a British guy doing a Russian guy doing an American accent and he does a great job. (He won an Emmy for it earlier this year, if that means anything to you.)
And as it turns out, he’s also very funny:
Source: Supplied
When these two DFDRs (Dreamboats For Different Reasons) get together, the sparks of charm and genial likability start to fly. Goode is a bit more reserved; Rhys is more of a joker. Joey Fatts is the straight man. They don’t take wine too seriously but they are serious about drinking good wine and they seem to know what they’re doing, more or less.
Here’s a taste of what you can expect from the first episode
- Joey Fatts drinking 200-year-old South African wine, which looks amazing.
- Bucking tradition, Goode and Rhys pick the wine BEFORE choosing what to eat. Yeah, you read that right.
- Then they roll a barrel around the cobblestoned streets of Tuscany.
- Also, Singer goes to Clare Valley near Adelaide, where she meets Col McBride, whose Some Young Punks wines have names like Monsters Monsters Attack and Passion Has Red Lips.
The Wine Show is 8.30pm Thursdays on SBS Food (Channel 33). After they air, episodes will stream at .
