Berry Bros. & Rudd is the oldest, poshest wine merchant in the world. Situated opposite St James’s Palace, throughout its 311-year history Berrys has been emblematic of power and status. In recent years fine wine and high finance have been happy bedfellows – which helps explain why Berrys has been able to sell cases of Petrus for £35,000 a pop. But 2008 was the year when high finance caught a fever, and – filmed over the course of the year – THE FIRM unwittingly becomes a chronicle of the changing world order. Everyone we meet – from Berrys’ larger-than-life Bordeaux and Burgundy buyers to the wily chateau owners and eccentric producers they do business with – services what seemed, at the start of the year, to be the ever-increasing demand for the finest wines available to humanity. But as the Great Crunch destroys everything in its path, the new world order on which Berrys has thrived looks alarmingly like it might turn into the ancien régime.
Programme Two: The Faith – 23rd February, 9pm
“Nice, huh?” And so with a considerable talent for understatement Corinne Mentzelopoulos – daughter of a Greek supermarket tycoon – introduces us to the chateau her family has owned for the past 30 years: Margaux. For true devotees of wine, Chateau Margaux is Rome and Mecca rolled into one – thevery pinnacle of wine culture. THE FAITH charts the creation of the 08 vintage, a saga in which the weather shows scant respect for this revered estate. Everyone from the vineyard workers to the chief winemaker can only look anxiously at the sky as it appears hell-bent on making the year a wretched one … with alarming consequences for the price the wine will fetch. But Margaux is also an international icon, and from the inside we track the meticulous cultivation of a top-notch brand. Margaux’s urbane director, Paul Pontallier, serves the role of chief evangelist, and we follow him all the way to China where he is almost mobbed by Asian devotees of the chateau.
Programme Three: The Future – 2nd March, 9pm
South Africa is the oldest of the ‘New World’ producers, and has been making wine since the seventeenth century. Wine encapsulates the nation’s troubled history – but, for some, presents a glorious opportunity to right old wrongs. Step forward Oupa Rangaka and Mark Solms – two producers who, frankly, are the last people on the planet you might expect to be in the business. One is a retired professor who, six years ago, did not even drink wine – but is now running the only black-owned vineyard in South Africa. The other is a neuroscientist and Freudian analyst. Both, in their idiosyncratic ways, are setting out a vision for post-apartheid South Africa. But first they must convince the rest of the world – in the various forms of buyers from Marks and Spencer and judges at the International Wine Challenge in London – that their wines are up to scratch. Through the struggles of these two charismatic men, in THE FUTURE wine becomes a prism through which to view the ‘Rainbow Nation’. Narrated by Matthew Macfadyen. Produced and Directed by Nick Angel. Executive Producers – Patrick Forbes and Nicolas Kent