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I'll Drink to That! Wine Talk

498: A Rush of Blood to the Wine Glass from Dan Keeling

I'll Drink to That! Wine Talk

Levi Dalton

Levi Dalton, Spain, Terroir, Napa Valley, Winemaker, Red Wine, Food, Burgundy, Personal Journals, Restaurant, Australia, Sommelier, Journalist, Portugal, Vineyard, Piemonte, Grape, Interview, Arts, Society & Culture, White Wine, Loire Valley, Champagne, Sicilia, Austria, Tuscany, Conversation, Hobbies, Wine Business, Leisure, Bordeaux, Sonoma, Feedpodcast, Wine, Germany, Author

4.81K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2024

⏱️ 90 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dan Keeling is a co-founder and partner in the Noble Rot restaurants and Shrine to the Vine retail shops in London, "Noble Rot" Magazine, and Keeling Andrew and Co., an importer of wine into the United Kingdom. He co-authored "The Noble Rot Book: Wine From Another Galaxy".


Dan admits to some of his obsessions, namely food and music. He describes how a friend's accident allowed him the chance to start a nightclub in Manchester. He talks about his early jobs writing about music, and then progressing to working in A&R for record labels. He signed Coldplay to Parlophone Records, marking a huge win, but admits that at first he wasn't that taken with the band. He then succinctly breaks down the elements that contributed to Coldplay's massive success. That success propelled Dan to a Managing Director job at Island Records, but eventually that career high gave way to a career transition, as Dan found himself without a job and wondering what to do next.


Dan met his now business partner Mark Andrew at a wine shop near the Island Records office, and they quickly established that they shared a sense of humor and a fascination for the same wines. They went on to begin a wine magazine (er, fanzine) titled "Noble Rot" in 2012, working together on Mark's old computer. Writing for the magazine led to introductions to vigneron, some of whom joined the import portfolio of Keeling Andrew and Co. The magazine also led to the start of a wine focused restaurant group, today encompassing three Noble Rot restaurants in London. Dan talks about being a restauranteur who is not a chef, and about the emphasis of the restaurants on wine.


Dan discusses how the writing and graphics in the "Noble Rot" magazine are designed to stand out from other publications about wine. He talks about contextualizing wine amongst other aspects of culture, such as food and music. He rejects the idea of trying to be objective or encyclopedic about wine. Instead, Dan emphasizes the importance placed on humor in his wine magazine, as well as finding insights. He further describes how he developed an interest in certain kinds of wines, favoring idiosyncratic and different wines over corporate, homogenized examples.


Dan talks about wine tasting trips to Burgundy, to the Jura, and to Spain, sharing some of what he learned along the way. He discusses the pricing situation for Burgundy wines today. He also discusses the wines of Bordeaux, and of Greece. Dan stresses the importance of finding the characters in wine for his own work, and then shares some advice that he would give to the next generation.


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I'm Levy Dalton and this is all drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the wine business. Oh, Dan Kealing on the show today. He is the co-founder and co-owner of Noble Rot magazine,

0:29.7

the Noble Rot Wine Bars and Restaurants, as well as Keeling, Andrew Keeling, Andrew and Coe and also the retail shop

0:35.3

Shrine to the mine in London. Hello sir how are you?

0:37.6

Hi Levy. You were born in London but you moved out of there when you were three.

0:41.6

So I was born in a place called Watford, which is just on the outskirts of London.

0:46.0

My wife likes to say that the whole family are from London except for me.

0:50.3

And then we moved out to Buckinghamshire. And I go to Buckinghamshire. it doesn't really feel like home I don't know what it is

0:57.0

I wanted to get out straight away and I went to Manchester Polytechnic which became Manchester Metropolitan University and it was an art course but I was only person on my course who didn't have a foundation in art because I was so desperate to get out of where I was and get to the city and Manchester was this kind of holy land or an unholy land maybe.

1:19.0

When I went to college and I remember going into town and having a bank card for the first time and thinking,

1:25.0

well I can actually spend money on an overdraft and thinking what am I going to spend it on and it was records and curry.

1:31.0

There was a place called This and That Cafe, which is still like one of my all-time

1:35.3

favorite restaurants, which is you'll go there. It's in a back alley of kind of the

1:39.8

northern quarter and you can get a curry and three types of curry and rice for like six quid or seven quid,

1:46.0

but it's just the most beautiful home-cooked style.

1:48.5

So that was kind of an obsession at that time.

1:51.5

It was good curry. When you were a kid kid your dad used to make a good curry.

1:55.0

My dad would cook occasionally but not very much but he'd make a big song and dance when he did.

2:00.0

And our next door neighbor was, he was an Indian guy who could cook, so he kind of showed him how to do it.

2:07.0

But my dad got it right sometimes and got it wrong other times, but there would be a bit of a kind of drama if we dare to say that we didn't like the curry when he cooked it.

2:16.0

Your mother cooked but then like me sometimes it was also the frozen food circuit as a kid.

2:22.0

Oh absolutely you know my mom was a teacher. also the frozen food circuit as a kid? Oh, absolutely.

2:24.0

My mom was a head teacher of a school, so she would cook when she was there, but sometimes I'd come

...

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