Table Talk: Tom Gilbey

Best of the Spectator

The Spectator

News Commentary, News, Daily News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tom Gilbey, the internet’s most charismatic wine expert, sits down with Olivia Potts for Table Talk. Tom is a winemaker, merchant, educator – and also an author. His new book, Thirsty, is part-memoir, part guide to his life through wine in 100 bottles, and is available now.

On the podcast, Tom discusses his family’s love for winemaking that stretches back to the nineteenth century, and how he became captivated by the trade thanks to Beaujolais and a pike’s head. He explains how a glass of pinot gris in an ice bath propelled him to social media fame – where he’s known for taking a fun approach to wine tasting. Tom also reveals the best way to pair drinks with dishes and the unconventional way he’ll be cooking his turkey this Christmas. Plus: how did the English sparkling wine industry take off?

Produced by Patrick Gibbons and James Lewis.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Give something clever this Christmas.
0:02.2	Treat a loved one to a year of The Spectator, in print and online, for just £99.
0:07.9	And we'll send you a bottle of our very own English sparkling wine worth £48 £48, absolutely free.
0:15.3	Have a bright and sparkling Christmas with the Spectator.
0:17.7	Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash Christmas.
0:27.6	Hello and welcome to Table Talk, the Spectator's Food and Drink podcast. I'm Olivia Potts,
0:34.9	and today we are delighted to be joined by Tom Gilby. Tom is an award-winning
0:39.6	wine expert having been a winemaker, merchant, educator and an accidental internet sensation.
0:46.2	His family have been in the wide and trade since the 19th century being the first to buy a
0:49.8	Bordeaux chateau in 1875 and founding Gilby's Gin. His new book, Thirsty, is part memoir and part
0:57.3	guide to his life through wine, where he shares his top 100 bottles and the stories behind them.
1:01.9	Tom, welcome to Table Talk. Thank you, Olivia. So happy to be on.
1:05.7	Well, we are delighted to have you. And let's begin at the very beginning where we always do
1:09.8	and ask you, what are your
1:11.6	earliest memories of food or indeed wine? My earliest memories of, it has to be wine, really. And actually,
1:18.8	it does involve food. I scruble about this in my book. My dad used to be a chef and used to do this thing
1:26.2	called the Bojoletal Novo run every year.
1:29.3	Just very recent.
1:31.3	Which is just very recent.
1:32.5	Yeah, we're recording in November.
1:33.9	So it's the third Thursday of November.
1:36.8	And it used to be the first wine released from France every year.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Spectator, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Spectator and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.