Welcome to Book Club and Episode 2547 of the Italian Wine Podcast with Richard Hough. Today Richard is in conversation with Jane Masters MW to discuss her book, Rooted in Change: The Stories Behind Sustainable Wine.
Amongst others things, Richard and Jane discuss:
- Jane’s career in wine
- Current trends in the UK wine retail scene
- How vineyards are responding to climate change
- What consumers can do to ensure that the wine they are drinking is sustainable
- What Jane will be drinking at Christmas.
On the bookshelf:
The books discussed in today’s episode include:
- Rooted in Change: The Stories Behind Sustainable Wine by Jane Masters MW and Andrew Neither is available now at: https://academieduvinlibrary.com/ and all good bookshops.
- OIV Report on Global Wine Production: https://www.oiv.int/press/oiv-releases-2025-world-wine-production-first-estimates
- Employees at firm that supplied grape-pickers for Champagne on trial for human trafficking https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/19/grape-pickers-trial-human-trafficking-france
Finally, the seemingly innocuous sounding dish to avoid if you are a vegetarian is salade de museau.
About today’s guest:
Jane Masters is a Master of Wine, Oenologist and MBA from London Business School with extensive experience in retail and the international wine trade. She was a Director of the wine trade’s most prestigious global professional organisation, the Institute of Masters of Wine, between 2004-2018, was elected Chairman 2016-18 and is a founding member of the IMW’s Sustainability committee. Jane originally trained as a winemaker at Bordeaux University after earning a BSc (Hons) in Biological Chemistry.
Connect:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-masters-mw-77b0367/
More about the host:
Richard Hough is the editor, translator and project curator behind The Art of Wine Storytelling, Wine Democracy and Vine and Prejudice. He has also published several books about life in Verona, chronicling the city’s history, culture and daily life, not forgetting, of course, its wine, including Verona Campione, published in May 2025. With a long-standing passion for whisky and beer, he’s a relative newcomer to the world of wine and is now desperately trying to make up for lost time! He is the host of Book Club on the Italian Wine Podcast.
Connect:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rickhough.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/verona_campione
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickhough/
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