"It's not a show where there's some chicky driving around the country telling you how to drink wine," Thirsty Work host Yvonne Lorkin explains.
The wine writer and bon vivant takes her taste buds on a tiki tour of New Zealand's wine and beverage industry, venturing off the beaten track to visit vineyards, barrel halls, tank rooms, cellar doors, wine stores, supermarkets, breweries and backyard vignerons.
"I really wanted to create a show that encourages people to look beyond what's in their glass and connect with what they're drinking on a personal level," Lorkin says.
"Most people go for price or a pretty label in the supermarket.
"But I wanted to tell the story behind the wines and get people to connect with the human beings behind the bottle. To reveal that there's a person, a family and, often, quite a hard-case story behind that bottle that you've just bought."
The show also meets celebrities talking about their favourite wines and tips, such as which glass to use for which wine, decanting red wine and how to choose wine for a wedding.
"The other priority is to make viewers feel more confident about buying and tasting wine, to increase their knowledge of food and wine matching, and to give them some handy hints about how to sound flash in front of their friends," Lorkin said.
"Food and wine go hand in hand.
"A lot of people who grow grapes also love their food."
The Christchurch-based writer grew up in the Hawkes Bay wine region.
"It was right in the middle of this great, wine-producing area, but there's only so much Blenheimer and Cooks Chasseur one can stomach. As soon as I was old enough to drink wine properly, I started looking for unique flavours."
An epiphany was when a friend gave her an unfinished bottle of 1989 Te Mata Coleraine.
"It's arguably New Zealand's most famous wine. It's a true aristocrat of New Zealand wine. I knew it was famous and special and that I couldn't afford it.
"I can still remember now what it smelled like and tasted like.
"Wine can be a boom or bust business. It's an agricultural industry and you're up against nature and you don't know, right up until the last minute, what you're going to get. Nature can throw rain, hail and snow at you.
"It's not like making cheese, where you can throw it out and start again. With wine, you have to wait 12 months to do it again."
The second episode of Thirsty Work (Wednesday, August 22, 9.30pm) visits Misha's Vineyard in Bendigo, Greylands Ridge in Alexandra and Emerson's Brewery in Dunedin.
"What you've got in Central Otago the rest of the world sees as very special and magical. You've got something incredibly special there. It's like Cenral Otago is held in a kind of reverence; a mysterious and magical place.
"People all over the world want to see what you're bringing out each year," Lorkin enthuses.
"It's a testament to the people who grow and make wine and the very clever people marketing it, which is incredibly important for the Central Otago brand. The Central Otago growing and marketing people really need to be applauded. They've really ramped things up down there. They've done an incredible job of creating a wonderful energy and mystique."
• Thirsty Work premieres at 9.30pm tomorrow on Food TV.
