'Wine: The Firm' Berry Brothers on TV  Add/Read Comments

The three programmes in the series will follow the company's wine buyers, Jasper Morris MW and Simon Staples, around their daily routines over a year. The programe will concentrate on how the duo work with the winemakers and chateaux owners of Burgundy and Bordeaux.

The press release promises 'From the unassuming winemaker David Clarke of the small village of Morey-Saint-Denis, in Burgundy, to the wily General Manager of Chateau Cos d'Estournel, Jean-Guillaume Prats, - one of Bordeaux's premium chateaux, the programme explores the eccentric and compelling world of wine.'

"After 310 years of business there is still a Mr Berry at the helm as bombs, wars, kings and queens have come and gone, but this charmed existence may be under threat as the credit crunch bites deep. The film unwittingly becomes a chronicle of the changing world order, where the super-rich look alarmingly as though they are about to turn into the ancient regime.

Quaint anachronism it might seem from the outside, but this is the firm that turned fine wine into the sine qua non of the super-rich. Everyone here, from Berry's larger-than-life Bordeaux and Burgundy buyers to the eccentric and ambitious chateau owners and producers they do business with, services what seemed to be the ever-increasing demand for the finest wines available to humanity, until the rot creeps in and threatens three centuries of history."

'Wine: The Firm' will be be shown on BBC Four on Monday February 16th 2009 at 9pm.