Dominic Sandbrook

is one of the world's great wine heavyweights, and that is our own dear country of England.

Some people listening to this may raise an eyebrow at that and say, England?

Wine?

They're quite wrong, of course, because if England doesn't necessarily produce the greatest wine, surely we rank among the world's great consumers.

And actually, now, an Englishman, am I right in thinking it is the English that gave us bottles of wine, Tom?

God knows what it would taste like.

But the problem with wine bottles up to this point, well, certainly for centuries,

is that the glass is too delicate, right?

So there's a huge problem.

Basically, they're going to break.

And it is English glassmakers who solve this difficult technical issue.

If you have more sand, you just got a better bottle, basically.

Definitely.

Yes, this is slightly undeserved, isn't it?

There aren't loads of people working on this and he's basically just the figurehead.

Yeah, but he's a fun figurehead.

That is so interesting.

It never occurred to me before, but of course.

We have.

We did a whole episode about the Methuen Treaty, I think, when we did the 12 Days of Christmas or something like that.