Second season of Niagara wine show heads to YouTube
‘Cork Screwed TV’ takes detailed, light-hearted dive into industry
With season 2 of the made-in-Niagara wine industry series “Cork Screwed TV” delayed because of COVID-19, producers are uploading all 13 episodes of Season 1 onto YouTube.
Episodes started rolling out every two days last Friday.
“Everybody’s at home and this seemed like the perfect opportunity,” producer and cohost Patrick Gagliardi said. “What better (time) to live vicariously through the beautiful colours and tastes and smells and laughs of the show.” Created with coproducer Ralph de Groot, “Cork Screwed TV” is a detailed but lighthearted dive into the wine industry, speaking with grape growers, winemakers, owners and others associated with the local scene.
The first season aired on Bell’s Fibe TV. Gagliardi said the company “is OK” with the show now being offered for free on YouTube.
“They’re very lenient and being a true community producer,” he said. “They help you produce the content, and then a month after it’s been released on their platform, you’re allowed to do whatever you want — you own the content.”
Each episode can be seen on Cork Screwed TV’s YouTube channel, and will include new content as Gagliardi and de Groot follow up with each winery they visited to see how they’re coping during the pandemic.
“The day after each episode is released, we’ll be releasing a recorded Zoom session which is a more in-depth interview,” said Gagliardi. “We’ll talk about the episode, how their vintage is going this year, how they’re dealing with COVID-19 … we’ll touch base about family, friends, what they’re doing to combat some of the anxieties.”
He was surprised by the “very different outlooks” wine professionals have during the crisis and how they’re dealing with it.
“People often asked us ‘Are these actors?’ No, they’re real people. They’re just super passionate and knowledgeable about what they do, and that translates to everything.”
Filming of the show’s second season was supposed to be underway but is now on hold indefinitely. Gagliardi is using the time to further the show’s online presence.
“This has given us an opportunity to regroup for our company and to re-establish ourselves digitally, which will help us better build a season 2,” he said. “Now we can get feedback from people across Canada who will be watching it on YouTube, and their feedback can be implemented into Season 2. “Maybe angles we didn’t think about or something we’re not doing right, something we can do better.”
He’s hopeful the crew can be back in the vineyards by early fall.
“We can still get out there and get the harvest, which is the most exciting time. We might still be filming this year, we’ll see.”