Guto Harri: His political broadcasting career, the final days of Boris in Number 10 and a passion for Rhône Reds
Guto Harri, The Savoy, ambition and fine wine collide in this week’s Vintage Politics. The former Downing Street Director of Communications, journalist and strategist spills all over a carefully chosen glass or two or three.
Guto revisits his years alongside Boris Johnson with a sharper edge. Behind the theatre and bravado, he paints a picture of a man he tried to pull back from the brink of Brexit. Warnings issued, the sense that the country was being nudged toward a choice whose consequences would outlast the moment. It didn’t work and that failure lingers between the lines.
But politics, in Harri’s telling, is never entirely separate from the personal. Wine runs through it all. “Wine lubricates life,” he says, and in his case it truly does, from the family lore that he was conceived over a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, to the long, looping conversations that shaped careers and convictions alike.
There are lighter notes, too Krug opened in moments of rare pause, a reflective glass of Rivesaltes, even the occasional midweek Californian Chardonnay — but they sit alongside the heavier vintages. Because then comes Number 10. In the wake of Partygate, Harri found himself not just defending a government, but reckoning with it navigating fallout, loyalty, and doubt.
This is politics uncorked full-bodied, conflicted, and impossible to separate from the life that surrounds it.
Wines featured:
Mid week wine: Bread & Butter Chardonnay, Majestic [https://www.majestic.co.uk/wines/bread-butter-chardonnay-18139]
Champagne Krug Grande Cuvée 172 ème edition, Ramsay Group [https://www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/restaurant-1890/bar/] / Spritz Marketing [https://spritzmarketing.co.uk/] / Krug [https://www.krug.com/en-gb/champagne/krug-grande-cuvee-172eme-edition]
Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee Tradition Vignobles Gonnet 2022, Corney & Barrow [https://www.corneyandbarrow.com/chateauneuf-du-pape-cuvee-tradition-vignobles-gonnet-2022-10088162022bt12-1.html]
Gérard Bertrand Legend Vintage Rivesaltes 1969, Ramsay Group [https://www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/restaurant-1890/bar/] / Gérard Bertrand [https://www.gerard-bertrand.co.uk/en/products/legend-vintage-vins-doux-naturels-1969-rivesaltes-75cl]
Graham's Vintage Port 1966, Ramsay Group [https://www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/restaurant-1890/bar/] / Graham's [https://www.grahams-port.com/wine/graham-s-vintage-port/24?year=1966]
