Feel like a tree change? Us too. Thankfully, we can have a vicarious lifestyle shift without all the hassle of quitting our jobs and moving, as season two of the gentle dramedy Under the Vines is now streaming on AMC+ Prime Video.
Created by Australian filmmaker Erin White and set in New Zealand’s gorgeous Central Otaga wine-growing region, Under the Vines follows the fortunes of Australian socialite Daisy Munroe (Aussie screen royalty Rebecca Gibney) and her half-cousin, UK lawyer Louis Oakley (Downton Abbey’s Charles Edwards), who together inherit a bucolic New Zealand winery: Oakley Wines.
They both know nothing about growing grapes and even less about life in the New Zealand countryside, but various personal crises make a trip to the Land of the Long White Cloud rather appealing. Once there, will they simply sell the vineyards off to the first buyer (that’d be local socialite Marissa Silverton, played by Sarah Peirse, who runs a rival winery) or will they find just what they’re looking for in life in this most unlikely of locales?
Well, you know how these things go—perhaps they should have called it Southern Exposure. Quirky characters abound, including winery workers Gus (Simon Mead) and Tippy (Trae Te Wiki). Plus we have Louis’s wife Simone (Sara Wiseman) and son Jay (Sam Gardner) in the mix, Simone having made the trip to Aotearoa in a last-ditch attempt to save their faltering marriage. Meanwhile, Gus is finding romance with Daisy’s gay actor BFF, Griff (Dean O’Gorman), who is still in the closet.
That’s a lot of relationship drama for one little winery, not even counting the will they/won’t they dynamic between Louis and Daisy, but would you want it any other way? As comforting and relaxing as a nice pinot noir on a chilly Autumn night, Under the Vines does exactly what it says on the label.
