Podcast
Merrick Watts: From Radio and Comedy to Building a Wine Brand
Steve and Merrick discuss resilience in business, their thoughts on public speaking, and entrepreneurial ventures.
About the guest
Merrick Watts
Comedian, Radio Presenter and Co-Founder at Merrick Watts Wine
Merrick Watts is one of Australia’s most recognisable entertainers, best known for his long-running radio partnership with Tim Ross and for stand-up comedy tours across Australia. After years at the top of Australian radio, Merrick transitioned into wine, launching his own label and bringing the same community focus he built in broadcasting to a new audience of wine enthusiasts.
Episode overview
Steve Grace sits down with comedian and radio presenter Merrick Watts to explore what life looks like on the other side of a decades-long career in entertainment, and how wine became his unexpected next chapter. The conversation moves between the realities of building an audience in comedy and radio, the business decisions behind launching a wine label, and what creativity looks like when you are no longer beholden to a broadcast schedule.
Building an audience in comedy and radio
Merrick’s entertainment career spans stand-up comedy, television, and radio, including a long-running partnership at stations across the Sydney market. He describes radio as one of the most demanding audience-building exercises a performer can undertake: daily repetition, live feedback, and a ruthless filter on what actually resonates. The same discipline of testing material quickly and reading the room informed how he approaches the wine business.
“In radio you figure out very quickly what works and what doesn’t, because you get the feedback the same day. That kind of instant feedback loop, you can’t replicate it in most businesses.”
Merrick Watts 7:00
From airwaves to vineyards
Merrick’s move into wine was driven by genuine passion rather than a calculated career pivot. He describes the wine world as a place where authenticity matters enormously: consumers can tell when a celebrity label is purely a licensing deal. His approach was to get involved in the actual winemaking process, build relationships with producers, and build a brand that reflected his personality and values rather than just his name recognition.
“People can smell a celebrity wine from a mile away if it’s just a label slap. The only way to make it work is to actually love it and know it and be willing to stand behind every bottle.”
Merrick Watts 15:00
The business of building a wine brand
Merrick discusses the practical side of bringing a wine label to market: choosing regions and producers, pricing strategy, distribution, and how the media instinct serves him in marketing. He talks candidly about the capital requirements and timelines involved in wine compared to the more immediate feedback cycles in entertainment, and why patience is the skill he has had to develop most deliberately.
“Wine is a slow business. You make a decision today and you won’t know if it was the right one for another year or two. Coming from live performance where you get laughs or silence instantly, that has been the biggest adjustment.”
Merrick Watts 21:00
Creativity beyond the schedule
One of the most candid parts of the conversation is Merrick’s reflection on identity after leaving the daily structure of radio. The discipline of showing up every day, creating on demand, and performing regardless of personal circumstances is a muscle that transfers directly to entrepreneurship. He argues that performers who move into business have an underrated advantage in resilience and the ability to generate new ideas under pressure.
Key takeaways
Chapters
0:00Introduction and guest welcome2:00Merrick’s career in comedy and radio7:00What radio teaches you about audience-building11:00The decision to move into wine15:00Building a wine brand that is not just a celebrity label19:00Working with producers and selecting wine regions21:00The slow feedback cycle in wine versus live performance25:00Distribution, retail relationships, and marketing30:00Creativity and identity beyond the broadcast schedule34:00What comes next for the wine label and beyond
Mentioned in this episode
Frequently asked questions
What is Merrick Watts’ wine label?
Merrick Watts produces his own wine label in Australia, working directly with winemakers and growers to develop wines that reflect his personal taste and values. Unlike many celebrity wine brands built purely on name recognition, Merrick has taken an active role in the product and production process to ensure the label stands on its own quality rather than just his public profile.
How did Merrick Watts transition from radio to wine?
Merrick’s move into wine grew from genuine passion for the category. After years in broadcast radio, he wanted to build something with a longer time horizon than a daily show. The wine project gave him a creative outlet with a different rhythm, requiring patience and long-term thinking that contrasted with the instant feedback loops of live performance and broadcasting.
What skills from comedy and radio transfer to running a business?
Merrick cites the daily discipline of creation under pressure, the ability to read an audience and adjust quickly, resilience to criticism and failure, and the habit of consistent output as the most transferable skills. Performers who move into business often underestimate how valuable these traits are in a startup environment where uncertainty and public exposure are constant.
What has been the hardest part of building a wine brand?
The long feedback cycle is the biggest adjustment Merrick has had to make. In live performance you know immediately whether something works. In wine, decisions about sourcing, blending, pricing, and positioning take a year or more to validate in the market. Distribution and building retail relationships is also a full-time challenge that requires a completely different skill set from entertainment.
Is Merrick Watts still doing comedy and radio work?
Yes, Merrick continues to perform stand-up comedy and take on media projects alongside the wine business. He sees the dual career as complementary: the wine label gives him something to talk about with audiences, and his media presence provides a low-cost marketing channel for the label. The two reinforce each other rather than competing for his attention.
Topics discussed
Full transcript
Auto-generated, may contain minor errors. Click any timestamp to jump to that point in the video.
Show full transcript (39 minutes, 8 sections)
0:00 Introduction
Steve Grace welcomes Merrick Watts, comedian, radio presenter, and wine entrepreneur, to Give It A Nudge. Merrick introduces himself and gives an overview of his career from stand-up and television through to his years in Sydney radio.
5:00 Career in comedy and radio
Merrick traces his entertainment career and the lessons learned from daily radio: testing material live, reading audience feedback instantly, and developing the resilience to show up and create on demand regardless of what is happening off-air.
11:00 The decision to move into wine
Merrick explains the personal and professional factors that drew him to wine, including a genuine passion for the category, a desire for a business with a longer time horizon, and the creative challenge of building a brand from scratch outside of entertainment.
15:00 Building a credible wine brand
Discussion of how to avoid the celebrity label trap, including the importance of genuine involvement in winemaking, choosing the right producers and regions, and creating a brand story that stands on quality rather than name recognition alone.
21:00 Adjusting to slow feedback cycles
Merrick reflects on the biggest mindset shift required when moving from live performance to the wine business: learning to make decisions that will not be validated for months or years, and developing patience as a deliberate practice rather than a natural instinct.
25:00 Distribution and retail
The practical challenges of getting wine in front of consumers through bottle shops, restaurants, and direct-to-consumer channels, and how Merrick’s existing media relationships have helped open doors that would otherwise take years to access.
30:00 Creativity without a schedule
Merrick discusses what creative life looks like outside the structure of a daily radio show, and why the discipline of performing every day was better preparation for entrepreneurship than any formal business training.
34:00 What is next
Merrick and Steve wrap up with a discussion of what is next for the wine label, ongoing comedy projects, and Merrick’s broader view of how entertainment and business can coexist productively over a long career.
About the host
Steve Grace is the founder and CEO of The Nudge Group, a technology-focused recruitment and advisory business. He has built and scaled companies across Australia and the US, and hosts Give It A Nudge to spotlight founders and operators building something meaningful.
More Episodes
View All
Podcast
How Lawpath Reached 600,000 Customers: Tom Willis on Co-Founder Dynamics
Podcast
800 Billion Behaviour Changes: Mick Liubinskas on Commercialising Climate Tech
Podcast
Angel Investing in Australia with Aussie Angels CEO Cheryl Mack
