Let’s face it, wine can be sort of intimidating.

Technical terms like tannins, oxidisation and chaptalisation can have the less knowledgeable among us running for the cellar door faster than you can say “noble rot” (yeah, we’re not sure what that really means either).

Coming to the rescue is Plonk, an Aussie comedy attempting to demystify wine culture by taking the piss out of getting pissed.

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Created, written and produced by Nathan Earl and hosted by former Chaser’s War on Everything star Chris Taylor, the show’s second season explores the wine region of South Australia and all of its quirky inhabitants.

“People talk about [wine] like it’s this 19th-century French clock,” Taylor tells The New Daily. “It’s not, it’s a $20 bottle of alcohol!”

Of course, the comedian recognises that talking and writing about wine is “difficult”, which probably contributes to all the hoity-toity pomposity associated with it.

“There’s not a lot you can say about it. Food is different because there are so many ingredients. Wine has one ingredient. It’s grape. You can’t just keep saying ‘Oh it tastes like grape’,” he says.

Chris Taylor plays a nasty version of himself on Plonk.

Thankfully, Plonk is anything but pompous.

In its second season, the show follows Taylor and his hapless faux crew as they travel around South Australia having awkward encounters at wineries, spending way more than their measly budget and getting tipsy.

“It’s a gentle ribbing on that whole lifestyle genre, like a s***ty little Postcards (Channel Nine’s Victorian travel show),” Taylor explains.

Featuring a host of bizarre periphery characters set among stunning country landscapes, the finished product sits somewhere between Chaser’s War, 2004 film Sideways and BBC series-turned-movie The Trip.

Like The Trip‘s Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, Taylor plays a parody of himself – an egomaniac who refers to himself as an “ABC personality” and demands a bodyguard and a trailer.

“I’m an a**hole who is grumpy, arrogant and dismissive,” Taylor says of his on-screen persona.

“I don’t enjoy doing it. I finish a day on set feeling dirty, angry and embittered.”

Interestingly, Taylor attempted to shoot the entire season completely sober after a particularly indulgent holiday season.

“I’m not going to say it was a sober experience,” he says of the eight-week shoot.

“For the first three weeks of the shoot I actually wasn’t drinking at all because we started at the height of January and I had a very big Christmas season and just needed to get healthy.

“Of course I fell off the wagon after three weeks. I was very impressed with myself. The crew were placing bets about when I’d crack and all the bets were between six hours and three days – they had no faith in me at all.”

Still, who can blame Taylor when the filming locations included choice spots like Ochota Barrels (where Mick Jagger and the Stones dined during their Aussie tour) as well as the lush hills of the Clare Valley and the ocean views of McLaren Vale.

Just like most visitors to the popular region, Taylor had his favourites.

“I’m a bit of a sucker for white wine and I like the Rieslings of Clare Valley,” he admits. “And McLaren Vale really impressed me … they make some of the most delicious Grenache in particular.

“I really got into Grenache in a big way,” he says, before stopping himself. “Oh, now I really am sounding like a wine snob!”