Monthly Archives: June 2015

Absolute Beginners

Some time ago I wrote a piece prompted by a comment made by Jancis on the lack of young people at the Bordeaux tastings. Now I have young people in the family, my children and their partners. Despite living in … Continue reading

Posted in Bordeaux Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

A Bit of a Theise

Terry Theise’s book Reading Between the Wines (UCP, 2010) had been floating just above my radar for a long while. It was the recommendation of Heidi Schrœck about a month ago which acted as a catalyst to make me read it, … Continue reading

Posted in Rust, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Books, Wine Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Spice Oddity

Major Thom called Ground Control suggesting the India Club might be the venue at which to see whether the Oddities theme could work for Indian food. As it turned out, the wines were not really very odd (on the whole), … Continue reading

Posted in Dining, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Tastings | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Here’s to Your Good Health!

The ping-pong debate over the health benefits of drinking wine is never far from the mainstream press in the UK, and the same can be said for most other Western countries too. It might not shock anyone that this has … Continue reading

Posted in Wine and Health, Wine Books | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Talented Mr Ripley

Okay, I admit, my proclivity for really corny headlines has seemingly gone too far this time, but you should not despair. Howard Ripley can be described as nothing less than talented, for he’s assembled much of the cream of German … Continue reading

Posted in German Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Tastings | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Do You Keep Péts?

Long before someone other than Dom Pérignon thought of putting bubbles in Champagne and the whole méthode traditionelle was invented, bottle fermented wines were commercialised using the Ancestral Method (aka Rural Method). The plan is that you bottle the wine before … Continue reading

Posted in Natural Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Rhone Away Success

Things so often happen in pairs, and after reading Matt Walls‘ really interesting article on Saint-Joseph in last month’s Decanter, I was invited by Vintrepid‘s Robbie Ward to a tasting of this appellation downstairs at Planet of the Grapes’ Holborn … Continue reading

Posted in Natural Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Tastings | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment