Category Archives: Wine

A Lavaux Affair

Let’s face it, if you are the kind of wine lover who reads a wine blog you are probably an inveterate romantic who adores being in the vineyards as much as drinking the wine. Something in that bucolic scenery gets … Continue reading

Posted in Swiss Wine, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Wine, Wine Tastings, Wine Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Austria’s Sparkling Again (Sekt not dregs and…)

Monday 7 February, I should have been at the Wines of Austria Tasting at London’s Institute of Directors. I wasn’t. Never mind, I’m still going to write about Austrian wines, but some of the Austrian wines you don’t often hear … Continue reading

Posted in Austria, Austrian Wine, Sparkling Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Back to the Future

I do write the occasional Review of a wine book, or DVD, though I haven’t done so recently. I haven’t actually read any new wine books for a while, not since Stephen Brook’s Wines of Austria, and that was almost … Continue reading

Posted in Australian Wine, Wine, Wine Books, Wine Writing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Muy Generoso

Generoso usually refers just to a dry fortified wine, but in this case it refers to our Sherry lunch on Friday where we drank largely wines of a darker hue, Amontillado, through Palo Cortado and Oloroso, to PX. Of course, it … Continue reading

Posted in Sherry, Spanish Wine, Wine, Wine and Food | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Emperor’s New Clothes are Real

This is just a quick shout for Newcomer Wines, the Austrian specialist wine merchant who used to be in Shoreditch Boxpark. The emperor in this case is, with typical corny humour, naturally one of the Habsburgs, and whilst in the … Continue reading

Posted in Austrian Wine, Natural Wine, Neusiedlersee, Sparkling Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Heroes, Wine Merchants, Wine Shops | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Late January back in Se-ven-teen

I’m chanelling “Oh What a Night” (The Four Seasons)…Not December 1963, but still “What a Very Special Time for Me, As I Remember, What a Night”. If you know the song, that’s what it felt like. I rarely write about … Continue reading

Posted in Dining, Fine Wine, Premium Spirits, Rum, Sherry, Wine, Wine and Food | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Panacea – A Remedy for all Ills

I’m not really one to make New Year’s Resolutions, but I won’t deny the tendency to make a few wishes – things I’d like to do, places I’d like to go, in the coming year. One of those was to … Continue reading

Posted in Dining, Wine, Wine and Food | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Great Exhibitionists

The Winemakers Club and Carte Blanche Wines got together again at Farringdon Street Vaults for their Winter Portfolio Tasting. Readers of this Blog will know Winemakers very well. Their philosophy is finely stated in the words of founder/owner John Baum: … Continue reading

Posted in biodynamic wine, Hungarian Wine, Languedoc-Roussillon, Loire, Natural Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Merchants, Wine Tastings | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

I Met a Traveller from an Antique Land

…My name is Ozburgundian, Winemaker of Winemakers, Look on my Wines, ye Mighty, and despair! Okay, not quite what Shelley had in mind, but the mighty Ozgundians were in town again yesterday, this time joined by another Australian washed up … Continue reading

Posted in Burgundy, Fine Wine, Rhone, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Tastings | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Beyond the Classics

January sees the tasting circuit back in full swing after the Winter Solstice, so much so that there were at least four tastings yesterday which I would have liked to have gone to. I chose the tasting of the French Vigneron … Continue reading

Posted in Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Tastings | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments