From the centre of Bordeaux there are two ways to get to the north of the Médoc peninsula. The quickest way is via the D1, a slightly boring road, which will whisk you up to the fringes of Pauillac in no time. The second, which at first requires a bit of careful navigation around some […]
There’s something child like in the excitement one feels before boarding the Caledonian Sleeper. It’s one of the greatest train journeys in Europe and getting on at Euston, well after sunset, with all the clamour and bustle of a London railway station closing down for the night, one can’t quite believe that the following morning […]
Today is a root day. In the biodynamic wine tasting calendar this means that the moon is going through the ‘earth signs’ such as Capricorn and Taurus. Root days are not good days to enjoy wine. On a practical level a root day means the tannins in wine, the bitter tasting compounds that derive from the skin […]
Blind wine tasting is a fool’s game. Every professional wine writer, taster or oenophile will tell you there is simply no upside, get it wrong and sceptics will laugh heartily, teasingly suggesting that perhaps you don’t know what you’re talking about after all. Get it right and you can be accused of getting lucky or […]
Sir Winston Churchill described it as ‘the world’s most drinkable address,’ and certainly on a clear, Spring day a stroll down Épernay’s Avenue de Champagne feels like one of the greatest joys on the wine route. This region, which sits around 90 miles north east of Paris is surprisingly large, producing more than 350 million […]
Around twenty miles north east of the city of Bordeaux stands the port of Libourne. On a good day, off the early morning flight, you can be there within three quarters of an hour. Libourne, the capital of a wine-making area that includes Saint Emilion, Pomerol and Fronsac is home to some of France’s finest […]
There is a memorable scene in the British dark comedy Withnail & I when the two main protagonists, ‘resting’ actors who have decided to go on a long weekend in England’s Lake District, arrive at their damp, cold, dark cottage in the middle of the night. With a howling gale ripping through the valley they […]
In Roger Scruton’s thoughtful book ‘I Drink Therefore I Am,’ the philosopher expounds a theory on why wine has become so important to the Southern hemisphere. His premise is that countries like South Africa, New Zealand and Chile – which in the twentieth century have become exporters as well as thirsty domestic consumers of wine […]
Flight time from the leafy, tree lined avenues of Mendoza with their relaxed café’s and bustling restaurants to the sleek, urban freeways of Chile’s capital Santiago is just 45 minutes. The young couple next to me, returning home from a brief trip away had obviously flown it many times before judging by the way they […]
‘Which one do you like?’ says Mark Williamson, striding towards the back of his much loved wine bar, just north of the Louvre in Paris. It’s late, almost closing time, but having emailed from London saying I’m going to be in Paris, Mark has stayed on, keen to have a natter and share a few […]
‘I can do this,’ I said to myself as I looked through the rear view mirror of my hire car only to see a vertical drop of what looked like about a mile. Perched high on a very steep mountain road in deepest, southern France we were on the last leg of a journey to […]
A few years ago, on a bitterly cold Burgundian night, I paid a visit to a negociant in Beaune to share a glass of Volnay and discuss all matters Burgundy. Over a few hours, in front of a roaring log fire, we spoke candidly about the state of the region. Prices were climbing but yields, […]
We put my new Coravin to good use over the festive period. For those of you who don’t know what a Coravin is, it’s a wine device which is changing the way we appreciate and taste old wine. This small cylindrical ‘gun’ enables you to extract wine from a sealed bottle using a tiny medical […]
London has a new club. Sandwiched between two royal parks at the foot of St James’s street 67 Pall Mall is the world’s first private members club dedicated to the appreciation of fine wine. Inside members can enjoy a wine list, presided over by Ronan Sayburn, former sommelier to Gordon Ramsay, that will eventually stretch […]
There were more than 38 billion bottles of wine produced in 2013, the latest figures we have from the International Wine & Spirit Research group. I can’t promise to have tasted them all but at this time of year, when I am trawling through my tasting notes choosing which wines I am going to recommend […]
In London a decanter has just gone on sale for £1,300 ($1,945). Before you ask, no it’s not made out of crystal and no, it wasn’t used by Sir Francis Drake as he made his first voyage to the Americas. So why the hefty price tag? And let’s be honest, whichever way you square it, […]
A short walk from Campo Santa Maria Formosa, one of the largest medieval squares in Venice, there is a narrow stone alleyway along which sits Enoiteca Mascareta, a cosy wine bar run by the jovial Mauro Lorenzon. For the wine lover this is one of the best pit stops in Venice. Here, over a plate […]
On my last visit to Napa I hired a bike. Keen to get away from the crowds and the manicured lawns of California’s most glamorous wine region I took off, cycling along the Silverado trail to the small town of St Helena. Crossing the High Street I kept going, past vineyards, a garage, some boys […]
“It’s not too far,” says Alastair Robertson, chairman of port shippers Taylor’s as he points to a small classical folly, jutting out on a high ridge above the river Douro. It’s dusk and having just arrived, via train, to this remote outpost of the upper Douro valley I’m keen to stretch my legs. Besides, Alastair […]
The cellar was cool and damp, a reminder that in Burgundy autumn had arrived. Inside the air was filled with that familiar stone-dust, flinty smell one associates with old country churches. Stood around a barrel were myself, a buyer for a large UK wine merchants’, a negociant and the vigneron, carefully administering small glasses of delicately flavoured […]
