Essays

Why no fame for the wines of Spain?

by  |  18-01-2023 ~ 17 Comments

A few months ago, a wine educator in Texas wrote to me asking who is "influential" in Spanish wine along the lines of writers and educators. Liking a challenge, I started to write up a... more »

Wine Twitter is dead, long live Wine Twitter?

by  |  09-01-2023 ~ 4 Comments

The social media party train that left the station in 2006 has gone off the rails since Elon Musk bought it for $44 billion in November, 2022. As if 75% of the staff being laid... more »

Expanding beyond wine’s harvest horizons

by  |  09-12-2022 ~ 2 Comments

Despite the claim that people want "unique experiences" these days, when visiting wine regions, they tend to do it in more or less the same time frame. For the Northern Hemisphere that means, May with... more »

Choice, the problem is choice.

by  |  02-09-2022 ~ 10 Comments

If we live in any age at the moment, it’s the Age of Solutionism. There seems to be a never-ending supply of guys (always guys) who believe that for anything in existence, surely a technological... more »

The hidden truth of alternative wine bottle formats

by  |  28-07-2022 ~ 2 Comments

A few weeks previous on Twitter, someone in the wine trade was extolling the virtues of a new, non-glass wine bottle format that uses a plastic liner for the wine. There are many of these... more »
Photo by Ruth Spivey

In Praise of Airport Drinking

by  |  05-07-2022 ~ 5 Comments

I love airports. Despite the tedious queues and necessary security measures, when it comes to alcohol consumption, you are in highly permissive and democratic territory. Gatwick : South Terminal : 0700 I’m going to Greece.... more »

SOMM a decade on, the aftermath of a documentary

by  |  26-05-2022 ~ 4 Comments

There are few if any films that have had such a profound impact on the wine world than the original SOMM film from 2012. I'm reminded of this constantly such as when I was leading... more »

Ukraine’s wine people finding homes around Europe

by  |  20-05-2022

The war in Ukraine continues to be a heinous atrocity. The only thing that's clear now is that there will be no resolution any time soon, especially as Russia seems hell-bent to grind on despite... more »
Photo by Slivino Village winery

Ukrainian winemaking in war

by  |  11-04-2022

Most of the territory of Ukraine has been scarred by war because the Russians have been actively destroying civilian infrastructure and this fate hasn't spared the wineries of our country. Since the beginning of the... more »

In other news…

by  |  28-02-2022 ~ 1 Comment

This week I'd wanted to share a report on some excellent wines in California. I'd wanted to write up stories about funny and/or ridiculous things happening in the wine world. I'd wanted to do a... more »