A book review of “The 24-Hour Wine Expert”02-08-2018
“The 24-Hour Wine Expert” by Jancis Robinson MW came out over two years ago so one would ask as to why I’d bother reviewing it now? Quite simply that in a time of fake news,... more>
A review of “The Wine Show: Season 2”07-06-2018
Carrying on after the success of the first iteration of The Wine Show, the team got back together two years later to produce Season 2 that released to a much larger audience on Channel 5... more>
The last freakin’ article on the 40th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris12-07-2016
For anyone who follows wine news (and let’s be honest, that’s not a terribly large chunk of humanity) you’ll have seen countless articles about the 40th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris, the seminal wine... more>
Talking with Jancis Robinson about wine and time29-06-2016
I’m often surprised to find North Americans outside of wine circles who haven’t heard of Jancis Robinson as in the UK & Europe (yes, we unfortunately must refer to them as such now) she’s an... more>
ICCWS 2016, Wow!31-05-2016
This past Saturday marked the end of the three day event called, the International Cool Climate Wine Symposium 2016. That lengthy title sums up the event very well as it was three intense days focused... more>
What private, or “own-label” wines bring to the table19-05-2016
If there is one thing more tedious than wine articles, it’s wine articles about other wine articles which is why I try not to do it much here, although I do renege on this from... more>
Bordeaux takes off the blinders09-02-2016
There has been a bit of a controversy brewing with the forthcoming Bordeaux en primeur tastings in that the Union des Grands Crus or essentially, the powers that be, have banned blind tasting for any... more>
A review of the Oxford Companion to Wine 4th edition11-01-2016
So 2015 saw two big firsts for me. I adopted my first dog (the new star of my personal Instagram as well as his own.) The second was that I bought my first copy of... more>
Young Priorat winemaker heads to Morocco02-09-2015
“Farid, what’s this stick across my seat for?” “Oh that… it’s for the snakes. Unfortunately here in Morocco, they’re all poisonous but since we’re already at 42C this morning, I don’t think there’ll be any... more>
Lidl & Domaine de Pignan 200830-05-2015
For those unfamiliar with supermarkets in Spain, there are few these days that are good and most verge on repugnant (Mercadona.) One of the ones that has historically been the mecca of all bargain dwellers... more>