This is quite serious. It’s a sweet white wine made from the Marsanne variety, picked ripe, sorted and then dried on straw mats for two months. The must typically has…
Hester’s 40th, Fabrice and an imperial of Sauternes
Just back from my younger sister Hester’s 40th celebrations, held in a marquee in the gardens of her home in Gerrards Cross. Brother-in-law William had secured the services of star…
Penfolds Koonunga Hill revived – retro delights
Penfolds have revived their Koonunga Hill label by releasing two new wines in retro packaging. Back in 1976, the Koonunga Hill red was first released. It was cheap, but surprisingly…
The pioneer winemaker statue in Auckland
I was staying with my buddies in Auckland, wandering around a suburb of the city when I came across this statue. It’s a tribute to the pioneers who who helped…
Sweet wine season, 6: a stunning South African
I’m enjoying this sweet wine season. Most of all, I’m impressed by just how good many sweet wines are. This one, a botrytised Riesling from South Africa, blew me away….
Why we should be grateful for Robert Parker
Robert Parker is the world’s most famous wine critic. Since his rise to fame in the 1980s through a newsletter called The Wine Advocate, his 100-point scale has become the default…
Sweet wine season, 5: Riverby Estate Noble Riesling, New Zealand
Until recently a peculiar piece of legislation prevented New Zealand from exporting their sweet wines to the EU. Fortunately, this has changed, and now we can get to know the…
Sweet wine season, 4: Pedro Ximenez, an extreme style
This is about as extreme as sweet wine gets. Very ripe grapes dried in the sun, then fortified and aged for a long time in old barrels in a solera…
Wine tasters invade a scientific research community
Interesting side-story on the much-tweeted SITT tasting today. The wine social media community – me included – used the #SITT twitter hash tag without testing it first. The result is…