Day 1 at ProWein was a busy one. This wine trade fair, with 55 000 attendees, is huge. It’s daunting in scale, so you have to have quite a good…
A pre-ProWein tasting of some lovely Australian wines
On the eve of ProWein, Wine Australia put on a tasting of some really interesting Australian wines. Here are my notes on some of my favourites. Bellwether Vermentino 2014 Heathcote,…
Blind Spot: Mac Forbes makes great value Aussie wines for The Wine Society
Blind Spot is a range of own-label wines made for The Wine Society by Mac Forbes. They’re great value, and made in quite an elegant style. I like them a…
Some fine wines at Ellory, with Texier, Stephan, Foradori, Le Soula, Bosman
Had some lovely wines last night with Angela Jordaan and Thor Gudmundsson at the fabulous Ellory (thoroughly recommended: really good small plates style menu and excellent wine list). Here are my…
Highlights from the Washington State and Oregon tasting
These were some of the highlights from this week’s Washington State and Oregon tasting. Some really lovely wines from the Pacific Northwest. Gramercy Cellars Forgotten Hills Syrah 2014 Walla Walla, Washington…
Fun in Athens: a wine shop and two wine bars
I really enjoyed Athens. On the first evening we popped into Mr Vertigo, a brilliant wine shop (and importing company) run by Giannis Siganos (above). He gave us a taste…
On beginnings and endings, and making sense of loss
Everything has a beginning; everything has an end. There are beginnings of endings and endings of beginnings. I’ve been thinking about these things for a while. A couple of weeks…
Greek wines on the world stage: a talk I gave in Athens
Here’s a written version of a talk I gave to Greek wine producers in Athens yesterday. It’s not exactly what I said (I never read talks); but rather it’s something…
Video: what makes Elgin a special wine region?
In this video clip, I interview Andrew Gunn of Iona, and his winemaker Werner Muller, about what makes the Elgin Valley a special wine region. We also talk about Elgin’s…