jamie goode's wine blog

Table 9

Another good day at the Challenge. After two big days (of 160 and 140 wines), our panel today worked at a slightly slower pace, taking more time to decide over some rather tricky flights.

A mixed collection of southern French whites, from a wide array of grape varieties, proved quite a challenge to score. [...]

Very sad to learn today about the death of David Booth. A British expat, he turned to wine after a successful army career, and became a well known viticultural consultant in Portugal. His client list included Terras de Alter, Azamor, Vida Nova and Vale de Algares, and he also had his own project, Alentejo winery Fita Preta, [...]

Day 3 at Lord's, the home of cricket

Very tired tonight. Another big day at the International Wine Challenge, with plenty of wines passing our table (number 9, again), and a good number going through to next week, including a couple of very nice botrytised reds!

Table 9

There were also nice wines from Bosnia, Serbia [...]

The first day of this year’s International Wine Challenge was a huge success. It’s the biggest yet, in terms of entries, and this was the first day at a new venue. After a successful tenure at the wonderful Barbican, we were at Lord’s, the home of cricket, and now also of the IWC.

Chris Ashton [...]

St James

Yesterday was another glorious day, most of which was spent judging wines.

This year’s Top 100 South African Wines has seen a higher standard of entries than last year. In part, this reflects the fast pace of change here: South African wines are getting better each year at the top end.

But it probably also [...]

Today was a day of firsts.

At 7 am, before the judging of the Top 100, Duncan Savage took three of us out for our first experience of surfing.

We went to Muizenberg beach, which is a great place to learn. The white sharks can be a problem, but as long as they don’t nibble you, it’s [...]

Yesterday was action packed. After travelling into London for a client meeting, it was back home, in time to witness a remarkable spectacle.

Have you ever seen the Channel 4 series Big Fat Gypsy Weddings? It’s a close look at the traveller community, with a particular emphasis on weddings. They tend to be quite extravagant. Well, [...]

Jean-Marc Sauboua with 88 Haut Brion

 Just back from Vintner’s Hall in London, where tonight saw the 50th birthday celebration of Laithwaites/Direct Wines winemaker Jean-Marc Sauboua.

The quality of the turn-out showed just how highly people think of Jean-Marc. It was a lovely evening with a really good atmosphere and some nice wines. Wine [...]

Spent the day judging at the Sommelier Wine Awards, which is run by Imbibe magazine. The idea is to award medals to wines that deserve a place on a good wine list. As a result, we judge matched flights of wines ranging in price, and price is a consideration in determining whether the wine goes forward [...]

Just been browsing the tasting notes on a well known wine website (I will spare the name; I don’t want to be mean to this fine publication, because the problem is not unique to them), and was jolted by the realization that tasting notes generally do a spectactularly bad job of communicating about the nature [...]