We followed a tiny, icy road in the foot of the mountain, heading up to Hikaru Farm in Takayama Village. This is where Mitsuhiro Hase makes wine, with vineyards ranging…
Why ‘like what you like’ is generally bad advice when it comes to wine
Here, I’m addressing some questionable comments made about wine tasting, including the oft-proffered advice, ‘like what you like.’ The first is that the trade is full of wine snobs. Usually,…
Tasting some wines from Uruguay
I tasted through a selection of Uruguayan wines with Wines of Uruguay ambassador Gabriela Zimmer. This organization brings together 22 of Uruguay’s 180 wineries who are focused on export. Most…
London for wine lovers: the best places to drink good wine
I keep getting asked by people about places to drink in London, so here, off the top of my head, is a list of places that I can heartily recommend….
For most wines, glass bottles make no sense
In many classic wine-producing countries it used to be normal to visit a winery and buy wine directly from the tank, filling up your own container. This is a good…
Three from Marimar Estate in Sonoma, California
I tried these three wines from Marimar Estate. Marimar is the second generation of the Torres wine dynasty, and sister of Miguel Torres Jr who until recently ran the Torres…
Some interesting bottles: Pico, Filippi, Field Recording, Haut-Bergey, Droin, Goodfellow
Some interesting bottles recently tried: Goodfellow Whistling Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir 2016 Ribbon Ridge, Oregon Planted in 1990, sedimentary soils, 20 months in French oak. Midweight in body with sappy,…
Some current releases from Aussie star producer Penfolds
These are some of the current releases from Penfolds, possibly Australia’s most famous producer. When I first got into wine in the early 1990s, Penfolds was a company I fell…
London restaurants (5): The Ledbury
I’ve eaten out a lot. And this was one of the very best experiences I have had. The Ledbury has two Michelin stars, but I can’t imagine a restaurant being…