Just in the airport after four days in Bordeaux. The goal of this trip was to look beyond the established image of the region, to the more hidden side of…
Dinner with Dan at Noble Rot: Raveneau, Lynch Bages and Dervieux Thaize
Had a lovely dinner with Dan Keeling at Noble Rot last night. The food was as good as ever, and the wines were just thrilling. I’ve rarely drunk as well,…
Lunch at Daniel Primack’s with some lovely wines
Lunch at Daniel Primack’s on a perfect June day. We sat outside, listened to music, ate salt marsh lamb and talked. And drank some lovely wines. Champagne Pierre Gimonnet Blanc…
A lovely wine lunch at La Colombe, Cape Town, with Coche, Raveneau, Jamet and Montrose
It was great to catch up with Keith Prothero, Ryan Mostert and Sam Suddons on Wednesday for lunch at one of Cape Town’s most celebrated restuarants, La Colombe. It was…
The 1855 Classification of Bordeaux’s Médoc
When I was first getting into wine, one of the things that fascinated me most was the 1855 classification of Bordeaux’s Médoc. Coming to wine with little knowledge and no…
Bordeaux: some reflections
I’ve just spent a very enjoyable couple of days in Bordeaux. The first was a free afternoon (I walked and walked), followed by dinner; the second a big tasting of…
Visiting Château Marquis d’Alesme, Margaux, for the opening of a grand winery
Last night I was one of a group who visited Château Marquis d’Alesme on the occasion of the opening of their new winery in Margaux. The estate, which has 15…
Christmas Clarets: Lafite, Talbot and Gruaud
There’s something about Bordeaux. It’s fashionable to knock it (I even saw one of my colleagues boasting on social media about how he rarely drinks it), but there’s a reason…
1937 Margaux and 1966 Lafite: what are we to make of old wine?
Yesterday I popped into The Sampler on Upper Street, Islington, to try some of their ‘icon’ wines (and a few others). This time every year they put on some lovely…