Pinot Noir is one of my very favourite grape varieties. It’s a tricky grape, though, and finding good affordable Pinot can be a challenge. So I tried six inexpensive Pinot…
Video interviews with top South African winemakers
Just posted a write up of the excellent wines from Mick and Jeanine Craven, who make superb single-site wines from Stellenbosch. While I was doing it I thought I’d share…
Lisbon Family Vineyards: visiting three ambitious producers from Portugal’s Lisboa region
The wine region of Lisboa is a large, diverse one. It runs up north from Lisbon, bounded by the Atlantic coast on one side and the Tejo river to the…
Loire adventure: the film
This is a film of our Loire Valley wine adventure. We started with a day in Paris, then we head to Sancerre, before working our way up the Loire to…
Video: Alternative America – three producers from the USA doing something a bit differently
At the Real Wine Fair I caught up with three producers from the USA who are doing something a bit different, and making excellent wines in the process. Scott…
Top wines from ProWein 2017
[This is a post in collaboration with my Canadian colleague Treve Ring.] There are wine trade shows the world over, but there is only one that covers all bases from…
Why the International Wine Challenge judging process is so rigorous: the co-chairs explain
So the two-week judging process of the International Wine Challenge (IWC) has finished. It has been hard work, but great fun, with a real sense of joint enterprise and community…
Flotsam & Jetsam Cinsault, tasted on camera
Another Cinsault! This time, it’s from Chris and Suzaan Alheit. This is an honest wine, made for drinking, and it’s lovely. South Africa is producing quite a few of these…
Video: day 3 of ProWein 2017
Some highlights from the third and final day of ProWein 2017. I should add that these highlight films are not meant to be representative of the fair. Most people are…