The closure debate has moved on quite a bit since the days when it was practically pitched warfare between the screwcap advocates (mainly Australia and New Zealand) and those who…
Port Philip Estate Chardonnay 2012 Mornington Peninsular
Now this is an impressive Australian Chardonnay, from Sandro Mosele at Port Philip Estate. It’s a single site wine, from a 1.64 hectare vineyard block, and it shows massive potential…
Gusbourne Brut Reserve 2010, another fine English sparkling wine
I’m getting quite excited by the progress of English sparkling wine. Here’s another good one. Gusbourne Estate is one of the most highly reputed of the English producers, and they’ve…
A week as a wine writer
So what does a week as a wine writer consist of? It’s hard to say. Every week is different. There’s travel. Attending tastings. Writing articles to deadlines. Lunches. Dinners. It…
Some nice wines from Sivervis, Swartland, South Africa
I met up with Ryan Mostert (above right) and Michael Roets (above left) to drink wine. Ryan was until recently assistant winemaker at Reyneke, and with his partner Sam recently…
Four great wines at The Remedy: Jura, Sicily and Tenerife
Was at The Remedy wine bar last night, with a couple of dudes. We had some lovely wines, including two stunning bottles from Tenerife. The red in particular was quite…
Mas Candi: making the most of Catalan grape varieties
Mas Candi is a fairly new project (established 2006) that’s a collaboration between four viticulture and enology students who wanted to make wines from their families’ vineyards. The focus is…
White Stones and White Bones: terroir-based Chardonnays from Catena
It was very interesting to try these two high-end terroir-based Chardonnays from Catena, and then the next day to have a look at the soils that produced them. They both…
Dinner at 1884 Francis Mallmann, Mendoza
On my last night in Mendoza I dined alone. It’s something I rarely do on my travels: often I’ll use a free evening as a chance to skip a meal…