Chianti. I’ve struggled a bit with it. It can be great, but often it’s a bit difficult and surly. It’s like a moody friend: you have to wait for the…
Gusbourne Blanc de Blancs Late Disgorged 2007
This is amazing. One of the best sparkling wines I’ve tried from the UK. It has been aged on its lees for 70 months. It shows what’s possible in England…
The Perfect Meal, with Professor Charles Spence
I’ve just written up the launch of Professor Charles Spence’s new book, The Perfect Meal. It’s a really good book that examines how science can help us understand what it…
Viña Tondonia Reserva 2002, in a supermarket near you
López de Heredia, who make Tondonia, is one of the classic old Rioja houses. They are super-traditional, and make fabulously old fashioned and brilliantly ageable wines. They are not for…
Ageno la Stoppa, a distinctive orange wine from Italy
This is one of those distinctive skin contact white wines that I think I liked quite a lot. But I wasn’t totally sure. If you’ve never tried Brettanomyces in white…
Don’t spit great wine!
In the wine trade, we taste. And then we spit. Have to, really, otherwise we’d all be permanently drunk and would die young. Sometimes, though, a wine is too good…
Some lovely wines with the Noble Rot guys
It was a sort of Christmas party. It was pretty epic. Noble Rot founders Mark Andrew and Dan Keeling threw a dinner for some of the people involved in the…
Three days, four restaurants: Mission, Dean St Townhouse, La Chapelle, Avenue
London is full of great places to eat, and I had a particularly good run from Sunday to Tuesday with four restaurant visits in three days. I’ve acknowledged here…
Grapeful, a new wine app
There’s a problem with wine. It’s just too confusing for normal people to deal with. There are tens of thousands of different products, ranging widely in price and quality, and…