I have committed myself to a pretty brutal travel schedule this year, at least until the end of July. Since the end of January I’ve been in New Zealand, California…
Visiting Aphros, Vinho Verde
At dinner last night, Vasco Croft, owner of Aphros, a biodynamic Vinho Verde producer, decided to invite a group to lunch. So Joao Roseira asked me this morning: how nervous…
In Porto for Simplesmente Vinho 2016
I’m in the lovely city of Porto, northern Portugal, for Simplesmente Vinho 2016. Held over this weekend at the Convento Monchique, an impressive run down Manueline building that is in…
A remarkable lunch at Kricket, Brixton
Today I lunched with Dan Keeling at Kricket, a small Indian small plates restaurant in Pop Brixton. It’s a tiny restaurant – full every evening – but this was a…
At Noble Rot with the IPOB crowd, drinking Raveneau and Chave
On Tuesday evening I was back to Noble Rot, for dinner with the In Pursuit of Balance crowd: Raj Parr, Jamie Kutch, Jasmine Hirsch, Steve Matthiason, Mark Andrew and Totte…
The role of wine critics: The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers (2)
Yesterday I began a series of write-ups from the Wine Writers’ Symposium, starting with Jay McInerney’s keynote. This was followed by a panel session with Eric Asmiov, Virginie Boone and…
Jay McInerney on wine writing: The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers 2016 (1)
‘This has become a special part of my life,’ says novelist Jay McInerney, referring to wine writing, his parallel career. McInerney’s keynote kicked off the 2016 Symposium for Professional Wine…
Craven Syrah Faure Vineyard 2014 Stellenbosch, South Africa
This is interesting. It’s from Craven Wines, which is a new project from Mick and Jeanine Craven that focuses on single vineyard wines from special sites in Stellenbosch. The approach…
Twitter’s powerful metrics – how can I use them?
Very interesting to see the sort of data you can now get from Twitter on the way people interact with your posts. These ‘analytics’ or metrics are very detailed. But…