Met up with Thor Gudmundsson the other night at Brackenbury Wine Rooms to drink and chat. Thor has two Wine Rooms locations, in Brackenbury (Hammersmith) and in Kensington, and both have…
Exploring the wines of Greece: 25 of my favourites
Last year I travelled to Greece and did a quick-fire exploration of some of the country’s top wines, aided by Giannis Siganos of wine shop and importer Mr Vertigo. It’s…
In Argentina (2) visiting Costa y Pampa, a winery in a new viticultural region
It’s not often you get to visit a vineyard that’s the first in a new viticultural region. But that’s what Costa y Pampa, Trapiche’s latest project, is. I visited…
Are the fake half-price wine deals returning?
A few years back wine writers in the UK campaigned against the fake half-price supermarket wine deals. I even did some filming for Rip Off Britain where we went undercover…
2018 in review: quite a year (part 2 of 2)
June finished with a five day, four city trip to Ireland to promote Beaujolais wines with a series of masterclasses. We did Cork, Dublin, Galway and Limerick. Here I am…
2018 in review: quite a year (part 1 of 2)
2018 began in New Zealand, where I’d been staying for Christmas. It was to be the first of several joy-filled trips to this wonderful country. This time last year, I’d…
Bad smells
A while back we had a cat. It originally belonged to Eric Clapton and we inherited it through a friend of a friend, and it was a nice cat, black…
Why wine must be wine
I’ve been involved in a few social media discussions about whether or not it’s time for wine to modernize. In order to appeal to a wider audience – and recruit…
Why it’s worth entering wine writing competitions
I enter wine competitions. Not all of them, but many, if I feel I’ve done something that year that’s of merit. It’s worth the effort of entering. It takes a…