Arrived last night in Vancouver, and it was straight off to dinner at Forage with the small UK press group I’m travelling with, and Chris Coletta of Haywire. Forage is…
Interesting Marlborough: meeting the Vandals
Vandal is a micronegociant project based in Marlborough, New Zealand. It began in the 2016 vintage, and it’s a collaboration between three local winemakers who all had kids, and who…
Interesting Marlborough: Clos Henri
Clos Henri is the Marlborough outpost of the Bourgeois family of Sancerre. They first came to New Zealand in 1999 and decided they wanted to make wine here, but rather…
The dangers of negativity
One of the perils with my line of work is that it can be so easy to allow negativity to seep into my writing. I’m strongly convinced that negativity is…
Prophet’s Rock Vin de Paille
This wine deserves a mention, even if few will get to try it. It’s the first vintage of Prophet’s Rock new Vin de Paille, a ‘straw wine’ made from Pinot…
Dona Berta: traditional, restrained, delicious Douro wines
There’s something very traditional about the labelling of these wines from Douro estate Dona Berta: pure and classic. This is reflected in the winemaking style, which shows admirable restraint and…
Interesting Marlborough: Framingham
Framingham is one of the most interesting of Marlborough’s wineries, but they tend to fly under the radar a bit. They are best known for their Rieslings – winemaker Dr…
A case of 2015 reds from the Gimblett Gravels, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Each year, the Gimblett Gravels association – a group in charge of a special terroir in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand – makes a selection of 12 top reds. This is the…
The Hermit Ram Pinot Noir Whole Bunch 2017 North Canterbury, New Zealand
I’ve talked about the wines of Theo Coles here before on this blog. His brand is The Hermit Ram (although he also works on other projects), and the other night…