When I started drinking wine as a student, I was bottom feeding. Buying cheap wines from supermarkets. Most tasted bad. Now wine tastes better, even at the bottom end. That’s…
J Bouchon Granito Semillon 2016 Maule, Chile
This is a remarkable wine. I tasted it when Tim Atkin brought it along to the International Wine Challenge one morning: he’d opened it the previous evening, and as it…
Dinner at Roots, Lyttelton: one of New Zealand’s great foodie destinations
While we were down in Christchurch, it was great to be able to visit Roots in Lyttelton. It’s a much-talked about New Zealand foodie destination and the only restaurant outside…
A lovely evening at Scotch Bar, Blenheim
I’d been in Blenheim for three days before another big night at Scotch, the epic wine bar in town where it’s easy to rack up quite a spectacular bill if…
The wines of Lismore, Greyton, South Africa
Samantha O’Keefe must be pretty tough. She has a spectacular wine farm in the middle of nowhere, and she’s been running it pretty much single-handedly since the beginning, as well…
An amazing tasting of old Piedmont wines
On my last trio to South Africa I took a break from vintage and headed to the Swartland to catch up with buddies Ryan Mostert and Sam Suddons, who make…