In Tomi, there’s a wine bar and tasting room where you can sample many different Nagano Wines. It’s great to have a wine-focused place like this in town. We…
Nagano region, Japan (2) Gio Hills
The first winery visit of this year’s Nagano tour was at Gio Hills winery, which is owned by the Tomioka family: Masaki and his wife Yoko, and their winemaker son…
Nagano region, Japan, day 1
I’ve returned to the Nagano wine region, which I visited last March. It’s in the middle of Japan, which is quite a long, thin country stretching from 26 degrees south…
Reviewing eight British Airways lounge wines
I find myself in the airport lounge with some time to spare, so I thought I’d write notes on the lounge wines. I’m a geek! Destination this time is Japan…
Domaines Delon: Léoville-Las-Cases, Potensac, Clos du Marquis and Nénin
Jean-Hubert Delon owns four Bordeaux estates, with the Jewel in the crown being second growth Léoville-Las-Cases in Saint-Julien. In addition, he owns Nénin in Pomerol, Clos du Marquis in Saint-Julien,…
Are wine recommendations important?
Every now and then I get a request from a student of wine to answer some questions for a dissertation of some kind. I try my best to answer, but…
Taylor’s Single Harvest (Colheita) Ports: 1964, 1969 and 1863
Port house Taylor’s have begun releasing Colheita Ports. They label these ‘single harvest’, which is an English way of saying that they are Tawny Ports, matured in wood, from a…
Central Otago (10) Rudi Bauer and Quartz Reef
It was great to spend some time with one of the pioneering figures of Central Otago wine, Rudi Bauer. Fresh off the plane from the UK, I picked up a…
Two from Handford: Schaal Confluence and Garnacha not Guerra
I popped into Handford Wines yesterday to say hello to Greg Sherwood, and have a look round. If there is a merchant in London who has a better array of…