Continuing the year… April is the International Wine Challenge, which takes a couple of weeks – it’s a nice time of year. It was also the Real Wine Fair, which…
2014 in pictures (1)
2014 has been a remarkable year. Here’s my year in review, in pictorial form. The January tasting season began with the Burgundy 2012 tastings in London. This was a new…
Wineanorak on University Challenge, I’ve finally made it!
So cool to see wineanorak featuring on University Challenge last night (a television program on the UK’s BBC). Paxman reading out content from my site! I’ve made it. Distressing to…
Some lovely wines with the Noble Rot guys
It was a sort of Christmas party. It was pretty epic. Noble Rot founders Mark Andrew and Dan Keeling threw a dinner for some of the people involved in the…
Grapeful, a new wine app
There’s a problem with wine. It’s just too confusing for normal people to deal with. There are tens of thousands of different products, ranging widely in price and quality, and…
Do we overstate the importance of terroir?
Do we make too much of terroir? Once in a while, it’s good for us to question ourselves. Far too often we assume that our perspective is the only one,…
Vichy Catalan mineral water
In Spain last week I was introduced to Vichy Catalan mineral water. This is the most remarkable and tasty water I have ever experienced. It tastes a bit salty, but…
Wine critics and wine writers
On Friday I wrote a piece for Tim Atkin’s website on the future of wine writing, considering the differing roles of critics and writers. In it, I suggested that if…
Judging at the International Wine Challenge, 2015, Tranche 1
For the last couple of days I have been at The Oval (one of London’s two major cricket grounds) judging in the International Wine Challenge. It’s the second year where…