For the last week I have been on holiday in France. A cousin’s wedding in Vouharte, in the Charente, gave us the perfect opportunity to get together as an extended…
So what did I learn about the way I use language to describe wine?
So, following on from the previous posts, what did I learn from the grand seminar? Josh Raynolds revealed a curious fact. Back in the 1920s and earlier, people used to…
The IPNC Grand Seminar, windows of perception
I love this picture. It’s a group photo of our panel at the IPNC Grand Seminar, which we did twice, on Friday and Saturday mornings. We were discussing how we…
Winning best overall wine blog in the Wine Blog Awards
It was nice to wake up yesterday to a facebook message from Katie Myers telling me I’d won the best overall wine blog category at the Wine Blog Awards in…
The diversity of wine
Wine is unusual among drinks on many levels. And one of the most remarkable things about wine is its diversity. It’s a function of the fact that wine quality is…
Careers advice…from me?
As I write I am on a train heading to York, where I will be taking part in a careers session for a group of 80 high acheiveing graduate plant…
In Vancouver
For one night only. I arrived in Vancouver yesterday afternoon, just in time to watch the second half of England v Uruguay at a bar in the airport with my…
Why judging super-expensive wines is difficult
I always like Emile Peynaud’s quote about how expensive wines tasted blind frequently disappoint. Along similar lines, there’s the well known scientific experiment where subjects had their brains scanned while…
Success is an enemy
Whether you are a winemaker, a winery, a wine brand or a wine writer, one of the biggest threats can be success itself. It’s made more dangerous by the fact…