We wine writers love wine awards. When we win, that is. I remember one evening when I was shortlisted three times for the Roederers. You have to fancy your odds…
The blog is re-born
A while back I decided to discontinue this blog. The new wineanorak is in a magazine format, and now it’s mobile responsive and modern and the right sort of home…
Why are there no new blog posts?
The observant among you will notice that there are no new blog posts being added to this site. And that the posts from the blog over September are no longer…
Discovering vineyards in the Languedoc
I’m currently in the Languedoc region of southern France, on a discovery mission. I’m visiting lots of producers (most of whom are new to me) whose goal is to make…
Orange wines are now a thing, but who invented the term?
The category of ‘orange wines’ – wines from white grapes that have been fermented on their skins – is now quite mainstream! In the last year, supermarkets in the UK…
Some nice lounge wines: Zarate, Terre Nerre, Zuccardi Concreto et al
Airport lounge wines are normally disappointing. But here in Los Angeles in the American Airlines lounge at Terminal 4 I found some wines I actually really wanted to drink. Zarate…
London restaurants (6) an amazing dinner at Brat with a Loire focus
Had a brilliant dinner at Brat last night. It was my first time, and it was one of the meals of the year. Our theme was Loire, and we brought…
We become attached to rules we have learned
It’s amazing how attached we become to rules that we’ve learned. Take the split infinitive. ‘To boldly go,’ is – to those who learned grammar in school – technically wrong,…
A (bad) day in the life of a wine writer
I’m currently in Canada. I’ve just spent four wonderful days in the Okanagan Valley, but when it came time to leave, things didn’t go so well. Maybe I should have…