Just back from a long day spent with two other families on the beach at West Wittering, near Chichester. It’s a wonderful place, free of amusement arcades and overt commercial exploitation,…
Recently on wineanorak dot com
Been quite busy of late adding new material on to the main part of wineanorak.com. If you travel and taste a lot, the challenge is to write everything up. It’s…
Why I love camping
So just back from five days camping. We were in a field in somerset, with three other families plus a few supernumerary kids on loan. It rained quite a bit…
Domaine de Silène Grande Cuvée 2004, a serious Languedoc red
This is impressive. It’s a Languedoc red from large producer Skalli. It’s expensive, I guess, but reinforces just how good Languedoc reds can be when grown on decent terroirs and…
At the cricket, followed by Crozes
Had a very enjoyable evening at the Oval, watching Surrey vs. Northants in the Clydesdale Bank 40 Over competition. It was the first time I’ve watched one of these day/night…
The world closures market in picture form
This picture represents the world closures market as it currently stands (actually, data are from December 2010). This is for standard 750 ml glass bottles plus 1 litre and 1.5…
Video: Malhadinha Nova in Portugal’s Alentejo
Here’s a short film from last week’s visit to the wonderful wine estate, farm and country hotel of Malhadinha Nova in Portugal’s Alentejo.
Alert: a remarkable charity dinner for Pebbles
A heads up for a remarkable charity wine dinner in aid of Pebbles, the South African childrens’ charity with a strong connection to the wine trade, to be held in…
The debate on wine writer ethics
Fiona Beckett, in The Guardian, is the latest wine writer to opine on winewriter ethics. I like Fiona – but find this piece a little annoying. There’s the totally unnecessary…