It’s the last day of the Lallemand tour, a vinous adventure that has taken in four cities/towns in four days. Day one, in Nîmes, now seems a long time ago….
In France on the Lallemand tour
First trip of 2020 sees me in France, on tour. It’s the Lallemand tour, which I last did in 2009. This time it’s on wine faults, and we are taking…
Could synthetic wines be interesting?
Wine is a solution of lots of chemicals. The most expensive wines in the world sell for thousands of dollars a bottle. The difference between the world’s most expensive wines…
Domaine Gayda’s Nine Vessel Tasting
Today, I attended a really interesting tasting looking at the effect of the ageing vessel on a red wine. It was hosted by Domaine Gayda, and titled a nine-vessel tasting….
Chablis (2) the soils
Chablis is one of those regions where the soils are to the fore in discussions about the wine, but they are not the only factor determining the characteristics of the…
Communicating climate change: the role of the wine industry in changing people’s minds
Facts don’t change people’s minds. It’s really annoying, but it’s true. We like to think that if we marshal enough evidence, that eventually the weight of evidence will prove irresistible…
Bad smells
A while back we had a cat. It originally belonged to Eric Clapton and we inherited it through a friend of a friend, and it was a nice cat, black…
Ambergris, a remarkable natural smell ingredient from whales
I’m obsessed by smells. It’s a good job because a large part of my job involves smelling things. Most commonly, fermented grape juice. But for a long time I’ve been…
Could we smell better? Much better?
Do we have only very limited access to the sensory information that we are receiving all the time? As a wine taster, I’m particularly intrigued that my senses are capable…