If you are wine expert in easy striking distance of central London, then there’s an experiment taking place on expert wine tasting and social interactions being run the University of…
José Vouillamoz on grape varieties, at MUST 2017
It was great to hear José Vouillamoz present at MUST. He’s a plant scientist with a special interest in grape varieties, and this was the subject of his talk. He…
Are we potentially much better at smelling than we realise? The curious case of androstenone
Androstenone is a smelly steroidal compound produced by pigs that is described as sweaty, urinous, and musky by those who can smell it. Depending on the version of the OR7D4…
Is wine art?
The response of most people to the question, ‘is wine art?’ will be, ‘who cares?’ But I think it’s an interesting question, and it’s one that floated around in my…
Time to leave the biodynamic calendar behind? Wine tastes the same on fruit and root days
There’s been a lot of talk about the biodynamic calendar in the wine trade. At wine tastings, it’s not unusual for tasters to start muttering that the wines aren’t showing…
Pedogenic lime in arid vineyard soils – how does it affect the flavour of wine?
When it comes to vineyard soils, limestone is all the rage. But there’s one source of limestone in vineyard soils that isn’t much talked about. It’s the slow formation of…
Domaine Leflaive’s switch to DIAM
Celebrated Burgundy producer Domaine Leflaive have switched away from natural cork to DIAM for all their wines, beginning with the soon-to-be released 2014 vintage. I was alterted to this news…
Terroir: the rumours of its death have been greatly exaggerated
There’s a very interesting article on Jancis Robinson.com today, in which she reports on a recent Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW) seminar on mineralogy. It deals with some very…
Does organic wine taste better? A study whose findings have been widely misinterpreted
Are organic wines better than conventional ones? An interesting study from researchers at the University of California Los Angeles suggests that they might well be. However, the difference in point…