Last year I travelled to Greece and did a quick-fire exploration of some of the country’s top wines, aided by Giannis Siganos of wine shop and importer Mr Vertigo. It’s…
In Argentina (2) visiting Costa y Pampa, a winery in a new viticultural region
It’s not often you get to visit a vineyard that’s the first in a new viticultural region. But that’s what Costa y Pampa, Trapiche’s latest project, is. I visited…
Are the fake half-price wine deals returning?
A few years back wine writers in the UK campaigned against the fake half-price supermarket wine deals. I even did some filming for Rip Off Britain where we went undercover…
2018 in review: quite a year (part 2 of 2)
June finished with a five day, four city trip to Ireland to promote Beaujolais wines with a series of masterclasses. We did Cork, Dublin, Galway and Limerick. Here I am…
2018 in review: quite a year (part 1 of 2)
2018 began in New Zealand, where I’d been staying for Christmas. It was to be the first of several joy-filled trips to this wonderful country. This time last year, I’d…
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…
Why wine must be wine
I’ve been involved in a few social media discussions about whether or not it’s time for wine to modernize. In order to appeal to a wider audience – and recruit…
Why it’s worth entering wine writing competitions
I enter wine competitions. Not all of them, but many, if I feel I’ve done something that year that’s of merit. It’s worth the effort of entering. It takes a…
BK Wines Skin n’Bones Savagnin
I picked this up from the excellent Good Wine Shop in Chiswick – it’s a Savagnin from Brendon and Kirstyn Keys that spends a month on the skins before going…