One of the most beautifully situated wineries in Nagano, Azumino winery was established in 2007 in the Nihon Alps wine valley, in the shadow of the northern alps. Here, on…
Nagano region, Japan (6) Funky Château
Toyohiko (Toyo) and Micchi Kanehashi are running one of the top wineries in Nagano: Funky Château, in Aoki Village. They were working in Tokyo – Toyo as a music producer,…
Nagano region, Japan (3) a tasting at Tomi Wine Chapel
In Tomi, there’s a wine bar and tasting room where you can sample many different Nagano Wines. It’s great to have a wine-focused place like this in town. We…
Nagano region, Japan, day 1
I’ve returned to the Nagano wine region, which I visited last March. It’s in the middle of Japan, which is quite a long, thin country stretching from 26 degrees south…
Central Otago (10) Rudi Bauer and Quartz Reef
It was great to spend some time with one of the pioneering figures of Central Otago wine, Rudi Bauer. Fresh off the plane from the UK, I picked up a…
Central Otago (7) tasting verticals with Gibbston Valley
This was my third time visiting Gibbston Valley, one of Central Otago’s pioneering wineries. Back in 1981 Alan Brady, who had previously worked as a journalist in Northern Ireland, planted…
Central Otago (4) Te Kano and their stunning new vineyard
It’s always exciting to see new vineyards being developed. In recent years one of the most exciting vineyard projects in Central Otago has been the development of a large vineyard…
New York Wine (19) Osmote, Finger Lakes
Osmote is one of our finds from the New York trip. It’s the project of Ben Riccardi, who grew up in New York State (born in Ithaca, and studied at…
Eating and drinking in London: The Wine Place
I recently popped into The Wine Place in South Kensington to taste through some of their range. It’s a really nice space, over two floors, and as well as operating…