Had lunch today with Marimar Torres and her daughter Cristina at Arbutus, in Soho. It was my first visit to Arbutus, and I loved the food, although the dining room…
Oakridge Lusatia Park Chardonnay 2011
I love this wine. It typifies what is happening with high-end Aussie Chardonnay at the moment – the embrace of elegance and freshness over weight and richness – picking earlier…
Great lunchtime wines: Kumeu River and Raymond Lafon
Didn’t want to waste some fine white Burgundy samples that I opened, so headed over to brother-in-law Beavington’s house for some Sunday lunch today en famille. More on the Burgundies…
The new California: dinner with Kutch and Sandhi
On Monday night I had dinner with two very interesting Californian producers: Rajat Parr of Sandhi Wines, and Jamie Kutch of Kutch wines. It was hosted by Roberson Wine (www.robersonwine.com)…
In Auckland with Kumeu River
The final visit of my New Zealand adventure was at Kumeu River, a family-run estate a short drive from Auckland. This is close to where the New Zealand wine industry began in…
New Zealand, day 3, in Nelson with Neudorf
I worked out that since November 2008, my first visit to New Zealand, I have visited five times in five years. That’s a significant accrual of air miles. But over…
Greywacke Chardonnay 2010
Kiwi Chardonnay can be great. It is relatively neglected, but when it’s good, it’s really good, and this is one of the gooduns. It is from Greywacke, whose 2012 Sauvignon…
Weekend in the country, and three rich whites: Chile, South Africa and France
The long bank holiday weekend provided an ideal opportunity for a family get together. Remarkably, we managed to find a house big enough to take 15 on budget in the…
First Drop Mere et Fils Chardonnay, great wine, fabulous labels
Aussie wine producer First Drop are fast becoming one of the cleverest at marketing their wines – even outdoing D’Arenberg. The good news is that the content of the bottle…