This lovely Mosel Riesling deserves a plug. From a vineyard I’ve never heard of before. Max Ferd Richter Veldenzer Elisenburg Riesling Kabinett 2011 Mosel, Germany 10% alcohol. From grey slate…
A year in the life of a winewriter, 2013
It has been a good year. Not always straightforward, but rewarding. One measure of the success of a year is how much I have learned, and this year I have…
The cedar is the essence of Douro
I’ve enjoyed drinking this wine over the last two evenings. It’s the ‘second’ wine of Douro star property Quinta do Noval, and I think it’s a really good wine in…
A Christmas treat – a remarkable Tokaji
I can’t think of many wines more appropriate for this festive season that this little beauty. It’s a Tokaji, from the wonderful Disznókő estate. Lovely complexity, with a bit of…
Wine and music, a scientific study
It is well known that context can affect our experience (and enjoyment) of wine. But how do you measure this? In a paper published in open access scientific journal Flavour,…
What is a grape variety? What is a clone?
We talk a lot about clones and grape varieties. But what, precisely, do these terms mean? Let’s first define ‘variety’. A new grape variety is produced when a grape seed…
Zelige Caravent, exciting wines from the Languedoc’s Pic St Loup
Two wines from this interesting Pic St Loup property. Zelige-Caravent have 12 hectares of vines, separated into 22 different parcels, on interesting soils in the over-achieving Languedoc commune of Pic…
On fake wine
So, Rudy Kurniawan is the first person to be convicted in the USA by a Federal Court of counterfeiting wine. It seems that the fine wine auction market is awash…
Wines of the year, 2013
So, here are my wines of the year. It’s a strict meritocracy, I am afraid, and as this has been a very good year, it looks a little boastful. I…