One of the judges this week at the ML Wine competition is Earl Jones, who owns the Abacela winery in southern Oregon. He’s an interesting chap: he came to wine…
In Madrid for the ML Wines competition
So I find myself in Madrid. It’s a little chillier than London, which caught me out a bit. But it is a nice place to spend a few days. I…
Marlborough: boom, bust, and boom again
Boom and bust. Then boom again. That has been the recent story of Marlborough. The commercial success of Marlborough Sauvignon led to a massive increase in plantings throughout the late…
Zind 2010, a lovely Chardonnay-based wine from Alsace
I love Zind Humbrecht’s wines, as you can see from this write-up of the 2010s when I visited Olivier Humbrecht at his winery. One of the more unusual of the…
Learning to love Nebbiolo: Mascarello, Giuseppe e Figlio
In my quest for Nebbiolo to love, I came across two rather gorgeous bottles from Giuseppe Mascarello. This is one of those producers with a reputation for making mostly sublime…
At the New Douro tasting, with some of Portugal’s finest
Today’s New Douro tasting was remarkable. Five new producers have joined the ND fold, so the tasting expanded to take in two rooms at the Portuguese Ambassador’s residence in Belgrave…
Music and wine
Heraclitus was right. You can’t step in the same stream twice. The stream is ever changing and you are changed by your experience of the stream. It’s like that with…
Tara Pinot Noir, a lovely wine from Chile’s Atacama
This is a remarkable wine, made by large producer Ventisquero on a very small scale from vineyards in the Atacama desert, in the far north of the country. It hardly…
My thoughts on the Huet debacle
So, leading Vouvray producer Huet appear to have banned two UK-based wine journalists. Both Chris Kissack and Jim Budd were refused tasting pours by Huet at the recent Salons des…