I’ve just spent the weekend in Norway, at the Sandefjord Wine Festival. Sandefjord is a small seaside town about two hours’ train ride south of Oslo, and it’s a lovely…
Commercializing social media, and being honest with readers
The landscape of wine writing has changed quite a bit since I first started earning money writing about wine. [This is a subject I’ve written about before here and here.] When…
Impressive new releases from Franco Lourens, a new South African star
Franco Lourens is assistant winemaker with Chris Alheit, and also makes his own wines in the Alheit cellar in Hemel-en-Aarde. I tasted through the latest releases of the Lourens Family…
In Beaujolais: the elegant wines of Domaine David Chapel
David Chapel has a restaurant background, having worked as a sommelier. His father (Alain Chapel) owned a restaurant that had the full complement of three Michelin stars. David also spent…
Visiting the spectacular Ribeira Sacra region with Envinate
Envinate began with four friends, who met studying wine at university, near Alicante. They decided to form a wine company together, and are now making some of Spain’s most exciting…
Valdespino Manzanilla Deliciosa En Rama 2018 bottling
This is the 2018 bottling of the Valdespino single vineyard Manzanilla Deliciosa En Rama. It’s from six casks of the Manzanilla Deliciosa Solera, which comes from the Pago de Miraflores vineyard…
In the Okanagan: the impressive 50th Parallel Estate Winery
When we arrived at 50 Parallel, owners Curtis Krouzel and Sheri-Lee Turner-Krouzel were waiting for us. They look like rock stars, and they have built an incredible winery in the…
What makes for a healthy, dynamic wine region?
I’m just preparing for a seminar on The New Faces of Beaujolais, and it has got me thinking about what it makes to create a healthy, dynamic wine region? As…
Pictures from Ribeira Sacra, Spain: one of the most spectacular wine regions of all
I’m just back from a short trip to Galicia, northwest Spain. One of the regions I visited was Ribeira Sacra, which is one of the most spectacular regions I’ve visited…