There’s a rather confusing aspect to fine wine. It has to do with the relationship of price to perception. Let me explain. Now top quality wine costs a reasonable amount…
Piggy Bank wines, with a charity/social media angle
Website: http://www.piggybankwine.com/ The concept? Six wines in three pairs, made by talented consultant winemakers, at at £7.99 price point, with 50 pence from the sale of each bottle being given…
Sommelier of the Year competition, and why sommeliers deserve more credit
Back in May I attended the finals of the Moët UK Sommelier of the Year 2012 competition that I was covering for Sommelier Journal. From a short list of 12,…
Detoxing and abstinence, a considered view
Every now and again I hear on twitter that a wine trade colleague is having a break from the booze. Frequently, this is badged as ‘detoxing’, and is accompanied by…
Consider a tear
Consider a tear. [I’m referring here to the tear that comes from our eyes, not the tear that occurs in a fabric, or the sort that runs up the inside…
Cricket at Hampton Wick
So, the hottest day of the year so far. A muggy 30 degrees, under a blue sky with just a hint of haze. And time for some wine trade cricket,…
High-end Chianti a hit with teenagers?
So it’s 1 am in the morning, and I’m stone cold sober. We’ve just had a teenage party for younger son’s friends. At one stage there were around 100 kids…
Objects, types and tasting wine
Our perception of reality is actually our model of reality, based on information from our senses. This is because the processing power needed to take in sensory information in real…
So should I post more negative reviews?
I taste a lot of wines and only a few of these end up on this blog. This filtering process means that you will tend only to see positive reviews…