Champagne Castelnau, the substantial Rheims-based cooperative which produces 9m bottles a year, has just had a brand-refresh. The new, clean, attractive labels have been updated. The refresh is intended to take the brand forward in the competitive market of the second decade of this century. Here is the old and the new: The new design
Champagne Castelnau relaunch Read More »
Andover Wine Friends made a pilgrimage to The Harrow, Little Bedwyn last night. We were treated to outstanding food and a great range of wines, mostly in magnums, which we brought with us. Here is the menu, the wine list … and a few random jottings on the wines from me. A few personal
Class at the Harrow, Little Bedwyn Read More »
We depend on wine critics to be level-headed and to cut across the hype of merchants who have a natural and understandable motive to be enthusiastic about new vintage releases. But if you love red Burgundy there is no reason not to believe the hype which accompanies the release of 2015 wines. To be straightforward
2015 Burgundy excitement! Read More »
Bring a Special Bottle Christmas 2016 celebration Keen wine tasters in North West Hampshire meet in a range of formats – Andover Wine Friends, BBC (‘bring a bottle club’), TWITS (don’t ask), TWITS Diploma group and, of course, informally. To these can now be added BSBC, bring a special bottle club. This pays homage to
Bring a special bottle, 2016 Read More »
Amarone – the grand wine made by the semi-dried (passito) grapes method within the Valpolicella region – is riding on the crest of a wave. It seems that we northern Europeans and Americans love its rich, dried fruit character and accessible structure. This can be seen from the enormous success of the related Ripasso style
State of the Amarone nation Read More »
Top Austrian whites 2015 I was fortunate enough recently to get the chance to taste the top white wines of the Danubian appellations in Krems, Austria in August 2016. The occasion was the release of the 2015 vintage. Once a year the ÖTW (Österreichische Traditionsweingüter, Austrian traditional wine estates) organise a tasting of all the single-vineyard
Top Austrian white wines Read More »
I was very excited to find that Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW had published a full, book-length, study entitled Taste like a Wine Critic. A Guide to Understanding Wine Quality (The Wine Advocate 2014). Â The literature on tasting as an activity is quite limited, while there are any number of books about wine regions or reviews of
Taste like a wine critic? Read More »
Francesco and Luca Bracali have created something extraordinary in their restaurant just outside Massa Marittima.  Theirs is the last property in a very, very ordinary row of houses in Ghirlanda. The garden outside with its stylish planting hints that this is somewhere special but the real magic is inside.  In the kitchen of Francesco and the
Bracali – cuisine and wine Read More »
My birthday offered the chance to taste a range of vintages of Nebbiolo-based wines with some wine-loving friends. All the examples were from the Barolo or Barbaresco. How do these potentially majestic wines develop? When or do the tannins begin to soften? How easy or difficult is it to judge the vintage of a wine
Nebbiolo vintages Read More »
My recent post trumpeted my last-minute preparation for the MW tasting exams. I have now done the exams, the list of wines have been published but we are still some months off knowing the results. It is now time to reflect on the experience of things that go right in the exam and, sadly more interestingly,
Things that can go wrong … in the MW tasting exam Read More »