Writing about the wines of Piemonte, Italy and France
When do you drink those special bottles? Once you have built up a bit of a wine collection, the issue becomes when do you drink those special bottles? You may only have one of each. Or a bottle you have stored may have become become ridiculously expensive in the meantime. Or a bottle represents a
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
MW exams loom. What does the MW student do in the final week before re-sitting the tasting exam? Three papers of two hours and 15 minutes each, 36 wines in total to be discussed in detail, all served blind. The task is to discuss their origin, the varieties they are made from, how they were made,
Final week before MW exams Read More »
In June 2016 Andover Wine Friends were treated to a great line up of single varietal Syrah wines. It was fairly comprehensive (with apologies to N America) and showed what good wines are being made a range of price levels. We finished the evening with two older wines, one of them truly outstanding. I tasted
Grand Syrah tasting Read More »
The timing of my Family of Twelve scholarship was finally determined by the dates of the International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration which was held in Marlborough on the first three days of February 2016. Fully subscribed at over 300 delegates this brought together speakers and wine makers from around the world with a substantial Kiwi presence. Billed
Sauvignon 2016 insights Read More »
Some wines are so outstanding that they demand a piece to be written about them … even when one is supposed to be revising for ridiculously demanding exams in a week’s time. Corton-Renardes, Grand Cru, Domaine Michel Voarick, Burgundy, 2005 was the only wine served blind at the end of a tasting of the most important
The antidote to revision: Corton 2005 Read More »