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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
On Saturday Janet and I went to The Harrow at Little Bedwyn to celebrate the end of MW exams week. Â As it was a special occasion we chose the set 8-course gourmet menu. Â For wine we started with glasses of Nyetimber (fabulous) and Hambledon (very tight, lean, refreshing) English sparkling; moved on to Pewsey Vale
Homage to the Harrow Read More »
Sauvignon Blanc’s worldwide success has led to interest from other wine regions who reasonably enough want to join the party. From my Italian perspective, this same ‘inward investment’ effect has been seen in regions as diverse as Chianti Classico, Bolgheri for Super Tuscans and Franciacorta for bubbles. Nautilus Estate, owned by the Australian Hill-Smith family,
Postcard from Nautilus Read More »
Rockford Wines are famous for their Basket Press Shiraz and for an amazing sparkling Shiraz, a true local speciality. But there is much more to their range that that. Visiting the cellar door is an opportunity to taste a good range of less well-known but equally interesting wines. Even, because of enormous demand, you
Rocking Rockford (2) Read More »
England rises … I recently ran a tasting for Andover Wine Friends which a decade ago would have been scarcely conceivable. In order to test the progress of the quality of English sparkling wine, it pitted the wines of Nyetimber, West Sussex against the grand marque Louis Roederer, historic Champagne house. On the face of
Nyetimber v Roederer Read More »
Big birthday dinner, an English evening outside Just occasionally the English weather plays a hugely positive role in a special celebration. For the last few weeks, we have been enjoying a warm, even hot, summer and the evening of my birthday was the last moment of this hot spell. We planned to have the first
Big birthday dinner Read More »
I love writing pieces for this website but just occasionally it is good to have another voice, somebody else takes on a tasting. So here is the view of Tim Pierce, owner of GrapeExpectations, on the giro d’Italia which I led with his wines. It was a real pleasure to be in Longparish, just outside
Longparish’s Italian tour Read More »