Recent years has seen a surge in the popularity of rosé in the United Kingdom. It must be something about all those summer parties or just people looking for a change from white or red. On the whole the style is light and easy drinking, a quaffable crowd pleaser. But every now and then you
Writing in the middle of the World Cup in South Africa it is just as well this is about the country’s wine and not about football. Along with most of the other African teams, the home team could not get out of the group stage of the competition. Meanwhile England played poorly and departed in
South African stars Read More »
Lunch today with colleagues at The Contented Vine in Pimlico. What a great name for a slightly rambling wine bar cum restaurant on three or even four levels. Well executed, good value food and a well constructed wine list – Champagne, French classics, currently a whole page on Australia. We drank a very good Benevento
Fabulous Falanghina Read More »
In the old fashioned world of gentlemen’s clubs and wine merchants, the ageing of wine, claret in particular, was virtually the essence of wine appreciation. How the wine scene has changed but there is still a fascination with how wines age, whether they improve, whether people actually like to drink older bottles. Andover Wine Friends’
Age does not wither? Read More »
After the Capezzana tasting, the riches of Decanter’s Italian day at the Landmark Hotel. This has to be the best one-day introduction to the Italian quality wine scene in the UK and maybe beyond. It’s big – with 86 listed producers – and pretty representative, 13 out of 20 regions present, with Sardinia a surprising
Piemonte 2-3 Toscana: A weekend in Italy part 2 Read More »
As the saying goes, if Mohammed won’t come to the mountain, then the mountain will have to come to Mohammed. The past weekend not only offered not only the ending of the English domestic football season with the showpiece of the FA Cup final, but also a Tuscan wine tasting in Hungerford, Berkshire and Decanter’s
A weekend in Italy: Capezzana Read More »
Rather like the first cuckoo of the spring or the changing of leaf colour in the autumn, the spring tastings of the new wines are a marker of the time of year. Caviste’s Burgundy festival is an opportunity to taste the latest offerings, in this case from the 2008 vintage. Eight growers, nearly all there
Christian Moreau at Caviste Read More »
Andover Wine Friends Clos du Marquis, near Stockbridge, Hampshire 21st April 2010 Puisse rappé – Armagnac, white wine, prune – – – Salade Landaise aux truffles Vouvray: Domaine des Aubuisieres, Cuvee de Perruches – – – Mousseline of pike from the Test river Burgundy: Saint Romain 2006, Domain H &G Buisson – – – Roast
Clos du Marquis dinner Read More »
Sangiovese, the most important red grape of Tuscany, is famously variable. It produces both thin sour wine (though today there is really no excuse for this) and some of Italy’s most magnificent, structured and age-worthy reds. The May 2010 edition of Decanter magazine gives the Brunello riserva of 2004 from Biondi-Santi an amazing 20/20 score
Vinitaly 4: high altitude Sangiovese Read More »
A second wine which suffers at the hands of its reputation is the Tuscan indigenous white, Vernaccia di San Gimignano. If I had a pound for every average bottle sold to tourists in this spectacular town under its medieval towers, I would be … well, you can finish the sentence. But it is potentially a
Vinitaly 3: a towering Vernaccia Read More »