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England: venue for the next International Cool Climate Symposium
I leave Tasmania today after a week of travels. My timing could not have been better - a reference to last week’s International Cool Climate Symposium, not the snow back home! The symposium has given Australia’s only 100% cool climate state a chance to strut its stuff, buoying spirits. With good reason. I’m looking forward to reporting on some fantastic wines [...]
Continue reading...Nick Dobson clearance at massive discounts: includes top Portuguese wines & the UK’s widest range of Swiss wines
Posted Thursday 26th January 2012
I was really sorry to receive a press release this morning about the closure of Nick Dobson Wines due to ill-health. Nick is a member of the Association of Small Direct Wine Merchants and a great example of what the independent trade do so well, selling otherwise hard to come by wines, including wines from [...]
Continue reading...The new cabinet: wine of course!
Posted Monday 23rd January 2012
I’ve been on the look out for a freestanding, capacious wine cabinet for ages, especially after a puny pine rack collapsed, adding 1970s style swirl to the carpet! There are plenty of temperature cooled cabinets, but they were too expensive given my budget, unnecessary for short-term storage and not wildy eco-friendly all things considered. My [...]
Continue reading...Stonier International Pinot Noir Tasting 2011 comes to London, & stirs it up again
Posted Tuesday 17th January 2012
1997 was the year wine got under my skin. And, after my first wine tasting course had finished if you’d asked me my favourite grape variety, without hesitation or deviation, I’d have shot back Pinot Noir. Ask that question now and you’ll be waiting a long time for an answer, if you get one at all. At [...]
Continue reading...Cool climate Syrah, Riesling and Pais on winning form at the 9th Annual Wines of Chile Awards
Posted Monday 16th January 2012
The results of the 9th Annual Wines of Chile Awards were announced on Friday. Syrah from the now not so new northern cool climate regions of Limarí, Elqui are continuing to make waves as they did when I judged in 2008. Viña Tamaya’s Winemaker’s Selection Syrah 2010 (Limarí Valley) landed the Best in Show trophy and Viña [...]
Continue reading...Cellar Gascon: off sale wines prices continue during January
Posted Saturday 14th January 2012
Following on from my December post, City wine lovers take note. Cellar Gascon at 59 West Smithfield London, EC1A 9DS is keeping its wines at “Take-Away prices” on Mondays and Tuesdays throughout January, subject to availability. Here are some examples of their take away menu (to have in): Cahors, Domaine Cosse Maisonneuve, Le Sid, 2002, £26 Côtes [...]
Continue reading...January sales heads up: including a couple of my 2011 high fives & rare Madeira
Posted Thursday 12th January 2012
Yesterday Jamie Goode gave the heads up on some rather tasty deals in Noble Green’s January sale. Jamie bought some top Portuguese wines and I snapped up 6 bottles of Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz 2010 – one of my Top Five Australian Wines of 2011 (click here for my review). It’s reduced from £19.69 to £12.99/bottle. Click here for details [...]
Continue reading...Three top London restaurants, including a bling, bling a bling bling Vintage Champagne list
Posted Tuesday 3rd January 2012
Thinking about your next plate of food may be the last thing on your mind right now. But, as and when, you get back in the saddle, here’s a trio of great London restaurants for you to check out. Personally “vetted” by me this last fortnight, all three also made the cut for Fay Maschler’s Evening Standard Restaurants of the Year [...]
Continue reading...My Top Five Wines of the Year: Australia, the Loire, Portugal & South Africa
Posted Friday 23rd December 2011
They say that life’s too short to drink bad wine and, in my case, it’s way too short to taste bad wine and write about it! With the exception of lesser vintages in vertical reports, I rate highly every wine which makes its way onto these pages. So it’s no easy task to select my [...]
Continue reading...Best of English: Meet the Winemaker dinners 2012
Posted Monday 19th December 2011
On Saturday I posted a blog about Plumpton College’s appeal for donations for the UK’s first dedicated Viticulture and Oenology Research Centre (click here to find out more). Sticking with the English wine theme, if you fancy meeting some of English wines’ movers and shakers, London wine bar and bistro Artisan & Vine and DrinkBritain.com are teaming up [...]
Continue reading...Heads up: take-away wine prices at Cellar Gascon, London
Posted Saturday 10th December 2011
Here’s a Christmas bonus for London City dwellers and workers. Cellar Gascon at West Smithfield is offering its full wine list at ”off-sale” (i.e. retail) prices every Monday and Tuesday in December. So, for example, you can buy a bottle of Cahors, Domaine Cosse Maisonneuve, Le Sid, 2002 for £26 (instead of £46), Côtes De Francs, Château Marsau, [...]
Continue reading...“Bringing out the perfect host in you: Victoria Moore’s How to Drink at Christmas
Posted Wednesday 7th December 2011
The weekend before last I popped up to Yorkshire to see my folks. A highlight of my stay was the new Barbara Hepworth gallery in Wakefield – it’s not just the forced rhubarb that’s sculptural in these parts! Nearby at perennial favourite the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, rolling hills are the perfect backdrop for another famous local [...]
Continue reading...Calling all Galoupet gourmets: BYO Mondays
Posted Saturday 19th November 2011
I notice that Galoupet, a recent addition to the London wining and dining scene, got a good review in the latest edition of Decanter. And what do you know, this week I received an email that, until further notice, they’re holding BYO Mondays. Fellow wine lovers may want to check it out – see above for “the rules!” It’s also worth knowing that, every [...]
Continue reading...“Authentic Wine” book launch at Artisan & Vine
Posted Sunday 6th November 2011
Next week I’ll be in South Africa and my timing is very much down to the Swartland Revolution, which takes place next weekend. Speaking on Saturday at said Revolution is none other than Jamie Goode, The Wine Anorak who, with Sam Harrop MW, has recently published Authentic Wine. A subject which sits well with many of the Swartland’s luminaries [...]
Continue reading...Morrisons: Champagne deals including Lanson Black label less than half price
Posted Thursday 3rd November 2011
Morrisons have slashed Champagne prices again. Subject to availability and a maximum purchase of three bottles per customer, Lanson Black Label NV is down from £31.99 to £15, Veuve Cliquot Yellow Label NV is £25, usual price £34.49 and Piper Heidsieck Rose NV is down from £29.18 to £20.
Continue reading...Heads up on a specialist in half bottles of wine
Posted Saturday 8th October 2011
Half bottles of wine are a rarity on wine lists, let alone shop shelves so those in search of modest portions take note. New online retailer Halfwine specialises exclusively in half bottles. The single bottle choice currently runs to around 30 wines, a mix of old world and new, from established producers. Owner Kevin Dilton-Hill tells me [...]
Continue reading...Jake Lazzari hand-crafted wine bottle stoppers: for the wine lover who thought they had everything…
Posted Wednesday 5th October 2011
Spending the weekend in Hay-on-Wye, I stumbled across Jake Lazzari’s hand-crafted wine bottle stoppers at The Lion Street Gallery. Very exquisite they are too so, if you were scratching your head about a present for the wine lover who has everything, perhaps one of his stoppers or the sci fi inspired Petrus Star X sculpture (below) [...]
Continue reading...Riedel about it! Georg Riedel on flutes -v- table wine glasses & a fine fizz tasting at Hush Heath
Posted Wednesday 28th September 2011
On Monday, I participated in the first of three English wine tastings this week hosted by Georg Riedel, wine glass maker and self-proclaimed “taste maker.” The name of the game was to identify the glass best suited to Hush Heath Estate Balfour Brut Rosé from a choice of 16 (pictured below). Riedel is the consummate salesman, showman even, and [...]
Continue reading...Claret jugs – fowl play?
Posted Saturday 20th August 2011
Did these claret jugs caught anyone else’s eye this week? According to The Evening Standard’s caption, said jugs depict a pair of owls. Penguins, surely??!?!?!? Anyone twitching to set the record straight please do. And if they take your fancy and you’ve got a grand to spare, they’re part of Viscount Cowdray’s country house sale [...]
Continue reading...Wimbledon in a glass: the oh so english wines of Camel Valley
Posted Wednesday 29th June 2011
Last week I attended one of seven “Best of English Meet the Winemaker” series of tasting dinners being promoted at Artisan and Vine in conjunction with DrinkBritain, this one focused on the wines of leading Cornish producer Camel Valley. Early success Founded by ex-RAF pilot Bob Lindo and his wife Annie, they planted their first [...]
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Posted Monday 6th February 2012
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