They say: We’re rationalising our range They really mean: The labels have changed and the price has gone up. They say: It’s a blend of premium grape varieties They really mean: Our wine is cheap They say: We ferment at cool temperature to retain maximum fruit intensity They really mean: […]
Yearly Archives: 2007
This really shouldn’t happen. I posted 3, three, THREE weeks ago about a South African Sauvignon Blanc tasting I was in the middle of. That night , some friends came round and relieved me of a few of the 90+% full bottles that I’d been sampling. But there were still […]
The Night of the Living Sauvignon….
No, the title of this post is not a hoax. Such a wine already exists at £4.98 in Asda. According to the press release from Buckingham Vintners, ‘It has been tailor-made for the consumer, with five essential criteria: it is first to market, it’s pink, it’s sparkling, it’s made from […]
Pink Chardonnay Frizzante
Just returned from several days in the French Alps. In true ‘coals to Newcastle’ fashion, took along a few bottles of wine. I have rather a lot of the stuff, and I also have several of those purpose-made polystyrene containers that you can check into an airline hold knowing that […]
In praise of English supermarkets – no, not a misprint
Partway through a mega-tasting of South African Sauvignon Blanc. I love Hugh Johnson’s line about Sauvignon – ‘it has a loud voice but not a musical one’. In short doses, it can be great, but en masse… New Zealand is probably the source of the shrillest wines. The annual NZ […]
SA SB
‘I’ve just become a father/godfather – aren’t I supposed to stash away some wine or some port for the little sprog?’ I get asked a question like this a number of times a year, and I still haven’t settled on a definitive answer to the question. The wino in me […]