Being a) clumsy and b) an enthusiastic wine drinker, I’m always in the market for decent cheap glasses. I will never call them stemware – does anyone call mugs handleware? I’ve been the proud owner of several Riedel glasses and I’ve smashed most of them, usually when shaking the last […]
Yearly Archives: 2007
I’ve been writing a piece for Wine & Spirit on small (less than 10,000 cases) producers, and as is often my wont, the deadline is somewhere in the distant past. So this morning, I set the alarm for 5:30, got up early and had polished it off by 9. A […]
In search of gentleness
I wish I’d thought of that… Just had a press release from UK supermarket Morrisons for the Casillero del Diablo Reserva Privada headed ‘The Devil Wears Privada’. Good one whoever thought that up, and curses that I didn’t include it in the wine films I did for Wine & Spirit […]
Wine films
Consumer tastings keep me sane. Well not so much sane as in touch with how normal people think – that’s ‘normal’ as in those who don’t spend all day spitting into buckets and sinks (note to self to post soon about spittoon nightmares). For pro spitters, it’s all too easy […]
Sekts and the City, sorry, Syrah
I’ve always had problems scoring – wines, that is. I remember going to a tasting years ago of Setúbal, the Portuguese fortified Muscat, when I was experimenting with the 100-point scale. It was when I gave a wine 120 points that I realised it wasn’t for me. Nowadays, I don’t […]
Scoring – or why I don’t like wine by numbers
I’ll say it straight out – Carmenère is NOT the future of Chilean wine. ‘Santa Rita’s focus on exceptional primium Chilean wines moves to a new level with the UK launch of the new Santa Rita Pehuén Carmenère.’ A bottle of Pehuén arrived, all £24.99’s worth of it, and I […]