Yearly Archives: 2009

Ten ways of spotting the good from the bad and the ugly. 1) Does the range change regularly? Time was when merchants would change their range maybe once or twice a year. The best outfits often now buy in parcels that are so small that they’re in and out of […]

Merchant of Vinous – How to track down a decent ...

August 15, 2009 by Simon

A look at three different Chardonnays from Viña Errázuriz in Chile. PS Revisited the Wild Ferment the following day and it was even better – classy, even sexy, and still hinting that its best was still to come.

Same producer, 3 different Chardonnays – what’s the difference?

August 14, 2009 by Simon

Mixed emotions chez Woods this evening. At approximately 6pm, our hamster Smudge trotted off to the great trundle wheel in the sky. She seems to have gone out on a high after having had an energetic work out in her plastic orb in the company of five rather rowdy children. […]

Good cork, bad cork, bye-bye hamster

August 12, 2009 by Simon

Happened to mention on Twitter today that I was eating home-made pork scratchings. We all have our vices, and although it’s years since I bought one of those strange small square bags from behind the bar, pork scratchings still have a corner (a small one) of my heart. I’d never […]

Scratching around for descriptions

August 10, 2009 by Simon

Cast your mind back, dear reader, to the year 2000. Pulp fans were actually able to discover what that girl in the song was doing on Sunday Baby (not much in reality, but the cafe at IKEA was open), Bordeaux produced a spectacular vintage, certainly a candidate for vintage of […]

Mount Horrocks Rocks

August 9, 2009 by Simon

Just added four Spaniards, two Portuguese and two Aussies to the First Taste section (they’re all here). Currently sipping one of my favourites from the new additions, the 2006 Coca i Fitó Montsant, and thinking about whether full bodied red wines need to be ageable in order to be considered […]

Shirley Temple wines

August 8, 2009 by Simon

Simon Woods

Drinking Outside The Box