Call it the shock of the mediocre. Earlier this month in a West Country pub, I scanned the wine list out of idle interest. It offered just two wines under...
Read MoreWines To Drink On A Date
On a cold, bright Saturday afternoon in January, a student couple entered my Cambridge wine shop-bar, Amphora. It was early and the venue was empty. After glancing at the extensive...
Read MoreMake Albania Great Again
Albania and Sussex have a lot in common. Similar population, with most young people moving to London. Pronunciation incomprehensible to outsiders. 150 miles of gorgeous limestone coastline. And of course,...
Read MoreVintage Intrigue
One-time Deputy Paymaster to the British Forces, Richard Hill (1655-1727) had an honest soul and functioned as a forthright servant of His Majesty’s Government. For although he loved wine, perhaps...
Read MoreI’m A Hundred On That
“Peter,” one of my fellow diners said, “you have written about wine scores a couple of times, haven’t you?”. Well, time for another one I guess. Why do we keep...
Read MorePeaks And Troughs
I’ve always liked Sauzet Burgundies well enough. And if that sounds tepid, it’s supposed to: they were clearly very good, but just never set my pulses racing. And then this...
Read MoreHallowed Ground
It was a scary moment, at least in wine terms. There I was in the cellar at Domaine Leroy in Vosne-Romanée, tasting some of the most expensive reds on the...
Read MoreMaps Of Flavours
‘Which Greek wineries do you rate?’ my new kind-of-colleague asked when we broke for coffee. ‘Thymiopoulos,’ I said, hoping and praying that either our Italian colleague would interrupt, or that...
Read MoreIn Praise Of Wine Elitism
Every now and again as a wine person, it’s salutary to be reminded of the limits of the British public’s knowledge of wine and the dense knot of anxieties surrounding...
Read MoreDifferent Wine Talk
I am fascinated by wine descriptions. From a series of adjectives, often without a verb to change them into a sentence, to accounts using metaphors whose poetry can take your...
Read MoreWe’ve Never Had It So Good
“I have opinions of my own, strong opinions,” that beacon of American conservative thought, George W. Bush, is alleged to have told us, “but I don’t always agree with them.”...
Read MoreUltimate Aromatherapy
One of the first challenges of knowing any subject is learning to speak its language. Key terms allow aficionados to rapidly convey the gist of a wine in short-hand, and...
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