At a recent Pinot tasting, a leading South African producer long known for elegant wines firmly denied that they had ever copied Burgundy. Fair enough. We all want to be...
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The Perfect Gift
I remember the first time I saw a four-leaf clover. I was five. It was gifted to me by a kind lady called June, a childhood friend of my mother....
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Au Revoir, Michel
Twenty-five years ago, when Michel Rolland was in his pomp, I was lucky enough to have dinner with him at the Cinnamon Club in London. I arrived early and was...
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Sliding Into Grace
The myth goes as follows. A venerable wine (most probably a red Bordeaux, and likely from the Left Bank) is brought up from the cellar, with all due reverence. It...
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Wine’s Third Wave
We may surmise that the Iran war’s impact on the wine trade is unlikely to be uppermost in the minds of Tehran or Dubai residents. Nevertheless, this economic shock will...
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The Ghost In The Glass
Anyone following wine discourse remembers what happened in early 2023. That was when ChatGPT appeared, seemingly threatening the jobs of wine writers: an “extinction level event,” some declared. Soon after,...
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What You Want It To Be
It feels odd today, but there was a time when science was considered an aristocratic pursuit. Tycho Brahe was a nexus of Danish noble lineage, Lavoisier was the intellectual face...
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France’s Next Great White
We think we know where to look for fine white wine in France: Burgundy, obviously; Alsace Riesling, Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé, Pessac-Léognan and a few other highly regarded whites from...
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Looking Back At Kiwi Pinot Noir
New Zealand winemakers have blazed a trail across the global white wine landscape with Sauvignon Blanc. Now the country’s most planted red grape, Pinot Noir, is demonstrating equally compelling potential,...
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Aiming High
The drive from Tarija to the Cinti Valley challenges your imagination as well as your lungs. You leave a bustling city at 1,900 metres and begin the switchback climb to...
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Travelling Light
‘Trouble is,’ said my old friend, ‘that’s just not what I want to drink any more.’ He was referring to the cellar he’d built up over 30 years and more:...
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Wine, Liberty And The Birth Of Economics
Wine shaped the earliest debates about trade, taxation and political authority far more than we usually admit. As the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether a president can impose sweeping global...
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