“In everyday language, when we say that something seems complex what we typically mean is that we have not managed to find any simple description of it… what we are...
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Wrestling With Wine
In the early days of What Wine? magazine, the editor considered it a novel idea to invite actual consumers along to our tastings. If they were celebrities, even Z list...
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On Wine And Dating
One of my New Year’s resolutions has been to buy wine from different sources. In the same way that I love the diversity of what the wine world has to...
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The Ethics of Wine Criticism, Again
Another year, another attempt to save wine criticism from the forces of darkness. The newest gallant is Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, whose contribution will apparently be unbiased wine criticism without the...
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A Piece Of History
Old wines are like cocaine: I’ve only ever enjoyed someone else’s. I’ve never bought my own. Noblesse oblige and all that. It’s not that I’m not grateful – or appreciative....
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Pick and Mix
A couple of things have struck me recently. One was Richard Geoffroy, ex-chef de cave of Dom Pérignon, saying casually that he blends everything, even his breakfast orange juice. The...
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The Noise And The Reality
So much coverage of Brexit has been noise about symbols. Brexiteers obsessed over a return to “blue” British passports and an end to the “humiliation” of Burgundy-coloured ones. In fact,...
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Our Favourite Drug
“People like to masturbate.” As first sentences go, this one certainly snares your attention. It’s not the only remarkable thing about Edward Slingerland’s new book Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced...
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Wine: Craft Item or Commodity?
The festive season always reminds me what an absolute hold wine has over the public imagination. It is the time of the year when everything wants to be fermented grape...
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The Best Wine Books of 2021
How do you write a wine book that appeals to the general reader? All the stuff about schist, clones and yields that make up a good part of wine writing...
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Carry That Weight
A petition addressed to ‘Wine Trade Associations’ written by Aleesha Hansel, and co-signed by Jancis Robinson, is asking for three steps to be taken in what, Hansel acknowledges herself, is...
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When?
The ‘what’ can take a thought or two, the how, where, with whom, barely a moment. But the ‘when’, ah the ‘when’, there’s the rub. I don’t have a favorite...
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