“You’re joking,” said María Hontoria, the oenologist from the governing Cabildo de Tenerife. “I thought everyone from the UK had been here.” Her surprise was justified. Nearly six million tourists...
Read More
When is a rosé not a rosé?
Among the first five wine appellations ever to be minted in France were two of the finest terroirs of the Rhône: Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Tavel. Fast forward 83 years and Châteauneuf...
Read More
In praise of Retsina
An English acquaintance of a certain age, likes to bring up Nana Mouskouri every time we meet. He appears to find her not only an endless source of amusement, but...
Read More
A review of The Battle for Wine and Love, or How I Saved the World from Parkerization
Alice Feiring is a woman of strong opinions. A New Yorker with a background as a dance therapist, she writes a wine blog called In Vino Veritas and contributes to...
Read More
Wine Country Redux
The plot of Wine Country is non-specific: look at the poster and you pretty much have it down. It’s a classic of the SNL Poehler-Fay-Rudolph-Dratch school of femcentric comedy. Not...
Read More
Where next for women in wine?
Bright lights are shining on women’s issues today. From April’s high profile Women in the World summit to the rise of The Wing’s women-only work and community spaces to podcast...
Read More
Sideways in Trump Country – An Addendum
You can find the original review here. In a world where feedback is quantifiable, instant, and direct, there is no worse sensation for a writer, even one as frivolous as...
Read More
Sideways in Trump Country
Nobody actually says Make America Great Again during the 103 agonising minutes of Wine Country, but one suspects it’s mostly because the writers are not self-aware enough to have a...
Read More
Grenache’s true moment in the sun
Grenache a Go-Go To fill your need for random fact intake, I’d like to inform you that Perpignan, France was the 13th century capital of the Kingdom of Mallorca. For...
Read More
The dangers of karaoke journalism
The two emails arrived on the same morning. The first was from Mark A, offering me an “exclusive invite” to join BIGinfluencers.com and “connect with some of the biggest brands”;...
Read More