This was not the piece I was planning to write. This was meant to be my write-up of my visit to Monferrato, the Piedmont region usually left out of the...
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Spare a thought for the wine tasters who get it right
How reliable are wine judges? When I saw the headline, I assumed the worst. Newspapers like The Daily Mail like nothing more than printing stories about professionals who can’t blind taste...
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The dangers of nostalgia
My first memories of drinking involve no-name bottles; the greasy, Crayola-funk of MaxFactor kohl; the fusty basement sitting room of a friend’s Wandsworth semi. I drank Kentish vodka, before that...
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Tasting Victory the Gérard Basset way
It was an ideal way to remember a dear friend – with great wines, good company and an impromptu rendition of the Marseillaise. Just over a year after his death,...
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The Languedoc: an embarrassment of riches
Château de Jonquières is located just to the north of Montpellier, its slate turrets and honey stone quietly distinguished, history writ large in its cobbles and flagstones. An ancient archway...
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How much terroir expression do you really want in your wine?
I’ve got a great idea. Every time somebody asks my husband a question, I’m going to answer it for him. And it won’t be the answer he would give, because...
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The US Wine Apocalypse: It Could Still Happen
“Excellent!”, tweeted Donald J. Trump. That is all that it took for many in the US wine business to begin spewing soundbites like, “Disaster Averted” and “Panic Over”. Such nonsensical...
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Treasure Island
As the tragedy of Australia’s 2019/20 bushfires continues to unfold, the most significant impact on the wine industry has been tragedy in the Adelaide Hills. So far, Tasmania has largely...
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Exploring Chile’s outer limits
The life jacket seemed like a good idea, given the size of the launch and the strength of the wind barreling down the jetty. Nervously, I climbed on board and...
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Has the shift to consumerism broken the wine world?
“All our hands are dirty, but some are dirtier than others” – Frédéric Neyrat Climate, for so long a remote ledger of mankind’s bid to unshackle itself from the brutishness...
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The Taste of Smoke
I write in a time of ashes. Not only have certain political dreams and projects recently gone up in smoke; the destructive fires have been raging more literally, all across...
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Not Bending It Like Beckham
I have often been told I am a dream restaurant customer. I love thinking and discussing everything about them: the décor, the ambience, the service, the food and the wine...
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