We – the wine trade – convinced wine lovers around the globe that sparkling wine isn’t just for celebrations. (Or, maybe wine drinkers just fell in love with Prosecco and...
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When is a gimmick a genuine innovation?
The most improbable things can turn out to have lasting value. Who would have thought, back in the day, that changing the old vats in Bordeaux, those ancient wooden barrels...
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Wine and writing in the time of Coronavirus
Shoreditch looked almost handsome in the late-winter sunlight filtering through the big windows of the Ace Hotel’s top floor. As I chatted to Jim Clendenen and tasted his crystalline Au...
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Hammer and cycle
No one, as far as Michael Broadbent knows, has ever died in one of his auctions. But in twenty years at the Christie’s rostrum, just about everything else seems to...
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Letters from Monferrato
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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