Charles Caleb Colton is originally credited with the phrase, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Yet it more often is attributed to Oscar Wilde, whose cheeky addition “…that mediocrity...
Read More
The Wine Writers of Penzance
A scenic market town in South England. A gang of rowdy wine writers have ambushed a party of innocent wine sellers. The leading seller, a jovial, portly man in his...
Read More
Bad times in Buenos Aires
Every year at the end of my three-week tour of Argentina, I sit down with Dr Nicolas Catena of Bodega Catena Zapata for breakfast. He, inevitably, wants to talk about...
Read More
Freddie Perjury, Director of Greenwashing
Prick Family Vineyards owner Rich Prick has announced the hiring of Freddie Perjury as Director of Greenwashing. “I’ve given Freddie the assignment of communicating to the wine buying public our...
Read More
Eccentric Current
English sparkling wine producers collectively present a terribly well-to-do appearance, all smart chinos and glasses of fizz on the lawn. But Pythonesque tendrils are creeping through the cracks in the...
Read More
The Cost of the Dream
Is marriage a matter of the head or the heart? Driving back from my godson’s wedding in Nottingham recently, I heard an interview with Baroness Fiona Shackleton, Britain’s leading divorce...
Read More
Natural Disaster Wines
Natural Wines are so last year. Oh, there’s the usual set of One Trick Phonies out there who will never stop evangelizing for Natural Wines. What else do they have?...
Read More
Rock wine: the dry whites of Santorini
A staple of wine lore is how much better wine tastes at the place of its production. The bottle of Chianti at a villa in the Tuscan hills; the Provencal...
Read More
Wine’s Magic Sauce
With the country sweltering through a heatwave, work sludges onwards towards August. Through an endless relay of ‘Out Of Office’ auto-responses, there’s only one thing everyone’s mind: holidays, and all...
Read More
On Parker and Parkerisation
Robert Parker is one of the most talked about and divisive individuals in the world of wine. Now into his seventies and the twilight of his career, he still has...
Read More
Do icon wines undermine typicity?
When I was studying for the Master of Wine exam, the running joke (and reality) about my study group’s wines was that the Institute couldn’t afford the very best wines....
Read More
The HoseMaster of Wine™ Sits for the Master of Wine Exam
I recently sat for the Master of Wine exam. I was in my own apartment, alone, and I was wearing only a bath robe and a Donald Trump merkin, which...
Read More