Imagine a wine region where delays at checkpoints are a part of daily life and your land can be confiscated at any time for “security reasons”. Where daily life is...
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Can you mix wine and politics?
“Stick to wine, Tim – you’re wasting time.” If you spend as many hours on social media channels as I do, then you get used to – and even rather...
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How the Russians are secretly destroying the wine business
Solid evidence has been slow in coming, but there is little doubt that over the past decade the Russian government, under the direction of Vladimir Putin, has been tampering with...
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Tricky food and wine matches
I really shouldn’t admit this as I could be talking myself out of a job, but most food and wine matching comes down to basic common sense. You don’t have...
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Initiating the uninitiated
Wine lists can be difficult for the uninitiated to understand. One restaurant in Los Angeles, Hatchet Hall, has taken this a step further: not only is their list incomprehensible to...
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New Zealand’s hothouse Syrah
In 1984, a man called Dr Alan Limmer was doing some work at a government viticultural research station on North Island, New Zealand. One day he heard it was about...
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Almost human?
What do you think of the following tasting note? “Inconspicuous boysenberries and cigar wrappers revel in unresolved rosehips, while dried wormwood and chemically tanned leather swim amongst illusive black liquorice.”...
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FemSomm
Finally, Ladies, a new wine credential that will take the Miss out of wine misogyny. FemSomm! FemSomm is an idea whose time has come. Tired of being 10% of the...
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How great is the 2015 Burgundy vintage?
Burgundy and Bordeaux may share a common language, but they are very different places. It’s not just the question of size that generally separates them – single grape varieties versus...
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Coming of age
Orange wine. Grower Champagne. Biodynamics. Trends come and go in wine like anything else. Some are clearly gimmicks (blue wine, anyone?) Others, like Natural wine, feel more significant. One global...
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What, no Donald? Some wine predictions for 2017
JANUARY Controversy in Germany when the details of the country’s sparkling wine producers are made available online for the first time. ‘We know not everyone agrees with making the Sekt...
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Notes on the 2017 Vintage – Worst Year Ever?
I traveled and tasted widely for this review of the wines of 2017. I think, in general, the vintage can be summed up as miserable. The wise consumer should give...
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