The vintage I moved to London in August 2003 on one of the hottest days in living memory. Not the ideal conditions for shifting furniture up flights of stairs. Not...
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Are en primeur Bordeaux scores out of control?
In his timely article on Wine-Pages about score inflation in Bordeaux, Stephen Brook sets out to prove that points reached a “preposterous level” in 2014. He also accuses me of...
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Priorat: too little of a good thing?
It doesn’t feature on many wine tours, but the village of Bellmunt del Priorat has its very own mining museum, a tribute to a time when lead was more important...
Read MoreJefford on Mundane: Palate and Column Fatigue
How do you maintain your nose? Your tongue is your most important tool, but whose box do you keep it in? How often do you need a liver transplant? And...
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Guerrilla winemakers
One wine, in one place, for one year only. It’s hard enough making wine in the same place each year, so as winemaking philosophies go it doesn’t get much more...
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To spray or not to spray?
Thibault Liger-Belair is the last person you’d expect to see in a court of law. He’s friendly, respected and a supremely honest bloke who makes some of the best wines...
Read MoreAnyone for red Chardonnay?
There is no doubt that the Great British Public loves wine. After all, they’re regularly accused of abusing themselves with more than two glasses a night but it seems to...
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Bordeaux 2014 – my methodology
Before the unveiling of my anxiously anticipated scores for 2014 Bordeaux (many of which fall between 90 and 98 points, and have pretty much been randomly assigned), I thought it...
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Bitter believe it
In the UK we can be a bit prejudiced against flavoured wines and spirits. It’s not hard to see why if you look at the current proliferation of ‘aromatised wine-based...
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Burgundy bids farewell to Anne-Claude Leflaive
Anne-Claude Leflaive was sometimes described as one of Burgundy’s “grandes dames” but there was nothing aloof about the woman who ran the most famous white wine domaine in the Côte...
Read MoreThe five essential wine words
Most people are uncomfortable talking about wine. They think they lack the vocabulary to speak about it and, therefore, they sound stupid. They are correct. There is no subject that...
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The Great South African Syrah Tasting
How good is South African Syrah? There are several people (me included) who believe that it’s the red grape best suited to the Cape’s range of soils and climates, but...
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