by Margaret Rand

Knowing When To Stop

The other week Domaine de Chevalier brought over samples of the 19 components of its 2022 red grand vin, plus a sample of the final blend. I’ve always thought blending...

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by Peter Pharos

Wine Chatbots

Sometime in the next couple of years Robert Joseph will buy me a bottle of wine. I believe the erstwhile wine correspondent of the Daily Telegraph to be a man...

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by Andy Neather

Mental Geography

It felt mildly embarrassing. A member of the team from Black Chalk was trying to explain to me exactly where their Hampshire vineyard was as we sipped the fine, precise...

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by Tim Atkin

Lessons In Internationalism

“How many of you here tonight were born in London?” In a room of 400 people, no more than 20 of us put up our hands. (In case you’re wondering,...

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by Tom Hewson

Do It The Hard Way

“You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians”. Miles Davis   The story feels good. The noble vine, eking out its existence on an...

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by Harry Eyres

Do We Need Smart Wines?

I overheard the comment at one of my favourite spring wine tastings, and it set my teeth on edge. “Yes, it’s a really smart wine,” said a young man, who...

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by Peter Pharos

A Brief Australian Fling

I love Australia, because it shows you what California would look like if the South had won the Civil War. You get so few good counterfactuals in history. And I love...

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by Fintan Kerr

A Natural Solution?

Considering we have the good fortune to deal with one of mankind’s greatest creations, we wine people spend a lot of time worrying. Our industry is inextricably linked to nature...

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by Charlie Leary

The Disenfranchised

If you search in Google  for “countries without a wine culture,” it returns an entry for “What countries are dry?”: “Pakistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Mauritania, Libya, the Maldives, Iran,...

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by Margaret Rand

The Stage And The Actor

I had to buy some more wine glasses the other day. I’ve always used Spiegelau ones at home – good quality, but not so expensive that breaking them induces a...

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by Peter Pharos

Insider Talk

“When art critics get together,” Picasso is meant to have said, “they talk about form and structure and meaning. When artists get together, they talk about where you can buy...

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by Tim Atkin

Rethinking Fine Wine

It was a noble, if ultimately inconclusive exercise. Maybe that’s true of anything that involves an indigestible dose of subjectivity. But you can’t fault Areni Global for attempting to define...

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