OK, I made a deal with Mr. Koch to tell everything I know about wine fraud. You know, I think it’s going to feel good to get all this off...
Read MoreThe natural wine challenge
What happens if you take two wine critics with opposing, sometimes polarised views on natural wine, throw them into London’s biggest celebration of the sector and force them to taste...
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Early drinking
I never thought I’d say this, but I’m beginning to miss the huge off-licence chains we had in the UK 10 years ago. Not that their ranges were that interesting,...
Read MoreCall me Jancis
Call me Jancis. Everyone does, even though it’s not my name. Well, it is when I’m conducting a wine seminar, or giving a speech at some God-forsaken outpost of weird...
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The net effect
“Would you like to go up in one of our planes?” asked Eduardo Martín, director of the Argentinean Ministry of Agriculture’s anti-hail squad. It was an offer that was all...
Read MoreIn praise of wine consultants
“I can’t help admiring producers who don’t rely on someone else to tell them how to make their wine. Most of the bottles I enjoy drinking reflect their origin, as...
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Newcomers on the scene
They wouldn’t have got past the elevator pitch in Dragons’ Den. “So you want to sell premium Austrian wines from a transport container in the East End of London?” summarises...
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Natural opinions – unfiltered and slightly fecal
A couple of weeks ago, Jamie Goode published an article on his blog, WineAnorexic (“Tragically Thin Opinions About Wine”) in which he bravely expressed his “unfiltered opinions on the world...
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Sherry’s great leap forward
Is Sherry in danger of becoming cool? Outside London, where a new generation of Spanish restaurants and tapas bars is slowly transforming the image of this most traditional of fortified...
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Should cats sell wine?
The first rule of the internet is that pictures of cats will beat anything in popularity. I have a writer friend who is pretty big on Twitter. He has 20k...
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Wine’s missing link
Thank God the food, music and art world aren’t run by the people who run the wine industry. Artists, musicians and chefs are allowed, and even encouraged, to experiment, to...
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Who judges the judges? More thoughts on wine competitions
We are living in – as the Chinese might say – electorally interesting times. India has just collectively decided to hand its governance to Narendra Modi who is variously described...
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