Diyarbakir in south-eastern Anatolia is one of the wine world’s wilder fringes. Rugged, mountainous and remote, it’s a place where grape growers carry guns and Kurdish separatism is openly discussed....
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Etna: wines from the volcano
As far as wine regions go, Mount Etna could be described as a wine geek’s wet dream. Volcanic soil, obscure indigenous grape varieties, high altitudes and pre-phylloxera vineyards are just...
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What’s the point of food and wine matching?
One of my earliest gigs as a wine writer was to write up profiles of some of the world’s hottest sommeliers for the Decanter website (which, at the time, generated...
Read MoreThinking outside the shop
Some interesting things have been happening to the wine shop over the past few years. Evolutionary pressures appear to have pushed it into unexpected territory. Ten years ago, it wasn’t...
Read MoreCreating a stink about screwcaps
Imagine being a cork salesman in Australia. If you turned up suffering from bubonic plague, a dead rat dangling from each hand, you’d be only slightly less welcome at most...
Read MoreDo New World wines age?
What’s the difference between a New and an Old World wine? Twenty-seven years ago, when I started writing about the subject, the distinction was clear-cut. The received wisdom was that...
Read MoreWine education: the difference between a Bordeaux and a claret
“I love Chablis, but I can’t stand Chardonnay.” Anyone who has ever done a public tasting, mixing with people who know what they like but not a lot more, will...
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Trocken roll: Riesling remixed
Generational bickering between winemakers is nothing new. Sometimes, like the use of barriques in Barolo, it’s a stylistic choice rather than a simple ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way of doing things....
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Patrick Sandeman: a life well lived
It was one of those where-were-you-when-you-heard-the-news moments. I was sitting at my computer on a Sunday evening when I saw a Tweet by wine journalist, Guy Woodward: “Truly terrible news...
Read MoreNorthern Whites: wine in a cold climate
Inspiration can come in many forms. For Anders Selmer, his lightbulb moment was at a café in Copenhagen, and it was shaped like a turnip: “I was served a turnip...
Read MoreNever mind the quality…
What’s in a name? If you think that monikers are irrelevant to the choices we make ask yourself if you’d buy something called Brad’s Drink, surf the net using BackRub,...
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Champagne: where the party’s really at
Sometimes I feel very lucky to be living in the UK when it comes to getting hold of good wine. Since the UK has historically been an importer of other...
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