The comedian John Cleese once published a conversational if surprisingly serious book called "Families and how to survive them". You don’t have to be Sigmund Freud, or a member of...
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Au revoir, Monsieur Dubosc
It’s hard to imagine the Cave de Plaimont, one of the most forward thinking co-operatives in France, without André Dubosc. He’s been associated with the Gascon operation since 1972, first...
Read MoreCherishing the unpredictability of wine
The jazz singer Nina Simone was a notoriously moody performer. Catch her on a good night and she was sublime; hear her play on a bad one and she was...
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Wine Families and How to Survive Them
The comedian John Cleese once published a conversational if surprisingly serious book called “Families and how to survive them”. You don’t have to be Sigmund Freud, or a member of...
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Bordeaux 2011: first impressions
A tractor on the Garonne It feels as if the 2010 Bordeaux campaign has only just ended, but attention spans are shorter than ankle socks in the Gironde. As the...
Read MoreIndependents’ day with The Dirty Dozen
Dartmouth House, the home of the English Speaking Union, is an unlikely place for a revolutionary gathering. Set in the heart of Mayfair, it feels like a slightly fusty gentleman’s...
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Human rights in the Cape winelands
Talk about negative publicity. No wine industry would welcome headlines about the “dismal, dangerous lives” of its agricultural workers, but for South Africa, still keen to persuade the world that...
Read MoreLodi: California’s missing link
You can drive from the southern end of the Napa Valley to Lodi at the northern end of the Central Valley in just over an hour, but the two regions...
Read MoreWhat price wine elitism?
Maybe no one should be surprised that when looters took to the streets in Clapham Junction last week, one of the few shops they left untouched was Waterstone’s. They were...
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Celebrating 25 years of the IPNC
What would a neo-Prohibitionist make of the International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville, Oregon? There’s enough wine consumed over the course of the three day festival to stock a chain...
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Bordeaux 2010: end of term report
At last, the 2010 en primeur campaign is over. Even for people who are fascinated by what happens in the world’s largest fine wine region, it had become a bore...
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South Africa’s Mediterranean future
For anyone interested in South African wine, London has been as exciting a place to be as Cape Town over the last month. First we were treated to an audience...
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