The wine world thrives on novelty: new vintages, new flavours, new producers. In some ways, this is both understandable and necessary. Creating a bit of sizzle around a category that,...
Read MoreShould Bordeaux en primeur take a holiday?
Nothing divides opinions quite like Bordeaux en primeur. If you’ve spent the last few weeks in the Australian outback, without access to a mobile phone or the internet, you might...
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They spelled my name wrong again
Ron Atkin (not Atkins) That great American humourist and songwriter Loudon Wainwright III once wrote an hilarious ditty titled “They Spelled My Name Wrong Again”. At the Croydon concert I...
Read MoreRedefining fine wine
The wine world is often celebrated for its breadth and diversity – all those grape varieties, countries, regions and sub-regions – but there are times when it feels like a...
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Tasting the Top 100 South African wines
St James: home of Top 100 SA Wines I’ve just got back from the Cape, where I’ve been judging some of South Africa’s best wines for a competition called Top...
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Pinot Central by Alan Brady
A friend of mine in the south of France runs a business advising people who want to buy vineyards. Some of them have lots of money, refugees from the city...
Read MoreThe UK’s culture of cheapness
Anyone who still believes the UK is the centre of the wine world should pay a visit to ProWein, the annual trade fair in Düsseldorf. The place has a self-confidence...
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Hitchin, mon amour
Hitching in Hitchin Travelling in Burgundy earlier this year, I came across a sign outside the town of Nuits St Georges. “Jumelée avec Hitchin”, it proclaimed. It all seemed rather...
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The Chancellor prepares to clobber wine drinkers (again)
The Palace of Westminster Tomorrow is budget day in the UK. Like the Grand National, the Baftas or the last night of the Proms, it’s something of a national ritual....
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2010 Rhônes: still time to flash the plastic
“They are both for sale.” The response of the Bordeaux château owner to my question about the relative merits of the 2009 and 2010 vintages was delivered with tongue lodged...
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Is this the best value Pinot in the world?
Germany? Are you sure? Drinkable cheap Pinot Noir is almost an oxymoron. We Pinotphiles are all too aware that we need to pay over the odds to get a fix...
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Drinkers versus investors
Listening to people discussing their claret portfolios has become as boring as the house price conversations we Brits used to have to endure in the 1990s. For “I bought this...
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