by Tim Atkin

The other side of own-label

As oxymorons go, they may not be as absurd as “French resistance”, “amicable divorce” and “camping holiday”, but there’s still something fundamentally silly about Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Spaghetti Bolognese,...

Read More
by Tim Atkin

Rasputin and underwater wines

What is it about the Baltic and champagne? Last week’s high profile discovery of a cache of bubbly aboard a shipwreck is not the first time fizz has been found...

Read More
by Tim Atkin

Wines to drink by the Med

When the package tour operator Goldtrail Travel collapsed last week, cancelling the summer holidays of some 50,000 customers, bar owners in Greece and Turkey must have had mixed feelings. Goldtrail’s...

Read More
by Tim Atkin

In praise of natural wine

The wine style I want to promote doesn’t come from a specific region, although most of its exponents are French and Italian. More frustratingly still, it has no legal definition...

Read More
by Tim Atkin

A toast to Spain

Oh to have been in Rioja when Spain clinched the World Cup on Sunday. The spot I would have chosen is Los Caños, one of my favourite tapas bars, which...

Read More
by Tim Atkin

How fine is Tesco’s Finest*?

Tesco’s Finest, or rather Finest*, wine range is celebrating its tenth birthday at the moment, complete with a press tasting, some corporate chest beating and a Finest Limited Edition 2000...

Read More
by Tim Atkin

Reds to help you chill out this summer

The sommelier’s eyebrows arched like circumflex accents as he spat the words back at me, Gallic steam hissing from his ears. “Vous voulez un seau à glace?” he demanded incredulously,...

Read More