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...
Read More
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...
Read MoreBordeaux en primeur: the case for change
As Bordeaux packs up the tents, ice buckets and traffic barriers for another year at Vinexpo, the region’s biennial trade fair, its focus has returned to the 2010 en primeur...
Read More
Sleepless in Bordeaux?
As Bordeaux prepares to welcome the world to the biennial Vinexpo trade fair this weekend, the increasingly overblown 2010 en primeur campaign has gone into hibernation. But what happened earlier...
Read More
A world without Bordeaux en primeur?
It’s a bank holiday in France today, so the 2011 en primeur bandwagon has been pushed into a lay-by until tomorrow morning. To be honest, it’s barely got out of...
Read More
The joy of Austrian red wines
Heaven, runs the old joke, is where the police are British, the chefs Italian, the mechanics German, the lovers French and it’s all organised by the Swiss. Hell, on the...
Read MoreAustralia: lessons from the past
There’s nothing like a tasting of old wines to give you a sense of perspective. Sipping from bottles that were made before you were born (increasingly rare in my case...
Read MoreTwo great South African white blends
Wandering around the London International Wine Fair can be a bewildering experience. You could spend three weeks at ExCel, a series of ugly aircraft hangers in the Docklands, and only...
Read MoreWhat’s wrong with the UK wine scene
In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re in the middle of National Wine Month, an initiative launched by the admirable Wine & Spirit Education Trust. I may have missed the road...
Read MoreThe joy of blind tastings
They may not be as unpopular as estate agents, traffic wardens or international bankers, but wine tasters are generally regarded with suspicion and even derision by the general public. I...
Read More
Bordeaux 2010: should you believe the hype?
At a drinks party during the Masters of Wine Symposium in Bordeaux last June I was talking to Jean-Guillaume Prats, the general manager of Château Cos d’Estournel. What would the...
Read MoreRIP, Oddbins
RIP, Odbins. When the Wimbledon-based chain was in its award-winning pomp writing those words would have been unimaginable, like predicting that the sun wouldn’t rise tomorrow. But after yesterday’s vote...
Read More