RIP, Oddbins

by Tim Atkin
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...

Can California crack the UK market?

by Tim Atkin
It was George Bernard Shaw who described England and the United States as “two nations divided by a common language.” The famous quote kept coming back to me on a...

The trouble with non-vintage Champagne

by Tim Atkin
It’s a while since I’ve tasted a line-up of more than 60 non-vintages Champagnes in a single sitting. Well, standing actually. But the annual event in the sumptuous surroundings of...

Making sense of Sangiovese

by Tim Atkin
How do you make sense of Italian wine? The country has more indigenous grapes than any other (somewhere between 800 and 1000 at a rough estimate) many of which are...

We need to talk about Kevin

by Tim Atkin
The bar was almost empty when I arrived for a late lunch at the Fulham Wine Rooms with Kevin Judd last Friday. The only other punters were a famous ex-footballer...

Towards a new Chile (Part Two)

by Tim Atkin
I had an unprecedented number of exciting wines on my recent trip to Chile, several of them made from Carmenère, a grape I once described as a “second division variety”....

Towards a new Chile (Part One)

by Tim Atkin
How would you like to be remembered? I have a horrible suspicion that when my spittoon is emptied for the last time I will for ever be associated with an...

Which wine region could you live without?

by Tim Atkin
Jancis Robinson MW My esteemed colleague, Jancis Robinson MW, recently published an interesting article on her website about the expanding world of wine. She referred to a number of eyebrow-raising...

The Outsiders come to London

by Tim Atkin
Getting to grips with terroir “Have you ever thought about making your own wine?” If you write about fermented grape juice for a living it doesn’t take long before someone...

Why is Asia in love with Lafite?

by Tim Atkin
A long face is almost de rigueur for anyone working in the London wine trade right now. There was a brief outbreak of optimism in the late spring and early...

Burgundy 2009: first impressions

by Tim Atkin
Dominique Lafon “Hey, guys, great choice of time to visit.” Dominique Lafon of Domaine des Comtes Lafon in Meursault was only voicing the views of many of the Burgundian growers...