Frank Buck: natural wine hunter
by Ron Washam
They’re out there, natural wines, you can smell them. You just have to hope that they can’t smell you first, smell your fear. I hunt them. Someone has to. I...
Author: Tim Atkin
2008 Bordeaux revisited
by Sarah Abbott MW
Bordeaux is the most confident and comfortable of fine wines. Great Burgundy is like riding a runaway horse, bareback. Diving into a top Bordeaux is like being chauffeur driven in...
South Africa seizes the day
by Tim Atkin
Is 2013 going to be South Africa’s year? Su Birch, CEO of Wines of South Africa (WOSA), certainly seems to think so, judging by an upbeat press release earlier this...
The Secret Official Sommelier Manual
by Ron Washam
When I officially became a sommelier, I had to swear on a stack of Karen MacNeil Wine Bibles purchased from the remainder table at Border’s, piled right next to Whole...
Georgian qvevri wine: if it’s good enough for God . . .
by Simon Woolf
For Father Gerasim, whether to treat his wines with sulphur or any other additive isn’t a matter of choice. The imperative is simple. Any impurities in the finished product would...
Crystal ball: the wine world in 2013
by Tim Atkin
Moaning about the weather is second nature to us Brits. However stoical we may claim to be, upper lips stiffened against the wind and rain, we have had a lot...
Rioja’s third way
by Victor de la Serna
The story of Rioja resembles the old Chinese curse – they’ve lived through many interesting times. Boom and bust, fame and oblivion. Rioja wine is on the ascent again as...
Ten things you need to know about the 2011 Burgundy vintage
by Tim Atkin
My full report on the very enjoyable 2011 vintage in Burgundy will be published in January 2013, once I have tasted another 1000+ plus samples in London, but these are...
Turkish Delights
by Tim Atkin
Diyarbakir in south-eastern Anatolia is one of the wine world’s wilder fringes. Rugged, mountainous and remote, it’s a place where grape growers carry guns and Kurdish separatism is openly discussed....
Etna: wines from the volcano
by Simon Woolf
As far as wine regions go, Mount Etna could be described as a wine geek’s wet dream. Volcanic soil, obscure indigenous grape varieties, high altitudes and pre-phylloxera vineyards are just...
What’s the point of food and wine matching?
by Natasha Hughes MW
One of my earliest gigs as a wine writer was to write up profiles of some of the world’s hottest sommeliers for the Decanter website (which, at the time, generated...
Creating a stink about screwcaps
by Tim Atkin
Imagine being a cork salesman in Australia. If you turned up suffering from bubonic plague, a dead rat dangling from each hand, you’d be only slightly less welcome at most...