Mad Frankie Fraser and the price of wine
by Tim Atkin
Mad Frankie Fraser, the notorious gangster who died last week, was famous for using pliers to extract his victims’ teeth under torture. One hesitates to say that the wine trade...
Author: Tim Atkin
Blank de Blanc
by Simon Woolf
Browsing the wine selection at Bordeaux airport is revealing. Unsurprisingly, the grand vins of the Médoc, St. Emilion and Pomerol take up most of the shelf space, with some more...
The adventures of Brett Bung
by Ron Washam
Given his normal upbringing on the outskirts of a great metropolitan city, no one would have been able to anticipate that humble Brett Bung would one day emerge as the...
Whatever happened to wine journalism?
by Jamie Goode
In his play No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre outlines a vision of hell. It consists of three people who don’t like each other confined together for eternity. Mine? It’s that I’ll...
Marlborough Sauvignon: too much of a good thing?
by Tim Atkin
Some milestones make you think. Next year will be the 30th anniversary of the founding of Cloudy Bay, one of the most successful wine brands ever, and a label that...
How to become a successful wine writer
by Ron Washam
I am often asked what it takes to become a successful wine writer, which is like asking Harold Pinter how to become a successful song writer. He’s dead, you idiot....
A review of the 2015 Platter’s Guide Five Star Wines
by Tim Atkin
If anything can be said to create a buzz in the South African wine industry, it’s the annual announcement of the Platter’s Wine Guide’s 5 Star Wines. There were 50...
Anosmia Dogs and other failed Master of Wine dissertations
by Ron Washam
One of the requirements for becoming a Master of Wine is an original and rigorous research paper of between 6,000 and 10,000 words. The words must be placed in sentences,...
Wine’s tipping point
by Tim Atkin
To thine own self be true. Polonius’ advice to his son Laertes in Hamlet is arguably easier to give than to follow. Most of us make regular compromises in our...
A preview of the Cape Winemakers’ Guild auction
by Tim Atkin
The Cape Winemakers Guild was created in 1982 by a group of winemakers who set out to “improve the quality and standing of South African wines”, arguably no easy thing...
What would independence mean for Catalan wine?
by Miquel Hudin
If you’ve watched the news lately or just even flipped through the in-flight magazine on a European budget airline, you probably know about the Autonomous Region of Catalonia’s drive to...
Vin de France: the flexible future?
by Natasha Hughes MW
To the French it was le gros rouge qui tache. We Brits were less interested in its saturated colour, but equally dismissive in our terminology, referring to it as plonk....