The times we live in being what they are, I need to start with a few disclaimers. No, I don’t doubt at all that there is a dark side to...
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Tasting Terroir
My scientific credentials are embarrassing. I struggled to get a C grade in Physics with Chemistry O Level in my teens. By dint of rote learning and conversations with winemakers,...
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Making A Shift
Haut-Brion holds a hallowed place not only in today’s luxury wine market and wine history but also for the people who study terroir identity, authenticity, and, of course, branding. Its...
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Under The Influence
It wasn’t the most sublime wine moment of 2024 but it was the most watched. During April’s London Marathon, wine merchant Tom Gilbey (interviewed on Cork Talk last week) stopped...
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A Wine Of One’s Own
“The closer you get to the equator, the warmer it becomes,” says the Wine and Spirit Education Trust in explaining vinous geography. So true. When you live in the tropics,...
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Wine’s Epiphany
When did you last cry? From pain, relief, elation? Was it a book, a movie? Were you bidding some farewell for a year, for ever? For me, it is often...
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Let Me Count The Ways
Once, many moons ago, I was in a bar in Sanlúcar de Barrameda with my friends Tim and Rocío Holt. Possibly I had imbibed one too many copitas of Manzanilla,...
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The Untold Charm of Aged South African Sauvignons
Sauvignon Blanc is South Africa’s biggest export cultivar, and its most consumed cultivar domestically; outstripping Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay in the mass market game. But while familiarity has bred a...
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Wine, Ale And Witch Trials
The cat lady is finally experiencing a phoenix moment. Ever since J.D. Vance’s regressive comments resurfaced, about America being run by ‘a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable...
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The Appeal Of Youth
Of the many irritating things my parents used to say on repeat, the one that springs most to mind now is ‘youth is wasted on the young’. (A close second...
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Ageing Gracefully
In an interview for 60 Minutes in 2004, the journalist Ed Bradley asked Bob Dylan if there was anything in his early work that surprised him. Hi Bobness looked pensive...
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The Tyranny Of The Label
One of my abiding memories from my days editing Decanter magazine comes from the panel tastings we used to hold in the 10th-floor executive suite overlooking the Tate Modern. Twice...
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