By The Book?
by Margaret Rand
Can winemakers still be self-taught? Or must they, in this technocratic age, be able to sport some letters after their name? When I asked Peter Hall, the arch-maverick of Breaky...
Margaret Rand
Margaret Rand writes for World of Fine Wine, winesearcher.com, Gourmet Traveller Wine and is general editor of the annual Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book; she has won various Roederer and Lanson awards over the years, including one for Grapes & Wines (2001). Her latest book is 101 Wines to Try Before You Die (2018).
Articles by Margaret Rand
2024 Toro Top 100
£10.00Toro is intriguing. Partly it’s the beauty of the place – the high, exposed meseta, the centenarian vineyards, the sense of a sleeping-beauty region blinking in the light of a...
Add to basketThe Weight Of Wine
by Margaret Rand
What constitutes high alcohol now? In table wines, I mean; fortifieds haven’t changed. But I recall the horror when reds started hitting 14%. Then 14.5%. And now? 14% seems quite...
Peaks And Troughs
by Margaret Rand
I’ve always liked Sauzet Burgundies well enough. And if that sounds tepid, it’s supposed to: they were clearly very good, but just never set my pulses racing. And then this...
A Good Marriage
by Margaret Rand
Most wines are diminished by food. Discuss, writing on both sides of the paper at once, preferably in green ink. How could it not be so? Wines today are intended...
Resonant Rosé
by Margaret Rand
To be perfectly clear, I love rosé. On a hot summer’s day it’s all you want; on a cool drizzly summer’s day it reminds you that it is in fact...
The Bodega’s Scent
by Margaret Rand
What is your idea of charisma in a wine? And where does it come from? It’s entirely subjective, of course. Look at it too hard and it might vanish. But...
Knowing When To Stop
by Margaret Rand
The other week Domaine de Chevalier brought over samples of the 19 components of its 2022 red grand vin, plus a sample of the final blend. I’ve always thought blending...
The Stage And The Actor
by Margaret Rand
I had to buy some more wine glasses the other day. I’ve always used Spiegelau ones at home – good quality, but not so expensive that breaking them induces a...
On Complexity
by Margaret Rand
A wine, like a short story, should have a beginning, a middle and an end. Nobody would disagree with that. But how many do? How many start, toddle along for...
Mistreating Wine
by Margaret Rand
First of all, I should apologise to Lilian Barton. All I can say is that it wasn’t altogether my fault. A friend brought a bottle of Léoville-Barton 2014 to dinner...
A Dachshund’s Ear
by Margaret Rand
My school coat was made of Harris Tweed. This is not relevant to anything, except that the other day I came across a wine with Harris Tweed tannins. They were...