Same, Same But Different
by Robert Joseph
There is no such thing as Jane Eyre, or the Mona Lisa, or Citizen Kane. Or a bottle of Château Lafite or Pinot Grigio. At least, there is no precise...
Robert Joseph
Robert Joseph attributes his offbeat view of the wine world to a history that includes co-founding Wine Intl magazine and the International Wine Challenge (and running it in places like Russia, China and Vietnam), writing the Sunday Telegraph wine column and two dozen books. Today, he’s editor at large of Meininger’s Wine Business Intl, produces le Grand Noir wines in France and creates innovative wine marketing concepts at DoILikeIt.
Articles by Robert Joseph
Writing Your Own Lines
by Robert Joseph
I’m a writer. What I do every day – and am doing now – is try to put different words together in different ways in order to make people think....
Passion Is Not A Panacea
by Robert Joseph
Sometimes I struggle to keep up. I was only just getting used to the idea of every brand needing to have a “story” and every business a “purpose”. Now, the...
Cape Redux
by Robert Joseph
“It is highly unlikely that functioning farming enterprises will be confiscated… Farm invasions are extremely rare in South Africa. I do not recall one in the last couple of years.”...
Look back in anger – the Cape wine industry 30 years ago
by Robert Joseph
This article by Robert Joseph was originally published in WINE magazine in February 1988 “I have never heard any public figure in our wine industry call for vineyard ownership, land...
Heavy bottles
by Robert Joseph
“Jancis [Robinson] hates heavy wine bottles, as I do. Why do winemakers use them?” This recent Facebook comment – by one of the founders of a smart London wine retailer...
The natural wine challenge
by Robert Joseph, Simon Woolf
What happens if you take two wine critics with opposing, sometimes polarised views on natural wine, throw them into London’s biggest celebration of the sector and force them to taste...
In praise of wine consultants
by Robert Joseph
“I can’t help admiring producers who don’t rely on someone else to tell them how to make their wine. Most of the bottles I enjoy drinking reflect their origin, as...
Wine’s missing link
by Robert Joseph
Thank God the food, music and art world aren’t run by the people who run the wine industry. Artists, musicians and chefs are allowed, and even encouraged, to experiment, to...
Who judges the judges? More thoughts on wine competitions
by Robert Joseph
We are living in – as the Chinese might say – electorally interesting times. India has just collectively decided to hand its governance to Narendra Modi who is variously described...
What’s the point of wine competitions?
by Robert Joseph
Wine competitions are the worst way to identify the world’s best wines. Apart from all the others that have been tried. I make no excuse for mangling Churchill’s famous quote...
Museum pieces
by Robert Joseph
There aren’t many wine writers, I imagine, who have been accused of communicating with the dead, but way back in the 1990s, The Sunday Times did describe me as a...