Do It The Hard Way
by Tom Hewson
“You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians”. Miles Davis The story feels good. The noble vine, eking out its existence on an...
Tom Hewson
After an initial foray into the wine business, Tom decided to pursue a more reliable, respectable trade; he became a professional jazz musician. Wine was never far behind, though, and he founded the website Six Atmospheres after the sparkling wine bug started biting especially hard. Rather than taking a purely regional focus, Tom follows the craft of sparkling wine wherever it leads. His publication ‘English Sparkling Wine 2020’ remains one of the widest independent wine-by-wine surveys to date, with future updates planned. Tom manages a small non-commercial vineyard in Kent (having once come dangerously close to being left in charge of a commercial one), and maintains an unhealthy interest in the inner workings of grape vines and wineries. He continues his career as a musician whilst trying to get better at reading, writing and drinking.
Articles by Tom Hewson
Burrowing
by Tom Hewson
A confession: I’m pretty sure I used the term ‘Kafkaesque’ before I’d read any Kafka. In itself this could count as faintly Kafkaesque in its admission that authenticity and the...
2022-2023 Champagne Special Report
£20.00Champagne is frequently the subject of coffee-table books and articles. Superficially, it can seem as glossy and unchanging as its adulation. But the myth of the ‘consistent blend’ is crumbling:...
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2022 England Special Report
£15.00English wine is changing at a bewildering pace. Spurred on by the sparkling wine successes of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the fields of Southern England have seen plantings...
Add to basketCollecting Flavour
by Tom Hewson
Every trade has its sartorial call-signs. The wine trade plays host to the fraternity-of-the-red-trouser, its membership made up of legs that appear to have filled, loafer-to-belt, with decades of luncheon...
An Easy Ride?
by Tom Hewson
You’re standing in the wine shop, a crisp £50 in your pocket. No agenda, just prospecting for something serious. To the right, the shelf which ought to be labelled ‘good...
The Colours Of Infinity
by Tom Hewson
“In everyday language, when we say that something seems complex what we typically mean is that we have not managed to find any simple description of it… what we are...
Dreamland
by Tom Hewson
The closer we get to the Turner Contemporary, the smaller it seems. From across the bay its modernist, factory-like form stands like a monument to industriousness next to Margate’s grungy-chic...
England 2021 Special Report
£10.00English wine is changing at a bewildering pace. Spurred on by the sparkling wine successes of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the fields of Southern England have seen plantings...
Add to basketThe Mysteries of the Mousse
by Tom Hewson
Why is it that some sparkling wines glide like fluffy meringues whilst others seem to fizz and froth like an angry jacuzzi? The route to the finest bubbles is one...
Wine’s Invisible Cities
by Tom Hewson
Nested in the discussion of “Big” versus “Small” Champagne is an interesting question I saw posed by Oregon winemaker Jason Lett of Eyrie vineyards: “Is the Traditional Method antithetical to...
A Solar System Or A Galaxy?
by Tom Hewson
Noble Rot Magazine recently ran a blind ‘Champagne vs English Sparkling Wine’tasting in which Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label placed higher than a number of fêted smaller producers(the first iteration of...