New York is one of the world’s most dynamic wine cities. At many of these addresses, wine directors vie to secure allocations of miniscule production wines while others seek out...
The first time I visited the Barossa Valley in South Australia, someone gave me a cassette. (It was so long ago, that iTunes didn’t exist.) The music was a collection...
Bordeaux is the world’s most famous fine wine region. Other areas may be more beautiful, more historic or blessed with better food, but Bordeaux is home to the greatest percentage...
Burgundy is a paradoxical place. The apparent contradiction is that it is both one of the simplest and most complex wine regions on earth. The easy part is that almost...
The Napa Valley is the most famous wine region in the Americas and arguably in the entire New World – think Bordeaux crossed with the Hollywood Hills and more than...
Cheese and wine are perfect partners and the right combination can add to the enjoyment of both. During the time I owned Paxton & Whitfield Ltd, the cheesemongers, I conducted...
The 24th of August 1973 was a significant date in the history of New Zealand. It was equally significant in the history of wine. If that sounds a little over-dramatic...
One of my favourite cartoons, published by the Pacific Wine Company, depicts a vintage bore surrounded by people who’ve hanged themselves out of tedium: ‘I’ve just started drinking the 1982s,...
Part salesman, part winemaker, part impresario, Serge Hochar is standing on the steps of Château Musar, arms extended in greeting. Hochar gives “good quote”, as we journalists like to say,...
If you’re fond of trains, the 110 mile trip from Oporto to Pocinho, close to the Spanish border, is one of the most beautiful railway journeys in the world. For...
If you’re serious about developing a wine collection, don’t overlook the UK’s splendid array of independent wine merchants. These companies aren’t the cheapest places to buy a bottle of basic...
If grape varieties were football teams – bear with me for a second if you’d rather eat iron filings than hear about our beleaguered national sport – then Cabernet Sauvignon...
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