Making A Shift
by Charlie Leary
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...
Country: England
The Ladder Of Quality
by John Atkinson MW
The bucolic opening sequence to The Hunger Games makes the dystopic Panem State seem homely; a place where you can stitch a quilt, or share a venison kill with your...
Au Revoir, Fiona
by Tim Atkin
Writing a weekly column about wine for a national newspaper isn’t easy. I’ve been there done that – for 21 years. Keeping each article fresh is challenging. Some journalists don’t...
Getting Better All The Time?
by Andy Neather
Dream’s hit Things Can Only Get Better was the theme tune of Britain’s Labour Party in Tony Blair’s 1997 victory, much reprised at Labour’s election landslide earlier this month. It...
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...
Having Fun With Wine
by Tim Atkin
At first sight, it looked like a PR disaster. Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, was filmed falling off a paddleboard into Lake Windermere five times. He’s a...
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...
Pouring Politics
by Charlie Leary
A recent article in Punch argued that we must re-inject politics into wine: “Without politics, terroir is just soil.” The article’s pretext was that some sort of ideological power play...
Drink Promiscuously
by Cong Cong Bo
It bothers me that wine drinkers frequently choose wine based on colour, or indeed dismiss those of the “wrong” colour. I have encountered this discrimination most overtly in the rosé...
Mental Geography
by Andy Neather
It felt mildly embarrassing. A member of the team from Black Chalk was trying to explain to me exactly where their Hampshire vineyard was as we sipped the fine, precise...
The Tale of Two Château Palmers
by Charlie Leary
What would Major General Charles Palmer think of Château Palmer being turned into a public cinema in 2022? This is a different Chíateau Palmer from the one most wine lovers...
The Warrior Mentality
by Clare Tooley MW
I have worked my entire life for restless warriors. First in a bohemian penthouse studio in Notting Hill, then in the stubborn landscape of Bordeaux, and now in the velvet-textured...