Too much bottle?
by Simon Woolf
It’s the wine industry’s dirty little secret. The back label tells you about the wine producer’s respect for the environment, their commitment to preserving the terroir and farming sustainably. But...
Country: Portugal
Redefining fine wine
by Tim Atkin
The wine world is often celebrated for its breadth and diversity – all those grape varieties, countries, regions and sub-regions – but there are times when it feels like a...
My Dream Cellar
by Tim Atkin
Imagine, just for one minute, that you were richer than Bill Gates: more loaded than a Hollywood film star, Warren Buffett and a Russian oligarch put together. Which wines would...
Twelve Christmas wines under £10
by Tim Atkin
Bearing in mind that most of us are broke at this time of year, I’ve decided to keep things simple and affordable this Christmas, restricting my choices to just a...
My pick of Sainsbury’s 25% off wine deal
by Tim Atkin
Sainsbury’s is offering a 25% discount on six bottles of wine until midnight on 1st November, both online and in store. This includes fine wines, Ports and Champagnes. There is...
Who needs generic wine tastings?
by Tim Atkin
Hands up who watched, let alone attended, any of the party conferences this autumn? Yup, I thought so. You have to be a serious political wonk (or a paid lobbyist...
Wine dynasties and how to survive them
by Tim Atkin
The comedian John Cleese once published a conversational if surprisingly serious book called "Families and how to survive them". You don’t have to be Sigmund Freud, or a member of...
Wine Families and How to Survive Them
by Tim Atkin
The comedian John Cleese once published a conversational if surprisingly serious book called “Families and how to survive them”. You don’t have to be Sigmund Freud, or a member of...
2009 Crasto Douro Red
( £8.49 each for two, 13.5%, Majestic )Make sure you buy the 2009 vintage of this brilliant Douro red, rather than the 2008, because it’s a step up in terms of perfume and elegance. This is a harmonious blend of Touriga Nacional. Tinta Francesa and Tinta Roriz (aka Tempranillo), showing exotic blackberry and bluberry fruit, a touch of sweet oak, plush tannins and real vibrancy. Significantly, it’s got none of that Douro bake character, just masses of gluggable fruit.
Jilly G, Gary V and wine TV
by Tim Atkin
Call me a member of an endangered minority, but I still miss Food and Drink, the BBC cookery show that Delia Smith once dubbed “the most disgusting programme on television”....
Rasputin and underwater wines
by Tim Atkin
What is it about the Baltic and champagne? Last week’s high profile discovery of a cache of bubbly aboard a shipwreck is not the first time fizz has been found...
A Hedonist’s Paradise
by Tim Atkin
No one needs an excuse to go to Wellington, New Zealand’s most cosmopolitan, food-loving city, when it’s central heating and thermals time back in Europe. But throw in the chance...