Call it serendipity, call it fate, but there are times when events and conversations seem to align. You go for months without thinking about something and then it’s everywhere, filling...
Navigating St. Helena Road on my way to a vineyard tour, I suddenly feel a quivering sense of fear. It’s not because the narrow, winding route has me gazing over...
“Take my hand, tenez, trust me, leap, I won’t let go.” A favourite memory in rain-soaked Chablis, flood waters rising, taking a supplier’s outstretched hand as his courtyard began to...
At 5pm on the 25thof April 2008, Peter Hellman received a phone call from Geoffrey Troy of New York Wine Warehouse. The wine merchant had heard that “something unusual” was...
“Excellent!”, tweeted Donald J. Trump. That is all that it took for many in the US wine business to begin spewing soundbites like, “Disaster Averted” and “Panic Over”. Such nonsensical...
I write in a time of ashes. Not only have certain political dreams and projects recently gone up in smoke; the destructive fires have been raging more literally, all across...
Though the “ABC”, or “Anything But Chardonnay” campaign continues to rail against it, Chardonnay remains the favourite white grape of USA wine drinkers. It is also the planet’s most planted,...
You can find the original review here. In a world where feedback is quantifiable, instant, and direct, there is no worse sensation for a writer, even one as frivolous as...
“If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the...
When London’s first urban winery opened in 2013, I was cynical. But London Cru is still going strong, having since won multiple awards for its wines and gained listings in...
Managing England’s perennially underachieving football team is sometimes described as “the impossible job”. A delusional fan base, a fickle and vicious tabloid press and a set of players who, whatever...
What is it with you people that you want to know what I think about wine all the time? When I became the new Emperor of Wine, and, really, I’m...