Do New World wines age?
by Tim Atkin
What’s the difference between a New and an Old World wine? Twenty-seven years ago, when I started writing about the subject, the distinction was clear-cut. The received wisdom was that...
Country: United States
2008 Marimar Estate Pinot Noir La Masía Don Miguel Vineyard, Russian River Valley, California
( US$39, 14.5%, Contact the winery for details )This doesn’t quite scale the same heights as this winery’s recent Chardonnay release, but it’s still an impressive West Coast Pinot, appealingly priced by the standards of some California reds. It’s a full bodied style with flavours of ripe red fruits and sweet vanilla oak and a touch of leafy forest floor. The alcohol is a little intrusive on the finish perhaps, but this is still a Pinot with depth and flavour.
2009 Marimar Estate Chardonnay La Masía Don Miguel Vineyard, Russian River Valley, California
( US$35, 14.5%, Contact the winery for details )This is the most elegant Chardonnay I’ve tasted yet from this Green Valley winery, marking a step change in freshness, minerality and balance. The wine is still Californian in style, but the oak and acidity are nicely intertwined adding a refeshing backrop to the pear and citrus fruit. The lees work is exemplary, too. A wine that wouldn’t look out of place in a line up of top Meursaults. Bravo.
Wine at the movies
by Brian Miller
“I like to drink wine more than I used to. Anyway, I’m drinking more.” Marlon Brando, ‘The Godfather’ With his proceeds from ‘The Godfather’ director Francis Ford Coppola bought himself...
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...
The pick of Waitrose’s wine range
by Tim Atkin
RED 2010 Saumur, Les Nivières (£7.49, 13%) Essence of Loire Cabernet Franc, this unoaked red is a delight: soft and grassy with fresh acidity, no oak and pure blackcurrant and...
German Pinot Noir comes of age
by Tim Atkin
Question: which country is the world’s third biggest producer of Pinot Noir? I’d always imagined the top five would be France (Champagne boosts the numbers), the USA, Australia, New Zealand...
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...
Cherishing the unpredictability of wine
by Tim Atkin
The jazz singer Nina Simone was a notoriously moody performer. Catch her on a good night and she was sublime; hear her play on a bad one and she was...
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...
Celebrating 25 years of the IPNC
by Tim Atkin
What would a neo-Prohibitionist make of the International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville, Oregon? There’s enough wine consumed over the course of the three day festival to stock a chain...