Black Tower and the spirit of the Seventies
by Tim Atkin
It was a Life on Mars moment. Hearing about the imminent relaunch of Black Tower made me feel like Sam Tyler, the detective in the BBC television series who gets...
Red Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Beware of floods, fires and locusts
by Tim Atkin
If “Sex change bishop in mercy dash to Palace” is the funniest fictitious headline ever written, then “Small earthquake in Chile: not many dead” is surely the dullest. Claud Cockburn’s...
Beyond the Big Six grape varieties
by Tim Atkin
“I love Chablis, but I can’t stand Chardonnay.” “I hate Sancerre, but I adore Sauvignon Blanc.” You used to hear such comments all the time, even from people who claimed...
The Atkins. My wines of the year for 2009
by Tim Atkin
First, the good news. Not since 1990 has the world enjoyed such a consistently promising vintage as it did in 2009. The châteaux owners of Bordeaux may be leading the...
Christmas reds and whites
by Tim Atkin
WHITE 2008 Errazuriz Chardonnay, Casablanca Valley (£4.99 each for two, 13.5%, Majestic). Reduced from £7.99, which makes it a stunning deal, this is an easy drinking, peach and citrus...
Wolf Blass and his wines
by Tim Atkin
There are so many stories about Wolf Blass that it’s hard to know when fact shades into fiction. Did he really page himself at airports so that other people would...
Sideways look
by Tim Atkin
The Hitching Post in Buellton has got used to the attention by now. Five years after the hit movie Sideways featured two scenes filmed at its friendly, no frills bar,...