Resonant Rosé
by Margaret Rand
To be perfectly clear, I love rosé. On a hot summer’s day it’s all you want; on a cool drizzly summer’s day it reminds you that it is in fact...
Topic: Champagne
Big Money And The Soul Of Wine
by Andy Neather
You would need a heart of stone not to laugh at the travails of Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, honorary chairman of the Champagne house and grandson of its founder. The British press...
Cultural Elevation
by Tom Hewson
I couldn’t find the right polish for my tan suede shoes that morning, so they’re looking a bit unloved as they sink into the expensive taupe carpet. Nobody is sitting...
Pick and Mix
by Margaret Rand
A couple of things have struck me recently. One was Richard Geoffroy, ex-chef de cave of Dom Pérignon, saying casually that he blends everything, even his breakfast orange juice. The...
The Mysteries of the Mousse
by Tom Hewson
Why is it that some sparkling wines glide like fluffy meringues whilst others seem to fizz and froth like an angry jacuzzi? The route to the finest bubbles is one...
Wine’s Invisible Cities
by Tom Hewson
Nested in the discussion of “Big” versus “Small” Champagne is an interesting question I saw posed by Oregon winemaker Jason Lett of Eyrie vineyards: “Is the Traditional Method antithetical to...
A Solar System Or A Galaxy?
by Tom Hewson
Noble Rot Magazine recently ran a blind ‘Champagne vs English Sparkling Wine’tasting in which Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label placed higher than a number of fêted smaller producers(the first iteration of...
Who holds the balance of power in Champagne?
by Giles Fallowfield
The fierce dispute about the level of yield for the 2020 harvest to be agreed in Champagne has been widely, if not always entirely accurately, reported in the press. National...
Remaking Burgundy
by John Atkinson MW
“In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the...
When is a gimmick a genuine innovation?
by Margaret Rand
The most improbable things can turn out to have lasting value. Who would have thought, back in the day, that changing the old vats in Bordeaux, those ancient wooden barrels...