Where have all the wine merchants gone?
by Tim Atkin
What makes a good wine merchant? As a significant chunk of the UK trade returns from Bordeaux, having tasted their way through a few hundred samples of youthful, unfinished claret...
Topic: Column
Crapaholics Anonymous
by Ron Washam
Hello, my name is Ronald. And I’m a Crapaholic. Hello, Ronald! This is my first time speaking at a Crapaholics Anonymous meeting, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the...
Ignoring the wine snobs
by Felicity Carter
When I was a music student back in the 1990s, a bomb went off in classical music. The world’s three greatest tenors – Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras...
Is meat really made for Malbec?
by Natasha Hughes MW
The wine trade loves a good shibboleth. Sauternes is the best match for foie gras, for instance. (Wrong, unless you’re into having your palate clagged up by an unctuous sweet...
Can you mix wine and politics?
by Tim Atkin
“Stick to wine, Tim – you’re wasting time.” If you spend as many hours on social media channels as I do, then you get used to – and even rather...
How the Russians are secretly destroying the wine business
by Ron Washam
Solid evidence has been slow in coming, but there is little doubt that over the past decade the Russian government, under the direction of Vladimir Putin, has been tampering with...
Tricky food and wine matches
by Natasha Hughes MW
I really shouldn’t admit this as I could be talking myself out of a job, but most food and wine matching comes down to basic common sense. You don’t have...
Initiating the uninitiated
by Henry Jeffreys
Wine lists can be difficult for the uninitiated to understand. One restaurant in Los Angeles, Hatchet Hall, has taken this a step further: not only is their list incomprehensible to...
Almost human?
by Tim Atkin
What do you think of the following tasting note? “Inconspicuous boysenberries and cigar wrappers revel in unresolved rosehips, while dried wormwood and chemically tanned leather swim amongst illusive black liquorice.”...
FemSomm
by Ron Washam
Finally, Ladies, a new wine credential that will take the Miss out of wine misogyny. FemSomm! FemSomm is an idea whose time has come. Tired of being 10% of the...
How great is the 2015 Burgundy vintage?
by Tim Atkin
Burgundy and Bordeaux may share a common language, but they are very different places. It’s not just the question of size that generally separates them – single grape varieties versus...
What, no Donald? Some wine predictions for 2017
by Chris Losh
JANUARY Controversy in Germany when the details of the country’s sparkling wine producers are made available online for the first time. ‘We know not everyone agrees with making the Sekt...