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Month: July 2016

  • My Favourite Things

    I composed this whimsical variation on Oscar Hammerstein II’s classic song My Favorite Things as a greeting card at Christmas 2014. My Favourite Things Champers from Bouzy and Provençal rosé Ageing Rioja, its fine fragrant bouquet Wine lists from cellars in old country inns These are a few of my favourite things   Syrah with pheasant…

  • The most traditional bodega in Rioja: R. López de Heredia (Part 2)

    In part 1 of this blog I wrote about my introduction to this bastion of tradition among bodegas in Rioja. We pick up the story about the most distinctive of their wines, the Viña Tondonia Blanco Gran Reserva. This aged white wine, like the red Gran Reserva, spends nearly ten years maturing in barrel, during…

  • The UK Drinking Guidelines – what do they mean?

    Last time I uploaded the new UK Drinking Guidelines that were issued in January 2016. Today I just want to clarify some of the less obvious statements in the Guidelines. The amount of alcohol consumed is expressed in ‘units’ but the definition of a unit isn’t stated. A unit is a measure of the alcohol…

  • The UK Drinking Guidelines

    You probably know that the UK government’s drinking guidelines were revised and reissued in January 2016. We will have quite a lot to say about these in future blogs but first the facts. The guidelines are actually drawn up not by the Government but by its four Chief Medical Officers, representing the four countries in the…

  • The most traditional bodega in Rioja: R. López de Heredia (Part 1)

    This blog is an adaptation of an article published in La Revue du vin de France (Mandarin Edition) in January 2013. Some of you will already know everything I have to say about the wines of this bodega, and to these readers I say: please feel free to move on. But I suspect some of…