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Tag: wine
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On 11th February, three days early, my wife Angela and I presented Valentine Wine to the Central London Wine Society (CLWS), which meets on Wednesdays. These were the wines: I found and chose these wines by online search for “Valentine wine”, principally using Wine Searcher. France, Italy and Spain provided nearly all the results, reflecting…
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Question: What do marsala and beaujolais have in common? Answer: They both have a history of success followed by disaster and a fight for recovery. Also, in both cases, the disaster was self-inflicted by a race to the bottom. In the case of beaujolais, it took the form of beaujolais nouveau. It was a catchy…
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The annual Amarone Calling tasting was held last week at The Middle Temple, hosted as before by the UK Sommeliers Association. Amarone is a ‘wine of method’, a wine that owes more to what takes place in the winery than in the vineyard. In this case, the essential step is allowing the harvested grapes to…
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On Monday this week, the Cyprus High Commission in London hosted a walk around tasting of wines from Cyprus, with fourteen producers on show. In addition, Demetri Walters MW delivered two masterclasses, first whites and then reds. For the cognoscenti, Cyprus wine is full of interest. The island has a very long tradition of winemaking…
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London is the wine capital of the world, it is sometimes said, precisely because Britain has always had to bring wine in from overseas, and we are open-minded as from where. One benefit of this is the many fascinating masterclasses that are organised, often led by visiting winemakers. Though the standard is invariably high, masterclasses…
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The UK Sommelier Association kicked off its autumn season of trade tastings this week at The St. James’s Room, 67 Pall Mall. Under the title Apalta DO Decoded, the tasting on Tuesday was presented by Andrea Leon, Technical Director of Domaines Bournet-Lapostolle at Clos Apalta. The story The intriguing history of Clos Apalta bears a…
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A couple of days ago I took delivery of a bottle of Champagne for an upcoming tasting. It had an unusually short capsule which revealed the fill level, and this seemed rather low (see photo).Champagnes normally have a very long capsule; it may almost completely cover the neck, so the fill level is hidden. Reasons…
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In February, Decanter magazine published a review of Northern Rhône; the excellent 2010 vintage, the top wines from which are now ready to drink. This region produces reds from the Syrah grape and whites from Marsanne and Roussanne but mostly Viognier, a splash of which is sometimes cofermented with the Syrah to add perfume. The…
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Some time ago I started to write a blog post about the strange tendency of white grape varieties to start (like ‘vine’, ‘vino’ and ‘variety’) with the letter v. There are Viognier, Vermentino, Viura, Verdicchio, Vidal, Verdejo, Verdelho and others. That post never saw the light of day, but it came to mind when a…
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Once in a while, a country’s nascent wine business is thrust into the global spotlight by a single pivotal event. It happened when Michael Broadbent first tasted Lebanon’s Château Musar (1967 vintage) at the 1979 Bristol Wine Fair and declared it the discovery of the fair. Another example was David Hohnen planting Sauvignon Blanc in…
GrapeDeal.com 