A Tribute to Gerard Basset OBE

by blog on January 17, 2019

From Gerrard’s website: Gerard Basset, one of the world’s greatest wine professionals, passed away yesterday morning surrounded by his family. He had fought a brave battle against cancer of the oesophagus since 2017. Gerard was the first and remains the only individual to have held the excruciatingly challenging Master of Wine qualification simultaneously with the […]

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Chatting with: Ben Walgate, Tillingham Wines

by blog on January 14, 2019

2018 was an incredibly busy year for Ben Walgate, winemaker and co-founder of Tillingham. They launched their first wines onto the UK market, planted 10,000 vines by hand at their farm in Peasmarsh near Rye in E. Sussex (the fruits of which will see the light of day in 2021), took part in the biggest and […]

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Sir Wregg’s Favourite Wines from 2018

January 11, 2019

Life is too short to drink bad wine. Or mediocre wine. So, I tried not to! The following wines were my wines of the year. I became more conservative in my drinking choices, fixating on cool-climate, red/dark blue fruited red wines and nervous mineral whites alongside a smattering of corduroy-textured ambers. Like everyone, I suppose, […]

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Doug decants: The Wines of Michel Gahier, Arbois

January 7, 2019

For a generation Michel Gahier and his family have been quietly working with some of the region’s most sought-after terroirs. The Gahiers have lived in Montigny-les-Arsures, just outside of Arbois, since the 16th century, and the family domaine dates back to 1874. Michel is the first of his family to bottle wine. He currently owns 7.5 ha […]

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The Autobiography of Les Caves de Pyrene. Chapter Five: Of Natural Wine Bars. Part One

December 31, 2018

Customer: Good Morning. Owner: Good morning, sir. Welcome to Terroirs, London’s first natural wine bar! Customer: Ah, thank you my good man. Owner: What can I do for you, sir? C: Well, I was sitting in the Coutt’s Bank on The Strand poring over some financial spreadsheets and I suddenly came over all desiccant. O: […]

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Chapter Four: The Guide to Brilliant Business Practice. Part Three

December 20, 2018

Read Chapter One Parts One, Two and Three Chapter Two Parts One, Two and Three Chapter Three Part One and Two and Three Chapter Four Part One and Two Unsuit yourself We try to operate in a bullshit-free manner. Because we don’t wear suits, because we don’t waste our energy having strategy meetings, because we don’t shroud our message in pr flummery, because we have a healthy disregard for […]

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Chapter Four: The Guide to Brilliant Business Practice. Part Two

December 18, 2018

Read Chapter One Parts One, Two and Three Chapter Two Parts One, Two and Three Chapter Three Part One and Two and Three Chapter Four Part One The Early Days Lectures on business morality are not part of business strategy, and so goody-two-shoes-iness in Part Two is intended as a mildly cathartic and self-righteous howl. To invert Gore Vidal’s aphorism: It is not enough that we succeed, others […]

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Taking Stock: A Review of 2018

December 11, 2018

Les Caves de Pyrene (1988 – 2018) If I characterised 2017 as the year of treading softly, then 18 was the year of the wine company collective duvet day. In our 30th anniversary year, we took stock, applied the emergency handbrake to buying, and limited the number of events we participated in to a bare […]

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Doug Decants: Etnella from Etna

December 10, 2018

  Davide Bentivegna, Etnella‘s founder, used to work for Siemans in Germany, but one day decided to abandon his office job and realise a dream to make wine. Without any experience – or family land – he had to start from scratch, which for him, meant organic farming and natural winemaking. The adventure started in […]

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New Arrivals in time for the holidays!

December 10, 2018

This year we bought our Christmas presents at the very last minute. But it’s the thought that counts! Many of the wines below are on allocation or made in such quantities, that first come, first served will have to apply! We would like particularly like to draw your attention to the superb natural Northern Rhone […]

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