The Autobiography of Les Caves de Pyrene. The Chapter Four, Part One: The Guide to Brilliant Business Practice

by blog on December 4, 2018

Read Chapter One Parts One, Two and Three Chapter Two Parts One, Two and Three Chapter Three Part One and Two and Three Chance rules our lives, and the future is all unknown. Best live as we may, from day to day. –Oedipus Rex, Sophocles Destiny doesn’t do home visits…you have to go for it yourself.  –The Prisoner of Heaven, Carlos Ruiz Zafón Side effects of using the […]

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Doug decants: Las Nubes Pinot Noir by Dominique Derain

by blog on November 27, 2018

Dominique Derain has farmed vines and made biodynamic wines in his estate located in the old presbytery in the village of Saint-Aubin (Hautes Cotes de Beaune) for thirty years, ever since he bought the estate in 1988. Before being a vigneron, he was a cooper. He is now retired, but has passed his estate on […]

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Chapter Three: They have embiggened our soul. Part Three

November 26, 2018

Read Chapter One Parts One, Two and Three Chapter Two Parts One, Two and Three Chapter Three Part One and Two John Wurdeman, Georgian Soul Music Pheasant’s Tears was born in 2007 when Georgian, Gela Patalishvili, a farmer from a family of Georgian winemakers from Kakheti, and American artist and folklorist John Wurdeman, decided to set up a joint winemaking venture together in order to […]

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Chapter Three: They have embiggened our soul. Part Two

November 20, 2018

Read Chapter One Parts One, Two and Three Chapter Two Parts One, Two and Three Chapter Three Part One Kelley Fox: Living for the vines  Oregon grower Kelley Fox farms the Old Block in Maresh vineyard which is now celebrating its 48th birthday. It’s Pinot Noir on its own roots with feet plunging deeply into red jory (volcanic) soils. The whole vineyard has […]

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Focus On: The Wines of Domaine des Miquettes

November 13, 2018

DOMAINE DES MIQUETTES, Paul Estève & Chrystelle Vareille, Saint-Joseph We are delighted to recommend the wonderful wines of Domaine des Miquettes in the northern Rhône. These are oh-so-pure and articulate expressions of Syrah, realised by organic farming on poor granitic soils, low yields and natural winemaking in terracotta amphorae. Domaine des Miquettes was created by […]

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Doug decants: The Wines of Antoine Arena, Corsica

November 13, 2018

…The maquis co(u)rsing through his veins Antoine Arena, like most Corsicans of his generation, grew up in a family that earned a modest living working the land on an island largely unknown to the outside world. As soon as he could he joined the mass exodus of Corsicans to the French mainland, in search of […]

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Chapter Three: They have embiggened our soul. Part One

November 8, 2018

Read Chapter One Parts One, Two and Three and Chapter Two Parts One, Two and Three here. Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born. –Anais Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934 It is a cliché to talk about one’s […]

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Doug Decants: Domaine Le Briseau’s Le Verre des Poètes

October 30, 2018

Nathalie Gaubicher founded Domaine Le Briseau in 2002, with her first husband, Christian Chaussard, in an area encompassing Jasnières and Coteaux-du-Loir. Briseau’ is named after a plot on the estate that contains clay with large pieces of flint-stone that have tended to break (‘briser’) all tools that are used on it. The entirety of Jasnières […]

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Georgians back in the house!

October 30, 2018

After a few months with scarcely a qvevri-wine to our name, we have now received our long-awaited shipment of new vintages (mostly 17s) and a few new wines too. We have two Rkatsitelis – one with 10% skins added and an old vine version, called Kakabeti, which is a magnificently complex wine. Niki Antadze works […]

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Chapter Two: The Reign of Terroir: Part Three

October 26, 2018

Continued from Chapter Two, Part Two. Read Chapter Two Part One, and Chapter One Parts One, Two and Three here. Terroir and the good, the bad and the ugly grapes In the way that humans like to impute value to systems and impose hierarchies of taste certain arbiters have determined that some grape varieties are inherently more aristocratic than others. Hence, […]

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