Les Caves de Beer-ene

by blog on December 11, 2019

The Byrensters have had a charmless life when it comes to sourcing the suitable suds. In The History of an Unusual Wine Company in 10.5 Chapters I described our search for a fabulous Basque beer called Ackerbelz, which turned out to be less than enchanting when it made the long journey to London. It became […]

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Doug Decants: Glou and Superglou

by blog on December 11, 2019

Bojo Nouveau day has been and gone, trailing clouds of carbo, so we thought we would say that a glou wine (not a glühwein) is not just for a Thursday in the third week of November, but a wine for all time and any occasion. True, there’s glou and there’s glou. The former will undergo […]

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An Essay on Natural Wine: Part One

December 9, 2019

Attitudes to natural wine are similar to hard-wired attitudes towards Brexit. People don’t want to listen to substantive and nuanced arguments or to understand that its increasing popularity in historical attitudes to culture and farming. To followers of the wines, espousing a natural wine credo is an assertion of cultural identity. Natural wine has become […]

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Attack of the Killer Bots and Other Sweet Things

November 26, 2019

I rarely write about sweet wines, because, in all honesty, I rarely drink sweet wines. I find them interesting, rather than loveable, although perhaps my love of wine is the desire to drink it, rather than sip thoughtfully and sweet wines are less neckable and more nectar-full. As with all wines, balance is the key […]

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Doug Decants: Vale da Capucha Wines, Portugal

November 25, 2019

Pedro Marques’ Vale da Capucha wines are from organically farmed vines situated in the Lisbon region around eight km from the Atlantic Ocean on limestone soils rich with fossils. The precept is simple: maximum human work in the vineyard and minimum intervention in the winery. The resulting terroir-driven wines come from a medley of Portuguese […]

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A Georgian Supra in England

November 24, 2019

In our culture, we treat wine as a distinctive product, something with a labelled bottle that may engender expectations of a certain quality, something that may be pored over and talked about. In traditional wine countries, however, wine is a kind of nourishing food, always on the table, always part of the meal. Georgians are […]

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What’s New?!

November 13, 2019

A roll call of what’s rocked in over the last few weeks. German Weiss Squad Young Martin Woerner is probably tired of people calling him young Martin Woerner. He, and his small operation called Marto Wine, is based in Rheinhessen with organically-farmed vines on sandstone soils. Martin previously staged with Tom Lubbe at Matassa and […]

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Review of 2019: The Calm Before The Anti-Climax

November 9, 2019

Apparently, if I don’t complete this blog by some completely arbitrary date, I should find a convenient ditch and perish histrionically therein. This has been a year where we’ve always had one eye cocked on an (un)certain event taking place. In one sense, in or out would never make a huge amount of difference to […]

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Doug Decants: Urogallo Wines, Northwest Spain

November 8, 2019

Life Beyond Fabada Asturiana Snappers-up of unconsidered trifles might be vaguely aware of the existence of the wines of remote Asturias in northwest Spain, where the vineyards are carved into the canyon-like valley walls. The tradition of grape growing and winemaking in Asturias dates back to the 9th century. Unfortunately, the current century has not […]

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What ever happened to… Wine Controversies?

October 29, 2019

Once upon a time I only had to open my mouth or take to my keyboard to ruffle feathers– I had Larry David’s effortless knack for causing offence. Asked to write the occasional article for trade magazines, my moment of glory eventually arrived when I was given a brief to investigate and comment upon wine […]

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