Les Caves de Pyrene

(Continued from previous post, 7 Steps to Natural Disambiguity) Critics would argue that there is a vast middle ground of entirely rational intervention which creates technically stable and terroir-accented wine – which is surely a desirable outcome. There is nothing inherently wrong with stability, and there is a huge market for it, nor is there, [...]

What is wine to you? Is it the Masnavi of Hafiz or the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam or a Bacchanalian frenzy or an altogether more intellectual affair? Does it bring you together or set you apart? Nowadays, wine seems to provoke ardent philosophical extremism. I thought it was about grapes, but as often as not [...]

It is well known that Oscar Wilde was an epicurean of the highest order. Did he not aver that chefs were only lying in the gutter looking up at the Michelin stars? Most of his work featured references to gastronomy, most notably his verse (or wurst) drama Salami, his treatise on favourite tapas bars in [...]

Thoughts on note taking and wine writing Tasting notes may be the reconstruction of objective analysis (given the limitations of objectivity), or they may be intended to capture the spirit of the wine, and the spirit of the taster during the process of tasting the wine. I am speaking of finer wines that make us [...]