Return of The Obligatory Summer Rosé Article!

by blog on July 22, 2020

Not another rosé article! No, not another rose article – by this or any other name – to out-frivol the pink drink. Time, wethinks, to put some perspective into the matter and rain on some sun-bleached summer parades. Seasonal, yes, in that myriad articles every summer are rehashed, all invariably extolling the mimsy virtues of […]

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100 Great Natural Wines: Alsace

by blog on July 22, 2020

This is a series profiling the producers on our list who make natural wines. Within this series I will be highlighting some of the extraordinary and rare bottles and vintages that have helped to shape our appreciation of natural wines over the years. Previous posts from our 100 Great Natural Wines series include Austria, a […]

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Extraction and the Winemaker

July 22, 2020

Less is more except when the opposite is the case  Extracting sunbeams from cucumbers may be beyond their capabilities, but some oenologists seem to have the alchemical inclination to squeeze base gold out of simple grape juice. Wanting more from less is akin to seeking fool’s gold. Discovering what the wine has within it and […]

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The Unalternative Wine Glossary: C

July 22, 2020

Here is a lexicon of definitions of key wine words. The definitions are not intended to be scientifically objective and, in many cases, will be somewhat simplistic. Some will describe the technical side of wine(s), others will examine the more abstract and aesthetic ideas behind wine. To view Doug Wregg’s Real Alternative Wine Glossary, starting […]

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Decanting: Aphros Phaunus Pet Nat Rosé

July 20, 2020

Friendly meta-fizzical Tis the season to be petty and to live la vie en rosé. We’re in northern Portugal and with Vasco Croft at his project called Aphros. Born with an inclination for metaphysics, Vasco wanted to be an astrologer in his teens, then decided to become an architect. In his twenties he discovered Steiner’s […]

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100 Great Natural Wines: Southern Rhône, Provence & Corsica

July 7, 2020

This is a series profiling the producers on our list who make natural wines. Within this series I will be highlighting some of the extraordinary and rare bottles and vintages that have helped to shape our appreciation of natural wines over the years. Previous posts from our 100 Great Natural Wines series: Intro Austria Jura […]

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Love and Wine in the Time of Coronavirus: Part 1

July 7, 2020

March I always start writing projects way after the event. So, here am I sitting on the sofa, thirty pages into Bleak House and determined not to skip a page, but struggling to focus. I am of the generation that is bewitched and transfixed by the laptop screen. The emptier it is, the emptier my […]

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Decanting: Andrea Occhipinti’s Alter Alea & Alea Rosa Rosato

July 7, 2020

Occhipintis are like buses. You wait for one and then three come along at once. Giusto (COS) and Arianna are well-established favourites amongst us and the natural wine cognoscenti. Andrea is no relation – as they say – and ploughs his furrow in a different part of Italy, namely in the northern part of Lazio. […]

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The Unalternative Wine Glossary: B

July 6, 2020

Here is a lexicon of definitions of key wine words. The definitions are not intended to be scientifically objective and, in many cases, will be somewhat simplistic. Some will describe the technical side of wine(s), others will examine the more abstract and aesthetic ideas behind wine. To view Doug Wregg’s Real Alternative Wine Glossary, starting […]

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Spring and Early Summer Arrivals: France

July 5, 2020

What’s been and gone and what’s still to come You can lock down a nation (Dominic Cummings excepted), but you can’t prevent a goodly amount of wine from breaking and entering. Over the last couple of months, we’ve had some wonderful wines, some new, some allocated and mixed into pre-selected cases, then some that are […]

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