Focus On: Recaredo (Cava not Cava anymore) and Celler Credo

October 28, 2019

The other week Ton Mata was in town to show some new wines from Celler Credo and to reinforce the message that the Recaredo sparkling wines had seceded from the generic Cava DO. Both Recaredo and Celler Credo are dedicated to making wines that show the very best of their region. For almost a century, […]

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Celebrating the Autochthonous

October 28, 2019

I recently tasted a Georgian wine that had over 400 grape varieties blended into it. If ever there was a declaration of the symbolic desire to preserve a multi-faceted grape patrimony this was it. Our list has over 250 different varieties ranging from the classic noble varieties – as some wine writers would characterise them […]

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Doug Decants: Franz Weninger’s Furmint vom Kalk

October 28, 2019

Franz Weninger and his father switched to BD farming in 2006. They originally planted Furmint in Austria over a decade ago, but the vines were hit by frost – so 2018 is the first vintage of this wine. Franz views Furmint as the white equivalent to Blaufrankisch, a wine built on the backbone of high […]

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Doug decants: Camillo Donati’s Lambrusco Frizzante

October 15, 2019

Slow food pilgrims who take their hunger, scrip and staff to Bologna and environs know that it’s possible to find interesting, well-balanced Lambrusco from artisanal producers and go-ahead co-operatives. We are talking frothy and refreshing wines that one can sip on the piazza or enjoy with a pizza. Little of the quality Lambrusco escapes Emilia-Romagna, […]

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Focus on: Bodegas Emilio Hidalgo, Jerez de la Frontera

October 15, 2019

Bodegas Emilio Hidalgo was founded in the mid-nineteenth century by Emilio Hidalgo Hidalgo, so good they named him twice. The company is owned and operated by the fifth generation of his descendants and our host for the visit was the genial Fernando Hidalgo. The winery has been located, since its inception, in the old part […]

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Guest Blog: How I Caught the Natural Wine Bug – Freddie Johnson

October 15, 2019

My professional experience with wine starts unconventionally as a 19-year old cowering in the cellar of a Michelin-starred London restaurant. As I pondered just how many times a commis chef could set an entire flat top grill aflame mid-service before being relieved of his position, my eyes drifted over a number of striking, colourfully-labelled bottles […]

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Indestructible Wines

October 9, 2019

We are taught to believe that wines inevitably decay from the moment the cork is pulled or the cap twisted. Oxygen is seen as the enemy here, hastening the precious liquid to its either instant or gradual demise. There is even a saying that wine begins to oxidise the instant it is exposed to air. […]

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Doug decants: Le Capitalisme Rouge est un Vin de Garage

October 2, 2019

Is this the most allusive wine label ever? I bloody hope so. But probably not. Before I explicate, a word from our sponsor, Monsieur Brendan Tracey, who has a technicolour past.  Brendan was born in the United States, in 1954, to an American father and a French mother. One could easily describe Brendan as a […]

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Drinking Outside The Box: A review of our autumn trade tasting

October 1, 2019

We called our autumn trade tasting “Drinking Outside The Box” because we always want people to leave their preconceptions alongside their coats in the cloakroom and to approach our wines in a sensitive, wide-eyed, and, dare one say, an intuitive way. There are so many ways one may divide a tasting or describe a group […]

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Focus On: Pol Opuesto Wines

October 1, 2019

The Wines of Pol Andsnes, The Uco Valley, Argentina You’re in a restaurant leafing through their bible of a wine list. You leaf in vain. There is no natural skin-contact Torrontes! Rightly, you walk off in a huff and hail your uber(natural) taxi. Fear not. That gaping list chasm can be bunged now with the […]

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