Christmas Wines!
The perfect wines to crack open this holiday season:BUBBLES Val Frison Lalore Blanc de Blancs, Champagne Because you’re special: Lalore is Val Frison’s pure Chardonnay from the Aube – its…
2016 in a grape pip
Brief remembrance of wine times past… It was the worst of times, it was the best of wines. The biggest ever Real Wine Fair took place in April 2016, 160…
Real Reasons To Be Cheerful – 2017
We’ve all had more than enough of 2016, so let’s look forward to next year and celebrate the impending return of the Real Wine Fair in May 2017. This event…
Nuggetorials #4: The GROSS profit margin
It is truth universally acknowledged but rarely articulated in the trade that a systematic one-size-fits-all % increase is grossly unfair and penalises adventurous drinking. Not only it is counter-intuitive as…
Doug Decants: Italy (Valtellina, Dolomites, Lazio) & Spain (Asturias, Calatayud, Rioja) + more!
As the crazy people of the UK were voting to row away from our continental cousin, we were scouring their vineyards for more goodies. At least if we are going…
Nuggetorials #3: Restaurant reviews and Cooking with sulphur
Restaurant Reviews and the curious case of the missing wine: One might imagine that food and wine were mutually inclusive when describing an experience in a restaurant. If you were…
Nuggetorials #2: Food and wine rules – Not OK
An example of early food and wine matching advice from a wine merchant in (the caves of) Lascaux: Bison with white wine, Mastodon with red wine. --Oberon Kant’s Big Book…
Intimations of Wine Immortality: A Fantastic Five of Rare Wine Beasts
There are wines which are so rare because to make them requires nature to smile on the vineyard and for the vigneron still to feel that the quality of the…
Nuggetorials #1: The banality of wine language
Could the language of wine commerce be any more banal? No, it really couldn’t. From “gatekeepers” through “channel management” to “segmentation” and all those other banal buzzwords bombinating in the…
Doug Decants: Austrian Pet Nats, Stellar Burgundy, and Amphora
New arrivals: Fuchs und Hase Pet Nats in Three Volumes Tis the season to be petty and natty. Weingut Fuchs und Hase (Fox and Hare) is a joint project…
Sauvign-oak?
Victoria Moore's recent article in the Telegraph on oaked Sauvignon Blanc made us think that a blog post on the subject was overdue. So here're our two cents: Most commercial…
Real Pagne or Sham Pagne
Can there be such a thing as a natural champagne? Champagne is not only a region but a specific method of winemaking predicated on certain procedures. The main manipulation is…
Slovenia: The Small Country with the Big Wine Culture – Part Three
Biodynamic diversions A Wreath of Sonnets, by France Preseren (one of Slovenia’s great poets): Send but your rays their glory to renew And let me not look for dawn's light…
Slovenia: The Small Country with the Big Wine Culture – Part Two
Valter’s wine press – hot off the press. Valter Mlecnik The Mlecnik 9ha farm, situated on western end of the Vipava valley, is planted to Chardonnay, Rebula, Sauvignonasse (ex-Tocai Friulano),…
Slovenia: the small country with the big wine culture – Part One
A topographical, historico-cultural, vinological account of a swift trip to Slovenia, a small but vital country situated in southern Central Europe located at the crossroads of main European cultural and trade routes,…
Bang for Your Buck Tasting Reviewed
Our Bang for Your Buck tasting was held last week in the Music Room of some rather grand edifice on Carlton House Terrace SW1, arguably the only event in this…
Doug Decants: Burgenland & Oregon
Focus on: The very good burghers of Burgenland - Andert-Wein PM? Pull the Andert one. They call it Puligny-Montrachet, or PM for short, we call it wine of grape variety of…
The New Eagles Have Landed: Part Two – California
Welcome to our Hotel California, not a palatial guest house, more of a rusty lean-to out back. The philosophy of the growers that we deal with might best be summarised…
The New Eagles Have Landed: Part One – Oregon
In my buyer’s backpack I carry a compass which points to magnetic craziness. The wines don’t have to be madly, badly DJ Funkosaurus in the wilderness. They can be beautiful…
Words To The Wine
“I begin to long for some little language such as lovers use, broken words, inarticulate words, like the shuffling of feet on pavement.” ~ Virginia Woolf Plundering the pornucopia of…
Doug Decants: Valtellina, a Trio of West Aussies, and Sherry
NEW WINES Les Chiavs de Pyrene have moved into Valtellina Balgera is a boutique winery located in Chiuro, one of the wine growing villages of Valtellina area, in the region…
Artisans of Oz: a round up
And so to the land of Bansky murals, and enough hipsters and bearded baristas to make AA Gill expel the plums moulded to his mouth and break out in hives.…
Drinking Wine, Not Ideology
Simon Woolf’s piece on natural wine in Meininger caused another minor kerfuffle in a carafe in the oenosphere. These articles are always timely in that even though they are written with…
Tasting No-Notes
I stopped writing tasting notes years ago – not sure whether it was out of laziness or ennui, or whether it suddenly simply seemed trite to reduce a wine to…
When the Wine Tastes You
What are the most important factors that affect the way you taste wine? Is it the inherent quality of the wine itself and its potential to communicate itself lucidly? Do…
Wine and The Golden Rule of Business
It’s not just dog eat dog. It’s dog doesn’t return other dog’s phone calls. (Woody Allen) Morals? Can’t afford them guv’nor. (Alfred Doolittle, Pygmalion – George Bernard Shaw) Those are…
A Treading of Grapes
For all our friends in the northern hemisphere who are gathering grapes in vineyards or toiling in their cellars… The Vine – ‘Cometh the full grape cluster on the vine.…
Upcoming Tastings: September/October 2016
Sherry Amour – Trade tasting Date: Monday 12th September 2016 Time: 10.30am - 5.00pm Venue: OXO2, Bargehouse Street, London, SE1 9PH Catch up with Les Cavistes on table 17 where…
Coming soon…Another Occhipinti – no, Andrea Occhipinti
This estate is based on the slopes surrounding the Volcanic lake of Bolsena; the region is part of Maremma (called “Tuscia” in Lazio), about 15 minutes’ drive from the Tuscan…
Six September Recommendations
September, officially the beginning of autumn… Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the Stooks arise Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour Of silk-sack clouds! Has wilder, willful-waiver …
More Natural Nomenclature
Non-Definitive Definitions Natural wine, as I may have previously written ad nauseam, is a relative term, embracing a wide variety of criteria. Nevertheless we might broadly agree on those specific…
Var Var Voom: Meeting Jean-Christophe Comor of Les Terres Promises, Provence
Provence is without doubt a spectacularly beautiful region of France speckled with myriad vineyards. Yet, as regional French specialists, we have always struggled to discover captivating terroir-driven wines outside the…
The Vermont Vintner: 32 hours with America’s most unlikely winemaker
-by Christina Pickard Note: a version of this piece originally appeared on Food & Wine. “Most of my stories start with this notion, ‘I never imagined...,’ or ‘Twenty years ago, I never…
Real Wine Fair Videos: Thierry Puzelat
One of the natural wine world's most beloved figures, Thierry Puzelat has been making wine au naturel in the Cheverny and Touraine appellations of the Loire Valley for over two decades, although…
For the Love of Wine
I proffer this as a thought - wine possesses its greatest value when it is made with love and for love, when it is made with all humility, when it…
Chatting with: Franz Strohmeier
Franz Strohmeier makes wine in what is considered the most difficult, yet also the most historic, region of Austria: West Styria. A true steward of the land, Strohmeier's relentless TLC in…
Doug Decants: Bernabe is back, New Radelaide Wines, and a Comment on Competitions
Decanting Cava Acequion, Rafa Bernabe The best things come to he who waits. And waits. And this pet nat kept us, and Rafa Bernabe, waiting. Unlike jam tomorrow, it eventually…
The Pyrenees Go to Austria: The Final Day – Michael Andert & Judith Beck
Breakfast in the vines with Michael Andert Michael Andert was born into a large family and grew up on a farm with mixed agriculture, livestock and viticulture. He learned to…
Real Wine Fair videos: Anna Martens
Vino di Anna is a small, two hectare property run and managed by Australian winemaker Anna Martens along with Les Caves de Pyrene's Grand Fromage, Eric Narioo, on the north…
2016…..so far! Look back in languor.
As we get summery in dear old Blighty here is a summary of 2016 so far... Gimme skin (contact) Oranges may not be the only fruit (grapes are!), nor the…
The Pyrenees Go to Austria: Day 4 – Andreas Tscheppe
Dragonflies, Stag Beetles, Salamanders and Butterflies Andreas Tscheppe is part of the Styrian quintet of vignerons called Schmeck das Leben (Taste of Life). He has small vineyard parcels in a…
Doug Decants: Champers, Jura-tastic, a raft of Rafas, & wonders from the New World
Focus on Champagne Marie-Courtin Champagne Marie Courtin is located in the village of Polisot in the Côte des Bars, in the southern part of the Champagne region. With its slightly…
Three De-Gris from NZ
New Zealand is viewed by many and sundry as the Land of the Long White Sauvignon, a drink on the river gravel rocks topped with mint and elderflower pressé. Les…
An Audience with Pierre Overnoy and Emmanuel Houillon
...at Terroirs Wine Bar In the quiet village of Pupillin just north of Arbois is a sign beside the road that proudly announces: 'World Capital of Ploussard'. It was vigneron Pierre…
The Pyrenees Go to Austria: Day 3 – Sepp Muster
We arrived at Sepp and Maria Muster’s beautiful house in Leutschach, southern Styria in the early evening with the weather just beginning to turn. The vineyards were in fine fettle.…
Doug Decants: Domain Yoyo, Austrian Belle Naturelle, Barbera-ians, & sans soufre Cru Beaujolais
Not another Cru Beaujolais! Fleurie, Clos de la Grand Cour (sans soufre, natch) The estate of Domaine de la Grand Cour dates back to 1969 when it was purchased by…
If it ain’t broke don’t Brexit
Monsieur/Signor Wregg weighs in on Brexit; viewpoints are his own and not representative of Les Caves de Pyrene as a whole. * You will have read reams on this subject and experienced…
Look Back In Amber
What is pink? a rose is pink By a fountain's brink. What is red? a poppy's red In its barley bed. What is blue? the sky is blue Where the…
The Pyrenees Go Wildbacher in West Styria: Day 2
Reasonably bright and fairly early, the Les Caves road crew piled on board the bus to zig towards Vienna and to zag where the Graz was greener on t’other side…
The Pyrenees Go to Austria: Day 1 – Kamptal
It is very rare that we have the opportunity to take the whole sales team to a country to meet and spend time with all of our growers. This then…