New and grooving wines
Forthcoming new and grooving wines Natural Burgundy, Napoleon’s favourite tipple (sort of), rare volcanic gems, tiny production single vineyard Barolo, a natural Retsina (yes!), a cool Malbec-dominated wine from a…
Doug Decants: Andert Wine
Michael Andert was born into a large family and grew up on a farm with mixed agriculture, livestock and viticulture and learned to respect his family, his animals and the…
A guest podcast episode with: Si Vintners on The Vincast
Based in Melbourne, James Scarcebrook has worked on all sides of the Australian wine industry He blogs on his website, The Intrepid Wino, and is the host of the popular podcast The…
Chatting with: Ben Walgate, the qvevri-crazed English natural winemaker
Ben Walgate is currently making natural wines in Georgian qvevri on his farm in East Sussex. We ask him about his journey to the amber side and what the future…
Doug Decants: Rabasco Wines, Abruzzo
The Not-so-Full Montes Iole Rabasco inherited her family’s small vineyard and olive grove, neither of which have ever been treated with chemicals. And she’s taken that blessing and run with it.…
Another Rare Creature: Ribeyrenc
Our spare Ribeyrenc Ribeyrenc, also Rybeyrenc, though grape encyclopaediae will have it under the more prosaic-sounding Aspiran noir), is a variety that was traditionally grown between Minervois and Clermont…
Revisiting Taste, Tasters and Tastings
Looking at the glass-twitchers, sniffers and slurpers at one of our recent shindigs made me think that tasting is as much about mood as anything. The more generic the tasting…
Thirsty for Hungary
When you are in a country for a very short period you barely have time to get your bearings let alone taste enough wine to come up with a qualified…