Yearly Archives: 2023

This was perhaps not a vintage year for stellar wines, although that might be as much that I was suffering from jaded palate syndrome. The list below features a couple…

PX marks the spot Founded in 1729, Alvear is not only the oldest winery in Montilla, but in all Andalucia. The family-owned company has been around for almost three centuries,…

The Real Wine Fair will be returning for its 8th edition to London’s historic Tobacco Dock in 2024! The dates will be Sunday 28th (public and trade) and Monday 29th…

Wine tasting is traditionally broken down into three sensory disciplines: appearance, aroma or smell, and taste. However objective we may claim to be in our assessments, these are our perceptions…

Your money for your lupins The Boomtown Rats sang: “I don’t like Mondeuse”, but what did they know about Savoie’s great red grape? In Wine Grapes, by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding,…

Continued from Part One... Of natural wine origins and movers-and-shakers Literature is riddled with examples of the unreliable narrator from Nelly in Wuthering Heights, Pi Patel in Life of Pi,…

The 1000th Blog (give or take) and doing it our way For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself then he has naught Not to say…

It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a friendly wine community to support a small wine company, especially through its first uncertain steps on a new path,…

It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a friendly wine community to support a small wine company, especially through its first uncertain steps on a new path,…

Muscadet Excelsior 2020 & Berceau des Fees 2022 This has not been a stellar year for wine epiphanies. The epiphany can be a whiplash crack of realisation and self-realisation, or…

Sato Wines was established by Yoshiaki Sato, and his wife, Kyoko Sato, as a small project in 2009. Kyoko and Yoshi met in 1998 at a Japanese bank, where they…

An introduction to a series of short articles   The phrase “demotic rag” entered my head the other morning. I wasn’t fully aware. Caffeine has yet to trigger consciousness. Don’t…

More random thoughts about wine This is, of course, a subject for a longer blog. A group of Cavistes were discussing the future of natural wine, and how our customers…

French savoir-faire in Marlborough When Jean-Marie and the late Rémi Bourgeois inherited the Henri Bourgeois estate, the brothers were inspired to explore the possibilities offered by international wine regions. Their…

By guest blogger Laura Milnes A few years ago, my brother-in-law became an orthodox Christian. Overnight, he was foisting prayer at every family meal and proselytizing why "his God is the…

  I have been in more than one cab (but not at the same time), and when asked what I did for a living, explained truthfully that I was involved…

  Statement: Whereas the vast majority of wines that are sold are technically correct as far as a faults-analysis panel might determine, they are also pretty boring to drink. With…

“ELEVATE!” One of the seminal moments in Dr Who history occurred in the imaginatively-titled 2005 episode Dalek when (spoiler alert!) the metallic pepper pot with the loo-plunger extension faced its greatest…

Amber in the pink of condition The beautiful thing about orange wines is that they have pushed the dial in different directions, both forward and back; They show us that…

We will bring vintage reports as and when producers find time to give us their perspectives. Suffice to say, that it is a mixed picture with some unique difficulties. In…

When one thinks of I Vigneri, one thinks of Etna and Salvo Foti. I Vigneri is a project dedicated to Sicilian, and more specifically, Etnean heritage, in terms of reviving…

Mag-nifico! I know what you’re thinking. Did he pour six glasses or only five, but in the excitement I kinda lost track myself. This being a 1.5 litre magnum of…

When one thinks of red wines from the Loire, one probably imagines fruit-freighted wines, soft and juicy numbers. The real story, however, is a wee bit more complicated than that.…

There are three levels (so to speak) of wines from Cara Sur, a collaborative project between Sebastián Zuccardi and Marcela Manini teaming up with Nuria Año Gargiulo and Pancho Burgallo,…

News of imminent arrivals The vitality of a wine portfolio depends on its constant renewal. This does not mean that it needs to increase in size, but rather than it…

Natural Star Wines – Gers Gers Bins   In 2012, his family estate in Courresan in Gers, southwest France was under conventional farming methods. Then Sébastien Fezas stopped the use…

Rusticity refined from Argentina Cara Sur was formed in 2011 as a partnership between two couples inspired to revive ancestral vines and produce wines from traditional Argentine varietals. Sebastián Zuccardi and…

Discursions and digressions I know an epiphany when I experience one. They are not like buses. They don’t run to a schedule (maybe they are like London buses, then!). If…

Monday: I have just tried a white wine with so much alcohol that it practically cauterised my tongue and dissolved my taste buds. From a grape variety one might associate…

To Pet Nat or To Pet Not Pet Nat is now indubitably a genre. Ten to fifteen years ago, you could reel off all the practitioners of this winemaking style…

Lisbonny-bonny wines Vale da Capucha was started on the family property by Pedro Marques and Afonso Fernandes Marques within the Torres Vedras DOC, 45 minutes northwest of Lisbon, a mere…

Wine and humility. Is this some sort of new delicious pairing combo like Sauternes and Roquefort or Savennières and salmon? Which red would accompany the humblest of pies? Or is…

What’s in a tasting name or theme? Even to talk about the tasting seasons seems to scoff at the evidence of climate change. Spring can spring during the so-called winter…

As the 2022s have just landed, it is a good moment to reacquaint ourselves with these classic Northern Rhône wines. A word about Hervé’s wines. I would describe them as…

The brief history, the culture, the arguments and the current state of play in the U.K.   I was directed by a friend recently to an article describing the nature…

Trendzilla ~ An Instagram post featuring nigella seeds, acai berries and a perfectly framed bottle of Gut Oggau Theodora. --The Real Alternative Wine Glossary ~ Vol 2 "A trend is…

The trade has been rightly chattering about the upcoming duty rises. For those of you who may have been hibernating since December 22nd 2022, the government in its wisdom have…

Grand Blanc-ety Blanc We prefer real pagne over sham pagne any way. There’s not so much of it about, unlike bad old jokes. The Maison Vauversin, currently managed by Laurent…

Liberté, fraternité and vinosité   Now that Real Wine in the Vines is nestling happily in the dustbin of history, I can concern myself entirely with trivia or propound my…

Savennières. The name for me has always oozed mystery and majesty. And class in a glass. Its very sound suggests something serpentine like the Loire river winding off into the…

...And influenced me to do what? To run shrieking “eureka” through the streets? To put aside my nefarious plans to take over the world? To retreat to the hermetic life,…

In 2014 Jasper Button and his sister Sophie returned home to help save their family vineyard called Fernglen. Commune refers to their project’s continued happy reliance on community and shared…

In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. Once upon a time when we were but a teeny amateur company knee-high to a Diam cork with barely two…

A matter of taste 'To show the relativity of what’s good taste and what’s not is something I like to play with.' ~ Jean-Paul Gaulthier 'I have drunken deep of…

Les Caves embraces the unorthodox. Or perhaps it would be fairer to say that the unorthodox embraces Les Caves.  We are now well into flaming June and the year seems…

And why this is a good thing When we are first taught about the facts of life about wine, everything is binary and conveniently boxed. We are told that all…

Marasby White Pinot Pioneers Tasting   I am a tough crowd as a wine taster, as I believe in always benchmarking what I taste against the best in that category.…

There is a saying in the wine world, that we sometimes need to look back to look forwards. This is certainly true of Georgian wine culture, which is not merely…

A Trend-Bucking Event   And so it came to pass. On Tuesday 16th May, the first ever UK artisan wine/drinks fair featuring producers working sustainably, organically and/biodynamically and making products…

Thought sediment about wine (and other loosely related subjects) Seeking inspiration When you run out of things to say about wine, then write about writing about wine. Or better, write…

It's hard to believe we're nearly half way through 2023... with spring kind of sprung, we thought it a good time to reflect on some vinous highlights so far. The…

Lava amour Vino di Anna is a small, family wine estate situated on the north face of Mt Etna, Sicily. Anna Martens and Eric Narioo have been making natural wines…

Thought sediment about wine (and other loosely related subjects)  Trash talking about wine Oh, the imperative of the pitch. I have 15 whole seconds to deluge the eager (or not)…

The crocuses (crocii?) are croaking and semi-spring is in the air and we are delighted to bring you news of three fantastic tastings in as many months! Very imminent is…

Herefordshire cider house rules It is said that the first recorded references to cider in this country date back to Julius Caesar’s invasion of Britain where his armies found the…

The badger’s nadgers The Monte di Grazia estate is located in Campania in the town of Tramonti, inland and up from the Amalfi Coast, in the Lattari Mountains.  It’s a…

Jaén heir Though this is madness, yet there is method in it. Vinos Bio Pedro Olivares is a project in Murcia coordinated by the aforementioned Pedro Olivares with the objective…

Last week I read a tasting note in a wine magazine describing the flavours of a red wine as “black animal tobacco.” Now, while it is highly probable that the…

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the majority of labels that adorn the many hundreds of different bottles of wines in the Les Caves portfolio are graphically… humdrum. And…

Thanks be to cob! Craig & Carla Hawkins and family live in Bandits Kloof, Eendekuilthe in the back and beyond of Swartland. It is a beautiful location, ringed by mountains…

We are delighted to announce that we are selling the English translation of ‘Calicata, Gredos as Terroir’,  a collaboration between Comando G and other local growers as well as journalists,…

The Antadze Winery was founded by Nikoloz (Niki) Antadze in 2006. A former nightclub owner and a gentle and reflective soul, Niki owns 3-hectares of vineyards in the Manavi micro…

Cold Mountain Wines Wade Sander dreamt about being a vigneron from an early age. He enrolled at Elsenburg Agricultural College in 2010, and after graduating, joined the CWG internship programme…

Aidan Raftery began making wine in 2013 with a label called Vin du Patron, produced in the garage of his home in Melbourne, Australia. He had just opened Persillade, the…

Queen of Tarot Ashleigh Barrowman wears many wine hats. She works with Dan Gillett at Wine Diamonds in Wellington, a leading retailer and distributor of artisan organic and natural wines…

In 1826 when Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, a French lawyer, politician, and famous gastronome, wrote: ''Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es'', which translates to 'Tell…

That was the year that was, again... There may be trouble ahead, But while there's moonlight and music and love and romance Let's face the music and dance Well, what…

Winemaker report ...in the words of Jean du Plessis, GM and Vigneron of Ancre Hill: Our neighbouring blackcurrant farmer, who has lived and farmed the area for more than 35…