Yearly Archives: 2024

  I receive around a dozen mails per day from PR companies asking whether I want to improve our brand recognition. I appreciate that much time is dedicated to developing…

Cevennes up Our second port of call on day one was to the renowned biodynamic estate, Mas Foulaquier, owned and run by the affable Pierre Jéquier and Blandine Chauchat. A mas was…

Domaine Hauvette, Beau en Provence   Despite the best efforts of Marseille airport to stymy our arrival, we penetrated France’s Provençale perimeter, hired our fleet of jalopies, and set off…

Part One – Oregon not forgotten In 1982 when Chariots of Fire was awarded an Oscar for Best Picture, actor and director Colin Welland memorably exclaimed: “The British are coming”.…

  We’ve been championing the flipside of the Aussie wine scene since four young Turks, James Erskine, Tom Shobbrook, Anton van Klopper and Sam Hughes combined to form a natural…

Sublime outrage Let us pay tribute to the magnificent otherness of certain wines, those that defy expectations in the most glorious way. Over the years, natural wines have shifted the…

It is with deep sorrow that we learned of the passing of Susanna Forbes after a lengthy illness. She co-founded Little Pomona Cidery & Orchard, with her husband James and they…

  Over the decades wine styles have changed due to the application of modern (often industrial) farming techniques and also been radically altered by vinification methods designed to “clean up”…

I am not an expert (to put it mildly) about whether the systemic use of chemicals in vineyards and the cocktail of allowable additives used to stabilise wines is injurious…

One of the things that I like doing on holiday is to bring a bottle of wine down to the beach when the sun is setting, half fill a glass…