The loneliness of the long distance wine taster
Like to the apples of the Dead Sea’s shore; All ashes to the taste. As a wine buyer, you very occasionally cop a bouquet for a newly acquired wine that…
10 Wines of the Year…so far
It is arbitrariness time. When you see a wine glorified on social media you are meant to feel a bat squeak of envy. Look what they are drinking and look…
Doug Decants: Damiano Ciolli Silene Cesanese
Damiano Ciolli The Ciolli family has owned five (now seven) hectares of vineyards for four generations in Central Italy, south-east of Rome. Before Damiano, his grandfather and his father…
Taste & Second Espresso Syndrome
“The coffee finds nothing else in the sack, and so it attacks these delicate and voluptuous linings; it acts like a food and demands digestive juices; it wrings and twists…
A short saunter down Regen Street
Regenerative farming is attractive as a philosophy in that it puts nature and the environment first. Post-war farming practices have been industrial (exploitation of the land leading to over-production)…
Doug decants: The Contrada Wines of Arianna Occhipinti
Where Frappato (and now Grillo) sings “From season to season the earth speaks to us, listens to us, responds to us. Ours is a silent and authentic dialogue. This is…
Berlin Weinfest 2025
Sublime (Natural) Wine in Berlin My knowledge of Berlin was confined to snippets of Cabaret and its depiction of the decaying Weimar Republic and the Cold War tales of…