A holiday in wine and other thoughts
What sort of wines make me think, 'yes, I am now on holiday'? I am nothing if not predictable. My holidays are always spent in the same cottage in the…
Doug Decants: Furmint Bambule by Judith Beck
The Beck winery is a family estate in Gols, in northern Burgenland near lake Neusiedl. Traditionally, there were small mixed farms in the area, but they always grew vines…
A Personal Note from Sir Wregg About No-Added Sulphur Wines
I always subscribed to the notion that low/no sulphur wines would be more invigorating, more digestible than more conventional added-sulphite wines. Despite this romantic feeling, I always reserved a portion…
Doug decants: A Demua vs Filagnotti from Cascina degli Ulivi
The dog’s bellottis Stefano Bellotti understood farming and the language of nature at a fundamental level. He made wines that were wild, long-lived and spoke deeply of their origins.…
Wine and the Supra
A Georgian supra is so much more than eating and drinking. It is a form of nourishment for the soul, an affirmation of the civilising effect of the meal taken…
Talking Terroir (again)
One of the terms that wine professionals frequently “deploy” in conversation amongst one another is terroir, although it can also be used when referring to food or the rootedness…
Food and Wine Matching
In "From Russia with Love," James Bond famously comments, "Red wine with fish? Well, that should have told me something”. That should tell us something of the old-fashioned preconceptions regarding…
Doug decants: Two New Wines from Casa Balaguer, Alicante Spain
The campaign for value-for-money real wine starts here. We love wines that are packed with personality at democratic price. Finca Casa Balaguer is a small family-owned winery based in Alicante…