Archive

 Of pointyheads, pulse-quickeners & phoeno-types Compare this, rank that, analyse to the nth degree – the more you reduce wine to numbers the less you understand it. A scientist is…

Terroir, of course, a term used - and occasionally abused - in the wine world, and not just by the French, refers to wines that exhibit the character of the…

--by Christina Pickard Jelena and Fulvio Bressanare some of Friuli's (in the northeast of Italy) finest winemakers. Champions of rare native grape varieties like Pignol, Schioppettino, and Verduzzo Friolano, Bressan's…

If I may rehash my chirpy cockney praise for natural wine fairs: A bit of natural wine, from the organic vine More than good, it’s fine – it’s out of…

-by organiser Doug Wregg The dust has settled, the broken glass swept up, the spittoons dismantled for another year, the lights switched off and aching limbs and slightly sore heads…

What is genius in wine? I think we can apply Schopenhauer’s observation: “Genius is its own reward. It serves no useful purpose; it bears no profit. It is as music,…

--by Christina Pickard This is an article I wrote on natural wines for the Honest Cooking iPad magazine, a consumer publication mainly for foodies. If you have an iPad you can…

A bit of grin and bear it, a bit of come and share it You're welcome, we can spare it - yellow socks Too short to be haughty, too nutty…

The Real Wine Fair will host talks and masterclasses given by wine growers and trade experts during the two days of the fair. There is no advanced booking for the…

By Olly Bartlett, of Indigo Wine Come and meet the new Spanish Terroiristas The case for the prosecution: If one limits oneself to the standard offering of Spanish wines at…

THE ARGUMENTS Natural wines don’t taste like wine (Wines can be beery, cidery, reductive) Wine doesn’t always taste like wine. Who is the arbiter here? The mythical consumer on top…

Natural wine is not a trend; it is an ongoing commitment, by which I mean that growers do not perceive it as some quasi-philosophical movement to latch on to for…

Culture is a concept that includes a refining and elevating element, each society’s reservoir of the best that has been known and thought, as Matthew Arnold put it. Arnold believed…

Nigel Sutcliffe is the managing director of restaurant consultant Truffle Hunting. He was also the MD of The Crazy Bear Restaurant Group, one of the trio behind Terroirs, and the…

An interview with John Wurdeman of Pheasant's Tears Kvevri? Qvevri? Which is it? We are spelling it “Qvevri". There was much discussion on this; a few German importers prefer the…

 Anforak - Anhedoni - Anaphora - Aphorism - Anachronism - Anfora - Annie Hall There was a moment of hush as Stalin's barber cleared away the topsoil and scraped off the clay. He paused like a…

Michel Chapoutier planted his soap box firmly on the ground and gave of his wisdom according to The Drinks Business. If absence was air then, as with all critiques of natural…

Over one hundred restaurants participating and counting. From Cornwall to Edinburgh, from humble bar to Michelin garlanded fine dining, you will be able to drink natural wines by the glass…

“Forget all rules, forget all restrictions, as to taste, as to what ought to be said, write for the pleasure of it—whether slowly or fast—every form of resistance to a…

A new Iron Sommelier Challenge has been inaugurated in the US Said to test the skills of wine waiters under the most extreme conditions, the challenge is divided into six…

We have two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach --Bertrand Russell My liberalism says…

So you’re back again? Yes, and this time it’s even more personal and personable!   Remind me what it is all about? The Real Wine Fair is an artisan growers’…

This post also appears on our Real Wine Fair website. Head there fore more info about the fair, which is taking place in London on the 17-18th March. A pure…

A little bit of Jekyll, a little bit of Hyde – Rory Gallagher I can’t second guess the intention of an amorphous group of critics and commentators any more than they…

When I first became interested in wine I was instructed to taste in a certain way, to break wine down into its constituent parts and to assess analytically (and dismissively).…

I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright. ~Henry David Thoreau I've been asked by sundry, if…

I’ve argued on these pages and elsewhere that it is trite to bandy loaded terms such as “natural”, “conventional” and “movement” willy-nilly as in “natural wine movement” and to have…

The Prog Nose-Ticator sniffs out some further unlikely bouquets to inhale... * 2011 Burgundy will be re-evaluated as a much better vintage than previously thought, because 2012 etc… What do…

It is customary now to don the oenomancer’s robes, look into crystal glass, sift through the skanky lees and prognosticate like you mean it. So here goes - a bevy…

The fault is in the finder Winemaking, natural or otherwise, is a series of individual choices and always will be. In the name of hating oxidation the contras would surely…

Prompted by a recent exchange on a blog Exordium: Is there a place in the purity of wine discourse for terms such as “priest” to denote the fundamental irrationalism of…

Nature may be a pretty lass, but she is also pretty scruffy. Here are some delightful beauty tips brought to you by the those caring folks at the Laboratory of…

Even if you have nothing to say, say it, advised one of my tutors at university, which reminds me of Goethe’s aphorism: “When ideas fail, words come in very handy”.…

I have done innumerable natural wine master-classes/seminars - call them what you will – over the last twelve months. It feels odd to be cast as a pontifical spokesman for…

It is a fact universally accepted that nothing is what it seems and so our list is not a simple catalogue, a digest of wines and prices, but a succession…

Obviously we would be grossly negligent as fair-minded individuals if we did not give a platform for the articulate effusions of the critics of natural wine. And so we give…

Rather than spending their lives defending nomenclature, delving into semantic nuances and untangling gossamer philosophical niceties, natural wine drinkers – copains & copines alike - drink wine. Which seems the…

Previously, we had only encountered wine longitudinally and laterally, but this unique fair will allow customers to explore wine physically – from a distance – actually, not physically at all.…

Accustomed to the veneer of noise, to the shibboleths of promotion, public relations, and market research, society is suspicious of those who value silence. --John Lahr Just as dementors feed naturally…

When did you last read a positive, celebratory article about natural wine ~ as in a wholesome bevvy that adds colour to our lives and gaiety to nations? At best…

Looking at the glass-twitchers, sniffers and slurpers at our recent Loire shindig made me think that tasting is as much about mood as anything. The more generic the tasting the…

1) Stop caricaturing the arguments. We hear of natural wine movements and pr campaigns, avid proponents and spokespeople. Who are these shadowy people who are influencing our lives? I think we…

--by Doug Wregg Beware counter-counter culturalism. It disappears with alacrity up its own fundament. Take an argument that doesn’t exist and create a false thesis; use the counter argument to…

So, Arnie, would you please describe the ideal Arnold Schwarzenegger wine? I like my wines to be like my muscles  - rippling with power and authority. I like to say…