Tasting Wine and Straining the Brain
The other day I was given a wine blind and asked to guess what it was. I wasn’t getting anything. It was neutral with a short finish and all I…
On Not Enjoying Expensive Wine
The other day, at a nameless restaurant in a nameless place, three colleagues and I drank a large number of nameless conventionally-made “classic” wines. When I say drank, I mean…
News of the new: Drinking highlights of the summer
With torrential rain throughout the last couple of months, it is only fair that we report on a flood of new and recent arrivals. These are but a small proportion…
Doug Decants: Mantoulan by Clos Lapeyre
I have had a huge soft spot for Jurançon since I first encountered a dry version of the wine in a restaurant in Marylebone in the early 1990s. Our company…
The Pinot Conundrum
Certain grape varieties, like football teams, engender strong supportive feelings in individuals. Perhaps, they enjoy an exalted reputation as a noble variety and accrue a mythology around themselves. We hear…
On Absurd Bureaucracy, Wine Competitions, Carbon Footprints and more
Appellations and pear-shaped thinking We work with the wines of Frantz Saumon (he’s a former lumberjack and he’s okay), a vigneron who makes most excellent wines from either old vines…
Legacy and Regenerative Farming
In his 1971 book “The Unforeseen Wilderness: An Essay on Kentucky’s Red River Gorge” influential environmental activist Wendell Berry, emphasizing the desirability of preserving natural areas and adapting a long-range…
Do You Know Your Alsace From Your Elbow?
The new Alsatian’s Natural Creed stateth that farming should be biodynamic and that winemaking boundaries can - and should be – pushed to the maximum minimal. It is not just…
Podcasts galore! Orange x Natural Wine & Oregon Wine Culture
In a previous life I must have been an orange because I am forever being asked to spout on about that colour. In relation to wine! It is a topic…
Doug Decants (and cooks!): Podere Sassi Sassolini with Aubergine & Mushroom Lasagne
The farm Podere Sassi lies in a beautiful location overlooking the surrounding valleys of the southern Sabina. It’s a small biologic agricultural holding that is characterised by a pure, strong…