New Wines: France
La Nouvelle et La Belle With the brouhaha surrounding our new Spanish & Italian interlopers confidently twirling their moustachioes you would be forgiven to speculate that we had forgotten about…
‘Outliers’ – The Australian Wine Paradigm Shift
This post first appeared on The Wine Idealist blog. View the original HERE. A few years ago the vigneron-group Natural Selection Theory (NST), comprising three growers, submitted a wine called NST Project Egg…
New Wines!
The Gain in Spain is mainly in the mountains Despite the flowers peeking through the earth, spring hasn’t even officially sprung yet we are hearing the first cheep-cheep (and less…
Ugly Wine Words: Part Two
Reposted from July 2014 Read Part One HERE PEEP JARGON Consultants of swing? Bespoke Service, or “service” as it should be called, is offered by consultants to differentiate their efforts…
Ugly Wine Words: Part One
Reposted from July 2014 Vinonsense We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon. --William Zinsser Ours is the age of substitutes: instead of…
South African Mini Wine Odyssey – Part Two
Day Two Gentle advice for those who talk about natural wine This much I know: always give a talk whilst suffering from mild jet lag, the equivalent state of gentle…
Chatting with Sebastian De Martino
1. What attracted you to Itata initially - had you ever tasted wines from this region? What attracted us was its history (quite unknown and mysterious even), the southern location (high…
Itata and the roots of Chilean wine
I am indebted to the De Martino family for their research into this fascinating region of Chile. It is fair to say that they rediscovered its potential as part of…
South African Mini Wine Odyssey – Part One
Craig Hawkins & Testalonga As the aircraft sashays towards Cape Town you get a glimpse of the muscular beauty of this slice of Africa. The city itself is expanding confidently,…
The Point of Points: Part 3
The Nature of Wine Tasting Many dozens of books have fully explored the mechanics of taste, its fixities and definites, and there are numerous systems to codify or judge these.…