In 2018 I predict…a quiet riot
There is a saying that even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day. Trends, by definition, are rootless and transient, yet wine commentators are often falling over…
The Cavistes’ Wines of the Year
In no particular order we bring you some of the personal highlights from our team of passionate and hard-working Cavistes, who were asked to nominate their favourite wines of 2017…
Wine is Politics: Part One
I am at a natural wine fair in Vienna. Growers and visitors come together. They drink wine, they talk, they learn about each other. The fair is about sharing wine…
A Price Too Far?
Of mark-ups and wine accountancy The one benefit of a recession, said a wine merchant to me way-back-when in 1991, is that good businesses emerge from it stronger, pared down…
Sir Wregg’s Wines of the Year
I don’t append scores to wines, or have an inner wine-orgasmatron that registers the veritable height of aesthetic and subjective waves of pleasure, but here are my uneven eleven best…
Doug Decants: Georgas Retsina, Greece
Buy me brandy, A snifter of wine. Who am I kidding? I'll drink turpentine. Barney Gumble, 'A Boozehound Named Barney', The Simpson's (a parody of 'Feed The Birds' from The…
Unicorn Wines: Part Three
Unicornucopia! There are wines which are so rare because to make them requires nature to smile on the vineyard, or for the vigneron to feel that the quality of the…
Of Cult and Icon Wines
Petrus – What is the wine about? Imagine a cathedral lit with every light and line focused on the high altar. And on the altar, very reverently placed, intensely there,…
Unicorn Wines: Part Two
Unicornucopia! There are wines which are so rare because to make them requires nature to smile on the vineyard, or for the vigneron to feel that the quality of the…
Doug decants: The Wines of Antonino Caravaglio
Nature is an aeolian harp, a musical instrument whose tones are the re-echo of higher things within us. -Novalis The history of artisanal winemaking in the Aeolian Islands off the…
The Natural Wine Idioticon
A is for additives such as acidification. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it and if it is broke if the fault of the way the wine is made in…
A Pocketful of Natural Wines near Rye
This is a follow up to the recent Q & A with Ben Walgate of Tillingham (which is the name of Ben’s nascent wine project in East Sussex). Outside of…
Nouveau Nouveau: Christina Rasmussen
Bojo Nouveau is vieux chapeau, n’est-ce pas? By no means! Christina Rasmussen describes how we are falling in love with a new style of new juice. Christina works as wine…
Doug decants: The Wines of Didier Barral (Faugères)
I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright. –Henry David Thoreau This Renaissance man, naturalist, and biodynamic…
Unicorn Wines: Part One
Unicornucopia! There are wines which are so rare because to make them requires nature to smile on the vineyard, or for the vigneron to feel that the quality of the…
New and grooving wines
Forthcoming new and grooving wines Natural Burgundy, Napoleon’s favourite tipple (sort of), rare volcanic gems, tiny production single vineyard Barolo, a natural Retsina (yes!), a cool Malbec-dominated wine from a…
Doug Decants: Andert Wine
Michael Andert was born into a large family and grew up on a farm with mixed agriculture, livestock and viticulture and learned to respect his family, his animals and the…
A guest podcast episode with: Si Vintners on The Vincast
Based in Melbourne, James Scarcebrook has worked on all sides of the Australian wine industry He blogs on his website, The Intrepid Wino, and is the host of the popular podcast The…
Chatting with: Ben Walgate, the qvevri-crazed English natural winemaker
Ben Walgate is currently making natural wines in Georgian qvevri on his farm in East Sussex. We ask him about his journey to the amber side and what the future…
Doug Decants: Rabasco Wines, Abruzzo
The Not-so-Full Montes Iole Rabasco inherited her family’s small vineyard and olive grove, neither of which have ever been treated with chemicals. And she’s taken that blessing and run with it.…
Another Rare Creature: Ribeyrenc
Our spare Ribeyrenc Ribeyrenc, also Rybeyrenc, though grape encyclopaediae will have it under the more prosaic-sounding Aspiran noir), is a variety that was traditionally grown between Minervois and Clermont…
Revisiting Taste, Tasters and Tastings
Looking at the glass-twitchers, sniffers and slurpers at one of our recent shindigs made me think that tasting is as much about mood as anything. The more generic the tasting…
Thirsty for Hungary
When you are in a country for a very short period you barely have time to get your bearings let alone taste enough wine to come up with a qualified…
Doug Decants: Minimus Origin Gouges Zivo Vineyard 2016
This is Chad Stock’s second foray into Pinot Noir Blanc territory. Yes, a red grape mutated into a white with partial skin contact. Go figure! Zivo is the name of…
Les Caves at The Great Sherry Tasting
The Great Sherry Tasting returned to London this month, a chance for us to mug up on our soleras and criaderas, and plunge quizzical beaks into copitas of Palo Cortados…
Chatting with: Wine Writer Simon J Woolf
Award winning writer, natural wine expert and Decanter contributor Simon J Woolf today announced the launch of his first book Amber Revolution. Subtitled “How the world learned to love orange…
Doug decants: Forlorn Hope
2015 Gemischter Satz by Forlorn Hope We love a crazily fearless blend and this wine is the mashiest of Austro-Germanic mash-ups. Matthew Rorick writes of his Forlorn Hope project: 'The…
We’ve got a not-so-little-list
“The list is the origin of culture. It’s part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order.”…
Les Caves’s Autumn Trade Tasting!
Tuesday 3rd October, 10am-6pm at The Hellenic Centre Something new, something old, something fun to banish the wine blues Our autumn tasting is a timely dip into the wilds and werewolves…
One score and ten years in the wine business
Grizzled vets don’t have to grizzle to be accorded that status. But they have to have seen a reasonable amount of wine of all colours and all qualities flow beneath…
Don’t Pass Over These Yaks
Domaine d'Aurensan and Chateau de Leberon: Vintage Armagnacs Domaine d'Aurensan The Aurensan vineyard – a family venture run by father Bernard and his two daughters, Sophie and Caroline, spreads over…
Doug Decants: Casa Belfi, Raboso Colfondo
The birthplace of Casa Belfi natural wines is San Polo di Piave, Veneto, where the river meets the sea. The philosophy behind the project is the respect of natural processes…
Humour in wine
“Wine can of their wits the wise beguile, Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile” ~ Homer (the poet, not the Simpson). Wine has inspired beautiful poems, tracts of…
Beyond The Wine List
Mais naturellement, Les Caves de Pyrene are winier than winey, with around 1,700 “references” (as the wine trade is wont to call them) from around 500 vignerons hailing from 18…
Jazzing Up Restaurant Wine Lists
“The butler returned with a huge album bound in crocodile leather. You are looking at the binding, I notice, said the host. It is the skin of a crocodile I…
Doug Decants: The Wines of Céline & Laurent Tripoz
Lochéd and loaded All the Tripoz vineyards (11 hectares) are in or just outside of Loché in the Maconnais, where the cellar is located. With vines on eastern exposures rooted…
Topping up the Georgians
It is public knowledge that we’ve had a love affair with Georgia for the past few years and were one of the first companies to seriously focus on importing wines…
Rest in Peace Haridimos Hatzidakis
A few days ago, the great Santorini winemaker, Haridimos Hatzidakis, sadly took his own life. Tributes have been pouring in and we wanted to add our own panegyric to the…
Can Natural Wines Age?
The beauty of natural wines is their singularity. Constantly evolving, they need to find their own time and place. The best natural wines result from sensible farming. Healthier vineyards, tended…
What We Are Reading: The Dirty Guide to Wine + Tasting Georgia
The Dirty Guide To Wine Following Flavours From Ground To Glass by Alice Feiring We often think of wine in a very square way – for example, we might group…
Doug Decants: 2016 Burja Zelen, Vipavska Dolina
The third generation to cultivate grapes in his region, Primoz left the family estate in 2009 to start his own label, ‘Burja’, the name of the strong wind that blows…
Passion for Natural Wines – La Cav magazine, Chile
--By Francisca Jara V. Translation by Amy Morgan. In the world of wine, almost everything can be controlled. From the temperature of fermentation to its colour. But last May, 170…
Chatting with: Derek Morrison at The Good Wine Shop
Derek Morrison is the Retail Manager at The Good Wine Shop, an independent wine merchant with shops in Kew and Chiswick in West London. Derek is also the co-founder of…
Coming soon to a wine portfolio near you…
As the great Oscar Wilde didn’t say: “There’s only one thing better than talking about wine that has arrived in our bonded warehouse, and that’s talking about wines that have…
Doug Decants: Macon Cuvée 910, Clos des Vignes du Maynes
AKA Life in the Bojo slow lane and Cistercians doing it for themselves Macon-Cruzille Rouge “Cuvée 910” a field blend that harks back a millennium plus change. (or no change)…
Chill the Rouge!
Chilled reds are not just for summer. In summer, all reds should either spend an hour cooling their heels in the fridge, or be granted a swift bath in an…
All you needed to know about Oregon: Part Three – Alternative Perspectives
Alternative Perspectives As one may easily see Oregon is home to a highly unified, friendly and supportive producer network. I would go further: In my experience, Oregon presents the most…
All you needed to know about Oregon: Part Two – The Emergence of Wine Culture
History & The Emergence of Wine Culture The history of Oregon and its wine industry might be characterised as one that has progressed by leaps and bounds in a very…
All you needed to know about Oregon: Part One – Pinot Noir and life beyond
Oregon produces quite a small amount of wine but an awful lot of noise. Which is not at all to say that the state's wine industry is overrun by brash…
Doug Decants: Award-winning Saffas, Sherry-not-Sherry, New Slovenians, Matassa, Commando G + More!
Elgin Ridge Takes Top Gold! Elgin Ridge Chaos White 2016 (98 points) wins top gold at the International Organic Wine Awards! We will have our tiny allocation of this biodynamically farmed…
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