Natural, organic, biodynamic, real wine and the people and places behind them

July The Summer looks out from her brazen tower, Through the flashing bars of July. Francis Thompson, A Corymbus for Autumn Throughout the early period of lockdown, time had seemed…

This is a series profiling the producers on our list who make natural wines. Within this series we will be highlighting some of the extraordinary and rare bottles and vintages that…

Part One of The Alternative Wine Manifesto can be found here.  I wrote the manifesto below in 2008. A lot of natural wine has flowed underneath the bridge since then.…

Fattoria di Vaira is one of the largest biodynamic farms in Italy, with more than 500 hectares, 40 of which are planted to vines. Here in Petacciato (Campobasso), they cultivate…

June “I want to say, in all seriousness, that a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief in the virtuousness of work, and that…

In the Beginning Was the Word… … And the word was natural. And for some the word was good enough in itself. And for the others the word was bad…

Here is a lexicon of definitions of key wine words. The definitions are not intended to be scientifically objective and, in many cases, will be somewhat simplistic. Some will describe…

This is a series profiling the producers on our list who make natural wines. Within this series we will be highlighting some of the extraordinary and rare bottles and vintages that…

May Sweet May hath come to love us, Flowers, trees, their blossoms don; And through the blue heavens above us The very clouds move on.  Heinrich Heine “M’aider” The fine…

This is the cure for the summertown blues A love of wine, food and growing things eventually led Gareth and Rainbo Belton away from their former careers involving scuba gear…

Here is a lexicon of definitions of key wine words. The definitions are not intended to be scientifically objective and, in many cases, will be somewhat simplistic. Some will describe…

What is it about cattle? As my mentor Bart Simpson has said on many occasions: “Don’t have a cow, man!”. And we all have our pet beefs (or is it…

This is a series profiling the producers on our list who make natural wines. Within this series I will be highlighting some of the extraordinary and rare bottles and vintages…

Sheer Brilliant Folly The Romans used slave labour to plant terraced vineyards along the Sil and Minho riverbanks. Today, Ribeira Sacra growers still have to work like slaves to prune,…

Here is a lexicon of definitions of key wine words. The definitions are not intended to be scientifically objective and, in many cases, will be somewhat simplistic. Some will describe…

April April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. (Shakespeare, Sonnet XCVIII) Since the beginning of this crisis, the weather has been lovely. No cruellest month. No “with his…

Here is a lexicon of definitions of key wine words. The definitions are not intended to be scientifically objective and, in many cases, will be somewhat simplistic. Some will describe…

Maison Valette, based in Chaintré in the south of Burgundy between Mâcon and Beaujolais, comprises 8.5 hectares and is run by one of the region’s steadfastly independent families who have…

Here is a lexicon of definitions of key wine words. The definitions are not intended to be scientifically objective and, in many cases, will be somewhat simplistic. Some will describe…

Friendly meta-fizzical Tis the season to be petty and to live la vie en rosé. We’re in northern Portugal and with Vasco Croft at his project called Aphros. Born with…

March I always start writing projects way after the event. So, here am I sitting on the sofa, thirty pages into Bleak House and determined not to skip a page,…

Occhipintis are like buses. You wait for one and then three come along at once. Giusto (COS) and Arianna are well-established favourites amongst us and the natural wine cognoscenti. Andrea…

Here is a lexicon of definitions of key wine words. The definitions are not intended to be scientifically objective and, in many cases, will be somewhat simplistic. Some will describe…

Alex Craighead and Josefina Venturino are establishing a reputation in the natural wine world. They have settled on a new vineyard located in Upper Moutere in Nelson. This particular vineyard…

To some followers of natural wines, espousing a natural wine credo is an assertion of cultural identity. Natural wine has become synonymous with caring about the environment, and valuing provenance…

As you know we are still open for business and keen to help everyone with their booze needs over the next few difficult weeks. To this end, we are offering…

  What’s behind a label? Quite a lot, on occasion. Some vignerons put that extra effort into the design creating a memorable brand identity. There’s often a story or a…

When we talk about the New World we don’t think about Christopher Columbus and Captain Cook and all those would-be circumnavigatory dudes looking to open trade routes new, but countries…

A friend said a wine he tried recently was bitter and not properly fermented. Sounds like sour grapes to me. A friend of mine cooks by making up a recipe…

I was recently in Austria and met and talked to a lot of growers who have become clear about how biodynamics is positively shaping their wines. Of course, winemaking plays…

What do we do in the dog days of January? First of all, we should bemoan the fact that anyone might be participating in (or considering) dry January. Balance in…

Bojo Nouveau day has been and gone, trailing clouds of carbo, so we thought we would say that a glou wine (not a glühwein) is not just for a Thursday…

Attitudes to natural wine are similar to hard-wired attitudes towards Brexit. People don’t want to listen to substantive and nuanced arguments or to understand that its increasing popularity in historical…

I rarely write about sweet wines, because, in all honesty, I rarely drink sweet wines. I find them interesting, rather than loveable, although perhaps my love of wine is the…

A roll call of what’s rocked in over the last few weeks. German Weiss Squad Young Martin Woerner is probably tired of people calling him young Martin Woerner. He, and…

Apparently, if I don’t complete this blog by some completely arbitrary date, I should find a convenient ditch and perish histrionically therein. This has been a year where we’ve always…

Once upon a time I only had to open my mouth or take to my keyboard to ruffle feathers– I had Larry David’s effortless knack for causing offence. Asked to…

I recently tasted a Georgian wine that had over 400 grape varieties blended into it. If ever there was a declaration of the symbolic desire to preserve a multi-faceted grape…

We are taught to believe that wines inevitably decay from the moment the cork is pulled or the cap twisted. Oxygen is seen as the enemy here, hastening the precious…

Is this the most allusive wine label ever? I bloody hope so. But probably not. Before I explicate, a word from our sponsor, Monsieur Brendan Tracey, who has a technicolour…

We called our autumn trade tasting "Drinking Outside The Box" because we always want people to leave their preconceptions alongside their coats in the cloakroom and to approach our wines…

The Wines of Pol Andsnes, The Uco Valley, Argentina You’re in a restaurant leafing through their bible of a wine list. You leaf in vain. There is no natural skin-contact…

Will and Doug uncork some of their vinous highlights of 2019. (Read Part One of our Wines of the Year HERE.) Will: Although my views about best-of-year picks tend to…

There are moments when you drink a wine that become hand-wringing, bell-ringing events; transcendent moments that palpitate the nerve-endings and lodge in your memory cortex forever. When we post about…