Whilst we are all expected to #stayhome and #staysafe during the coronavirus pandemic we are all missing our friends and looking for new things to do. Connecting with your friends over wine in a wine bar or restaurant used to be the fun way to stay in touch but, with that not currently possible thanks to Covid-19, video chats with a glass of wine in
You may have heard of ice wine (also known as Eiswein or icewine) but you will be excused if you don't know much about it because ice wine is quite rare and also expensive - but it is also a beautiful wine so if you get chance give it a try. But before you do, read all you need to know about ice wine. This
With Valentine's Day around the corner many wine merchants like me will recommend that you open a bottle of bubbly with your loved one. After all, we should celebrate the good things in life. This got me thinking… whether champagne, prosecco, English sparkling wine, crémant or cava is your fizz of choice, why do we celebrate with champagne or sparkling wine? If you are a
In fact there is not just one Grenache grape but there's a whole family of Grenache grapes and a range of different Grenache wines. What wines are made from Grenache grapes? Grenache can be a full-bodied wine or a lighter style, Grenache can be a dry wine or a sweet wine, a red wine, white wine or rosé and a fortified wine as you will
As the old and unattributed adage goes, life is too short to drink bad wine - but what makes a wine good or bad? What exactly is a good or quality wine? You may read 'Quality wine' or similar phrases on the label of a wine bottle but does that really mean that a wine is well-made? In this blogpost I share with you the
One of the things I love most about my job is meeting with winemakers because they talk so passionately about how they craft their wines, from the vineyard to the bottle. I invariably learn something new about winemaking and/ or viticulture each time. Joan Àngel Lliberia from Edetària is certainly no exception; in September 2019 I had the privilege of meeting him and Edetària's marketing
Most wine drinkers have strong feelings about oaked wines & unoaked wines; people either love or hate oaked wines. One thing that has not helped was the trend in the not-too-distant past for over-oaked wines like heavily-oaked Californian Chardonnay and commercial style Rioja. This guide to oaked wines looks at how oak affects wine, why and when oak is used in winemaking and how to
This blog post on Rhône wines, the first in a series, can only be an overview - the Rhône wine region is huge and the range of Rhône wines so varied that it is impossible to cover it all in one relatively short article. This guide covers Northern Rhone wines, Southern Rhone wines and their differences, Rhone wine labelling, what
In celebration of International Women's Day here are a few facts and musings about women and wine. Is it true that women are better tasters than men? Can you generalise about women's taste in wine? Do women spend more on wine than men? How do women buy wine? Do men and women swirl their wine in different directions? These are a few questions I ponder