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
I have been in two minds about adding another Riesling into the Wines With Attitude portfolio - in my experience people either love Riesling or hate it which is why I describe it as the Marmite grape (with apologies and also homage to the manufacturers of Marmite). But I was persuaded to by a new customer
Traditionally as a nation we Brits tend to veer towards crisp white wines when eating Chinese food perhaps thinking that it will
In the first part of my blog on the Rioja wine region and its wines I mentioned the rebellion that has going on for some time in the region against the Rioja wine classification system. Rioja red wines have essentially been classified based on length of time the wine is aged in oak which seems quite out
So long 2018 and a big welcome to 2019. I doubt that this year will be any less of a rollercoaster than last year for those of us in the UK; in fact I think we are all expecting turmoil and confusion in the first few months at least. So let's try to find some cheery news in what's predicted to happen in the wine
We read frequent reports about how e-commerce in the UK is growing and that includes a trend amongst time-pressed wine lovers towards buying wine online. But there are some things to be aware of when looking at wine e-commerce and I don't mean in this instance the large scale wine investment scams -
The very name “Beaujolais” often sends a shudder down the spine if, like me, you have memories of Beaujolais Nouveau tasting like fiercely dry Ribena with bubblegum and bananas served early on the third Friday in November just 8 weeks or so after the grapes have been harvested. It was in my view the Beaujolais Nouveau hoo-ha that was responsible for Beaujolais wines falling out
It's the time of year when the wine industry in the UK awaits with bated breath the decision of the Chancellor on alcohol duty. Will he or won't he raise duty on wine again in the Budget? As a reminder alcohol duty is, according to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) "a tax that is charged on alcohol produced