Is it just me or do you think that wines generally are becoming less tannic? I don't think my subconscious is pushing me away from more tannic wines when I taste and buy red wine. After all, in the right wine and when in balance with other elements of a wine, tannins are a good thing, providing character, structure, body
There are many people who review and score wine; I am often asked which of these wine critics I rate. So below are those wine critics at the top of my list and why - plus some information on the different ways they rate wine. I include what I think are the minimum scores that you should look for
Some time ago one of my lovely newsletter subscribers asked me to cover the wines of Catalonia in one of my blog posts. It's a huge area with 10 recognised wine regions and difficult to generalise so I will split the subject of Catalan wines into more than one blog post. This first will focus on perhaps the best known
I am sometimes told that many wine bloggers and wine retailers don't give any thought to vegetarians when making food and wine pairing suggestions. I try to come up with some vegetarian dishes when I write suggested pairings for each of my wines but I guess, since I am not vegetarian, that I just don't have a sufficiently wide range of vegetarian dishes at the
Beautiful clear skies, sunshine and heat, surely the perfect weather for wine grapes? But is it? Temperatures in Continental Europe in summer 2017 have been regularly above 40° Celsius; the continental climate is known for being extreme, with very hot summers, but this year it seems that it is hotter than ever. The heat wave, nicknamed Lucifer, is wreaking havoc on many crops including
I was drawn to an article in The Independent which reported a study that concluded that elaborate descriptions of wine on labels can make us think that a wine tastes better - and make us spend more on wine. The article suggests therefore that this is a clever marketing trick.
To write well about wine, to engage with an audience and do that consistently over many years is no mean feat. These days, many aspire, but few are chosen. Hugh Johnson has been at it now for 55 years. His latest book, subtitled Good Bits from 55 years of Scribbling, does exactly what it says on the tin. Right from the start, he grasped that
There is more to New Zealand wine than Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and yet Sauvignon Blanc still accounted for 72%* of New Zealand wine grapes harvested in 2016; most of those came from Marlborough. Amazing especially when you consider that the grape was only planted in Marlborough in the 1970s.
So the very crisp, gooseberry, grassy style of Sauvignon
We've all heard these terms but what do Old World and New World wine mean and are they still valid terms in the wine world? Old World and New World have been used for many years as descriptors and categories for wine. I have even hosted several wine tastings on the subject in the past. Although I hear the terms used less frequently these days
Regular readers of this wine blog post will have an interest in wine. Most of you will consider yourselves wine enthusiasts but how many of you are wine buffs ? Here are some tongue-in-cheek clues that might suggest you are getting bitten a little too excessively by the wine bug.