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Chianti Classico deep dive (3) Fèlsina
Website: https://www.felsina.it/en/ Like many of Chianti Classico’s grand properties, the land at the extensive Fèlsina estate was farmed by sharecroppers until the end of the second world war. The...
View ArticleHighlights: Everflyht Brut NV Sussex, England
Website: https://www.everflyht.com/ This is a single vineyard estate at the foot of Ditchling Beacon in the South Downs, in East Sussex. Classic Champagne varieties planted on limestone soils. The...
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Restaurants: Gymkhana, London
Restaurants: Gymkhana Website: https://gymkhanalondon.com/ I first visited Gymkhana back in September 2014, about a year after it opened. This was a press invite for an evening of food and wine...
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A Centre Loire study: seven wines, red and white
Tasted these Centre Loire wines together. It’s an interesting region and there are lots of good terroirs here. I visited this year and it’s a region I am watching closely. Jospeh Mellot Sincérité...
View ArticleHighlights: The Hermit Ram Salty White 2022
This is a blend of Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling from organic vineyards in North Canterbury. They are fermented whole bunch. Some is aged in stainless steel, some in amphora, and two...
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Restaurants: Post and Pepper, Stellenbosch
Website: https://postandpepper.co.za/ This was one of the gastronomic highlights of a recent trip to South Africa, where we spent a fair bit of time in Stellenbosch. The name refers to the fact that...
View ArticleHighlights: Champagne Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Grand Crus Rosé 2011
2011 was a very tricky vintage in Champagne, but I really liked the Comtes Blanc de Blanc, and here’s the newly released Rosé. It’s really good too. Champagne Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Grand Crus...
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In Niagara (10) Malivoire, now a Gamay specialist
Website: www.malivoire.com Martin Malivoire’s background is in film special effects, so during his career he saw a lot of change, culminating in the cgi-heavy blockbusters of today. He brought the...
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In Niagara (11) The Organized Crime Winery
Website: https://www.organizedcrimewinery.com/ The Organized Crime is a slightly unusual name for a winery, but they are making some really lovely wines from a spectacular site on the Beamsville...
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Most Memorable Champagnes of 2023
Though Champagne sales fell in 2023 (The Comité Champagne [CIVC] predicted sales of 314 million bottles vs 326 million sold in 2022), Goode and I certainly contributed our share, tasting/drinking a...
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Video: reviving the tradition of making wines in amphora in the Alentejo,...
The south of the Alentejo wine region has a tradition of making wine in large clay amphorae known as talhas. Often people would have their own talha and the wine that it contained would supply the...
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Chianti Classico deep dive (4) San Felice
Website: https://www.sanfelice.com/en San Felice is another wine estate with a lot of properties. These in the past were accommodation for the sharecroppers, and many old farms in the region have...
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The wines of Bosman, Wellington and Hemel-en-Aarde, South Africa
Website: https://bosmanwines.com/ Wellington-based producer Bosman have quietly become one of the most interesting of all South African producers. They don’t just focus on fine wine, but span multiple...
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Chianti Classico deep dive (5) dinner at Salefino Vino & Cucina in Siena
Website: https://salefino-siena.com/vino-e-cucina/ This was my first time in Siena, which is simply stunning. It’s almost entirely unspoiled, and is very old. After the obligatory aperol in the...
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Beaujolais adventures (7) Clos du Mez, Fleurie
Website: https://www.closdemez.com/ Marie-Élodie Zighera-Confuron (hence MEZ, with Confuron her added-on married name) is on a mission to make great, ageworthy Beaujolais. Her family have been making...
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Why should we care about the age of the vine that made our wine?
Man’s history with the vine predates the written word. Old vines map man’s passage to the new world and our genesis in the old. Prized for complexity, flavour and their marked tendency to express...
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The remarkable wines of Werlitsch, Styria, Austria
Website: http://www.werlitsch.com/ Ewald and Brigitte Tscheppe (above) are the couple behind one of Austria’s most interesting wine projects: the Werlitsch winery. They were in London at their...
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In Niagara, Canada (12) Southbrook Vineyards
Website: https://www.southbrook.com/ The Redelmeier family have been farmers in Ontario since the 1940s. Current proprietor Bill Redelmeier proved to be entrepreneurial, and in the 1980s developed a...
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The wines of Cayuse revisited: stunning wines from Walla Walla
I caught up with Christoph Baron of Cayuse at the 2023 TexSom conference to taste through some of his wines. Cayuse are responsible for the development of the remarkable river-stone terroir of the...
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Bourgogne (Burgundy) 2022: a surprising and beautiful vintage
Each year in January, the UK wine trade has a Bourgogne week. Except, we still call it Burgundy week. The interprofessional body, the BIVB, wants us to use the French name for the region rather than...
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