Elitistreview is eight years today and, my, how it has blossomed into an artfully sculpted youth. I admit that before I had a course of Cognitive Behavioural therapy for psychosis in 2009 the posts were all too often often awkward and desperately unhappy, but since then the jokes have got a lot better. I have […]
My exhortation in the title is both a reference to how I remember this wine caressing me on my last taste of it and also a plea regarding the hyper-critical faculties I know Elitistreview readers render patent when assaying this organ. I arrogate your good favour when you read this post purely because I am […]
Do not like Riesling? You are mad. Do not like Moscato? Christ… Well, do not worry, when they let you out of the secure ward (I can suggest some minimally nasty loony bins to book into) I have a great recommendation for a summery wine for you. It is light, refreshing, affordable and, if I am […]
I originally wrote this piece for a minor publication and, having just re-read it and then tried to stiffen my upper lip, I thought it worthy of a wider and more enlightened audience. Luckily, with Elitistreview I have an organ of enormous proportions and great appreciation at my very fingertips. It is not about food […]
Austrian wines… Phew! One thing is sure and that is that the pork in cream sauce-noshers like them as heroically proportioned as their lunch servings. Certainly with whites, delicate, subtle grape varieties like Riesling are all too often tied up in piano wire until they obey orders and get up to unfortunate levels of ripeness […]
The 2012 German Riesling tasting by Howard Ripley shows that I could well be out of a job. Virtually all the wines I tasted were of an extremely enjoyable standard and it is clearly another great vintage in Germany. Indeed, with the improvements in viticulture in Germany, notably more and more estates controlling their yields, […]
It usually pays to be happy and enthusiastic. When my chum Susan Wilk let slip she was a part time ceramicist I gleefully leapt at her twitter account to grill her for information about what she makes and, if she could manage it, some pictures – I have a definite thing for ceramics. The charming […]
It is a good job I have got over the dream of being a winemaker. Partly because it will never happen, but mostly because it is a total bastard of a job. The vineyard this Prum Riesling is grown in is steeper than the walk back home up the hill after shopping, and doing that […]
I love the Hampshire Farmers Market! The Editor and I enjoyed another cracking morning at the Winchester occurrence of Hampshire Farmers Markets today. We thought it would be a great service to you, our dear readers, to share our selection of the best stalls there in the order we enthusiastically march around the market. Of course, […]
I would like to tell you about some olive oil that is so good it is the staple at Elitistreview Towers; we always feel delighted when we have the chance to use it. ‘So good’ is the prime quality that interests the team here, but speaking for myself, I also have an eye for a […]
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