I visit Christophe Roumier every year – he is one of the great producers of Chambolle-Musigny. However, after I have tasted from cask most of the wines I buy go straight into the cellar. Consequently, it was a real treat to try two Chambolle villages at a relatively early stage of development. They provided very [...]
This note celebrates two events. Firstly, today it’s the 13th anniversary of the first time I tried to kill myself, shortly after paranoid schizophrenia consumed my mind, by slashing my wrists and then getting sectioned in the loony bin a few hours later. Tonight those events seem a terribly long time ago; I suppose they [...]
Since I did not make it to most of the 2010 Burgundy tastings I planned to attend I am very pleased that my friend James Hardy provided this summary of Howard Ripley’s event. James is an ex-Captain of the Oxford University Blind tasting team and so knows his onions. This is particularly true as I [...]
I must start with an apology: horrific illness has prevented me from attending most of the 2010 Burgundy tastings I was planning to visit and write up. Luckily Haynes, Hanson and Clark provided an excellent view across many styles and producers and had much to say in general about the hilariously fine quality of the [...]
The natural wine lunatics have taught us one thing: just because a wine is faulty doesn’t mean it’s great. However, faulty wines can have their pleasures and this bottle of Chateau Pibarnon 1997 is not without enjoyment value. I popped this with some Beechcroft beef burgers to celebrate feeling almost slightly less appallingly ill and [...]
We haven’t been drinking vast quantities over the festive period, so what better way to get really newscasted on New Year’s Day than a bottle of Port? Taylor’s 1975 may have seen better days, but provided pleasure. Drinking this on 1st January 2012 allowed us to toast the good health of all 36 (and a [...]
Even as a regular Sherry drinker and incredible fan, I cannot possibly summarise the drinking experience this wine presents in a sentence. Head down the page and the note will make all clear. Just so you know: this is a Fino Sherry bottled at ten years old when, we are told, the growth of flor [...]
I have recently been musing on the importance of being happy, both in relation to wine and also more generally. Indeed, it was this very subject that Editor Daniel and I were discussing as I popped this Riesling. It was therefore serendipitous that it proved to be quite deliciously drinkable allowing us to continue our [...]
In my ; Pinot Noir is even better. A well-made Pinot Noir from an interesting location is titillates every faculty – from the intellectual thrills of its transparent expression of origin and the wine-maker’s ability to the often frankly lubricious delight of its beautiful fruit and satisfying mouth-feel it totally pleasures the enlightened drinker. If [...]
Riesling is great stuff, either you love it or you are wrong. Given the screaming peaks of brilliance it can attain it seems a shame that such a relatively small proportion of growers manage to extract the best from it. I have tried Brooks Riesling from the Willamette Valley in Oregon in the past and [...]
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