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 [...]
When I mention my interest in wine to a new acquaintance I am rarely surprised by the responses I hear. Sadly, the most frequent reaction is for someone to adjust their face to a woefully tiresome expression and say, in a tone more appropriate for accusing someone of farting in their granny’s face, “Oh you [...]
Tuesdays are rarely thought of as the most lark and jape-filled days, yet this Tuesday I had a royal time quite unlike any other Tuesday in recent memory. Not only was there excellent food and wine but greater enjoyment value was provided by seeing two friends who are firmly established at a far more grown-up [...]
How many times have you heard people braying with irritating smugness about all the wonderful cheap wine they have picked up in French supermarkets? Endlessly, I’ll wager. Well next time you hear some smug arse prattling out this tosh I strongly suggest you make it abundantly clear you could think of few experiences as dreary [...]
I have been having computer issues over the last week so I am getting a tad behind transcribing my notes, I hope the next few days will see them published. Yesterday’s tasting of 2010 German Rieslings organised by the great wine merchant Howard Ripley was such a remarkable, marvellous and flabbergasting experience that it has [...]
Right, let me make one thing entirely clear from the start: Sherry is a fortified wine that comes from the Jerez area of Spain. There is definitely no such thing as British Sherry, Cyprus Sherry, Wodonga Sherry or any similar variety of filth that the mendacious purveyor of sordid dross might try to coerce you [...]
For those tired of hearing about 2009 Burgundies you will be pleased to know this is my last report from the offer-season’s tastings. However, even though this was a small tasting I found the wines on show to be engorged with the very highest levels of thrilling intellectual interest and perfervid visceral pleasure. Consequently, if [...]
Given my initial article on and the a couple of days ago you have probably had enough of me harping on about the stuff. If so then I do apologise, but I love Burgundy and have found the 2009s to be so libidinously pleasurable that I want to assist Pinotophiles and Chardonnay-doxies in getting the [...]
After returning from my summer holiday I wrote a piece about my initial . I’ve just got back from a tasting given by the London wine merchant Haynes, Hanson and Clark and I’m pleased to report that my initial assessment about 2009 being a high quality vintage was correct. Indeed, based on this tasting I [...]
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