Sicily. Gosh. Talk of ‘might-have-beens’! I was nearly a Sicilian. I mean it! I was singing Leporello in the opera “Il Dissoluto Punito” at the Edinburgh Festival, and at the end of the show I got a message to go round to the Italian restaurant next door. So I did. And I was faced with […]
Undiscovered Castilla y León by Tim Atkin MW The Monty Python team once did a humorous sketch about an All-England Summarize Proust Competition, where contestants were required to capture the essence of A La Recherche du Temps Perdu, a notoriously long seven-volume French novel, in 15 seconds. They all fail. Summing up the wines of […]
It’s awesome how quickly things can change in the world of wine. It isn’t that long ago that Argentina was a great two-toed sloth hanging forlornly off the bough of the flourishing, multicoloured tree that was ‘New World Wine’. Chile was a bouncy, fruitful branch, Uruguay was a promising sapling – and Argentina wasn’t even […]
Like many gardeners I’ve suddenly got a glut of gorgeous homegrown tomatoes – nice problem to have! I’ll be making tomato salads, tomato pasta sauces and ratatouille with my tomatoes for the next couple of weeks. So, what to drink with this special fruit that we cook like a vegetable? Tomatoes have (or should have) […]
Rías Baixas is without doubt one of my favourite wine and food destinations to visit. In Galicia, the far north western corner of Spain, nestled directly above Portugal, Rías Baixas has a climate more cool, drizzly and misty than the sunseekers in Marbella could conceive Spain being capable of. This is a region of lush […]
It’s Spain but not as we know it…. This is GREEN SPAIN!! This is not the Spain of common perception – the busy beaches stretching lazily along the Med, the tiny white villages (‘pueblos blancos’) clinging to the mountains in the scorching south. Here we are up in the far north west of Spain, slightly cut […]
Many people put their time in lockdown to good use and learnt a new skill or deepened their knowledge on a subject they already had an interest in. There are wine schools, clubs and societies all over the country led by passionate and knowledgeable wine lovers. In normal times (we are not talking about the […]
If ever there were a ‘time of year’ for Chenin, I reckon right now is it. September’s kicked in and has brought with it the darker, cooler evenings and the classic random mix of summery warm hours during the day, with sudden chilly breezes. We’ve seen Autumn before, let’s not over-do it Tom. Harvests have […]
As the world authority on South African wines, Tim Atkin MW has launched his much anticipated South Africa report this morning. He was supposed to visit three times this year to taste and write the report and with the obvious travel challenges faced this year the wines came to him instead. After tasting 1,381 wines […]
Anyone who knows me personally, or has watched my wine stuff regularly will be well aware of the burning passion I hold for sherry. Contrary to popular belief, I’m here to tell you that if you don’t drink sherry regularly then you’re showing your age. A total Grandma. A dinosaur. All the cool kids are […]
