If you think you know Chilean wine, think again. Chile is a wine nation transformed. This is a piece I wrote for The Wine Society. They have a long and venerable tradition of publishing notable wine writers for their members' newsletters and magazines, and now also...
Exquisite Collection Organic Argentinian Malbec 2019, 13.5% (£6.99, Aldi) This juicy, fresh, easy-going red will give a lot of drinking pleasure. It’s worlds away from the body-builder reds that have fallen out of fashion in Argentina lately. This is upbeat, friendly stuff that also happens to be organic....
Neyen Malbec 2016, 13%, Apalta, Chile (c £50) I wasn’t supposed to taste this wine. The producer was supposed to send another wine. But somehow it was this very particular Malbec – just one of 762 bottles made – that ended up being despatched. Serendipity, I guess you’d call...
Dog Point Chardonnay 2017, 13.5%, Marlborough, New Zealand (£26, Berry Bros & Rudd) Hello. We're Susie and Peter. And we have a problem...
Bollinger La Grande Année 2012, 12%, Champagne, France (£440 for 6 in bond, J&B) Watch out champagne lovers: 2012 is not a vintage to miss. And Bollinger’s La Grand Année (LGA) 2012 is a wine to buy, even if you have to beg, borrow or steal. It’s that...
Did you know that the winners of the FA Cup, one of Britain's biggest sporting events, now celebrate (and dutifully spray each other) with non alcoholic sparkling 'wine' rather than champagne? It's a small detail, a pub quiz oddity if you like, but it made headlines...
Clusel Roch Traboules 2017, Coteaux Lyonnais, France (£12.67, Justerini & Brooks) Clusel Roch is an excellent producer best known for its excellent northern Rhône reds, including some delicious Côte Rôties. This Traboules is an intriguing and utterly delicious oddity. It's from the south of the little-known Lyonnais appellation, not...
Wine's brilliant. So selling it must be easy, right? Wrong. It's a crowded market. Brexit hasn't helped. Consumer confidence is low, we have a fluctuating currency and a punitive tax regime. On top of all this, people are drinking ever less. All this means we need our best...
'We believe English still wines have the potential to challenge Burgundy.' Let's consider that statement for a moment. Yes, it's hardly disinterested because it was said by an English wine grower (Ruth Simpson of Simpsons Wine Estate in Kent). And yet the Simpsons also make wine in...
Sidewood Isabella rosé 2014, Adelaide Hills, Australia (£21 or AUS$32, www.sidewood.com.au) Owen Inglis’s Sidewood Estate in Australia’s Adelaide Hills is a new discovery for us. Although the estate produces both still wines and ciders, it was the current releases of Sidewood’s sparkling wines that we were recently sent...