Mas Martinet Bru 2016, 14.5%, Priorato, Spain ($39, €18-22, £18.68 Justerini & Brooks) Catalonia is one of our favourite wine regions on the planet. It’s such a beautiful part of the world. Amazing food and wine. Wonderful people. A Mediterranean coastline that veers from the tourisy to the...
Nivola Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro NV, 10.5%, Italy (£11.99 on mix 6 until 22nd April, then £9.99 until 29th April 2019, Majestic) Lambrusco is having a moment. This brilliant wine shows why. It’s hard to know what to do with sparkling red. But the Italians are resourceful, and...
Why Domaine Etienne Sauzet Bourgogne La Tufera 2017 is a standout from the early tastings of this great but not stellar vintage...
Cape Mentelle Wallcliffe Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2015, Margaret River, Australia, 13.5% (AU$40, WineSquare) If you follow us on Instagram you’ll already be aware that I was lucky enough to spend a glorious ten days touring some of Australia’s finest vineyards in December. It was a trip that...
Space. That's where Paul Hobbs wanted to go, as an astronaut. Wine is where he ended up. Described by Forbes as, 'the Steve Jobs of wine', Hobbs is one of the best known international wine consultants, with the likes of Mondavi, Simi and Opus One on...
Chinuri Skin Contact 2015 Iago Bitarishvili, Chinuri Skin Contact 2015, Kartli, Georgia, 13% (£19.60 for the 2016 vintage, Les Caves de Pyrene) If a recent trip to Georgia proved anything, it was the fact that no one single phrase neatly sums up the style of Georgian wine, whether...
Robert Mondavi Winery Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1976, Oakville, California, 13% (Not commercially available) California’s Mondavi Winery is owned by Constellation Brands, a principal supporter of the Institute of Masters of Wine and sponsor of the IMW’s Robert Mondavi Winery Award. This award is given each year to...
Château Lynch Bages 2014, Pauillac, Bordeaux, 13.5% (c £70 per bottle in bond, BBR, Farr Vintners etc) This was a standout wine at a big tasting of 90+ Bordeaux wines from the 2014 vintage held at Vintners Hall by the Institute of Masters of Wine. Also impressive were the...
Pinot Noir in Essex?! Pinotage in Sussex?! It's all happening in English still wine at the moment. The sparkling wines of the UK go from strength to strength - and now they are being joined by a raft of still wines rapidly gaining critical mass and...
It was a fascinating experience putting together my recent BBC Radio 4 documentary The Wine Detectives, on how wine fraud is affecting (and being combatted by) top wine producers and buyers. Radio is such a brilliant medium for wine. So personal and evocative - almost meditative,...