Why Domaine Etienne Sauzet Bourgogne La Tufera 2017 is a standout from the early tastings of this great but not stellar vintage...
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...
Chateau de Bel Franc de Bel NV, Bordeaux, France £23.90-29, Jaded Palates, Queen's Park Wines or via Wine Searcher This is Bordeaux, but not as we know it. Olivier Cazenave has a broad smile and big ambitions. He's going against the grain in Bordeaux, one of the most...
Château La Conseillante 2005, Pomerol, Bordeaux, 13.5% (Peter, 8-8.5/10, March 2018) The 2005 vintage is one of our all-time Bordeaux favourites from the modern era. The 2009 and 2010 were labelled great but all too often the top wines are overblown, borderline egotistical. With the 2005s, there’s...
Coeur de Caroline Côtes de Provence Rosé 2016, France, 13% (£8.99, Co-op) Ching-He Huang is well known for her deliciously modern, healthy take on Chinese food. The dish she cooked up on Saturday Kitchen for Chinese New Year was no exception. Hong Kong style fried fish and...
This is a report on a very special tasting I attended in the gleaming riverside offices of Farr Vintners in Battersea, September 2017. It was a tasting with both a personal and political dimension. We were privileged to be tasting wines from the first decade of Royal...
January is the time of year when Burgundians show off their new vintage. Currently it's hard to cross the road in London without falling over a top-notch Burgundian producer clutching bottles of their 2016s - a year that is notable for reduced volumes due to spring...
Baron de Guers Picpoul de Pinet 2016, France, 12.5% (£6.50-£8, Sainsbury's) I'm a sucker for a good seafood stew so I was very excited to find a Saturday Kitchen wine to go with Rick Stein's take on Cioppino. His delicious version of this Italian-American fisherman's stew featured monkfish,...
Vinus by Paul Mas Clairette 2016, France (£8, Morrisons) Who doesn't like a good pie? Even - or perhaps especially - when it's called shakh plov. This Azerbaijani dish was being cooked by the delightful Olia Hercules on Saturday Kitchen. You really need to see it to get...
M&S Saint-Véran 2016, France (£11.50, Marks & Spencer) If Tom Aikens cooking you pan-fried John Dory with turnips and chestnuts isn't an invitation to crack open the white Burgundy, I don't know what is. This was my Saturday Kitchen pairing for Tom's aforementioned delightful creation. It's the affordable end...