Hacienda San Juan Pinot Noir 2015

Hacienda San Juan Pinot Noir 2015, San Antonio, Chile, 13.5%  ($34, Vinos del Rey (Miami) and Crescent Inc (NY)) Freshness. Elegance. Complexity. That's what the best wines from San Antonio can give you. This coastal region is a relative newcomer in Chilean wine terms but right from the...

Pegasus Bay Pinot Noir 2018

Pegasus Bay Pinot Noir 2018, Waipara, New Zealand 13.5%  (£26.50, North and South Wines, Saxtys Wines, Must Wines, The Wine Reserve) February has proved a bleak month for those in lockdown in the UK but it was brightened somewhat by New Zealand Winegrowers holding its first ever...

Aristargos 2018

David & Nadia Aristargos 2018, Swartland, South Africa, 13.5%,  (£25, Justerini & Brooks) We cracked open this voluptuous but energising white to mark South Africa’s Heritage Day (24th Sept). You can see a short vid we filmed for the occasion, as below. Many wine industries around the world...

Chile transformed

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...

Our desert island wines

So what would YOU go for if you had to choose three desert island wines? It's the question every true wine lover fears. Yet we gamely took it on in the name of entertainment...

Eyrie Original Vines Pinot Noir 2016

Eyrie Original Vines Pinot Noir 2016, Dundee Hills, Oregon 14% (£80-90, Savage Selection) This was a lockdown wine to remember. And remember we did, because we only had about 100ml of the stuff (whole bottles tend to interfere with memory, we find). That's because this wine was part of...

Exquisite Collection Organic Malbec 2019

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

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...