Normally the first full week of January is relatively quiet for a wine merchant. Dry January kicks in, we’re all on the Christmas come down, no one has any money…all culminate into nobody really drinking much grape juice. Apart from wine merchants themselves of course…January for me is extraordinarily busy. Yes dear readers (both of … Continue reading Work? In January…
Let’s get something straight: bees are cool. Yes they are. I say this mainly as I am a big fan of the concept of ongoing life on Earth. Did you know there are 16,000 species of bee? I know. Awesome right? Did you also know that if you stacked up all the vinyl records ever … Continue reading Oh Beehive It With These Terrible Puns
Social media has long been fascinating to me and has in fact played a very important role in my life. It is through the world of social media that I met my wife. In fact, I’ve met many people who have gone on to become important to me through Facebooks, Twitters and The Gram. It … Continue reading An Interview With Jasmin Swan; The Mosel’s Latest Young Winemaker
The strangest thing just happened: I opened this bottle and suddenly my room was filled with societally approved attractive women, all scantily clad and seemingly attracted to me despite their better judgement. I had a sudden urge to wear ridiculously tight white t shirts and behave like a complete pr…wait. I know what’s happened here. … Continue reading Wild Cats & Fictional Dogs
There are many avenues down which one can learn about wine. WSET, the internet, tastings…I learned a lot from Captain Picard. Starfleet operates the Prime Directive; minimal intervention of primitive yeast cultures. Every week the valiant crew of the USS Enterprise carry out First Contact; skins would be macerated at length to create wines of … Continue reading To Boldly Go Where No Skin Contact Has Gone Before
No one really knows the origins of the Masters of Wine. Mythos suggests that it was in medieval Scotland. Their ranks have included Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez; an Egyptian with a Spanish name and thick Scottish accent and a Scotsman played by a Frenchman. The wine trade is nothing if not inclusive. MW’s famously engage … Continue reading There Can Be Only One
“What do you mean I’m intensely spicy?”“You’re spicy, you know? You’re an intense wine.”“What do you mean, you mean the way I taste?”“It’s just, you know, you’re just deep and intense and structured. The way you taste…”“Taste how? What’s tasty about me? I make tasty wine? Like I’m here to f***ing be tasty for you? … Continue reading As Far Back As I Can Remember…
Learning about wine is all about going on a journey. My own wine journey started on the Australian Express; Platform 7 to Shiraz Town with a quick stop at Chardsville (there’s a subtle joke here for snooker fans). How one gets into wine is irrelevant really, it’s about remaining open minded and taking delight in … Continue reading Dante’s Timetable
We have a saying in the wine trade about only ever hosting a tasting at the same venue twice in your career. Once on the way up, and once on the way…well, you get the idea. Not sure what it says about my career trajectory then that I am for the second time hosting a … Continue reading Harry Potter And The Bordeaux Wise Guys
1983 was a tough vintage in Burgundy. It was a bad year in the Lake District too; indeed it was, for 36 years ago today I was hatched into the world. As was foretold in the prophecies ‘For shall appear a man from the north; pale of skin and thirsty of tongue. Around the globe … Continue reading A Blog Entry 36 Years In The Making
