18th November 2009
As with wine, the world of cocktails has its very own vocabulary, often confusing to the outsider. Below is a summary of some of the key terms and their meanings. COLLINS - Tall cool punch-like drinks. Any basic liquor with the juice of lemon or lime, ove...
13th November 2009
There's a thing about the Hungarians - these days they like to keep their wine to themselves (only a fifth of their wines are exported). Quite something when you consider that under communist rule in the early 1980's Hungary was the principle Central Eur...
19th October 2009
Cabernet Sauvignon, one of wine's most aristocratic grape varieties, is responsible for many of the world's greatest reds, and is regularly the primary grape variety in a number of the most expensive and sought after wines. Cabernet is famous for its dist...
12th October 2009
Let's be honest, when you're by yourself, who cares? After all you've pushed a half-cork into a bottle of wine with a bic biro before haven't you? You're a savvy customer - you know cork floating in wine doesn't mean the wine is corked. Nonsense to anyone...
09th October 2009
Let's be honest, when you are by yourself, who cares? After all you've pushed a half-cork into a bottle of wine with a pencil before haven't you? You're a savvy customer - you know cork floating in wine doesn't mean the wine is corked. Nonense to those th...
02nd October 2009
Syrah, one of the aristocratic grape varieties, is also known as Shiraz in Australia and other New World countries. It is famous for producing full bodied, (mostly) deeply coloured, spicy, fruity wines. Syrah is also the oldest of all the noble grape vari...
24th September 2009
Muscat is best described as a family of grapes, rather than a single variety. Many strains and mutations of the grape exist, from Muscat Blanc à Petit Grains (the posh type) to Muscat of Alexandria (the workhorse). The grapes can produce everything from ...
22nd September 2009
Wine writers, critics and experts have long had their own vocabulary when it comes to describing wine and its attributes, yet some of the best known terms often confuse the drinking public. The below is not in any way a complete list, but covers many of t...
17th September 2009
Champagne sabering, or as the French like to call it, sabrage, is one of those wonderfully theatrical procedures we just love. Some of our wine tasting challenges in 2009 have included sabrage. It is such an arcane activity we felt it warranted an article...
15th September 2009
It's one of the idiosyncrasies of the wine trade that most of the wine world's finest and rarest wines spend time in oak before they are released onto market. Why oak after all? There are other woods available, and isn't using wood of any description rath...
11th September 2009
If you're roughly familiar with kosher laws, you'll be forgiven for being nonplussed by the term kosher wine. You know the score on pigs, shellfish and the like, but how would you make a wine kosher? The first thing to bear in mind is that kosher laws are...
07th September 2009
The organic food debate hit the front pages yet again in the UK last week. Curiously, however organic winemaking doesn't seems to occupy the public's attention. So what is it, where can you get it, and is it better than conventionally made wine? Oddly pe...
23rd August 2009
Just last week we went on a wonderful day trip. Our visit was to Chapel Down, England's largest wine producer, nestled in the beautiful enclave of Tenterden in Kent. We were shown around by Owen Elias, the head winemaker, who kindly suffered an endless ba...
23rd August 2009
I remember back in my wine retailing days being besieged by requests from customers for bottles of wine from the years of their children's births. I also had customers requesting wines commemorating wedding aniversaries, christenings, and almost any other...
21st August 2009
It never fails to amaze us how many yards of media space have been dedicated to the subject of wine bottle enclosures. Whilst it's clear that there are some nationalities (notably the Portuguese) that have an almost fanatic loyalty to cork (it's a very im...
