Earlier this month a debate was held between wine writer Monty Waldin, a specialist on organic issues and Dr Richard Smart, a highly experienced viticultural expert. In May this year was the first Natural Wine Fair in London, organised by Isabelle Legeron MW. During the whole year I seem to have had numerous conversations with… View more
The more I visit, the more I find that as well as being beautiful and with a huge range of intriguing wines, the Jura wine region is full of great characters involved in different ways in wine. It has been a great pleasure getting to know these people over the years and their generosity in… View more
After my first update with the big news about the Jura wine region, this second one focuses more on what is important within the region, developments that potentially affect hundreds of people. In the spirit of the defunct Wine Report, I have also included a short summary of recent vintages, and an opinion piece with… View more
With some shock I realize that it’s more than three years since I wrote the Jura and Savoie chapter for the last edition of Tom Stevenson’s Wine Report 2009, published in October 2008. And, although since then I’ve written about wine tourism in Jura, and contributed articles to other publications, I have not written a… View more
In my last post I challenged readers to send me one hundred words of your thoughts on wine tourism, with the lure of a prize of a subscription to Jancis Robinson’s Purple Pages. I received six excellent entries, and invited freelance drinks journalist Susanna Forbes and wine educator Brett Jones to help me find a… View more
Does wine tourism exist? Does a wine tourist exist? Certainly the French think that it is sufficiently important to have its own word, oenotourisme, but talking with some people in both the wine trade and the travel trade, particularly in Europe, one wonders about its importance. To take just one example, at the huge World… View more
When I first started delivering the WSET Diploma lectures on South Africa back in 1996, Chenin Blanc accounted for a massive one-third of total – red and white – Cape vineyard plantings. South African Chenin Blanc coming to the UK in those early post-Apartheid days tended to be off-dry, clean but rather neutral. And, when… View more
For a long time, every other year, Jancis Robinson has encouraged the UK wine trade to partake in a wine-specific charity campaign, Wine Relief with funds going to Comic Relief (who help disadvantaged groups in Africa and the UK). A proportion of income from 80 selected wines available retail in the UK is passed to… View more
It’s been a long time coming, more than 20 years, but this year I am really excited that Savoie wines finally seem to be finding a tiny niche in the UK wine market and beyond. Earlier this month, I offered tastings of wines from three Savoie producers, all imported to the UK, to around 200… View more
January is abstention or certainly moderation month for many. Out on the web, the world may notice that wine communicators’ blogs, tweets and FB statuses are somewhat more sober than usual: recipes for special juices, angst about resolutions made or not made, and declarations of resolutions kept or broken break through the usual wine tasting… View more
