Two intense, but wonderful days in Champagne in early December taught me much as always, not least that I have rather expensive tastes. Perhaps my greatest learning experience was to appreciate more about the very intricate and varied ways in which each Champagne House or grower chooses to make its base wines and the influence… View more
“You are very prolific on Facebook” commented an old school friend recently with some curiosity. She’s on there, but I don’t think she really gets it. “I mainly do it for business” I answered, “although there are some fun bits too, I’m probably on there a bit too much” I admitted. But am I? When… View more
Some news. Firstly, this is a new website and blog for me, which will keep you up-to-date with everything I’m doing. I’m deserting Blogger and the Winey Wink blog, all the previous posts have been fed in to this WordPress.com blog and I will continue to post here when I have something new to share…. View more
Twenty years ago, long before terroir was considered anything more than a typically mad French idea, microclimate was the thinking wine lover’s buzz word. Back then, terroir was perceived, even by serious wine professionals, as invoking an image of a French vigneron grabbing a handful of earth and telling you: “Zees is what matters in… View more
UPDATE: 24th June 2010: Thanks to all for participating and to those who spread the word about this offer! We have selected New Zealand world travllers, Craig and Linda Martin of Indie Travel Podcast to stay at Chalet Balaena and experience the Tour de France! Congratulations to them and looking forward to it! Here’s a… View more
The London International Wine Fair (LIWF) celebrated its 30th anniversary this May and it was probably my 27th visit to the fair. Particularly in the past decade as I’ve split my time between France and the UK, it’s become a really important catch-up and networking event for me. The biggest positive change to the fair… View more
I promised that on this, my personal blog, I would relate some of my experiences with the Wine Travel Guides website. It’s been lots of work and the latest developments were announced in the press release earlier this week announcing our launch of tailor-made wine tour itineraries. This is an attempt at utilizing the in-depth… View more
It’s where I first learnt to ski, where I first appreciated the beauty of glaciers, where I first bought a man a drink (aged 9, encouraged by my father), where I first drank Fendant, the local name for white Chasselas wine, to excess (many years later, I promise), where I first lived (briefly) on my… View more
I’ll stand up and say it right away – I’m a fan of Social Media …. how sad is that? Sadder still perhaps is my personal conviction that I should try to convince friends, colleagues or those few people reading this blog who might not be as enamoured with Social Media as I am –… View more
In the absence of that wonderfully useful annual guide Wine Report – no 2010 has been published and 2011 is unlikely – I thought a roundup of random news from Savoie might be useful. Some of these items are not so new at all, but Savoie news travels rather slowly. The text I provided for… View more
