Qualified to talk about wine.
How cool is that!
My love of wine knows no bounds however my love of spirits is restricted to a pre-wine gin, the occasional rum when I happen to be in the Caribbean, the odd vodka coke here and there and a few whiskies at Christmas. I have tried the odd tequila, sambuca and […]
On a blazing hot day in June, myself and some friends headed to White Castle Vineyard in Abergavenny, Wales and, to our surprise, not only found some glorious sunshine but some incredibly wonderful wines! If you have any preconceptions about Welsh wine, please put them to one side and read on….. I […]
Now the sun is finally here, thoughts tend to turn to garden parties, BBQs and weddings. There is also a small matter of a Royal Wedding coming up this weekend!Planning your wine can feel really daunting but it shouldn’t be tough – it should be one of the fun bits! […]
Ah Hambledon. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” Never have Shakespeare’s words been more true! Hambledon is my favourite English Sparkling wine – I have shown a Hambledon at many a wine tasting, I served it at Christmas, I take it […]
Have you ever been in the British Airways First Class lounge? Have you ever wondered what’s available in there? Well, loads of food options, free wifi, comfy seats and places to work with great big windows which look out over the runway. And lots of free wine. I’ve been lucky enough […]
In the UK, we consume around 1.6 billion bottles of wine per year. One point six billion! That’s one hell of a lot of grapes. Many are collected using a grape harvesting machine but this isn’t possible in small production vineyards and in those vineyards which are high up or […]
I recently went to Crete on a trip with the wine-drinking bestie. After visiting the island once in my pre-university days (circa 1998), I knew this visit would probably be a little different to the late night booze-fest of my late teenage years.I’ve come a long way since those days […]
Hattingley Valley is in a quite ‘out-of-the-way’ spot in deepest, darkest Hampshire. Near to Alresford, the vineyard is accessible only by car and through some beautiful winding country roads. Quintessentially English, it’s only a few miles from Jane Austen’s house and one could, very easily, picture the Bennett girls having […]
There are just so many places to go and drink wine in London. There’s always a new bar or the new latest restaurant. But what if you just want a reasonably priced drink, decent wine and people that know what they’re talking about? Where do you go then? London Wine […]
I recently visited Céret in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. You can see my blog here. Whilst famous for Collioure and Banyuls wine, it is also a large cork producing area. Cork is harvested exclusively from the Cork Oak, Quercus Suber, found predominantly in the Mediterranean region. Though the tree can […]
Recently I was lucky enough to spend a sun-kissed week in the beautiful town of Céret in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. Being only three miles from the Spanish border, we flew into Barcelona and drove the 110km to Céret but you could also fly into Perpignan which is about […]
I’m just going to put something out there… wine is confusing, right? Corks and screwcaps, the seemingly elusive dry German wines, French wine labels and not to mention vintages – should I really avoid 2013 in Bordeaux? Wine has many, many variables. It’s why so many of us stick to […]
Mr N whisked me away to Bordeaux, the City of Wine, for our anniversary this year. It was a very sweeping visit of just over 24 hours but that didn’t stop us cramming as much in as possible.We arrived in Bordeaux City (an hour and a half from Gatwick) at […]
Happy New Year! I hope the festive period was good for you and that hangovers were scarce. The first few weeks of the new year can be a grim time. The festive fun is over, you’re back to work and it’s cold and dark. So, rather than think about all […]
Fly into Bilbao and drive just over an hour and you will be in Haro – the self-proclaimed capital of Rioja. There has been red wine production in this area of Spain for hundreds of years but it wasn’t until the mid-19th Century that the Rioja we know and love […]
Recently I spent three glorious weeks on the Caribbean island of Grenada. 35 degree temperatures, crystal blue seas and bright, bright sunshine. I’ve been to the Caribbean a few times before: Antigua, Barbados, Cuba and Jamaica and, each time, I’ve drunk rum. Rum punch, rum and pineapple, rum and coke, […]
I think I came to wine relatively late. I only started drinking the grape stuff in my early twenties. Before that, I had been raised on a (very dilute) Martini Rosso and Lemonade over Sunday lunch with my family and the inevitable university years of Bacardi Breezer and Purple Nasties […]
Italian wines, like French wines, can be frustrating. Not varietally labelled (they don’t tell you what grape is in the bottle), in some cases head-spinningly pricey and with some being deceptively strong, Italian wines can be a bit of a mine field. With hundreds of local grape varieties in production […]
Martin Codax, Marieta 2013Albarino, Rias Baixashttp://www.oddbins.com/marieta-albarino It’s amazing how you can remember some wines vividly. I think this one will stay with me forever. One of the (many) things I love about wine is what a social drink it is. Wine goes best with friends: over dinner, over catch ups, […]