Hotel du Teran
Winemakers can be a tricksy bunch. There are the natural showmen and marketeers, keen to show you their “icon” wines and boast about how much new oak is used for the premium cuvees. Then there are the quiet taciturn types Read more
Smoke on the water – Hungarian Wine House tasting
Any bon-viveur worth their salt will be familiar with Hungary’s most famous vinuous export – Tokaji Aszu. This luscious yet refreshing nectar has assured Hungary’s place on the international wine map for the last 400 years. Additionally, those of a Read more
Rock the Carso (Friuli Part 1)
Friuli-Venezia Giulia is Italy’s most North-Easterly region. Like many European border areas, Friuli has a composite identity made up of Italian, Slovenian and Teutonic cultures. Those borders, which can seem so trivial now (on our visit, we drifted into Slovenia Read more
Bubbling up in Brescia
Tucked away in a quiet corner of Lombardy is an attractive, stately city, untouched by major tourism and unhyped by the guide books. Brescia is the de facto capital of Franciacorta, a sub-region specialising in the production of sparkling wine. Read more
Sherry Maestro No.22
Sherry seems to be going through a mini-renaissance right now, after decades of being banished to the backwater of granny’s christmas cupboard. It is after all one of the few real bargains of the wine world – complex, characterful, consistent Read more
Dalmatia Part 3: Korta Katarina
In my previous post I wrote about a family wine-producing micro-enterprise. The Bura winery produces only around 2,000 bottles each of their key wines, Bura Dingač and Mare Postup. I visited Boris Mrgdić and the Bura family in the morning. Read more
Dalmatia Part 2: Pelješac peninsula, Dingač and the wines of the Bura family
The Pelješac peninsula runs parallel to the Dalmatian coastline like a finger, with just a tiny sliver of adjoining land stopping it from becoming an island. It’s a dry, mountainous landscape, with quiet villages and sandy beaches spread around the Read more
Dalmatia Part 1: Grk, the most feminine of all grapes
Grk has to be one of the most fascinating grape varieties I’ve ever encountered. You can only find it in the sandy soils of the vineyards surrounding the beach town of Lumbarda, on Korčula island in Croatia. An unnamed present Read more
Exotic Agiorgitiko
The Greek wine industry could have done without the nation having a financial crisis, it was hardly having an easy ride as things were. This is a shame, because there is much high quality wine-making on both the mainland and Read more
Slovenia-les-Beaune?
Wine labels can tell you a lot about what’s in the bottle – and by that, I don’t mean alcohol percentages or the grape variety. The visual style of the label often drops a few clues about the target market, Read more