Welcome to The Morning Claret!
Do you like wine? But you hate reading all the boring technical stuff? How about serious writing turbo-charged with opinion, narrative and humour?
The Morning Claret is a site that both celebrates and investigates artisanal, natural and low-intervention wine. Expect critical writing with a journalistic intent. I look for the story behind the wine, because it interests me more than tasting notes or technical details. I focus on on the lesser known parts of the wine world, including central and eastern Europe, Georgia and beyond. Austria, Slovenia and Portugal all have a special place in my heart.
Who am I?
I’m Simon J Woolf, and I’ve been writing about wine since 2011, in magazines, books, on and offline. I write about what I personally like to drink, and the overarching themes I cover - organic and biodynamic farming, sustainability, low intervention, natural and orange wine - all represent my own deeply held beliefs and passions.
My first book Amber Revolution - How the World Learned to Love Orange Wine has become the go-to guide to this hyped wine category since the 1st edition was published in 2018. Foot Trodden - Portugal and the Wines that Time Forgot was published in 2021, and co-written with Ryan Opaz. Both books were New York Times wine books of the year, and Foot Trodden was shortlisted for a James Beard award.
So you’re wondering, why is this site called The Morning Claret? There’s no good reason beyond some twisted British humour and a closet love for Bordeaux. Ssh!
If you want to know more, hit the subscribe button and join a community of fellow artisan wine lovers.
Subscribe for free!
You’ll receive regular updates direct to your inbox, and unlimited access to everything I make available for free. Roughly one article a month is paywall-free, and you can preview all the paid content or start a trial subscription if something piques your interest.
Become a paying subscriber
Upgrade your support for just €7 monthly or €50 annually. You’ll receive all new articles and reports that I publish here. Not only do you receive my weekly updates, you get advance notice about more major articles and reports and you can participate in the conversation via my subscriber chat and article comment threads. And you get a direct line to my DMs, ask me for wine-related advice any time you want.
This site is entirely reader-supported and funded. There’s no pay-to-play, no advertising, no sponsored posts, no collabs. If you’d like to support truly independent writing and wine journalism, please subscribe today. You’ll receive my eternal thanks, in addition to weekly fresh content and my archive of over 300 articles.
Still need convincing? Here are some popular posts that you can read for free:
Are Wine Scores a Waste of Time?
I asked my subscribers if they value wine ratings with scores or not. And here I explain why I've chosen not publish scores as part of my wine guides.
Austria's Love Hate Relationship with Natural Wine
Why did the cellar inspection team decide to go after a bunch of iconic natural winemakers recently? Most people see Austria as a haven for natural wine, but some of its biggest names are struggling with what they see as persecution and increasing bureaucracy.
Fine Wine isn't wine, it's just commerce
Last December, I sat in the conference room of an extremely expensive hotel located in Austria’s most exclusive ski resort town, Lech, with about 30 wine professionals. Four important people sat on stage and discussed the question ‘What is fine wine?’
Natural wine shouldn't be a style
Natural wine was supposed to be about ideals, but did it just became a style equated with cloudy, funky wines?
