The Morning Claret

Simon J Woolf & Friends on Wild and Wonderful Wines

Hannah Fuellenkemper

Hannah is a wordsmith, would-be-winemaker and occasional purveyor of wines at her popup "Le Carton". Currently resident in the Ardèche, originally of American extraction.
avaline with angry mob
5 minute read

Sour grapes over clean wine

Hannah Fuellenkemper takes a look at the somewhat murky world of clean wine, and why it’s caused such a stir in natural wine circles

How to survive La Dive Bouteille - Par Ici Sign - Photo (C) Simon J Woolf
6 minute read

How to survive La Dive

Hannah has the essential tips for you if you’re a wine professional and you want to keep body and soul together at La Dive Bouteille and its spin-off wine fairs in the Loire this winter.

Van and grape disaster - Photo (C) Hannah Fuellenkemper
5 minute read

Amazing opportunity, cellar hand wanted

Want a job working for an up-and-coming winery located somewhere in France? Hannah Fuellenkemper has the most amazing opportunity for you…. possibly.

5 minute read

Four wines and a wormhole

Hannah thinks she’s opened some kind of portal by calling up memories of 2020’s four most momentous wines. And we’re not going argue!

7 minute read

Rage against the machine

Hannah outlines why vineyard work can be incredibly divorced from the end product, and has some suggestions on how it can be rehumanised

Picture (c) Hannah Fuellenkemper
6 minute read

Hand harvesting isn’t the half of it

I hate the hoorah implied by ‘hand-picked’. I hate it more round about the fourth-plus week of repetitive vineyard work. At the worst of times in the vines, ‘bored’ is an understatement. But ‘hand-picked’ is a misrepresentation. Not everything is blockbuster work but everything is done by hand — and once you’ve completed one task, in a couple weeks you’ll be back at the same vine again.

4 minute read

Natural wine is no longer enough

Hannah argues that the new natural wine charter is a missed opportunity to make a radical statement – about how natural wine can push forward to the next frontier