Countries Master
The United States has grown into one of the world’s most diverse and influential wine-producing countries, offering a vast array of styles and varieties. From the iconic vineyards of California to emerging regions in New York, Oregon, and Washington, the U.S. combines Old World traditions with New World
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If I were to compare Napa Valley, one of the gems of the American west coast, to a piece of high jewellery, it would be an IF diamond. Flawless is reserved for only the finest, purest and best, and like every wine-growing region, there are exceptional to mediocre estates. With
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For decades, the wines of Bordeaux were seen as overly expensive, over extracted to conform with certain wine writers' palates and simply drifting away from what they once were. Things have now changed for the better, and although highly prized Grand Cru Classes are still expensive, they look positively
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Working as a Sommelier in the early 1990s, I vividly recall oenophiles' desire to seek out and enjoy Cloudy Bay, Sauvignon Blanc. It almost seemed like a right of passage. The only issue was availability - it was nigh on impossible to get hold of. Was this what made
Australia
With its proximity to Adelaide and excellent wines, the Barossa Valley is used to welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. But venture four and half hours south and slightly to the east and you will discover another world-class wine region – Coonawarra. An Aboriginal word meaning honeysuckle, it is
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I cannot be certain of my first encounter with Chilean wine, but most likely was Los Vascos in the early 1990s. The pioneering estate, owned by Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite), bought credibility and respect for the country which has paved the way for it to become the 7th largest
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Meandering along the streets of Clerkenwell, I found myself pondering why it had taken me so long to dine at Luca, a stalwart of Italian food with a distinctive British twist. Owned by the Clove Club, this Michelin-starred restaurant disguises its culinary skills behind a façade reminiscent of a local
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A while ago I attended the Cognac Show in central London, organised by The Whisky Exchange. It offered an opportunity to taste the cognacs of several producers that are unfamiliar to me, which I shall be writing about in due course. One of those was Vallein Tercinier, who very kindly
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“We really should do this more often”. These are the words spoken by one of my oldest friends who had cancelled a business meeting to join me for dinner. It is not that we don’t meet up to eat regularly, we do often. It was the fact that this