The Wine Year Ahead
Hot on the heels of awards season comes predictions for the year ahead. My attempt last year was quite personal – I ended up buying lots of Nebbiolo, it was indeed the year… Continue reading
Category Archive: Italy
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The Vine Inspiration Wine and Music Awards 2016
Last year, in an attempt to channel my inner Neal Martin, I gave the world The Vine Inspiration Wine and Music awards – sales of promotional stickers were surprisingly slow (that’s how these… Continue reading
Special Wines For Journey-Men and Journey-Women
If sheer contentment is a measure of quality, recent meals in Brawn stand head and shoulders above every other restaurant visit this year. Faye Maschler once suggested that if she could, she would… Continue reading
My 2016 Wine Predictions
Almost as ubiquitous as the annual wine awards schtick peddled by wine writers are the predictions for the year ahead. Such pontifications rarely have any bearing on the actual course of events, but I do often… Continue reading
The Vine Inspiration Wine and Music Awards 2015
Wines of the Year, Food Oscars, Golden Pints, everyone is at it. For many hacks and bloggers it seems to be merely a thinly veiled exercise to publicly thank the PR folk who gazed upon them… Continue reading
What a Fiasco! Monteraponi and Monte Bernardi Go Retro!
For many people, Chianti is simply a fiasco. It just depends whether you are talking about the traditional straw bottle baskets used as candle holders in dodgy pizzerias or the confusion that reigns amongst many wine drinkers trying to figure… Continue reading
Oddities and Rarities From Ar.Pe.Pe.
I’m a little obsessed with suitcase wine – wine that you stuff into your Samsonite swaddled with socks to ensure safe passage home from your travels. This isn’t about saving a few quid; oddities… Continue reading
A Visit To Ar.Pe.Pe – Part 2: The Wines
I joked in part one about the incline of Ar.Pe.Pe.’s Grumello vineyards. In reality, the relative elevation of Grumello pales into insignificance alongside some of the vines in Sassella where the Pelizzatti Perego… Continue reading
A Visit to Ar.Pe.Pe: Part 1 – The Story
I had chosen the wrong footwear. That much was clear as we ascended further up Ar.Pe.Pe.’s Grumello vineyards. I had an inkling that they were going to be steep as we surveyed the… Continue reading
Brilliant Chianti Classico in Sheridans
Although bred as a Dublin city slicker, I was lucky enough to spend a few years working in Galway on Ireland’s west coast. These were the years before some clever advertising agent had branded… Continue reading