What is it like to be the absolute best? I bet that many of us have speculated about this at least once in our lives. If you are an actor, what is it like to win an Oscar? If you are an athlete, what is it like to win a
Burgundy has fallen off the daily-drinking map for many wine lovers. Everyone acknowledges its greatness, but that is the problem: high demand, weak supply after several small vintages. Most Burgundies are now too expensive for Tuesday night with rotisserie chicken. This is your ever-relevant Bargain Burgundy column. In 2016, it's
Label drinking - the practice of consuming lavishly expensive wines with famous names or brands – is generally felt to be a bit naff amongst true wine connoisseurs. After all, anyone with enough money can walk into a restaurant and exclaim “bring me a bottle of your finest Pétrus”. It
There’s a predictable scenario that takes place on about every foreign press trip I attend. Sometime over dessert during the farewell dinner, the host asks everyone to provide our thoughts on: “What is happening in the American wine (or spirits) market, and what can I do to get a bigger
This is a very pleasant Spanish Garnacha, a table-ready pairing for almost any white meat. The nose offers pome fruit, mostly apple and pear, with hints of ginger. Softer fruits join the apple and pear on the palate, loquat perhaps, with some pineapple-acid zing. White florals come through on the
What do you drink when you’re sitting on the Sound of Music lakeside terrace? An Aperol spritz, naturally. At least, that’s what I drank when I visited Salzburg recently, channeling Baroness Schraeder for all I was worth. (Sorry, Maria fans, I’m not really a tea-with-jam-and-bread kind of girl.) Turns out
“Will you come to our booth to taste the new vintage wines?” I’m asked this question many times a day by winemaker friends during Vinitaly, the annual wine trade show in Italy. And now it is asked by Fabio Bottonelli, a wine journalist colleague of mine. Because suddenly Fabio started
While it was not entirely unexpected, the recent death of Bordeaux’s great wine analyst Denis Dubourdieu of brain cancer at the age of 67 is a tragedy. I can only claim to have known him slightly from annual encounters in Bordeaux, but I valued every connection with this passionate and