Press Articles

Somehow there’s nothing quite like the pop of a cork to get the party going – even if it’s just a party of two! Although caution cannot always be thrown to the wind whilst opening a bottle of bubbly. I have a new puppy and she doesn’t like loud bangs (I think fireworks had something to do with it!). Having made the mistake of letting a champagne cork out with a rather loud ‘pop’, every time she now sees a sparkling wine bottle being opened, she retires to a safe distance – such as the next ro...

Dijon is one of those cities in Eastern France which is far too easy to by-pass on the way to somewhere else, be it Italy, Switzerland or the south of France. A big mistake, since Dijon is a fabulously vibrant and historic city, filled with gastronomic delights and a wine lover’s paradise. Easily accessible by train (under 2 hours from Paris) to keep your green credentials intact, the manageable historic centre, crammed with a mix of grand 18th-century stone buildings cheek to jowl with medie...

Umbria is next door to the much better-known region of Tuscany, whose wines are revered worldwide. Anyone visiting Italy will almost certainly have drunk a bottle or two of Chianti and if lucky, some of the expensive and excellent Brunello di Montalcino or Amarone della Valpolicella. But the wines from the gently rolling hills of Umbria are far less known, and less expensive, even though they are quite stunning in terms of quality. One of my favourite wine regions of Italy, land-locked Umbria...

Sustainability has become one of the twenty-first century buzz words. About time. Thank goodness a few people around the world have at last woken up to the fact that humans are rapidly destroying their own fragile environment. Studying Biology, I can remember discussing the woes of Water Pollution and Air Pollution, together with the urgent need for Environmental Planning. That was forty years ago and only recently it seems has the urgency to act become significant. Happily, in the wine world...

Kathleen Inman is a woman on a mission. Born in Santa Barbara, California, she has lived and worked in England for many years after meeting her English husband. Having developed a passion for wine and gained considerable winemaking knowledge from some top international producers, she and her husband left Yorkshire and returned to California, buying a wine estate in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley. 21 years later, she has just launched her wines on the UK market, and now lives part of the time n...

When you think of wine regions in southwest France, Bordeaux immediately springs to mind, not unreasonably since it is perhaps the best-known wine region in the world. Clambering for more and more attention is the next-door region in the Dordogne around Bergerac. Overshadowed by its illustrious neighbour for many years, the Bergerac wine region has developed in leaps and strides over the past twenty years, now making first class whites and reds which happily hold up their heads alongside thei...

One of the largest and most spread-out wine regions of France, the Loire Valley is home to a vast range of different wines and almost every style of wine imaginable. It is a peaceful and picturesque region where the pace of life is calm and sedate, the majestic Loire River slowly winding its way, fed by a number of tributaries, many of which are important rivers in their own right. Many different grape varieties are grown and it is the cultural home to varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Cheni...

The momentous occasion of the Coronation of King Charles III is almost upon us. Whether or not you’re a confirmed Royalist, there is no denying the passion that Charles has for all things environmental and the immense good he has done over the years, particularly helping young people through the Princes’ Trust. Time then if ever there was to toast our new King, who has been waiting in the wings for so long. A glass or two of bubbly is always celebratory and is almost obligatory whilst watchin...

The Roussillon region of south-west France is a wild and rugged area of low mountains, forming the foothills of the Pyrenean Mountain range. The rocky terrain consists largely of decomposed granite soils and at altitude, the vines really have to struggle – all to the good for making great wine, albeit in limited quantities. The Fenouillèdes region is a remote corner of the Eastern Pyrenées and a respected local grower Gérard Gauby teamed up in the 1990s with UK wine importers Roy Richards and...

What is Cap Classique, I hear you ask? It is South Africa’s answer to Traditional Method sparkling wines – that is, made in the same way as champagne. Graham Beck was founded in 1983 and has now become firmly established as one of the worlds leading sparkling wine brands. The company is based in the Robertson wine valley and is solely committed to the production of high quality sparkling wines. Last week I had the privilege of meeting Pieter Ferreira, cellar master and head winemaker at Graha...

A new hotel opened its doors in October 2022 and is ideally situated for visiting the vineyards of the Loire. Chateau La Borde Hotel and Spa is located in the beautiful wild region of the Sologne close to many different vineyard regions. A relatively little know region of France, the Sologne is a fabulous area for nature lovers, with thousands of acres of mixed forests, marshes and lakes, once the hunting province of the Kings of France. On the edge of the tiny village of Vernou-en-Sologne, t...

The Central Loire Valley is one of the most interesting wine regions of France. Not only does it have a great number of wine producers, making wines of many different styles and from a wide range of grape varieties, but it is also home to some of the most stunning chateaux of the world, unsurpassable architectural gems, often surrounded by exquisite gardens. Visiting this region either for the fabulous chateaux, or for wine tourism to visit the vineyards and meet the producers, is always a jo...

The quality of wines from the scenic Bergerac wine region of south-west France has seen a dramatic improvement in the last 20 to 30 years. The new generation of winemakers, not content with the status quo, have travelled to New Zealand, Australia, California and Chile, to name just a few countries, learning alternative techniques and methods. Back home, this knowledge has been applied to local winemaking, always in tandem with traditional know-how and understanding of the local terroir. Add t...

Visiting wine regions to discover the origins of the wines we love, taste a few of them and stay in a fabulous hotel dedicated to the art of living, is the very definition of ‘Wine Tourism’. Almost always, there are surprises in store, making the trip even more enjoyable than expected. The Loire Valley seems almost as if it was invented for wine tourism. Not only are there a host of different wine regions, styles and grape varieties, but alongside are the world-famous Renaissance chateaux ste...

Tuesday 8th March 2022 is International Women’s Day. A day to celebrate all kinds of achievements by women throughout the world, including the many women winemakers. It still seems to come as a surprise to some that women make wine, which mystifies me since I believe that there should be equal numbers of men and women involved in wine production. Doubtless the difference has a historical basis, since the early wine producers were small family concerns, and there was perhaps a need for strengt...

“I only drink champagne on two occasions, when I am in love and when I am not”. The famous words of Coco Chanel. Valentine’s Day is around the corner once more and that surely calls for a glass of bubbly. As the Covid situation seemingly improves day by day, at least this year we can get together again with the loves in our lives and celebrate in style either out or at home. Although by no means obligatory, pink champagne or sparkling wine always seems appropriate for Valentine’s. In fact, i...

The vineyard region of Monbazillac in south-west France is the largest sweet white wine producing region in the world. Often being a more affordable alternative to its illustrious sister, Sauternes in the Bordeaux region, Monbazillac has its own defined character, usually being a little less sweet than most Sauternes, with greater expression of fruit and balancing acidity. For the last ten years, the tendency of producers has been to lower the residual sugar in the finished wines, with many n...

Six pages of close type in a wine list, with around 60 wines per page, and that's only the red wines from one region of France. This was the range of wines from the Rhone Valley in a specialist wine merchants in the fabulous city of Lyon. The shop is called Malleval in Rue Emile Zola and has been serving its loyal local customer base since 1869. Of course, there are wines stocked from all over France and the nineteenth century underground cellars hold some 40,000 bottles, with a value of arou...

Winemakers Doing the Right Thing for the Environment Purato, a forward-thinking wine producer on the island of Sicily, is a leader when it comes to sustainability and environmental conscience. All large-scale agricultural activities undertaken by man have an impact on our environment. Our planet is being ravaged by man’s activities and those that have been watching ‘A Perfect Planet’ by the environmental demi-god David Attenborough, cannot fail to be shocked by the consequen...

Novel English Sparkler from Fox and Fox Wins Gold So, our somewhat muted Christmas festivities are well and truly over and here we are, nearly halfway through January in Lockdown Number Three. A definite sense of ‘Déjà vu’. This wine discovery, however, I am fairly convinced would not be on most people’s list of ‘Déjà Bu’! It is a sparkling Pinot Gris made by the award-winning English wine producer Fox and Fox, based in Mayfield, East ...