Many hours of hard labour and the beds are ready, the picket fence completed and we have planted Field Beans which have germinated surprisingly quickly. These are a green manure to dig back into the soil, not to crop, and improve soil structure. We’ll do that just before our seedlings are due to be planted [...]

I have to say that our couriers are doing a pretty good job, we get very few lost or damaged cases. Good thing, too, as we can’t insure them so any loss or breakage is down to us in full.
Our delivery boxes have to pass a drop test. If we can drop it (full of wine) [...]

As I wait for the plane to take me home I still marvel at the power of the internet to let me post a blog on the website in real time, and before I get home.
 
After a week of very little sleep many miles, many wines and inspiring company I was dropped-off late last night [...]

Six hours drive south in the sleeting rain we got to Manduria at one o’clock in the morning.
At our first visit we were welcomed with an unprompted tirade against the Spanish bulk wine merchants for ruining the bulk wine market for Puglia. Puglia used to be the biggest supplier of whole tanker ships of bulk [...]

From Tuscany down to Umbria and a whole new set of flavours and textures. First call is at Azienda Agricola Di Filippo where Roberto Filippo is an exponent of Agricoltura Biologica. For me, green as I am, a wine must first and foremost taste great and represent great value for money (VFM). If it is [...]

Being late and with an early start the following morning we asked for somewhere to eat close to the hotel rather than go into the centre of Florence. We chose one “where the locals eat, not the tourists”. I dont know if there are many vegetarians in Italy but it’s not an option at this [...]

You will be pleased to know it’s raining here, too. I love Italy, Italians, Italian food , Italian wines so I’m highly excited to be here this week prospecting for new wines.
I am driving around with my old friend and wine tasting partner Christophe, so in between his French, my English and our joint Italian [...]

Working from home has its advantages. I’ve gone off jogging, but when we’re not humping boxes of wine around, and when the weather permits I’ve been creating four raised vegetable beds. Little by little, an hour here, an hour there. If the garden were a south facing hill with Kimmeridge clay soil I might have [...]

The latest Wine Stats from Vinexpo show that Britain has become the world’s biggest wine importer.
Despite Britain being a big importer, the amount we drink (28 litres a head) is dwarfed by other European countries including France (59 litres), Italy (56 litres) and Switzerland (49 litres). Of course, they drink more, but they produce [...]

Not only is the sky about to fall in on our head according to the media, but it’s also going to get more expensive to drown our sorrows.
 
It is tempting to reflect on the effects of £Sterling’s collapse against the €uro and the incessant increase in wine duty (did you notice the sneaky duty increase [...]