I went to Vinisud with, amongst other things, the aim of getting to the bottom of sulphur allergy in wine. Several friends, customers, family members have complained of this, so I went to find out.
My destination was Christophe Bousquet at Ch. Pech Redon because his ’Les Cades’ Cuvee which we ship is produced from organically grown grapes [...]

Simon Woods is a wine writer I’ve known for more years than I care to remember. He has a very good website and his latest subject is the UK’s leading wine brands. He spent three weeks tasting the lot and you can see his “journey” (as everyone calls everything these days) on the link.
The bit that [...]

Other really interesting stuff about how you can improve the quality of your Champagne came to light during my visit to Marc Chauvet Champagne recently. Clotilde is at pains to stress the extra time her Champagnes are aged on the lees (dead yeast) before release. By law the wine must age with the yeast for [...]

I was in Champagne last week visiting Marc Chauvet and needed to get to the bottom of that often asked question about the size of bubbles. The “prise de mousse” as they call it comes during the secondary fermentation in bottle when extra yeast and Champagne grape juice are added to the already finished, first-fermented [...]

After years of being on a stand being nice to prospective trade buyers it’s great to be able to visit this excellent Fair in this excellent venue (Excel) with little to do but refresh old acquaintances and see a couple of specific suppliers.
First call was Verus who are here to try and develop more UK [...]

On Saturday we were in Bruges (a Christmas present from our sons) and as we had not paid for the Eurostar or hotel we treated ourselves to a decent meal. Not a cheap experience, by the way.  Being by nature not one who likes to be ripped off on the wines in restaurants I’m always looking [...]

We had yet another recommendation in the wine columns at the weekend, this time for our Carlin Rose Champagne. The Sunday Times columnist Joanna Simon said something which I have long thought; “The point of high profile brands is not value for money so much as buying a name. Less famous names are cheaper.”
Well, not [...]

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 [...]

Tout d’abord pour être hip, on ne dit pas Morillon Blanc mais Morillon avec un accent tonique sur le o et en laissant trainer le on avec gourmandise, pour être à la page donc : mOrilloonnn. Il est possible aussi dans un cercle restreint d’amateur, que vous entendiez une prononciation plus exotique dite « a la japonaise », il [...]

Many of the wine journalists have been chipping away at this subject for a while now, but Malcolm Gluck’s new book The Great Wine Swindle has been getting a lot of publicity on the TV, radio and in the press. 
 
There is much in his book I don’t agree with, but on the subject of “half-price” [...]