Seven reasons why I love orange wines I’m drawn to outsiders – people who dare to be different, who stand proudly out from the crowd. That makes orange wines – and the winemakers who produce them –  an easy sell. This is a style that can shock, surprise and thrill. A stand-out orange wine tasting at Styria’s Ploder Rosenberg winery reminded me of how much I ...

Mosel museum: Old vintages from Staffelter Hof I admit to a bit of a thrill when the cork’s popped on a properly ancient bottle of wine. The sense of expectation is palpable – will the cork make it out in one piece, is the liquid even still drinkable? At this year’s ProWein, Weingut Staffelter Hof’s Jan Matthias Klein treated a few friends and fellow ...

Austria’s Weinviertel: Districtus Austriae Confusius? Ask most Austrian winemakers about their country’s “Appellation Controlée”-like DAC regulations and you’ll be lucky if you get so much as a luke-warm response. Few are comfortable with the fragmentation, label confusion and lack of consumer recognition that the nine regional DACs have as their current legacy. Austrian wine marketing board head honcho Willi Klinger is ...

Nuts about Neuburger Not much over a month ago, I was waxing lyrical about my love affair with the Georgian Shavkapito grape. But that was then, this is now. Me and Shavkapito, we’re still friends but now there’s a new and similarly obscure Austrian grape variety in my life. I first came across Feiler Artinger‘s superb Neuburger last September, and ...

Et tu Brut? Tarlant and zero dosage Champagne A few months ago, a discussion about “zero dosage” Champagne erupted onto my twitter feed. Robert Joseph typically voiced it with brevity and force: “There’s NOTHING hedonistic about zero dosage wine. At least not to non-masochists.” What was this all about? Well, most Champagne, and notably all of the big non-vintage brands (The “Grand Marques” as the ...

Seven reasons why I love Shavkapito Sometimes, falling in love is easy. And so it was with me and Shavkapito – we met across a crowded room at last year’s EWBC conference and with the first sip I knew I was hooked. Is it possible to rate a grape variety just on the strength of one wine? Well, maybe not, but ...

Permaculture in Slovenia: Visiting Miha and Ivan Batic There’s an almost reactionary view that winemakers who practice organic or biodynamic viticulture end up having to be more, rather than less interventionist in the vineyard. The theory goes that instead of a single (noxious) spraying to knock out mildew/pests/anything else living, the organic or biodynamic vigneron will have to tramp through their vineyard countless ...

Georgian qvevri wine: If it’s good enough for God . . . The 8,000 year old culture of wine in Georgia is extraordinary – a very good book could be written about it (and I hope someone will do that soon!). I visited Georgia in November 2012, as part of an EWBC press trip. Here’s an article I contributed for Tim Atkin’s site: For Father Gerasim, whether to treat his wines with ...

Delicacy of a bygone age: Tasting Colheita Ports in Lisbon What do you associate with Christmas? As far as drinks go, it may be the only time of year when some uncork a sherry or a port. And if it’s port, we Brits seem to have an overriding obsession with the crusted styles – that is, bottle-aged ports, either true “Vintage” or late bottled vintage ...

Graves doesn’t have to be serious Who doesn’t love a joyful, everyday wine – especially if it’s fairly priced Bordeaux. There’s an unfortunate view, particularly prevalent in the UK, that Bordeaux wines fall into only two categories – those sold at super-premium prices for the obscenely rich, and those that are little more than execrable filth. The truth is that there are many ...