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Simon J Woolf + friends on wild and wonderful wines

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  • skerk pinot grigio barrel sample

    Rock the Carso (Friuli Part 1)

    Simon J Woolf   

    Friuli-Venezia Giulia is Italy’s most North-Easterly region. Like many European border areas, Friuli has a composite identity made up of Italian, Slovenian and Teutonic cultures. Those borders, which can seem so trivial now (on our visit, we drifted into Slovenia and back, with nary a battered sign to remind us), have been hard fought over

  • Morning in Brescia, over the Duomo roof

    Bubbling up in Brescia

    Simon J Woolf   

    Tucked away in a quiet corner of Lombardy is an attractive, stately city, untouched by major tourism and unhyped by the guide books. Brescia is the de facto capital of Franciacorta, a sub-region specialising in the production of sparkling wine. Brescia was also the location for this year’s superb European Wine Bloggers Conference, a friendly

  • Sherry Maestro No.22

    Simon J Woolf   

    Sherry seems to be going through a mini-renaissance right now, after decades of being banished to the backwater of granny’s christmas cupboard. It is after all one of the few real bargains of the wine world – complex, characterful, consistent and often aged for a decade or more, yet entry level examples in most styles

  • Pošip grapes passing through selection

    Dalmatia Part 3: Korta Katarina

    Simon J Woolf   

    In my previous post I wrote about a family wine-producing micro-enterprise. The Bura winery produces only around 2,000 bottles each of their key wines, Bura Dingač and Mare Postup. I visited Boris Mrgdić and the Bura family in the morning. That afternoon, by way of contrast, I spent a few hours at Korta Katarina, an

  • Dalmatia Part 2: Pelješac peninsula, Dingač and the wines of the Bura family

    Simon J Woolf   

    The Pelješac peninsula runs parallel to the Dalmatian coastline like a finger, with just a tiny sliver of adjoining land stopping it from becoming an island. It’s a dry, mountainous landscape, with quiet villages and sandy beaches spread around the coast. We’re here to learn about the legendary wines of Dingač and Postup – Croatia’s

  • Bire Winery exterior

    Dalmatia Part 1: Grk, the most feminine of all grapes

    Simon J Woolf   

    Grk has to be one of the most fascinating grape varieties I’ve ever encountered. You can only find it in the sandy soils of the vineyards surrounding the beach town of Lumbarda, on Korčula island in Croatia. An unnamed present from 4th century BC Greece, the Korčulans christened it simply as Grk or “Greek”. All

  • Exotic Agiorgitiko

    Simon J Woolf   

    The Greek wine industry could have done without the nation having a financial crisis, it was hardly having an easy ride as things were. This is a shame, because there is much high quality wine-making on both the mainland and the islands. For those that think Greek wine begins with Retsina and ends with Muscat

  • Tilia estate viparska dolina 2008

    Slovenia-les-Beaune?

    Simon J Woolf   

    Wine labels can tell you a lot about what’s in the bottle – and by that, I don’t mean alcohol percentages or the grape variety. The visual style of the label often drops a few clues about the target market, the aspirations of the wine maker and even the price point. Budget new world wines

  • Arribes de vettonia Crianza 2007

    Mar i Terra y Juan Garcia

    Simon J Woolf   

    An unplanned nutrition requirement near Waterloo led to an excellent discovery tonight. Mar i Terra is a cosy yet bustling tapas restaurant buried on a Southwark backstreet. I can never resist an obscure grape variety, so the Arribes de Vettonia Juan Garcia Crianza 2007 was a must-have choice from an excellent and lovingly annotated wine

  • Istrian wine, naturally

    Simon J Woolf   

    I’ve had some wonderful encounters with Croatian wines over the years – the muscular reds from Dalmatia, on a visit to Dubrovnik back in 2003, and more recently an excellent Istrian expression of Malvasia. In a few weeks time I’ll be visiting classic Dalmatian wine country again. Staying on that theme, here is a review

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