Sep. 19th 2010
It was my Son’s Birthday today and to celebrate, I opened a bottle of Château La Tour Carnet 2000. Decanted about 90 minutes before drinking, the wine wasn’t showing a great deal of development. It was a deep ruby colour with only a very small garnet rim. After a bit of swirling, it opened up some surprisingly primary aromas of blackcurrant, bramble and Christmas spice. The palate exuded black fruit, lovely balanced vanilla and cinnamon spice and very well balanced, fine tannins.
Given its modest pricing, this has a good future ahead of it yet and I enjoyed it very much.
You’ll be pleased to hear my Son really enjoyed playing with all the toys he received too (and so did I…).
Sep. 19th 2010
Where does the rosé market go next? It’s undoubtedly a growth category, but one rosé is often very similar to another. And will the consumer ever pay more than £6 for a bottle? Well, this estate in Provence is challenging the general perception of rosé wine and trying to make the category a fine wine icon. But can they justify prices that would make the Bordelais blush (pun intended…)?
Well, read on to find out if Château d’Esclans is really producing the world’s finest rosés.
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Jun. 23rd 2010

Strawberries and Moscato
While in conversation with a wine supplier, it struck me that maybe we (I?) think too much about wine and probably don’t enjoy it quite enough. Is wine a drink for the heart or for the mind? Or both?
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Sep. 30th 2009
It’s a reasonably well known fact that restaurants mark-up wine. And their mark up will vary considerably, but will usually be at least 200% if not more like 300%. Some even go beyond this – sometimes as far as 450%.
We all know the arguments (staff, glassware, investment in a cellar, etc.). However, have you ever wondered why you can rarely find your favourite supermarket wine on the wine list of your local restaurant? Well maybe you can, you just don’t realise it. Read on to find out more…
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Sep. 30th 2009
A simple question you would have thought? We go to the supermarket or preferably our local wine merchant and buy some bottles. We open it up and drink the alcoholic white, pink or red liquid inside and generally enjoy it very much.
We all know wine is made from grapes, but what about elderflower wine? And what about non-alcoholic wine? Are these products really wine?
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