Unless you have spent the last decade living under a rock, you are unlikely to have missed the rapid rise of the English wine scene. Demand has surged and land under vine has doubled. The country is awash with elegant and refined sparkling wines, crisp dry whites and even some »
With so many fashionable wine regions making names for themselves at the moment, one can be forgiven for overlooking the tried and trusted favourites. Alsace, and in particular the 50 plus Grand Cru vineyard sites that decorate this fiercely independent stretch of French countryside, are obvious candidates for neglect. Despite »
Basilicata is one of Southern Italy's last bastions of untouched and unspoiled beauty. Amongst the fields, forests and vineyards of the region, life moves to the rhythms of the seasons, creating an air of almost timeless tranquility. Agriculture is the main economy here and in the Vulture zone (pronounced Vul-tur-ay) »
Most of Vinitaly's heavy traffic accumulates around the Consorzio of Brunello di Montalcino, the major Amarone and Prosecco outlets, and of course the top names of Piedmont. Tasting in these hectic conditions can be uncomfortable, especially given the Italian notion of personal space. Consequently one either engages with Barolo through »
Scepticism doesn't quite do justice to the tone I adopted at the sight of a 1976 bottle of Gamza of Bulgaria's communist legacy. A wry, semi patronising smile broke out, chuckled in jest and looked up the table in search of something else before noting the trickle of leathery, brown »
I should do this more often!!! What a week of fine Macedonian hospitality, charmingly rustic country wines and several bottles of aggressively monstrous Vranec; I was sucked in, spat out and deposited quite conveniently on a rocky edifice overlooking Lake Ohrid and the 13th century Monastery of Saint Kaneo. Seven »
There is no doubt that the future of Macedonia’s red wine production belongs to the robust and boisterous Vranec variety; yet amongst the noise there is another little grape waiting to be given a place in the wine world. Stanushina, barely known in Macedonia, never mind anywhere else, gives »
Muscat is not exactly the height of fashion in the UK, if anything it’s one to avoid; the British tendency to drink without food can over emphasise the floral, fragrantly invasive nature of the variety and send one reeling for the Sauvignon Blanc instead. In Macedonia however, where the »
This month (May 2013) Georgian exports of wine will once again be permitted to enter Russia but with the lifting of trade embargoes that have been in place since 2006 the Georgian wine industry would do well to take a moment of reflection on the last five years and ponder »
