The omens are not good. All the talk in the preceeding weeks has been of how in 2012, prices must remain flat or perhaps even drop compared to 2011. No one is really talking up the vintage. Some sauternes producers struggled with too much of the wrong rot leading to some makers not releasing a [...]
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California Dreamin: of work and pinot
BV has been a little quiet of late. Much of the blame has to lay at the feet of my employers for giving me a whole new set of managerial headaches to contend with. And a new technology project. Which leads me to the title of the post. I’m sure many of you will give [...]
Guesswork
So it’s a cold night and I’m a little late. I’m meeting a bunch of people for the first time in a house I’ve never been in. And there are 7 mystery guests. So begins the inaugural reformation of Wine Club (Bishopston). To spice up the first meeting, we hit upon a blind tasting of [...]
Domaine Lafarge Volnay “Vendages Selectionnees” 2007
I’ve read much in the last few weeks about not leaving wine in your cellar too long, in the misguided belief that your expensive bottles from premium producers are still in fine fettle whereas they long ago ceased to taste of anything but second-hand leather and sawdust. It’s possible to get indications of when to try [...]
Bellingham The Bernard Series Basket Press Syrah, Paarl 2010
It’s curious the way that you sometimes express a thing or event. We are lucky enough to be visited quite regularly by a couple of my wife’s old friends, however we are just as likely to describe the fact that it is their daughters who are visiting than their parents. The fact they were our [...]
Entry level Burgundy
Trying to find affordable Burgundy can be enough to put you off the region for life. Such is the variety of reds that are made in the region from muscular and fat to taut and ethereal that really having any idea what a producer’s generic Bougogne Rouge might taste like is mostly guesswork. For the [...]
San Zenone Barolo 2008
Fresh off the heels of a couple of very drinkable Italian table wines from Tuscany from Aldi’s San Zenone label, the festive season brought with it some boat pushing on the wine front and an upgrade to the Barolo from the same label. Not that much heaving was necessary, with this wine coming in at [...]
