Spicing the Chile
POSTED ON 20/09/2014It wasn’t just for image and added value that the late Michael Cox, the charismatic director of Wines of Chile, did his utmost to get more Chilean wine onto the wine list. He organized a tasting of Chilean carmenère with curry to show what great bedfellows the two were. Continuing where he left off, Wines of Chile staged the Chile Sommelier Challenge in London this summer with the same aim. Wine press and sommeliers tasted around a dozen wines in each of five main styles: sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot noir, syrah, red blends, plus red wines and white wines by the glass.
The Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships
POSTED ON 13/09/2014The brainchild of champagne expert Tom Stevenson, the first Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships were devised after he fell out with Decanter Magazine two years ago. For the inaugural competition at Plumpton College this year, he was joined by acknowledged world champagne specialist, Finnish Master of Wine, Essi Avellan and Tony Jordan, the Australian eminence grise behind the Yarra Valley’s Green point and other Moët et Chandon New World ventures.
The Hit and Myth of Food and Wine Matching
POSTED ON 06/09/2014Do you ever wonder if the cohorts of sommeliers and wine writers who preach food and wine matching are little more than a vested interest lobby? If you follow general guidelines like red wine with meat and white wine with fish, can you go that far wrong? Possibly not if you accept that such generalities are indeed just guidelines and not rules to be followed slavishly. Drill down further and many of the classic matches like oysters and chablis, mussels and muscadet, port and Stilton, Roquefort and sauternes, lamb and bordeaux, game and burgundy, do genuinely work.
The Big Issue
POSTED ON 01/09/2014There are a number of major issues in today’s wine world whose significance can too often be taken for granted or swept under the multi-layered carpet of articles, new stories, interviews and tasting notes that form the common currency of wine. We forget these issues at our peril however because they touch all aspects of wine whether we’re aware of them or not. I think anyone interested in the broader issues of wine wants to have a grasp of the world beyond the liquid in their glass,. Besides which, they all make for cracking dinner party conversation.
Climate change
