Wine sales, consultancy and education
A customer recently asked about Decanting ‘rules’ so I’ve put together a few pointers which I hope will be useful, I’ve also added some general guidelines on serving temperatures too.Decanting has two main purposes: Firstly, it allows the wine to ‘breathe’ – it is this brush with oxygen that helps release many of the aroma/flavours within the wine as well as softening the tannins – this is why, quite often by the time you get to the final glass,…
This is something I’ve been pondering for a while now, ever since tasting my first English Bacchus some years ago. Since then, the quality (and quantity) has improved exponentially, and I have real hope that this variety could be a breakout star for the English still wine scene. What is Bacchus? First up then, an explanation of the name: I mean who names a grape after the Roman god of wine? This isn’t rhetorical, the man in question was…
Following on from the popularity of The Wine Demystifier themed case ‘Wines of Spain’ last year, we will soon be releasing a wine club case featuring ‘Wines of Italy’. Most people would readily name ‘Prosecco’ and ‘Chianti’ if asked to name Italian wines. Others may perhaps name ‘Barolo’ or ‘Amarone’ and at a push ‘Brunello di Montalcino’ but its unlikely many more names would be forthcoming and therein lies the problem. With 20 wine regions and incredibly more than…
A shocking headline in the Daily Telegraph grabbed my attention recently “Wine shortage: New Zealand sauvignon blanc set to disappear from shelves in run-up to Christmas”. Ok, so it’s not really ‘shocking’ but for those of you, who like me, enjoy a nice cold glass of Kiwi Savvy, it is shall we say, slightly concerning!What it essentially means, is the mass produced glut of sauvignon juice which goes into many of the Supermarket ‘own’ brands just won’t be available…so…
Spain is fast becoming my “go to” country for great value, good quality wines, if you know where to look you can get some fabulous wines but you do need to be careful of mass produced ‘soft brand’ wines which come from across the Castilla-La-Mancha region – a region which produces vast swathes of grapes, many of which go into low cost, high volume wine where quantity tends to outweigh quality (although you can find boutique gems if you…