Wine sales, consultancy and education
Over the next couple of weeks in the run up to Christmas I wanted to talk about Fortified wines (by which I mean Sherry, Madeira and Port) as well as Dessert wines. It seems Christmas is often the only time of year when many of these wines get a run out, which I think is a bit of a shame. Hopefully these blogs will encourage a bit of experimentation and adventure. Sherry Anyone that only knows sherry as being…
Following on from my recent blog posts on Sparkling wine and by popular demand, the inaugural Wine Demystifier wine tasting evening was held. With Christmas fast approaching it seemed an ideal time to explore various Sparkling wines and see if we could find any hitherto hidden gems, and some gems we did! The 8 wines selected were carefully chosen to reflect different production styles, grape varieties, dosage levels and even time spent on lees to see how all these…
The chances are if you ask the everyday wine drinker what their favourite red wine is, you will get one of two responses: Rioja or Shiraz. Very few would volunteer that Syrah is their favourite wine, yet Shiraz and Syrah are in fact one and the same. Many grapes have different names depending on where they are grown and originally Shiraz was the name coined by New World winemakers with Syrah (the grapes’ original name) used by the French…
Fed up with drinking Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc and fancy trying a white with a bit of a difference? If so, this Cretan wine (yes I said Cretan) made from 100% Dafni –an ancient indigenous variety found only on this Greek Island - is one to try. I first came across this wine during my studies and asked recently by a friend for an ‘unusual’ wine to take to a wine tasting I had no hesitation in recommending…
With the clocks going back this weekend, those long winter nights will soon be upon us - that maybe true but what better than to be tucked up indoors with a hearty stew and a warming bottle of red? Portugal is a region that deserves more exploration and there is more, much more to the wines of Portugal than the eponymous fortified ‘Port’, with many indigenous (and often unpronounceable!) grapes and little known regions to explore. Sadly many consumers…