On truth
I think it was Nicolas Joly who once said, before a wine can be good it must be true. I like this sentiment. We want honesty in wine: I don’t like the idea of a wine that has deliberately been made to...
View ArticleSonder: everyone has a story
Sometimes we need to step outside of our own perspective. This is true in our lives, but also in the world of wine. Each wine region has its own story. Its own pioneers (some new world wine regions...
View ArticleWe lost our lives, and now we tussle with Stockholm syndrome
It’s late April in the UK, and things are beginning to open up, after a long lockdown. I had my first pint in a pub garden today, and it tasted wonderful. Soon I will have my first meal in a...
View ArticleWho are you writing for?
When I first got into wine, back in the 1990s, I discovered a book in a friend’s toilet that was to prove inspirational. It was Robert Parker’s Wine Buyer’s Guide, the book version of his increasingly...
View ArticleFlying with the brakes on?
After a false start last summer, when we thought things were opening up (and I managed two trips, to France and Germany), I’m flying again for the first time. The destination? Pollenza in Italy, to do...
View ArticleBack in Canada
I can’t quite believe it, but I’m back in Canada. Penticton BC, to be precise, in the heart of the Okanagan Valley, one of the world’s most scenic wine regions, and home to a dynamic wine scene that’s...
View ArticleExpertise is underestimated by those who don’t have it
It’s a strange thing, but we often have a tendency to dismiss expertise, when that expertise is outside of our own field, or our own reach. I’ve noticed this with talented trade journalists who have...
View ArticleFill your mind with words
I have a theory. If you want to be a writer, fill your mind with words. I’m not sure of this bit, but I think it really helps to read those words. Maybe listening to them can also be helpful: perhaps...
View ArticleHow do we tell our story? And why should we?
In the world of wine, it’s normal to go to a wine producer’s website and then read ‘about us’, where that producer tells us their story. And for us journalists, when we are doing a gig we are often...
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Leaving Tunbridge Wells
I’m moving, to the Isle of Dogs in London’s Docklands, after a three year stay in the Kent town of Tunbridge Wells. You get to know a place quite well in three years, and it’s always poignant when you...
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