By Andrew Hooper on 27/09/2013
On a pleasant Wednesday evening in late September, 30 eager tasters gathered in the LEA & SANDEMAN shop in Chiswick to taste Portuguese wine and to drink in words of wisdom from a very special guest speaker. We were honoured, thrilled and really rather excited to have secured, courtesy of Wines of Portugal, the services of the great Charles Metcalfe for the evening.
By Charles Lea on 26/09/2013
Apparently we were waiting all this time for the great Bobness’ final pronouncement – as if that really changes anything about a wine already praised fulsomely by every other critic on the planet, including Neal Martin on the great Master’s own website.
By Charles Lea on 23/09/2013
Lionel Gosseaume draws our attention to Chris Kissack’s website The Wine Doctor, in which his ‘weekend wine’ from the 16th of September was Lionel’s ‘Climat No. 2’, featuring the extremely rare Meslier Saint François grape
By Charles Lea on 14/09/2013
Lea & Sandeman ‘old boy’ Will Lyons, now writing for the Wall Street Journal, has devoted this week’s column to the autumnal joys of Calvados – and brought out the worst in the WSJ headline punners –
Calvados’s Warm Charm
By Andrew Hooper on 12/09/2013
Behold a fine trio of French red wines to warm the spirit, all of which will yield the faintest hint of change from a twenty and also make an ideal accompaniment to autumnal cooking:
By Ed H-B on 06/09/2013
The ‘en rama’ phenomenon was started by Gonzalez Byass, who released their first Tio Pepe ‘En Rama’ sherry in celebration of their 175th birthday. It caused a sensation and has been released every year since.
By Charles Lea on 04/09/2013
Great excitement has greeted the release of the 2010 vintage of Antinori’s ultimate flagship wine, Solaia. Two critics have already hailed it as the best vintage yet of this intense, classical Cabernet-based SuperTuscan, and this certainly looks to be one not to miss.
By Charles Lea on 02/09/2013
Unlike some Champagne houses who rattle out the vintages one to the next – Pol have the strength of mind and the integrity to hang on to theirs until they are really sure that it is at the perfect point to release, allowing for early drinking for the impatient, but always with the class and depth needed for longer-term ageing.
By Charles Lea on 29/08/2013
Agostino Lenci of Fattoria di Magliano wrote to us excitedly this week, with the news that in the 2013 'Vinellando', a competition organised by the local trade bodies for Morellino di Scansano, his 2011 MORELLINO DI SCANSANO Heba Fattoria di Magliano came out top.
By Ed H-B on 15/08/2013
La Grêle Rosé - Château de Roquefort: £12.95 Btl or £11.95 case price Lovers of Burgundy will be aware that the 2012 vintage, already not looking large, was decimated by hailstorms producing a reportedly minuscule vintage.
By Andrew Hooper on 12/08/2013
Tasting activities in W4 for 2013 resume on Wednesday 25th September with a rather special evening. Here in the shop in Chiswick - that doyen of British wine journalism, jovial bon viveur and knowledgeable evangelist for fruits of the Lusitanian vine, Charles Metcalfe will on hand to talk you through a selection of Portuguese wines pulled from the shelves of LEA & SANDEMAN.
By Charles Lea on 26/07/2013
Hail has been much in the news recently, with Tamlyn Currin making Raimond de Villeneuve's La Grêle 2012 Rosé the wine of the week last week on www.