By Ed H-B on 19/07/2013
In anticipation of the Royal birth we have dropped our price on our Royal warranted champagnes: Pol Roger White Foil Brut, Bollinger Special Cuvée Brut and Louis Roederer Brut Premier, all just £30 a bottle. For ideas on how to top up for the hot weekend, browse our recommendations throughout our blog.
By Ed H-B on 15/07/2013
Louis Roederer is one of the largest remaining independent Champagne Houses, owned by the same family since it was founded in 1776, the same year that the USA was officially founded. The house is famous for making 'Cristal' - the highly demanded Super Cuvée - but the Brut Premier is their classic, non vintage blend and represents excellent quality in the slightly fuller, creamier style.
By Andrew Hooper on 12/07/2013
i Clivi was created when Ferdinando Zanusso bought two dishevelled old vineyards in the early 1990's. They were in a poor state but were rescuable and their age has become key to i Clivi's success.
By Charles Lea on 02/07/2013
Tim Atkin MW on crackling form in this week's edition of the trade rag 'Off-Licence News' (bet quite a lot of you did not even know it existed). Following-up on a headline-grabbing article in the Observer at the weekend, he roundly rebuts the idea that tasters cannot tell one wine from another or judge quality.
By Andrew Hooper on 01/07/2013
At the time of the infamous 1985 “antifreeze” scandal a story did the rounds that the Japanese government had briefly and erroneously banned the importation of Australian wine, comedically confusing Australian with Austrian. It was, almost certainly, an urban myth but one does wonder what the fabled and lexicographically challenged Japanese civil servant would have made of Bert Salomon.
By Ed H-B on 19/06/2013
UPDATE: The latest vintage of this cracking wine can be found on our website HERE for only £9.
By Ed H-B on 12/06/2013
Pioneering a new vanguard of Chinon wines exemplifying purity and extraction, this is a splendid example of pure Cabernet Franc made by a seasoned expert. Rich, sumptuous, dark ruby in colour, yet with clean and precisely extracted fruit, Bernard Baudry's 2010 Domaine Chinon is a treat to drink now or will happily cellar over the next five years.
By Ed H-B on 11/06/2013
Yes I know it's Wimbledon week, but it is still with great surprise that I find we still have a few places available for this exceptional wine dinner on Thursday.
By Ed H-B on 04/06/2013
This is a wonderful organic Verdicchio from the territory of Apiro in the Macerata Province of Le Marche in central Italy, without a shadow of doubt the jewel of the region. The wine: Very pale, clean, bright and minerally, good fruit in the mid-palate and a shapely, refreshing clarity of purpose - lovely summer white for those summer lunches with starched linen tablecloths.
By Charles Lea on 02/06/2013
The 2012 Bordeaux campaign will go down as one with a lot of sound and (especially) fury, signifying very little. The shame is that it obscures the real hard work being done all over this vast region which still makes a lot of the best value wines in the world.
By Charles Lea on 02/06/2013
You will have seen our earlier push on Denis Durantou's 'little wines', not to mention the little video about the 2012 vintage. Of course 'little wines' is a misnomer since they are far from little and offer some of the best value in Bordeaux - just at a more accessible price than his 'big wine' l'Église Clinet.
By Charles Lea on 02/06/2013
Up in the northern Médoc, around the village of Saint Christoly, it was normal, right up to the 1970s, for farmers to have some maize, some cows, a few pigs – and 4 hectares or so of vines. Part of what is now Clos Manou was a 4 hectare ‘Cru Bourgeois’ called Château Cantegrive.