Believe me, I’ve never witnessed a tasting room reduced to such stunned silence. The 30 guests attending André’s two-hour Alsace masterclass in Berrys’ Pickering Cellar on Thursday sat glued to their seats even for an extra ten minutes after the session finished, open-mouthed, as if begging for more. The Alchemist of Alsace, André Ostertag, had […]

Back in early October I was treated to a visit from one of South Africa’s bright young gems, Mullineux Wines, Swartland: Chris, Andrea and their first born John (‘JZ’). This is their account.   After a somewhat long and difficult trip from Amsterdam (visa issues- it’s not easy travelling as a South African sometimes!), my […]

So what began with a farce: ‘Don Pasquale’ at Turin’s La Regio…culminated, tragically so with a mesmerizing performance of ‘La Traviata’ on late Sunday afternoon.   And no, the interim wasn’t all ice-cream & chocolates but a privileged insight into another world; a world free of traffic lights, bungalows and political correctness but full of charm, […]

In my penultimate report on the successful 2009 Barolo and Barbaresco harvest I interview Giuseppe and his mother Maria Teresa Mascarello in their Santo Stefano di Perno vineyard, Monforte. It speaks volumes that this iron-rich, sandy calcareous site should picked last among their formidable stable of Barolo vineyards; later even than Monprivato and Ca d’Morissio. […]