The 2013 Whisky Festival Season

March is probably the month I most look forward to each year.  After the hustle and bustle of December in my main job in our Bin End Shop in Basingstoke, and the necessary eight or so weeks rest afterwards, it traditionally heralds the start of the Whisky Festival Season.  As well as working at out […]

A Guide to Bordeaux’s Right Bank

The terms Left Bank and Right Bank refer to the two parts of the Bordeaux wine region that lie on either side of the River Garonne and the huge Gironde estuary, into which the Rivers Garonne and Dordogne flow. These waters exert a significant influence on both the climate and the soil structures of each sub-region […]

A Guide to Bordeaux’s Left Bank

The terms Left Bank and Right Bank refer the two parts of the Bordeaux wine region that lie on either side of the River Garonne and the huge Gironde estuary, into which the Rivers Garonne and Dordogne flow. These waters exert a significant influence on both the climate and the soil structures of each sub-region […]

Chinese Wine Comes of Age

We’ve given Chinese wines the stamp of approval, as this week four Chinese wines join our wine list and are now on sale on our website. Chinese commercial wine production began in 1892 when an overseas Chinese diplomat, Zhang Bishi, started his winery in Yantai.  He imported half a million plants from the USA and appointed the Austrian […]