Bordeaux 2008 is, quite frankly, a vintage that has taken most of us by surprise.  Who would have thought that after months of continuous bad weather and set-backs in the vineyards, and weeks of speculation about the quality of the wines, that we would actually come away with anything better than mediocre praise for these […]

Week three of wine adventures in Piedmont Bright sun and a warming breeze was all the encouragement a fair-weather lackey  needed to swap the pen for the secateurs. Alas it wasn’t to be. All togged up in my choicest gear, complete with hiking boots, the boss/il capo effectively left me on the bench as I watched […]

Always variable in years like these, Margaux is probably the most difficult of the left bank appellations to taste.   Margaux itself delicate and fresh, Palmer all correct and easier to gauge at this stage than in most years.  Brane-Cantenac soft and supple.  Giscours both structured and supple and du Tertre, our base for the […]

The locals like to say that “The Wind on Palm Sunday will be the Wind for the Year”, by which they mean that whatever the wind is when you come out of church in the late morning of Palm Sunday, is likely to be the defining wind across the summer and especially during the all […]