After three days, countless seminars and much wine tasting, Sophie Thorpe is back in the office and recovering from the whirlwind of Olympia. Here she ponders a handful of the ideas in discussion at the London Wine Fair 2016. Are the Old and New Worlds over? Caroline Gilbey MW suggested in her Romanian masterclass that […]

Day two at the London Wine Fair 2016 saw an opportunity to get slurping and spitting. Sophie Thorpe was only too happy to oblige: here she reports on how Pinot Noir is faring beyond Burgundy. The industry briefings of day one felt like an assessment of the UK trade here and now, with a glance […]

Jim Clendenen, the shaggy-haired, famously renegade wine personality behind California’s Au Bon Climat, is still courting controversy three decades after founding his legendary winery. Here, Sophie Thorpe comes face to face with the Wildman of wine. “I don’t know how I went straight from Wild Boy to Wild Grandpa, I never got a wild middle […]

On Friday we enjoyed a visit from talented Californian winemaker David Ramey, who came to show us his sublime, Burgundian-style Chardonnays and his deep, tantislising reds, made predominantly with Cabernet and a blend of other Bordeaux varietals.  Having worked at Pétrus before heading up Ramey Wine Cellars, we asked David how ‘The Parker Effect’ varies […]