This might seem a silly question and in some ways it is: spend however much you want! But there are some simple things to know which will help you to obtain the best value for money. First of all, there is the current duty system in Britain which means £2.68 on every bottle that you …

How much should I pay for a ‘good’ bottle of wine? Read More »

Rioja (Ree-ock-a) has deservedly the greatest reputation of all Spanish wines. It is not so long ago that the British consumer was offered little more than Spanish Burgundy, Spanish Chablis and Spanish Champagne. Since the restoration of the monarchy and Spain’s joining the Common Market, there has been a great renaissance in the country’s production …

Our personal guide to Rioja Read More »

I have some friends who try to test me by producing at the supper table a wine in a decanter and saying, “Now tell me what this is.”  I must admit from the start that I prefer to be the person offering the decanter rather than to be receiving it, for true success in this …

Tips for blind wine tasting Read More »

One of the few good things to have come out of the pandemic is that mail order sales of wine have increased considerably. Normally this will mean that you end up buying wine by the case and need somewhere to store it. It wasn’t so long ago that some research was carried out in the …

Where to store wine at home (if you don’t have a wine cellar!) Read More »

Wine-lists can be intimidating at all sorts of levels, particularly to someone who isn’t used to eating out, or who might be acting as the host for the first time. Fear not, because confidence can come with experience and wider knowledge about wine. There are plenty of basic wine courses now available to help here. …

3 tips for navigating restaurant wine lists Read More »

The traditional advice is that you should serve your white wines chilled and your. red wines at room temperature. Unfortunately, that’s not all there is to it. Let’s consider red wines first. What temperature should you serve red wine at? As it happens, I have before me three recently emptied red wine bottles: one is …

What temperature should you serve wine at? Read More »

To say that the South African wine industry has undergone a quality revolution in the last decade is no exaggeration. Current economic challenges due partly to the pandemic aside, it’s a very exciting time to explore South African wine. Our support of South African wine is needed now more than ever, after South Africa faced …

An exciting time for South African wine Read More »

Here’s some good news: it has recently been announced that two of the largest producers of corks have discovered how to guarantee ‘no taint’ corks for customers… and at no extra cost. The issue with corking wine The problem had been that micro-organisms in the veins in the cork could give an unpleasant taste to …

How can you tell if a wine is corked? Read More »

Gone are the days when a slippery slope of rules and regulations about wine and food matching appeared hopelessly impossible to navigate. We’ve come to realise that experimentation is far more progressive with so many possible pairings to explore. And when it comes to wine & food pairing, personal preferences are what really matters. There …

4 wine and food pairings you have to try! Read More »

Over the years wine has come to the consumer in all sorts of containers: amphoras, casks, bottles, bags-in-boxes and now cans, but since the second half of the seventeenth century, when the production of glass bottles was greatly improved, they have been the vessel of preference. Originally, these bottles were hand-blown and there were often …

Everything you need to know about wine bottle sizes Read More »