Some Young Punks hanging around Imbibe

I love kitsch. I should have been a teenager in the 1950’s, although then it would have been high culture. I would have been an avid reader of anything pulp fiction. “Spicy Adventure Stories”,  “Unwilling Sinner”, “Sin on Wheels”, I would have collected them all! So when I spotted Passion...

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Penfolds – Peter Gago,the most laid back winemaker I’ve met so far…

The most laid back winemaker I’ve met so far has to be Australian Peter Gago, Chief Winemaker of Penfolds Wines. I was at the launch of Penfold’s Luxury Icon wines recently and  sat down with Peter for a brief chat about his Kalimna 1998 Shiraz Bin 28 and what he thought were it’s finest qualities. We tasted...

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Neil McGuigan and his semillon at the 2010 LIWF

I ran into Australian wine maker Neil McGuigan at the 2010 International Wine Fair here in London not long ago and this time, rather then talk about his Handmade shiraz, Neil wanted to tell me all about his latest vintage of semillon. Neil is very proud of his semillon and even though we were drinking his latest vintage, he...

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What a year it’s been! So long 2009, Hello 2010…

I’m not really one to look back, I’m either daydreaming about the future or looking forward to tonight’s wine – more or less the same thing. But I saw one of Niamh’s tweets about her year-end round-up and it got me to reminiscing about my vinous adventures this past  year. The great thing about a blog...

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Neil McGuigan and his Handmade Shiraz at Roussillon

I’ve come to realize that I’ve got a love/hate relationship with Australian wine. Hate the cheap, supermarket stuff, love the premium vino. Well, can you blame me? Why couldn’t it be the other way around, love the cheap stuff, hate the expensive stuff – if only. I was at the fashionable French restaurant,...

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Hardy’s Nottage Hill Freshcase – new packaging concept

From the press release: “Ever opened a bottle of delicious, premium wine one evening and gone back for a second glass a week later, only to find that the wine is past its best?” No, that’s never happened to me (wine doesn’t have a fighting chance in my house) but I do know people who don’t finish off a...

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