Michel Rolland was in town recently to launch his latest wines, a joint venture with Spanish wine “entrepreneur”Javier Galarreta. In a nutshell, Michel makes the wines and Javier sells them. They have chosen 3 premium wine regions, Rueda, Rioja and Ribera del Duero to show what they can do from the vineyards of the...
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Yesterday I had a masterclass of sherry with the recently appointed president of the Sherry Institute (or Consejo Regulador as it’s known in Spanish), Beltran Domecq. Beltran’s family has been involved in sherry for literally centuries, his father is from the Gonzalez family of Gonzalez Byass fame. Beltran was in town...
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Last Autumn, I was invited by Celebrity Cruises and Vinopolis to join their Immersive Wine Cruise. The cruise featured Oz Clarke and, from Vinopolis, their head educator, Tom Forrest. They were on hand to not only lead masterclasses on board but also joined guests every evening for wine chats and led the vineyard tours which were...
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It’s that time of year when Gran brings out the sherry. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. I was invited to La Tasca recently in Covent Garden to taste their sherry matching menu. I’m a big fan of sherry and food matching already but I wanted to see what they had put together. Manuel, our waiter, hails from...
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Earlier this year I was invited to learn more about Celebrity Cruises at Vinopolis and it was a surprising evening for me. Cruise ships have definitely changed from the days of shuffleboard and the blue-rinse brigade, focusing on fine dining and wine as well as having a variety of shipboard activities and themed cruises. Celebrity...
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I received a few wines from the Spanish winery Pittacum the other day to taste. The Pittacum project started in 1999 in the Bierzo region of Spain, with an emphasis on the mencia variety. The vineyards are comprised of old vines ranging in age from 50- 80 years old and are farmed as organically as possible. 65% of the winery was...
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