After a long hard day of wine touring, what better way to end the day then a relaxing rub down with crushed grape seeds. Crushed grape seeds? Well, these weren’t any old grape seeds and it wasn’t any old rub down. I was laying face down in a comfortably warm treatment room at the Wald & Schlosshotel Friedrichruhe...
read moreThe winners of the 2011 Decanter Wine Awards were announced at the recent London International Wine Fair. I’ve always been vaguely aware of the awards but never really paid much attention to them, I must admit. Oh sure, I would register the Decanter stickers on wine bottles in the shops but it never influenced my buying...
read moreI’ve been writing quite a bit about Croatia lately not only because I went and visited but because there are a lot of young and dynamic winemakers who are making excellent wine. I recently wrote about my visit to Bruno Trapan and another young winemaker I’d like to spotlight is 25 year old Ana Persuric of Misal...
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I love train travel, whizzing through the English countryside, I was on my way to Cheltenham Spa to sample the new menu and visit the recently opened The Montpellier Chapter Hotel and Spa. It probably helped that I was travelling in First Class courtesy of First Great Western. I’ve heard various things about train services...
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One of the young turks of Istrian winemaking is Bruno Trapan. Dynamic, innovative and a passionate winemaker, Bruno started studying winemaking at the University of Porec and quickly realized he wanted to have his own vineyard. He set about to plant his own vines covering 5 hectares on the Istrian peninsula of Croatia and now has...
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Last week was the London International Wine Fair which meant that there were producers from all parts of the world in town to show off their wines as well as numerous launches of new lines and blends to show off to the trade. To say there was a variety of wine on show would be an understatement. White wine, red wine, even one of my...
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What better way to end the London International Wine Fair then on a boat on the Thames, sipping claret (how the English used to and sometimes still do, refer to red Bordeaux) at the foot of Tower Bridge. Tony Laithwaite of Laithwaites thought that was as good a way as any and so we stepped onto a water taxi at Canary Wharf for the...
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If you like golf like I like golf, you should get down to the Golf Live Show going on right now! This weekend at the London Golf Club just outside of Tunbridge Wells. I was invited as a guest of Hotel du Vin, they know I like my wine but what do they have to do with golf? Plenty it turns out, as they work with the 2010 Ryder Cup...
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I do like my claret. Until I moved to England I had no idea what claret was (it’s what the English call Bordeaux red wines) and even then I didn’t think would have much of a chance to drink it. “Oh, I don’t have enough money to even contemplate buying a bottle, let alone a case!” However, once you look...
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There aren’t many wine bars in Croatia and to find one in the ancient city of Rovinj, you have to be lucky. Sure there are lots of cocktail bars lining the cliffs along the seaside but a proper wine bar with a full list of some of the best wines that Croatia has to offer as well as a few foreign ones for the locals is well...
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