Tinta de Toro. Wine of the Bull? Is that like the Hungarian wine, Bull’s blood? The origins of the name may be lost in the mists of time but I can tell you that tinta de toro is a local varietal found in the western half of Spain, near the town of Zamora. It’s thought that the varietal is an adaptation of that...
read moreLast year (2008) saw the launch of the Winebloggers Conferences. The European one (EWBC) was in Rioja, Spain and the North American (WBC) one in Sonoma, CA. The goal of the bloggers conferences is to enable all of us in the virtual world to get together and exchange ideas in the real world. I mean, even if we’re all...
read moreHuxelrebe, Siegerrebe, Regner, Schönburger. The ill-fated cast of characters from an little known Wagnerian opera? “Reichensteiner and Würzer are dead” -The original title? Rondo, Ortega, and Phoenix. The Mexican villains from a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western? Madeleine Angevine. Latest X-Factor winner? Triomphe. A...
read moreI always forget how much I love Elvis Presley’s music until I hear it, then it instantly transports me back to my childhood. My parents weren’t huge Elvis fans but my dad did like to pop in a cassette tape every now and then on road trips. Well, Elvis is back and here in the UK! Well, not entirely true, Elvis wines are...
read moreA couple of weeks ago I went to the annual California wine trade tasting in Victoria to see what my fellow Californians were bringing over to the UK. I was expecting lots of Gallo and Echo Falls but actually, there was some great stuff on show. Cakebread Vineyards, Parraduxx, Shafer, Grgich,Hills, Boony Doon, just to name a very...
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