Blog
A Stay at Denbies Vineyard Hotel
I’ve just had a brilliant stay at Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, in the beautiful Surrey Hills. It’s less than an hour’s drive from me and it’s about the same on the train from London. Well worth the journey to be surrounded by rolling hills, vineyards and fresh air.
Winning Wines from Hambledon Vineyard for English Wine Week
In a blind tasting organised by Noble Rot magazine in 2015, one English vineyard came ahead of Pol Roger, Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot, bagging the highest score of all the wines tasted. Located on Hampshire’s South Downs, on the Newhaven Chalk formation, Hambledon Vineyard possesses the same terroir that can be found in the very best sites of the Côte des Blancs in Champagne - could this be the reason it produces such winning wines?
Could adopting a vine with Cuvée Privée be the transparency wine consumers are looking for?
There has become a common theme in the wine industry in recent years, from the labelling of wine to asking to know exactly how the wine was made: transparency. Consumers want to know what has gone into their bottle - whether or not the grapes were grown organically; how exactly was the wine filtered, using which fining agents; who picks the grapes and are they paid fairly; what chemical processes were used in the vineyard and in the winery (- and I am allergic to them?) ...on and on. As well as what is in our wine and what we are putting into our bodies, marketeers know, more than ever, that ‘story’ is vital. Millennials, more than any other age group before, are most likely to become loyal to a product or brand, because of the story behind it - and it had better be honest. In a world where we often feel we are losing personal connection, young consumers (in particular) want to relate to the brands they support - they want to connect. With a level of choice out there growing year on year, we want to choose things in our lives that speak to us authentically and represent us on a personal level.
Sipping on Blanc de Blancs at Jenkyn Place
Being invited to a private tasting of Jenkyn Place’s first ever Blanc de Blancs in their beautiful Hampshire estate, standing next to the very vines upon which the ‘blancs’ were grown… it’s a yes from me. Even when dark clouds started to roll in and the heavens threatened to open, there was nothing that could dampen the enthusiam for the occasion – which is English winemaking in a nutshell, as it goes. By midday, there were blue skies, sunshine, Scotch eggs and puppies bounding around the garden – and a vertical tasting of Jenkyn Place Brut Cuvée from 2006 to 2014. It couldn’t have been more perfect (including the Scotch eggs, which still had soft, orange yolks).
World’s Best Vineyards 2019
In the prestigious surroundings of the historic Banqueting House in London, the only remaining part of the Palace of Whitehall where King Charles I met his grisly end, it was a night of beginnings for the World’s Best Vineyards ceremony. At its inaugural event on Monday 8th July 2019, a new chapter of history was written, as Argentina’s Zuccardi Valle de Uco was named the World’s Best Vineyard by an international voting academy.
Respect for the old ways at I Pastini winery
We found ourselves in the heart of Valle d’Itria (the valley of the trulli) during a small detour on the way to the I Pastini winery. My group and I had spent a quick 45 minutes taking in the historical town of Alberobello, where we were introduced to the charming ‘trullo’ houses, which I heard were becoming dilapidated until some bright spark decided to turn them into unique B&Bs for tourists. I imagine these luxury stone-walled tipis make very novel accommodation.