Wine Knowledge

A 3.00am start in London to catch the ‘commuter’ flight to Marseille is never a joy but the blue skies and Provençal sunshine off-set any fatigue. We hit the ground running and were tasting at Domaine de Trévallon by 11.00. Antoine and Ostiane Durrbach gave us a warm welcome and we were treated to a […]

There are only two reasons to buy wine futures (or 'en primeur' as it is known in the trade). One, because it secures rare wine where demand outstrips supply and two, because the en primeur price should be at a discount to the wine once bottled and physically available. Sure, there are secondary reasons – […]

Occasionally food and wine combinations marry so brilliantly that they transcend the everyday and transport you to a different plain of appreciation. Just such a moment occurred at the end of a busy buying trip earlier in the year. We were sitting on the terrace of Le Safari restaurant in the Vieux Port of Nice, […]

I was fortunate enough to spend last Thursday lunchtime at Le Gavroche selecting the wines for our forthcoming Spring lunch. I took the opportunity to buttonhole the head sommelier David Galetti, who presides over a list of biblical proportions, about his personal recommendations of wines to accompany asparagus. When English asparagus is in season, as […]

Last month we received the sad news that Isabelle Barantin had finally succumbed to the circling sharks and sold the iconic monopole vineyard of Château Grillet to François Pinault of Château Latour. I spoke to Isabelle on the phone shortly afterwards and made the mistake of congratulating her on the sale - the property had […]

A potentially thorny question for those of us in the wine trade is: What on earth to serve visiting wine makers? Last week I had not one but two wine-makers to stay and so had ample opportunity to ponder this dilemma. The short answer is: Nothing from their own back yard and certainly not their […]