Yapp Travel

Never let it be said that Yapp Brothers are a parochial bunch who aren’t prepared to spread the good word far and wide. Last week I stepped off the Bristol - Glasgow flight to join up with ace Catalan wine maker Christine Campadieu who had come from Collioure, via Barcelona and Berlin (where she had […]

Holidays generally fly past, but this one does seem to have gone faster than normal – I know that this can’t actually be true but it is how this one feels. An equally fair split of weather – 1st week up in the Wilds of North Wales was atypically sunny and the 2nd week was […]

Today is my last day in the office before I head off for the habitual family two weeks away up in the wilds of North Wales, so last night I started to scribble down my list of holiday essentials. Times have certainly changed, my children are now a little older (as we all are) and […]

I'd never ridden the Col de la Croix de Fer, but I've always wanted to do so. I had heard that it is a lovely scenic ride from Romanche valley to the Maurienne (moving from the Isère departement to the Savoie) but it was also the name - the Pass of the Iron Cross. It has […]

The double whammy long weekends afforded me an opportunity to catch up with in-laws in Dublin. Arriving on Good Friday caused a mild panic as I’d clean forgotten that the sale of alcohol is forbidden in Ireland on Good Friday (and Christmas Day). Hard to believe now that this law, which dates back to 1927, originally prohibited […]

The final leg of our buying trip begins in Faugères, an up and coming AOC that sits atop an impressive bedrock of schist, north of Beziers. Château des Estanilles is an estate that has recently changed hands and the good news is that the pioneering work of Michel Louison is being augmented by Julien Seydoux, an […]

After a hugely informative, if fairly exhausting, visit to the Salon des Vins de Loire we headed south to Bordeaux for a spot of castle-creeping with the Baron and Baroness d’Anglade at Chateau d’Abzac. As any fule kno, it is relatively easy to source good, classed growth Bordeaux but you get what you pay for. […]

The annual Salon des Vins de Loire takes place at the end of January takes place in the unprepossessing but functional Parc des Expositions in Angers and is always an informative affair. While a mid-winter gathering is convenient for winemakers, it can make for a chilly and challenging tasting programme for visitors. This kind of event, although […]

Yapp Brothers supplies wine to around 500 restaurants, hotels, bars, clubs and pubs in the UK, so wine lists in other countries is of particular professional interest to me. It also has a significant bearing on my holiday finances and choice of tipple. Three weeks in Colombia over Christmas and New Year presented me with ample opportunity […]

It’s our final day in the Rhône valley and we are beginning to flag a little as we wend our way out of Orange once again at 8.30am. We’ve long since given up trying to convince friends and family that tasting wine is an arduous task, but you can have too much of a good thing. We […]