Tonight’s bottle was a Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, and before I’d even poured a glass something strange happened. I cracked the screw cap and was met with a slight hiss, almost like opening a sparkling wine. A little puff escaped, almost like steam. Not something you expect from a red. Straight into the…
The idea that wouldn’t leave me alone This all started with a thought that probably should have been left alone, but once it got in my head it wouldn’t go anywhere. What if I bought a bit of land near home, somewhere around Aughton, and built something that felt like a proper estate. Not just…
There are some wines you enjoy, and then there are wines that make you stop mid sip and think hang on a minute, this is something else. That was exactly my experience with Marqués de Riscal Rioja Reserva 2021. I went into this one fairly open minded, paired it with a proper meal, and what…
I’ve been looking for this bottle for a while, so there was no ceremony when I finally got my hands on it. It was open and in the decanter within minutes. Sometimes you just have to follow your instinct. This is a wine that had built a bit of anticipation for me, and it turned…
I popped into Majestic without much of a plan and came out with one of those baskets that ends up teaching you more than you expected. There was a bottle I’d been looking for for months, a couple of classics, something new, and a familiar comfort pick. Five countries, five styles, and a bit of…
I picked this bottle up without expecting too much, if I’m honest. Beaujolais still carries that reputation in the back of your mind, a bit light, a bit simple, something you don’t really sit and think about too much. But this felt like the right time to actually give it a proper go and see…
I picked up a bottle of Mouton Cadet from Tesco for £8, 2023 vintage, and I’ll be honest, I was excited to open it. You see the word Mouton and your brain immediately jumps to Château Mouton Rothschild. First Growth, Pauillac, history, prestige. You expect something with presence. What I got instead was a very…
Over the past few weeks I’ve come across a couple of wine merchants while searching for specific bottles. The kind you only really find when you start going a bit deeper, not just browsing the usual sites. What struck me wasn’t just the wines they stocked, but how they presented themselves. Some of these businesses…
There’s something reassuring about picking up a bottle of Rioja Reserva. You sort of know where you’re going before you’ve even pulled the cork. And with Beronia 2020, that expectation is pretty much met but in a really tidy, well executed way. Straight away on the nose, this leans slightly savoury. Not in a heavy…
Sometimes a wine catches you off guard. Not because it’s rare or expensive, but because it quietly overdelivers in a way that is quite unbelievable given how much the producers are making on the wine to be able to produce. That’s exactly what’s happened here with a 2022 Pebble Lane Pinot Noir I picked up…