There are bottles that quietly expose a fairly sizeable hole in your wine knowledge. The Camigliano Brunello di Montalcino 2020 was very much that. I’d been looking forward to opening this. Brunello is one of those names that carries a bit of weight before you’ve even pulled the cork, and with my experience of Tuscan…
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…
I set myself a bit of a mad challenge the other day. Find a red wine under £35 that ticks all three boxes. A 17+ from Jancis Robinson, a 95+ from Robert Parker and a 93+ from Wine Spectator. In my head, this was going to be one of those nice idea, doesn’t really happen…
I had a bit of a moment the other day. I’ve now finished Thirsty by the fabulous Tom Gilbey four times. Not skimmed it, properly read it, gone back to it, picked bits up I missed the first time. Alongside that I’ve spent hours watching Konstantin Baum on YouTube, really trying to understand not just…
A Benchmark Bottle With Something to Prove There’s always a bit of expectation when you open a bottle of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. It’s one of those names that carries weight, especially with Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. You almost go into it thinking you already know what you’re going to get. I opened this alongside a…
There’s something about opening a bottle like Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc that carries a bit of expectation with it. It’s one of those wines you feel like you should love. A proper benchmark. Crisp, refined, Marlborough at its most polished. I received a bottle for Christmas from my mother in law and was naturally excited,…
There comes a point in your wine journey where you stop just enjoying it and start asking a bigger question am I actually ready to take this seriously? For me, that question has been WSET Level 3. I’ve been drinking more, tasting more, thinking more about wine than ever before. Not just what I like,…
There are some wines you analyse, and there are some wines you just drink. This falls firmly into the second category. I came across the Mark West Pinot Noir when I fancied a bit of a change. I’d been leaning towards fuller, more structured reds recently, so dropping into Pinot Noir territory felt like a…
There’s a moment when you’re choosing a bottle of wine on a restaurant menu where you just stop and hesitate. Not because you don’t know what you’re looking at, but because you know exactly what each option is going to give you. And the question becomes less about what’s “better” and more about what actually…
There’s a point on this wine journey where something a bit strange happens. You open a bottle, not expecting anything amazing, just something decent to enjoy, and it’s horrible. Not just not great properly unpleasant. That was me this week. Two bottles, both gifts, both opened with fairly low expectations, and somehow they still managed…