So this is a big one, even if I do say so myself! I turned 28 on 3rd April this year… getting ever closer to 30. It’s terrifying really, however, in order to ‘get over myself’ so to speak I decided to have a very low-key dinner with my parents and my partner Jen. We had the last Raclette evening of the year with many pieces of charcuterie, steak and salads with lots of potatoes… including 1.2 kilos of Raclette! However, you are here for the wines and I must admit we were spoiled rotten. As it was my birthday...

We move to the beautiful landscape that is Veneto in northern Italy. This tasting focuses on arguably the most prestigious red wine from the area. Amarone della Valpolicella. Vinified from grapes using the appassimento technique, these wines are rich, full bodied and intensely flavoured. They can age for many years. Mainly vinified using the Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella and Molinara grape varieties.  However, let’s start at the beginning. The Veneto region is home to well-known cities such as Venice and Verona. It has many macroclimates from the Alps, to Lake Garda to the Adriatic Sea. As a wine region, Veneto is...

We’re back with the second Up from the Cellar article! An extremely interesting set of wines awaits… mainly because I am not overly familiar with them. This tasting was as much as a learning curve for me as the following tasting notes will be for you. We were celebrating a birthday of one of my closest friends who had just turned 23. So in true fashion we attempted to find bottles from his birth year, 2000. My friend has a particular love of Italy and so wanted to have an Italian dinner with, of course, Italian wines. So we duly...

I was first introduced to Chateau Musar over 40 years ago. Whilst the story of the wine the company and the heritage were all impressive it was the wine that made the biggest impression on me. Over the years on my vinous trips around the world I forgot to regularly replenish my cellar with this wine but my memory of it was always good. When I first decided to hold 60 wine tastings for my 60 years, rather than find five other wineries from the Levant or at least Eastern Mediterranean area, I decided to conduct a vertical tasting purely...

South Africa, as mentioned in T3.15 makes some very fine wines. It is the 8th largest wine producing country in the world. Kim and I have managed to visit a few times even taking Harry once. It is well known now for many single varietal and blended wines. It even has its own sparkling style named ‘Cap Classique’ which refers to the secondary fermentation method as used in Champagne and other sparkling areas. There is a heavy historical French influence found in many wines and that particularly includes Chardonnay, with many wines displaying greatness. In South Africa, Chardonnay can produce...