It is not always the way, but there were three stand out wines at our tastings this week, and it was France leading the quality drive. Poetic justice for a poor northern hemisphere rugby showing perhaps? I am sure you have heard us harp on about bulk, over priced Sauvignon Blanc...
And just like that it is Autumn. The season to discover that there is a hole in the sole of your shoe as your sock swiftly dampens and the seemingly daily indignity of being drenched by the passing bus. There is however, a silver lining to the rather abrupt change in...
Sometimes you dig and dig and dig and all you get to show for your efforts are blistered hands and a sweaty forehead. The wotwine? tasting team have days like that. Long, laborious days of mediocre, uninspiring wines. However this week we hit the coal seam; amid the dirt we...
The car you drive speaks volumes about your personality. A cocktail of lifestyle marketing and the realities of budget draw us towards a certain car, but more importantly, what does your choice of car say about your wine choices? The Peugeot 206 with obligatory dents. This is not a car of...
Tomorrow sees the kick off of the Rugby World Cup. Every man has his position and his part to play on the field, with each position requiring a different temperament and a different physique. Like a hand selected mixed case of wine, each man has been deliberately picked for his...
Wines that stir the emotions. Wine resides in that mysterious place where art and science meet. Like art, music, cooking or poetry, wine should illicit an unbidden emotional response, like art it is open to individual interpretation and like art it does not require an in depth knowledge of style, technique...
What it means to be British: Lazy Sunday roasts with great value wine. The cornerstone of every great British weekend is of course the Sunday roast. Feuding families are brought together by it, potential girlfriends are judged on their suitability according to it and satisfaction is guaranteed after it. So this...
The art of knowing when you are on to a good thing. Good value to us is very simply a price that matches the quality of the wine. All too often the wotwine team are shocked at the disparity between the quality of the wine in our glass and the inexplicably...
The farce of back label marketing. Wine tasting is your personal interpretation of a wine coloured by your experiences of everyday tastes and smells. A wine taster improves by building up a library of aromas which they can then refer to when tasting and draw parallels to what is in the...
The great screw cap vs cork debate. Now we know this is a bit of a touchy subject. People love cork. The romance, the history, the aesthetics are all working in its favour. But what about the unmentionable, a word we only dare whisper; cork taint? It is a demon that has terrorised innocent bottles of wine...