Winemaker Elena M Oyagüe of Cuatro Rayas explains what makes Rueda Verdejo unique, including the region’s very special old vines, and how on the food-pairing front the wines’ flexibility is akin to the little black dress and fashion
Read more...
“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” Charles Bukowski
Read more...
The Times wine critic Jane MacQuitty talks to Andrew Catchpole about her new MBE for services to wine journalism
Read more...
After enduring three months of local restrictions with little help, Sara Saunby, owner of Manchester hybrid Salut, says Whitehall’s belated decision to help the North is too little, too late
Read more...
What’s the point of tasting notes? Who are they actually for? Who reaps the benefit, for example, of reading that a wine has notes of “gentian, elderflower, seaweed, mussels, salt spray, chicken stock, sage, fennel, peach kernel, lemon, alkali and wet stone”, as David Schildknecht’s highly attuned nose detected in the 2004 Riesling Steinriesler of Nikolaihof Wachau?
Read more...
As the 2020 vintage came in, Rathfinny owner Mark Driver spoke with Andrew Catchpole about the challenges of flexing the business in a remarkable year
Read more...
Alex Taylor and Jamie Smith of Urban Craft Wines at Tring Winery are sending innovation out the door, as Andrew Catchpole reports
Read more...
About 30 million people in the UK drink wine. For years, producers and marketeers have been trying to grab their attention, hoping to figure out how to successfully communicate their wines through words and images.
Read more...
Origin Wines’ Swiss founder talks to Andrew Catchpole about the Cape’s re-emergence post shutdown and his new pan-country range of terroir-focused wines
Read more...
Health rose to the top of the agenda at the beginning of 2020 in a way we’ve never seen before. Jo Gilbert speaks to the face of alcohol responsibility in the UK about meeting this challenge
Read more...
‘Never A Dull Moment’ is the title of a wonderful book about what its author, David Hepworth, calls “rock’s golden year”. 1971 was indeed an annus mirabilis for music, witnessing the release of landmark albums by David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Yes, The Who and Rod Stewart. For Hepworth, 31 December 1970 marked the end of the Sixties – 12 months late, in one sense – and the start of something very different. It was a turning pint, a line in the sand.
Read more...
I love books. I love being surrounded by them. The company of all those stories and thoughts is inspiring. As the number I owned grew over the years, I had to double stack them on the shelves like bottles of wine in a shop. Then finally, there was no more space. A triage and trip to the local Oxfam shop became inevitable.
Read more...
My favourite part of the nauseating, sadly since-deleted film promoting the new, ‘clean’ Avaline wine comes at the very end. After extolling the virtues of this miraculous cuvée at length – and trashing pretty much every other wine ever made for their use of additives – the duo responsible for its immaculate conception, actress Cameron Diaz and fashion brand-builder Katherine Power, tell us how they like to drink it.
Read more...
Andrew Catchpole catches up with one of the most passionate sommeliers in London to talk wine culture, change and cheese
Andrew Catchpole talks to Mentzendorff boss Andrew Hawes pre and post-lockdown
Read more...
Prominent restaurateurs joined Andrew Catchpole around a virtual table to discuss rebuilding trade in the new norm.
Read more...
Lorraine Copes talks to Andrew Catchpole about amplifying the voices of people of colour in the UK drinks and hospitality trade.
Read more...
With hospitality one of the hardest hit sectors in the wake of the pandemic, the head of the leading trade organisation has no end of crucial issues to deal with. Kate Nicholls talks strategy to Lisa Riley
Read more...
Our lives are going to be harder. Whatever it took to sell wine, bring in cash, pay bills, keep the door open will change once we open that door again. On-trade wine sales have changed and we must change with that. But where to begin?
Read more...
From Barca Velha to small-batch single varietal Douro wines by way of Clink cocktails, Luís Sottomayor gives Andrew Catchpole the lowdown on life at the helm
Read more...
