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A Quick Lesson on Wine and Life

A Quick Lesson on Wine and Life

She reminded me of a request she made in a bar in London last year, after I returned invigorated by wine and life from France – to give her a mini lesson on wine.

“Just a quick one,” she said looking at her glass of Grüner Veltliner, a variety she now loved, I suspect for its flavour but also because she just experienced a little more of the magic of wine discovery.

“Really? Here?”

“Oh I just want to know more about it.”

“Darl, asking for a quick lesson on wine is like asking for a quick lesson on life.”

“Perfect, I’ll take both.”

We laughed. And then I got to thinking, if I had to give a quick lesson on wine… … more →

Posted on April 17, 2012 in People, Wine | 7 Comments
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How to enjoy wine … it’s all in the company

How to enjoy wine … it’s all in the company

It is one of wine’s anomalies that for centuries people have reveled in the heady pleasures of wine, yet insisted mainly on recording its technical aspects as if these were more important than the resulting joy from the drink itself. Yet, if it’s pleasure we really drink wine for, then, just as a guide to life appreciation should be more than a lesson in biology, a guide to wine appreciation should be more than a lesson in vinology. … more →

Posted on March 26, 2012 in People, Wine | 7 Comments
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Better With Age

Better With Age

The wine was presented at dinner with all the ceremony as if it were a new child. Its arrival was announced to guests while it was carried in two hands as though its preciousness were fragile enough to crush. On the table it was centred and adored and as I admired my hosts’ generosity and offering of a very old wine, I thought how readily we accept ageing as a notion of superiority in wine yet not of ourselves. … more →

Posted on February 15, 2012 in People, Wine | 6 Comments
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The Invention of Wine

The Invention of Wine

God was sitting on one side of the boardroom table with his back against the window. A man walked in and introduced himself as Kevin from the Innovation Department.

“Very well, let’s get on with this. I still need to hear presentations from several other departments,” said God who’d been listening to pitches on how best to allocate his resources when he launched Earth in a few months’ time. “So,” he said, looking down at his notes, “your idea is something called wine? Righto Kev, let’s hear it,” he said, leaning back into his chair, but not before grabbing a couple of mints from the bowl in the middle of the boardroom table…
… more →

Posted on December 21, 2011 in People, Wine | 31 Comments
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Why Champagne’s not the girl you think she is …

Why Champagne’s not the girl you think she is …

For many years I was of the belief that putting on a façade was as great a sin as telling a lie, but in the fullness of time, and with the richness of experience, I have come to learn that sometimes putting on a brighter face is simply showing the world that you have a greater capacity for life than it does for dishing out hardship.

I think everyone has a mask. Freud certainly thought so, most people I know have something they smile in spite of and as I was driving away from Champagne, I wondered if it was possible for a place to have one too. … more →

Posted on November 30, 2011 in Wine | 7 Comments
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The Question of Cuvée

The Question of Cuvée

Champagne is one of those things that everyone seems to know what their favourite is and it wasn’t until and because I was nearing my trip to Champagne that someone asked what my favourite style was.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Oh, controversial”.

Really?

I wasn’t trying to be; but I did begin to wonder how it was that I got to this point in life with so many other achievements and failed to know my favourite Champagne style. … more →

Posted on November 4, 2011 in Wine | 6 Comments
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A Champagne Moment

A Champagne Moment

It was a breakthrough moment not only for its simplicity but because it was one of those times when you finally understand the series of small and surprising events, some of which must have seemed quite unfortunate, that help to make big things seriously wonderful. … more →

Posted on October 27, 2011 in People, Wine | 5 Comments
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What’s your wine hook?

What’s your wine hook?

It is both the appeal and the burden of wine that, in order to enjoy it, we believe we need to know something about it. Too often it feels as though we’re not able to profess our love for a drink quite as breezily as we do a bunch of flowers, a pair of boots or our new favourite song. We can’t just love it and tell others that this is so. … more →

Posted on September 19, 2011 in People, Wine | 2 Comments
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The Wonder of Wine

The Wonder of Wine

There are two schools of school in the world and while I have come to believe my spirit belongs to one I have enthusiastically spent most of my life in the other. While learning and applying and learning and applying, something counterproductive happens. We stop wondering. Which is a shame as I have come to learn, there is a lot to be found in wonder. … more →

Posted on August 28, 2011 in People, Wine | 7 Comments
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When it’s time to stop and smell the roses

When it’s time to stop and smell the roses

“Ta-daa!” she said, swinging open the door and twirling her arm behind her. “You like?”

“Get out of the way so I can come in and have a look.”

I wandered in and plonked down two wines. One was a Bress Silver Chook Pinot Noir to match the casual dinner of pork we were having. I was about to open the other wine when … more →

Posted on August 1, 2011 in People, Wine | 10 Comments
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A Little Bit Special

A Little Bit Special

Appropriateness and I have had a chequered relationship, especially around wearing the right outfit at the right time. Of course I’ll behave and shine at a wedding in whatever costume the bride prescribes but, at less directed events, I like to choose outfits by how I feel or where I wish I was, not where I am. As a result, … more →

Posted on July 17, 2011 in People, Wine | Leave a comment
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The Power of White Space

The Power of White Space

It is one of life’s anomalies that it takes all that we have not to put everything in. Holding things back takes courage, trust, discipline, a sense of wisdom and a lack of ego. But that’s not usually how it’s done. The popular view is that more is better.

It’s understandable really. From a very early age, we’re taught that ‘more’ is the end game. Wasn’t that the whole point of school? The more stuff you knew the more gold stars you got – more times tables, more words, more facts, more colours. The race continued as adults, but the aim was for more ‘things’ – more money, more power, more houses, more lovers, more options, more fun… … more →

Posted on July 15, 2011 in People, Wine | 4 Comments
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When is the right time to tell them it’s corked?

When is the right time to tell them it’s corked?

I’m strangely happy when I find people who don’t know what corked wine is. Not because I can roll my eyes and bore them witless but because, after a long time trying to get a handle on the world of wine, it’s refreshing to remember that most normal people enjoy wine with a healthy but basic level of knowledge. It’s like finding a lost tribe that reminds us how blissful ignorance can be. … more →

Posted on July 5, 2011 in Wine | Leave a comment
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The Turning Tides of Wine

The Turning Tides of Wine

It’s the human condition to obsess about everything but the present. What we’re really interested in is the romance of the past and the possibility that shines so brightly in the future. There is often little joy to be had in the here and now. We have that in spades. It’s a done deal.

At a recent dinner with a demographer, I wondered about wine and drinks and trends … the past, the present and the future. As I scanned the montage of my drinking life, I was surprised how many drink fads I have endured. … more →

Posted on June 25, 2011 in Wine | Leave a comment
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Our little baby is growing up … but she needs your vote

Our little baby is growing up … but she needs your vote

It’s been likened to the Pulitzer Prize of wine blogging. Well, sort of.

I’m very excited to announce that New Ruby Press has been nominated for Best New Wine Blog at the Wine Blog Awards.

But with tough competition and a final public vote, there’s still a way to go … … more →

Posted on June 22, 2011 in People, Photos, Stories, Wine | Leave a comment
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Let the kids run free … biodynamic wine

Let the kids run free … biodynamic wine

Growing up, I lived near a Rudolph Steiner school and used to hang with a few of the kids who went there. Kids who went to the Steiner school were wild and earthy compared to my world of school uniforms and God Save the Queen assemblies.

To me, these kids might well have gone to school in Disneyland and had Mickey Mouse as their teacher. Which is funny, because my dad thought the same thing. … more →

Posted on June 21, 2011 in Wine | Leave a comment
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Wish You Were Here: A Wine Roadtrip (Sort of)

Wish You Were Here: A Wine Roadtrip (Sort of)

If wines really do speak of their place, then wine tasting is a lot like armchair travelling; an intimate taste of somewhere else.

I wanted to taste wine that would take me away. Not to just any old place but somewhere remarkable, somewhere that I have never been and, should I be stirred enough to visit, would change me a little and impress me a lot. I wanted to … … more →

Posted on June 14, 2011 in Wine | Leave a comment
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The Getting of Cellar Door Wisdom

The Getting of Cellar Door Wisdom

To the civilian, the transaction that goes on at cellar doors can often be quite uncomfortable. It’s a place where something fun crashes into something formal. To enter a room full of strangers, with a line up of wines, a bucket of someone else’s spit, some tasting notes and a price list can be enough to drive even the most enthusiastic away. A shame really, as … more →

Posted on June 1, 2011 in People, Stories, Wine | Leave a comment
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