I’ve collected here some of the stuff I’ve written for other (print) publications, alongside new writings exclusively for the Wine Wisdom site.
Australia’s First Families of Wine
Twelve long-standing, family-owned, Australian wine producing companies plan to create a new image for Australian wine with a regional flavour.
Lord of the sweets
Middle Earth … Middle Europe … miruvor … Tokaji … it’s easy to confuse them.
Tokaji sweetness levels
How Tokaji’s puttonyos relates to gramms per litre of residual sweetness
Green/herby flavours in red wines
Bits of viticulture and winemaking stuff explained.
Australia’s Little Italy
Along with the continuing pinot grigio craze, the buzz around Italian varietals is extending to some rather serious reds, and it is Victoria, with its rich heritage of Italian migrants, that is leading the field on the Australo-Italian front.
Oxygen: the double edged sword
Bits of winemaking stuff explained.
German pinot noir – the pursuit of elegance
Top German spätburgunder (pinot noir) producers from the Ahr to Baden came to London to present their wines at a Master of Wine Masterclass on Sept 11, 2009.
Bordeaux and cabernet sauvignon
Cabernet sauvignon is the kingpin grape variety in Bordeaux, even though much more merlot is planted in the region. It provides the backbone and core of the region’s wines, and has led to plantings all over the wine-producing world. But cabernet sauvignon is not simply cabernet sauvignon.
Marche reds
One from the archives, but still plenty of relevant content about the red wines of the Marche, which account for about two-thirds of plantings in the region. They tend to get a little lost in the shadow of the region’s more famous white sibling – verdicchio.
Sulphur-like odours (SLOs)
Reductive issues are at the opposite end of the continuum from oxidation. Too much reduction is a bad thing. But a little bit of reduction can give desired complexing characters to a wine. There’s no easy answer to controlling a little from too much.
