Ardeche wines: Domaine Terra Noé exhibits quality with future facing principals
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- Published: 25 October 2023 25 October 2023
On tis visit to Domaine Terra Noé in Ardeche, France, we meet Philippe Dry, the Diector General on a mission to improve winemaking and quality of the wines. After eight years, we get a chance to assess.
Tenuta Luce - Exploring vintages and harvesting beneath a Montalcino sky
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- Published: 02 October 2023 02 October 2023
We are standing on the edge of the plot of vines called Madonnino (Little Madonna); vines laden with healthy tight dark bunches of Sangiovese grapes, waiting patiently for their divine passage through the pickers hands (mine in this case!), to the imposingly large red cement fermentation tanks, eventually seeking refuge in the large Slovenian oak barrels to begin the journey of maturation.
Eastern Promise is the latest in the Felix Hart novel series of near death quality imbibing
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- Published: 16 August 2023 16 August 2023
For those acquainted with the series of books by pseudonymous author, Peter Stafford-Bow, there is no disappointment in the latest instalment of Felix Hart’s wine soaked expedition, ‘Eastern Promise’.
Lugana DOC - Wines born of Garda’s glacial past
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- Published: 01 August 2023 01 August 2023
Lake Garda is Italy’s largest lake, shaped strikingly like an outstretched brontosaurus with its head seeking the cooler northerly air. Along the southern shores, the Lugana DOC area is thriving, producing a selection of tasty textured white wines from the native Turbiana grape variety.
Monferrato Chiaretto Funtanin by Bricco dei Guazzi
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- Published: 13 June 2023 13 June 2023
The sun comes up over the vineyards, set among the Monferrato Hills, illuminating each undulation in subtle pinks against the Western Alps soaring skywards.
Contra Soarda’s ‘Terra’ - Europe’s 1st (overtly) carbon negative wine from N. Italy
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- Written by Nicholas Breeze Nicholas Breeze
- Published: 18 May 2023 18 May 2023
I have a lucid memory of January 2006, standing with a friend in the biting cold (-6ºC) North Italian town of Bassano del Grappa, watching huddles of ladies wrapped in animal furs, generating heat with the ferocity of their chatter, set against the majestic mountain from which the town gets its name, as does a familiar digestivo, itself a warming rejoinder to the icy breeze chapping my lips.
The 2023 London Wine Fair to analyse all empty bottles to asses reusability
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- Published: 05 May 2023 05 May 2023
The London Wine Fair 2023 (LWF23) has joined forces with the Porto Protocol and Sustainable Wine Solutions to collect new data by analysing the estimated 30k empty bottles consumed at the fair.
Climate change podcast
Discord in Odesa; pruning at Shabo goes on!
Last week a picture was posted on Twitter of vines in Shabo, a large estate that lies to the west of Odesa on southern Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline. The image seemed benign at face value but the reality, of course, is that the city of Odesa has been bracing itself for attack by Russian forces.
An aperitif by the coliseum
As COVID-19 conspires with the grimmest of winds and rain to force a societal retreat behind our own front doors, the word ennui springs to mind. The muddle of displeasure is pierced when Natalia hands me a large bulbous glass of a liquid I do not recognise.
Artichoke pasta and very fine Pigato
Britain’s lamentable exit
On the eve of Britain’s official departure from the EU, my partner and I decided to explore a small town on the Italian Riviera where thewintry cold doesn’t feel so much like cold war bite.
I had warned my significant other that I would be having an inverse departure party, a release of the sanity valve if you like!
Soave: volcanic wines with elegance and longevity
Sitting inside the ancient castle walls inside the town of Soave, a short drive from Verona in northern Italy, the unique slightly almond aroma of the indigenous grape, Garganega, rises gently from my glass. The castle sprawls up the side of an extinct volcano that gives the region its variant soil structures that mark out the better quality of Soave wines.
An American In Paris; Tanisha Townsend (@GirlMeetsGlass) discusses podcasts, Paris wine bars, & what she's drinking at the moment
Tanisha Townsend decided to move to Paris 4 years ago after regularly passing through the city en route to the world’s most famous vineyards. In fact, it was about 2 years ago at the Printemps de Champagne Bouzy Rouge tasting in Reims that I saw (who we shall now refer to as) GirlMeetsGlass chirpily speaking to her web followers on Snapchat.
Wine tasting in Galicia: The pilgrims search for Albarino
The cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, the final resting place of Saint James, rises out of the landscape, infested with antiquity. The rambling steep streets give way to shafts of dramatic light, emblazoned chapels, and tightly packed tapas bars, dusty, as old novels pressed together in antiquarian bookshops.