The Wine Barn is UpFrontYou are hereFeed aggregator / Sources / Jancis Robinson News
Jancis Robinson News
MW symposium Bordeaux - part 1 (Inside information)
Mon, 06/28/2010 - 20:00Masters of Wine Symposia come along every four years or so. I have attended every one held, successively, at Oxford (1984), Cambridge and Bristol universities, Vienna and the Napa Valley. The only one I missed was the least well attended, in Perth, Western Australia, in the 1990s. It was the Napa.
Dry River, Craighall Riesling 2008 Martinborough (Wines of the week)
Mon, 06/28/2010 - 20:00From £21.50, NZ$59.95 and $42.99 Find this wine I took part in a blind tasting of a range of smart, non-European white wines that had been proposed for HM the Queen's dinner table yesterday. (I will be reporting in more detail on this tasting in the delightfully cool cellars under Buckingham.
MW symposium in Bordeaux (Inside information)
Sun, 06/27/2010 - 20:00Last week's Masters of Wine symposium in Bordeaux felt like a great success to me - a triumph of organisation on the part of Fiona Morrison MW (Madame Jacques 'Le Pin' Thienpont) and MW student Jacques Lurton. I must confess that when I looked at the programme, I was a little worried that it.
Calling all young wine writers! (Free for all)
Sun, 06/27/2010 - 20:00Applications are invited for the annual Young Wine Writer Award competition, open to all ambitious UK-based under 30 year olds. As we learnt from the recent subscriber survey , that category may account for only 5.4% of Purple pages members, but perhaps the other 94.6% can help spread the word! As.
Some summer favourites (Free for all)
Fri, 06/25/2010 - 20:00For me, the first duty of a wine at any time of year is to refresh us, but this is even more necessary in summer. Below are some of my favourites among wines currently available by the single bottle in the UK with approximate prices. Lighter reds are supplemented by the odd barbecue wine..
A tale of two cities (Nick on restaurants)
Fri, 06/25/2010 - 20:00Frédéric Simonin has finally opened his own restaurant in Paris, two years after leaving London. He started out in 1991, aged 16, as a kitchen apprentice in the fishing port of Saint-Brieuc in Brittany, where, incidentally, I enjoyed my initial exposure to French provincial cooking in 1975. He.
Natural wine defined, but not definitively (Don't quote me)
Thu, 06/24/2010 - 20:00[Also see David Schildknecht's notes for a winewriter's perspective from across the pond.] Biodynamics is so 2009. The very latest way to raise hackles is the phrase ‘natural wine’, which is currently fuelling online discussions all around the web (and a book, currently being written by.
English (and Welsh) delight (Inside information)
Wed, 06/23/2010 - 20:00Patricia Stefanowicz MW, immediate past chairman of the competition and current judge , gives us the inside track on this year's judging of the UK's domestic ferments. Some of you will already know that the English and Welsh Wine of the Year Competition, sponsored by the UK Vineyards.
A long interview (Free for all)
Wed, 06/23/2010 - 20:00Portuguese wine writer Maria João de Almeida sat me down in my garden at the end of last month and the long interview to which the following link will direct you is the result. Topics, apart from the obvious Portuguese wines, include organic wines, the best bottle I ever tasted, red v white.
Tragedy in the Mosel (Free for all)
Tue, 06/22/2010 - 20:00Not long ago Michael Schmidt, our German specialist, wrote an article about some of the steepest vineyards in the Mosel Valley. He called it Hot and dangerous. The danger of working the almost incredibly steep slopes of the Calmont above the village of Bremm was tragically manifest yesterday.
Survey – what Purple pagers want (Inside information)
Tue, 06/22/2010 - 20:00Our various recent surveys left us with tens of thousands of answers to analyse, which explains why it has taken us some time to report back on your more open-ended responses and suggestions (although see Who are Purple pagers? for an analysis of the responses to the more quantifiable questions.
News from Canada (Free for all)
Tue, 06/22/2010 - 20:00Two items of news in from Canada this morning. Firstly comes the news that one of the country's most talented winemakers is leaving his post. Thomas Bachelder has been responsible for the exceptional Chardonnay and Pinot Noir produced by Le Clos Jordanne, the joint venture between Canadian giant.
Mas Théo 2007 Coteaux du Tricastin (Wines of the week)
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 20:00From €7.61 and £8.99 Find this wine and please note that, having said this wine was available in June, Oddbins now report that they are 'expecting a delivery in three to four weeks'. Grrr. Black mark for them and me. This week's wine gives you a last, or at least.
Airborne Taste of London (Don't quote me)
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 20:00I spent much of Sunday as a barmaid - in the British Airways Executive Club tent at Taste of London, the food and drink festival in Regent's Park, London. My fellow bartender Andrew Sparrow of Bibendum Wine (pictured below) asked me when I was last a barmaid and I realised that it was probably.
Nebbiolo Prima - the background (Inside information)
Sun, 06/20/2010 - 20:00Nebbiolo Prima is a four-day immersion in what is arguably Italy's most enigmatic red wine grape, staged in pretty Alba, the vinous centre of the region, and gateway to the famous vineyards of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero, this last a relative newcomer trying to join their ranks, of which more.
English wine in the pink (Free for all)
Sun, 06/20/2010 - 20:00It is awards season in the UK wine trade. Last week saw three different competition results announced, all focusing on English and Welsh wines, and with a particular emphasis on the fortunes of rosé. First, the English & Welsh Wine of the Year competition, run by the United Kingdom Vineyards.
Bad news from Germany (Inside information)
Sun, 06/20/2010 - 20:00On the night of Wednesday 9 Jun thunderstorms, hail and torrential rains caused an estimated 20-30 million euros' worth of damage to vineyards and other agricultural crops in the south west of Germany. Particularly affected were the regions of the southern Pfalz and Rheinhessen. Worst hit was the.
The deepening Atlantic gulf (Free for all)
Fri, 06/18/2010 - 20:00The Atlantic ocean has always represented a gulf in the fine-wine market, but the gulf has deepened, and widened, considerably of late. Now that Hong Kong has become such an important centre for fine-wine auctions, not least because American auctioneers Acker Merrall & Condit have been.
Fine but not rip-offs (Free for all)
Fri, 06/18/2010 - 20:00It never ceases to amaze me how loose is the correlation between wine price and the amount of pleasure it gives. Rarity, hype and (sometimes deluded) belief in investment potential all play their part in inflating prices above their true worth. The main reason why a wine might be fine yet.
That tricky second opening (Nick on restaurants)
Fri, 06/18/2010 - 20:00See below John Torode's story for what famed New York restaurateur Danny Meyer of the Union Square Cafe empire has to say about the difficulties of expanding into a second space. LONDON John Torode, 44, is the ebullient embodiment of just what a chef with talent, determination and the gift of the.
