Seems like ages ago I was in Manchester at the Albert Square Chop House sitting in a room full of fellow wine enthusiasts, both amateur and professional as a round 1 judge for the 2018 People’s Choice Wine Awards.  This was a unique awards competition unlike any other, where everyday drinkers/consumers of everyday wines, mostly found in popular supermarkets and retailers get a chance to pick the wines they would actually like to drink and buy…

Not another over the top buttery Chardonnay, I hear you cry, yes it is but and It’s a big but (if you pardon the expression) this is an over the top quality Chardonnay from the ever-reliable Luis Felipe Edwards and I would quite happily, drink this whenever. Very rarely I buy a case of the same wine, it has to be pretty special for me to do so but every now and then there comes…

Hot on the heels of our recent trip to Tuscany, where we tasted some pretty decent wines, I am still enjoying and actively seeking out anything Italian that looks remotely interesting and this ‘Villa Nardelli’ fits the bill perfectly. Not that the bottle looks anything special, in fact, it reminds me of something you would find gathering dust at the back of a sleepy Italian restaurant but believe me, don’t let the label fool you…

Times, they are a changing in the world of rosé wine. The image of it being a young persons pre-drink of choice before going out on a Saturday night bender where it’s easy to down and just as easy to find it coming back up again, may well be a thing of the past, maybe it’s wishful thinking but what I do know is there is much more quality rosé wine around now to combat…

I often ask myself, ‘who reads wine reviews’ and why should I bother with investing time and effort in letting people know what I think of a certain bottle of wine when I am realistic enough to know that probably only a hand full of people are likely to read it, won’t really care what I think and will more than likely never return. Who can blame them, they don’t know who I am and…

This ‘Les Nivières’ French beauty which comes from the banks of the Loire in the castle town of Saumur is a fresh, vibrant Cabernet Franc and I must say it’s one of the better examples of this grape variety that I’ve tasted in a while. Waitrose & Partners currently have it on offer at £7.49 (normal price £9.49) which is fantastic value for a wine of this quality. Cabernet Franc most commonly found as part…

The saying ‘ It does exactly what it says on the tin’ seemed to fit this gig perfectly, ‘The People’s Choice Wine Awards’ an event in which a  selection of people with different backgrounds, some in the wine trade, enthusiastic amateurs and some who have no experience apart from being consumers who actually drink the stuff, get together to judge and select the best wines in a series of categories. The wines submitted were from…

It certainly wasn’t the label that attracted me to this bottle, it’s pretty bizarre, to say the least. I bought it because I like Grenache or Garnacha but this kind of threw me, initially I didn’t like it then I did and this went on a while before I realised that the bottle was almost finished (not that I drank it all myself ) and I still couldn’t quite make up my mind. This was…

Every now and then a wine comes along with the Wow factor and this New Zealand Sovee Bee (Sauvignon Blanc) is just one of those times. Took a chance with this from Majestic on their WIGIG (When It’s Gone it’s Gone) promotion. Regular readers of my blog will know I’m forever on the hunt for my first 9/10 corks and this may well be the one (you’ll have to find out at the end of…

Although the weather is cooling down as the summer draws to a close there’s still no reason not to drink a refreshing white wine with a hint of spritz and this drinkable Portuguese Vinho Verde (literally Green Wine) was a very pleasant surprise.  Quinta De Azevedo is from a single estate vineyard in the Braga district in the Minho province of northern Portugal. It’s a blend of 95% Louriero and 5% Arinto , I actually bought…

‘Come quickly, I’m tasting stars’ exclaimed the Benedictine Monk Dom Pérignon, when talking about the worlds most celebrated fizzy drink Champagne and to be honest, I don’t think he was far off the mark. If you like Champagne then you really must visit this most northerly of wine regions in France and experience why the French take this drink so seriously and why they are extremely proud of what they produce. It’s not until you…

Every now and then you open a bottle and Wow! is the first thing that springs to mind and this is what happened when I first opened this Kaapzicht Chenin Blanc Bought on 25% discount offer at Waitrose (currently £13.99) where including my wife’s Partner discount it came down to the bargain price of just under £9 and to cap it all this was probably one of the better Chenin Blancs I’ve tasted in a…

Scala Dei 2011 If you like your wines with a bit of muscle and intensity then Scala Dei translated from Latin to literally mean ‘Ladder to God’ is one to try. Made by Carthusian monks in the Scala Dei winery, founded in the 12th century and found in the Priorat region south-west of Tarragona Spain. I actually picked up this bottle in a small supermarket down a back street in the historic old town of…

It seems like every time I book a holiday now the first thing I look for is a nearby vineyard to visit. I encourage anybody with an interest in wine to go and see how this wonderful stuff we drink is actually made, its a great way to spend a few hours. Monte Da Casteleja On a recent family holiday to the Algarve region of Portugal, we visited a small Organic vineyard in Lagos run…

With the weather taking a turn for the better and temperatures scaling the dizzy heights of the high 20’s there’s nothing more satisfying than sipping a well-made chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Now I’m not a massive Sovee Bee fan (sorry that’s what my daughter calls it and I can’t help referring to it as that, sad I know!) anyway, sometimes you just have to admit that you are drinking something pretty decent and this…

If you ever visit Jerez in Spain then one Winery you must visit apart from all the excellent Sherry outlets is the Luis Perez Bodega situated just on the outskirts of Jerez de la Frontera. This was by far the standout highlight of our visit to the region and a place my wife and I hope to return to in the future. This is where we first tasted the sublime ‘El Muelle’ Palomino Fino, a…

I recently celebrated my 60th birthday and judging by the number of wine-related cards and bottles I got I think, perhaps some is trying to tell me something. Not that I’m complaining as I still get enormous pleasure from receiving that special bottle of fizz or that sought after Rioja and I was very grateful for the generosity of family and friends. This picture shows a small selection of some of the gifts I received…

There’s something about Portuguese wines that get people excited and I for one can understand why. Portugal is probably more famous for its Ports and as good as they are their table wines especially from the Douro region and their national grape variety Touriga Nacional, in particular, is finding its way onto my ‘to buy’ list more often than not. Following on from my last post about the cheap and cheerful ‘Julia Florista’ another Portuguese…

Been a while since I reviewed a single bottle but I have been meaning to bring your attention to this Julia Florista Portuguese red since the first time I tasted it around two years ago. Can cheap wine be any good? when I say cheap wine I mean really cheap, cheap as in £1.99 a bottle. Is it drinkable? most definitely, does the bottle look good? yes, would I buy it again? yes. I’ll say…

If you like and want to know more about wine the best way is to try as many as you can and what better way of doing it without breaking the bank is to get yourself along to an organised tasting event as this one. This time, the venue was Browns Brasserie & Bar, in Londons Covent Garden once Westminster’s County Courts which in 1996 was converted into a bar and restaurant, one of the…