Took a day off today, to spend with the family. Fortuitously, it was one of the few rain-free days we’ve had by the last couple of months. It felt like summer.We started off at Box Hill, near Dorking in Surrey. It’s a beautiful spot, and one we return to frequently. A bit of gentle hill walking on a…

When I first saw a sign for that winery, I thought it was for a land trust and it never occurred to me that it was a winery. I only got here after Trey Busch recommended it. “Trust me!,” Steve said to Brenda or whatever his wife’s name is and that was the beginning of Trust winery. Steve Brooks and …

Every now and soon after I play a bit of a game. I close my eyes and ask Fiona to choose some wines from the various racks I have in the kitchen and serve them to me blind. Of course, I know roughly which wines I have in the rack, but there are a lot of them, so that makes the game quite fun. The st…

This Grand Vin De Bordeaux from the Cotes De Bourg is a medium cherry color with some age showing in its presentation. The bouquet reveals some chocolate, berry and slightly herbal notes.The palate is subtle–classic old world wine with a touch of bitterness. Fruit is tight and needs air.With some…

I’m sensing the need to buy some wine so I stop at that dumpy place I know to look for a bargain or two. I see that wine and I think I remember that Beringer made a real bargain wine except I thought it was the “Stone Cellars” variety. At the price of $4.50 I figure what the heck.I put a chill on …

This oft reviewed wine by me of varying vintages continues to be a value favorite. I find it on special routinely at a place in suburban Boston for $6–unbeatable. that is the last of the 2002.It is rather dark in the glass with dark fruit of black cherry and tip of something else I can’t pin down…

Straw colored with an odd bouquet for a Chenin; odd not meaning unpleasant but rather stupefying as to what fruit I am smelling. There seems to be a touch of guava like a Sauvignon Blanc.It is sweet in the mouth, even too sweet. Yet it carries it off okay with a sufficient acid base to help the sw…

Abracadabra, abracadabra, POOF! By sleight of hand, winemaker Trey Busch, former winemaker at Basel Cellars has tranformed into a new avatar of himself, so much so that when we stopped at Sleight of Hand to inquire about another winery I didn’t even recognize him. The whole magic show led me to thin…

Journalism: print versus online? Both are useful. I don’t take a newspaper regularly, with the notable exception of the Sunday Express, which we purchase religiously from the same newsagent each week, along with a bag of sweets (maximum value 50 p) for each of the boys (they get to choose). whether …

HPIM1604, originally uploaded by Jamie Goode.I’m posting that picture directly from Flickr. It’s one of the latest batch I put up - a set of pictures from a visit in October 2005 when I was the guest of Brian Croser. Budburst has just occurred.Note added later: posting straight from Flickr doesn’t w…