Tasting notes:Nice nose of black cherry and tobaccoSavory core, juicy and smokyFinishes with berries, earth, minerals, and traces of vanillaAt a hole-in-the-wall store that past Spring, PB of the blog took a chance on that bottle. He figured it was a treasure worth grabbing. And he was right! It has…

Tasting notes:Fragrant nose of black cherry, earth, and mushroomsMinerals and more cherry on the palateFinish tapers nicely with cocoa, spices, and earthPrior vintages of that wine have always tasted good. There’s no mistaking the usual Sangiovese tartness layered with Tuscan earthiness and charm. W…

Nose:Surprisingly, there is some black cherry. Is that a shiraz?Palate: surprisingly round. fruity. Finish: surprisingly smooth and even.So why is that wine surprising? considering I paid only $2.99 for that wine. Yes it was on sale. But it was on sale from (I believe) about $6. So when you g…

Tasting notes:Nose of pear, fig, and some chalky mineralsLively citrus on the palateApricot and lemon finishThere is such a wide variety of Chardonnay styles on the market today. that one is more of the crisp, bright style than the round, buttery style. It has very nice fruit layers and an underlyin…

Tasting notes:Ripe raspberry and pomegranate noseCore of blueberry on the palateRaspberry and chocolate finishThis wine should be pretty easy to find. A lot of folks really enjoy the Zinfandel produced by Cline, but whether you head to the next aisle you can plus find their basic Syrah. It’s a dec…

A plug for a virtual wine tasting coming up that Saturday (details here). It will be held by Cambridgeshire super-merchant Noel Young in conjunction with Virtual Wine (www.virtualwine.co.uk). To participate you need a broadband connection and a six-pack of interesting-looking wines from Noel’s list,…

Yes, I know, that is old news now - but it is still relevant. I was alerted a month or two ago by a couple of readers for some crazy sounding development plans that could take out a substantial chunk of the Cornas vineyards in the Northern Rhone of France.Now, as most of you know, Cornas rocks. And …

Scratch my comments in the post below. The ones where I reckoned I could taste OK with a cold. Yesterday I could taste pretty well; tonight, not a thing.My sense of smell has abandoned me, and there’s very little fun to be had from wine when you can’t smell anything, save for the physiological effec…

The cold which had been threatening to burst at any moment has really clicked into gear, and I can no longer smell all that much. But it’s a myth (from my experience at least) to say that you can’t smell anything when you have a cold, but the clarity of the olfactory perception is much diminished. I…

Just been away for a fabulous weekend, staying with my parents in Lidgate, Suffolk. The weather was great, the kids behaved, RTL sort of behaved and we had a good duration.On Saturday my dad and I took the boys to IWM Duxford, which is a fabulous airforce museum at a functioning airfield. I confess …