The Drinks Business (DB) published an article recently (18 March 2024) entitled Scientists prove drinking good wine ‘makes you happier’. The scientists to whom the article alluded did no such thing  The research cited was, according to the abstract at the very start of the paper, to determine whether wearable sensors were a feasible means of measuring subjects’ responses while tasting different wines. The wearable sensors used were heart rate (HR) monitors. The basis for this is the idea an action which can create an expectation (good or bad) about a food product is capable of mod ..read more

Well, it's been a long time since I attended a wine tasting so how nice that the first was the Pembroke Wine's showing of Hamilton Russell wines from Hemel-en-Aarde in South Africa (pictured above on the 2004 IMW trip). With both Anthony and Olive in attendance, this promised to be an excellent way to get back into the tasting game. The occasion did not disappoint. Anthony and Olive are very informative about the wines and their philosophy, and they had a very good selection to show. There were six wines to taste, three white and red each, with an interesting set of contrasts. The tasting or ..read more

This meme appeared on my Facebook newsfeed some time ago – If you’ve never had a Supreme Court case decide if you have the same rights as others, you have privilege. This is so true, and a very simple explanation of what privilege is. Recently, I saw a post on Tim Atkin’s site in relation to wine bitch, something of which I had never heard. This led to two other articles, by Vinka Danitza, (who I don’t know and have never met. Finally, I was sent the four so-called wine bitch articles and the whole thing is quite depressing.  I live a life of privilege – white, male and also a Master of ..read more

People like me often have to sing for our supper and recently I had a great time at a wine dinner hosted by The Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC) on 18th October, 2018. Many of my best customers in The Wine Library are RIYC members and I also have a few friends therein! The theme of the evening, set by Garry Fleming and Gareth McGinty, was "New world, old vines". The meal was four courses and I had to choose a wine for each course. We started with a Tiger prawn cocktail with horseradish cream & avocado served in an iceberg lettuce leaf; to match I chose the Chateau Tahbilk Marsanne 2017 (Wine ..read more

A study was recently published by The Lancet in relation to alcohol-related harms and it shows that there is no safe minimum level of alcohol consumption - bad news for wine drinkers! Or is it? The study is extensive and has lots of data (although the copy I found online in the above link does not contain the appendices) but there are some questions about the findings. In essence the study appears to show that there is no safe limit to alcohol consumption. It is a huge study, perhaps the biggest of its kind ever, and the researchers put in vast amounts of work to standardise measurement of al ..read more

There is an old joke which defines an economist as someone who finds something which works in practice and then spends their life trying to prove it will work in theory. This definition could be used for those who predict wonderful/appalling outcomes for Brexit – we won’t really know the effects until well after March 2019. However, there are a few things which we can certainly posit with some degree of certainty and one of those is that, whatever transition deal is made between the UK and the EU it is likely to cause the cost of wine to rise rather than fall. Why? Let’s first see what curre ..read more

Recently a colleague posted a piece on Facebook about how annoyed they were that Lidl was selling a Muscadet for €3.99, down (allegedly) from €7.99, and wondered about the "plonk inside the bottle". However, I noticed at once that this is a wine imported into Ireland by The Wicklow Wine Company and was able to assure her that it is a good wine. But WWC sells the wine for €14.70 so how is it a) selling for €3.99 and b) was it ever €7.99 to begin with? Well, it certainly can't sell at a profit for €3.99 because excise duty is €3.19 per bottle, which comes to €3.92 with VAT. So, the only way it c ..read more

It is not uncommon for people to walk into a shop and ask for a zero-sulfur wine, frequently claiming that sulfur in wines gives them a headache. Now, no wines are sulfur free as sulfur (or sulfur-based compounds) are formed during fermentation; when this is explained, then they ask for a “low-sulfur” wine. At this point, if you want to annoy the questioner, simply ask them for a number: what is a low-sulfur level? They will never be able to answer you because they have no idea what they are talking about. Fun, huh?  “But I get headaches from the sulfur in wine” – how many times have y ..read more

I am a lucky man - I've said it before and I'll say it again at some stage. I've just spent two great days teaching WSET Level 4 Diploma students in Belgium and Holland about Australia. Getting here was tricky but, after some wild train rides all across Holland I made to Antwerp Sunday evening (13th Nov. 2016) and the following morning had the first of two classes. Both days were identical in structure, one in Antwerp for the primarily Belgian students, the second in Breukelen for the mainly Dutch students. I started out with a tasting designed to baffle - two wines, blind, after which they ha ..read more

The terminology of wine tasting is notoriously loose and ill-defined and this can cause problems when so-called experts (i.e. geeks like me) try to explain what a wine is like to a normal person (i.e. you!). What seems like a useful term within the trade can be confusing (or even off-putting) to a lot of consumers. One such term, which became fashionable about 12 years ago, is “minerality”. What is this “minerality” of which we speak? As it happens, even the great and good aren’t so sure… The Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW) does many useful things but one of the most useful are the vario ..read more