Tim Atkin
49 FOLLOWERS
I'm an award-winning wine writer and Master of Wine with 35 years' experience. I write for a number of publications, including Harpers, Decanter, The World of Fine Wine, Gourmet Traveller Wine, and The Drinks Business, and am one of the Three Wine Men. I am a co-chairman of the International Wine Challenge, the world's most rigorously judged blind tasting competition, and have won..
Tim Atkin
18h ago
Of course, I stole the title of this article from Monty Python. One reason I did so lies in its absurdity. After all, wine merchants in the UK have played a crucial role over centuries in making London one of the most important hubs of wine trading in the world. Their legacy is undeniable. But ..read more
Tim Atkin
3w ago
The times we live in being what they are, I need to start with a few disclaimers. No, I don’t doubt at all that there is a dark side to the wine industry, especially when it overlaps with hospitality. Also no, I have never worked full-time in the wine industry, so you could argue, if ..read more
Tim Atkin
1M ago
My scientific credentials are embarrassing. I struggled to get a C grade in Physics with Chemistry O Level in my teens. By dint of rote learning and conversations with winemakers, not to mention a thrilling, all-day visit to a bottling plant, I managed to bluff my way through paper two of the Master of Wine ..read more
Tim Atkin
1M ago
Haut-Brion holds a hallowed place not only in today’s luxury wine market and wine history but also for the people who study terroir identity, authenticity, and, of course, branding. Its wines captured the imagination of 17th-century England, where they became synonymous with luxury, status, and innovation. Arnaud III de Pontac, Haut-Brion’s visionary owner, revolutionised how ..read more
Tim Atkin
1M ago
It wasn’t the most sublime wine moment of 2024 but it was the most watched. During April’s London Marathon, wine merchant Tom Gilbey (interviewed on Cork Talk last week) stopped after each mile to blind taste a different wine, thereby raising thousands of pounds for charity. The video of his 25 tasting stops has now ..read more
Tim Atkin
1M ago
“The closer you get to the equator, the warmer it becomes,” says the Wine and Spirit Education Trust in explaining vinous geography. So true. When you live in the tropics, it changes your perspective on wine. And the thing about wine marketers, critics, winegrowers, sensory analysis experts, and wine writers is that they nearly all ..read more
Tim Atkin
2M ago
When did you last cry? From pain, relief, elation? Was it a book, a movie? Were you bidding some farewell for a year, for ever? For me, it is often music. There are pieces that move me to tears, such as the slow movement of Chopin’s Sonata in B minor, perhaps the greatest modulations ever ..read more
Tim Atkin
2M ago
Sauvignon Blanc is South Africa’s biggest export cultivar, and its most consumed cultivar domestically; outstripping Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay in the mass market game. But while familiarity has bred a formidable level of contempt among snootier wine voices, there are a few bottles of 30-year-old Stellenbosch Sauvignon that might silence them all. Of all the ..read more
Tim Atkin
2M ago
The cat lady is finally experiencing a phoenix moment. Ever since J.D. Vance’s regressive comments resurfaced, about America being run by ‘a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable in their own lives’, Kamala Harris has become an icon for cat ladies everywhere. The cat-owning woman has had a turbulent history. She began as ..read more
Tim Atkin
3M ago
Of the many irritating things my parents used to say on repeat, the one that springs most to mind now is ‘youth is wasted on the young’. (A close second is ‘you’re not going out dressed like that, are you?’) Because of course it’s true. Youth is supposed to be a time of flawless skin ..read more