Doug on The Premier Cru podcast   Many years ago I was invited onto a Radio 4 programme whose rationale was to explore the ways we might improve our knowledge and understanding of those things in our lives that we might take for granted. Taste, for example. I was asked onto the programme to talk about wine, how to taste the aforementioned beverage, and what makes a wine good per se. The panel always comprised the same three professors plus a famous columnist from The Independent. I was quite relaxed until we entered the studio and I saw the bristling array of microphones and sound equipme ..read more

You have your Gravner, And your Radikon. And your Princic. And your Muster. And the Tscheppe brothers. And Zorjan. Amber wines aged with patience first on skins and then in amphorae or barrels. They look like beaten copper and they smell of a world of vinous possibilities. You would only serve them in the biggest and best wine glasses – arguably poured from a decanter where the wine in question would have been resting, ambering away at cool room temperature, for a considerable period of time. These are wines that require time, love, and a lot of nurturing to unlock their deeply-held secrets. T ..read more

Les Caves de Pyrene are delighted to announce an en primeur offer for the 2023 vintage of Lost in a Field “Frolic” pét-nat – not just a first for pét-nat, but a first for English wine in general. Frolic is made from a blend of no fewer than 14 co-fermented grape varieties sourced from five heritage English vineyards. Described by one French sommelier present as un vrai pet nat,  the wine is the result of a single fermentation, its pearly bubbles naturally generated after the wine is bottled with latent residual sugar. Due to the rapidly increasing popularity of English pét-nat and h ..read more

Our Sir Wregg is on the Interpreting Wine podcast talking about the Real Wine Fair 2024 (April 28-29th): its origins (and indeed Doug’s and Les Caves de Pyrene’s origins) as well as what to expect this year. You can listen to the episode right here or via any of the usual podcast channels. Subscribe to the Interpreting Wine podcast HERE and follow @interpretingwine on Instagram.  *Tickets for The Real Wine Fair, taking place at Tobacco Dock in London on 28-29th April 2024, may be purchased here ..read more

A scribbling Sir Wregg at Karakterre   I have been in more than one cab (but not at the same time), and when asked what I did for a living, explained truthfully that I was involved in a wine company that imported and distributed wines. At this point, the driver might perhaps say something like: “I don’t like white wines, but I do drink Chilean reds”. Or: “I like a good Rioja on special occasions”. Or: “My wife only drinks white wine.” Comedian Al Murray had a stand-up routine called: “And a glass of white wine for the lady”. That single ironically dismissive line was freighted with cultur ..read more

Tuscan can do Agricola I Forestieri was born in 2019 as two friends and colleagues decided to embark on their own winemaking journey together. Dario Marinari cut his teeth working in vineyards and wineries in both Italy and France. He was an apprentice to the folk-legend Stefano Amerighi in Cortona and gained experience in biodynamic agriculture and natural winemaking at Agricola Le Nuvole, Mas de Daumas Gassac before landing at Ampeleia in Tuscany. His friend Ezequiel Allassia was born in Argentina and moved to Tuscany over 16 years ago and is now an “adopted native” in the Tuscan Maremma. He ..read more

Written by Barney Wilczak, Distiller & Owner of Capreolus Distillery in England’s Cotswolds “30 varieties of pears from their own orchards go into this exclusive and beautifully aromatic Eau de Vie for Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons each year”   As I write, a spiralling thread of liquid runs from the still before me. Inside the still, the low wines (the concentrated liquid collected from previous distillations) of 3,250 kg quinces, the final distillation of the 2023 fruit season. A taste from a finger briefly interrupting that stream reveals an intoxicating panoply of rose water, citrus ..read more

The wines of Savoie and Jura are often lumped together as issuing from a kind of agglomerated sub-Alpine region. In reality, they are very different in so many ways – from grape varieties to climate, soils and winemaking styles. We are very excited by the Savoie region and have augmented our selection with a few new wines. Domaine Belema, Yann Pernuit, Ayze Domaine Belema is in Ayze in the Haute-Savoie. Yann Pernuit has worked in the region for fifteen years, often as a biodynamic consultant, where he supervised the conversion of Château de la Merande to this proactive method of farming. Havin ..read more

Bernard Plageoles took the reins, to continue the work of his father Robert, an outspoken advocate for natural wines with a centuries old approach to winemaking. Robert Plageoles had researched and replanted over a dozen varieties (seven in the Mauzac family alone) indigenous to Gaillac that had all but vanished. It is now Florent and Romain, Bernard’s sons, who have taken up the cause. Established in 1805, Domaine Plageoles has been passed down from generation to generation, the Plageoles are one of the oldest winemaking families in the AOC and they are thoroughly invested in retaining the tr ..read more

The new appeal of orange wines The other week Susie and Peter Barrie were kind enough to interview me for their excellent podcast, Wine Blast, the pithy subjection under discussion being the fascinating revival (or emergence) of orange wines. The podcast is split into two episodes: Orange Wine Part 1: The Resurrection and Orange Wine Part 2: Gimme Some Skin. Listen here: With help from expert guests including journalist and author Simon Woolf,  and seminal winemakers Mateja Gravner and Sasa Radikon, they explore the history, tradition and culture of orange winemaking, try to reach a clear ..read more