The world of wine has its rotation of darlings of the moment. Years ago it was the sickly sweet German Liebfraumilch, then the buttery oily Chardonnays followed by the often thin and tasteless Pinot Grigios. One of the more recent additions is New Zealand. Hitting the shelves with as much oomph as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the clever marketing folk at Cloudy Bay created an exclusive and high quality brand image that was backed by an interesting mouth-watering Sauvignon Blanc. The New Zealand version of the grape variety was much crisper and juicier than the French Sancerre version and oft ..read more

At a recent visit to a very reputable restaurant in Amsterdam, I noticed on the wine list that a Pinot Grigio was the most expensive white wine. Intrigued, I asked the friendly wine guy about it explaining that typically in the UK, Pinot Grigio was seen as the entry level house wine and not the flagship event. He told me that it was his favourite wine on the whole list and I am easily led astray. We ordered a bottle and it looked...interesting. I don't like the look of yours much... When I looked at it, it didn't look appealing. Thankfully we had been pre-warned that this was an Orange Wine ..read more

We all have wine lovers (or wine lover wannabes) in our life. We're here to here to help take the stress out of panic buying the right gift for your favourite wino.  Our pick of top wine gifts for this Christmas 1. Decanter: No wine lovers house is complete without a decanter as a centre piece. If you're feeling generous, Riedel are the Rolls Royce equivalent and have some amazing decanters that are nothing short of wine porn. However, you can get really nice decanters from other brands from around the £35 mark. Try John Lewis as a starter. 2. Glasses: Not courtesy of specsavers bu ..read more

Man, that's one hell of a sales pitch. My initial reaction having seen this curious headline was that this must be a piece circulated by Hallmark or some other empire that profits off the forced romance of Valentines Day. Then I realised that it's not actually February... So, on digging further, it seems that the research has in fact been published in the Journals of Gerontology ( a much better 'ology' than the Scientology crew) which makes it seem even more official. They even titled the article as Drinking Patterns Among Older Couples: Longitudinal Associations With Negative Marital Quality ..read more

There’s a crime happening in your country, in your town, probably in your kitchen. Many of the people you know are chardonnayism. Hell, you might be guilty of it yourself. As is often the case of many ‘ism’s’, ignorance is to blame for this hate crime against one of the most widely planted white grape varieties on the planet. Without wishing to exacerbate on any hate crimes, the finger can be pointed fairly squarely at the Aussies as one of the main reasons for this loathing of Chardonnay. Those big gloupy buttery examples that graced the supermarket aisles c15 years ago were more like alcohol ..read more

We have previously tasted and reviewed see of the wines on the Majestic 'Definition' range within our wine reviews section.   We felt that they represented good value for money with a nice range of grape varietals and regions to suit most shoppers. Turns out we were not alone. Since the launch of the range in Autumn 2015, Majestic have seen sales top the £5m mark with their Prosecco, Sauvignon Blanc and Rioja Reserva being the most popular. At the recent International Wine Challenge and Decanter World Wine Awards the range came away with 24 medals including 2 gold medals at the IWC f ..read more

Anyone who knows me will tell you how much I adore Pinot. I am definitely a Pinot-groupie. I don't believe there is another wine out there that tantalises the senses quite like it. What's my desert island drink? Definitely a bottle of Pinot though whether it's from Old World France or New World USA / New Zealand will be dependant on who is picking up the tab. Many of you will have seen (or heard of) the movie Sideways. It was a movie that caused the sale of Pinot to skyrocket while castrating the Merlot market with one (unjustified) line in the movie. Not an Oscar winner but worth a view ..read more

Before you open that next bottle of wine and over-indulge yourself, do you know what kind of drunk you are? The Corrs were caught without their makeup on a night out in Dublin. Before we proceed can we point out that we are in no way encouraging intoxicating behaviour! [Health and safety point - tick]. In fact, the categorisation of types of drunk people was the subject of a scientific study in the US. The University of Missori-Columbia studied 4 distinctive personalities when people became drunk. The Mary Poppins Drunkards are friendly, cooperative, compassionate and agreeable. This category ..read more

Tis the season to be jolly and all that. Tis also the season of the greatest meal of the year - the mighty christmas dinner. For such a momentous occasion it’s important that the wines are also up to the task. To help you pick suitable worthy wines, here’s as couple of pointers on what to ask Santa for this Christmas (assuming you’ve been sufficiently well behaved)…. Appetizers There’s something special about having a glass of bubbles in your hand and Christmas Day is as good a reason as any to crack open a bottle of fizz.  Champagne is the obvious choice but with its high levels aci ..read more

When you hear 'car boot sale' you immediately think of ridiculously early mornings to tramp around a field with a pile of fuddy-duddies selling their partially used lightbulbs and betamax tapes fighting for pitch space with some hippies who make cabbage and elderflower jam in their bathtub at home. There are many, many other activities I would like to undertake to pass away my precious weekends....such as removing corns from my mother in laws' feet. With my teeth. You probably have guessed, I’m not really a fan. But here’s a car boot sale with a difference; it’s called Wine Car Boot (or @Wine ..read more