Tasty Tasting Notes - Courtesy of Eric Edwards

It is very rewarding when a wine merchant receives detailed feedback from tastings especially when those wines are considered “in the round”,
that is to say tasted in their own right and with (appropriate) food.
The following wines were sampled by Eric Edwards and Marc Kennard at Marc’s excellent deli in Lamb’s Conduit Street in London (see link http://www.kennardsgoodfoods.com).
Eric’s tasting notes are quoted verbatim; they are deliciously vivid with a real kinaesthetic flow; a blend of taut observation, poetic whimsy (in the best sense) and sensitivity.
He both looks for the wine, but also lets it come to him, which is the best way to evoke a balanced response…

Hannah’s blog - Adjusting to Life in Asti

Hannah, our colleague and former office manager, finds herself consumed by food and learns the art of “defensive driving” in Italy…

Important Wine Knowledge

Here are some truths universally unacknowledged…

The Quality of Champagne Philipponnat

With so many champagnes it is a case of the emperor’s new bubbles, wherein more money seems to be poured into marketing flim-flam than the quality of product itself. It may sound trite but there is a cultural conservatism which not only allows, but actively conspires with the con tricks that go under the name of brand recognition. And whilst the marques cash in on extra demand by releasing inferior wines, houses like Philipponnat make the extra effort by using premier division fruit and striving to make balanced, tasty wines…

Lo Sang del Pais - My House Red

Philippe Teulier’s Marcillac is my house red. Why do I love this wine? Well, to adapt a simile from Roger Scruton, it punches like Rimbaud and has the sensibility of Rambo. It screams or rather yodels terroir from its very soul. And I am a sucker for its earthy charms....

Tasting “Inside Out”

Wine tastings are virtually always structured to fit one of two models. The first involves “nailing the wine” by focusing on the liquid in the glass, and through rigorous observation and examination, arriving at an objective assessment of the wine. This empirical technique is designed to describe wine purely in terms of the properties perceived by the senses. 

Whiffling Burghounds

From the dawn of Les Caves de Pyrene time we have always been pigeon-holed as the South West specialist: mad about Madiran, crazy about Cahors, frantic about Fronton, passionate about Pacherenc…

A Ruddy Chianti and An Animal Cot

More rarefied bibulosity…