Paul Jackson’s take on the recent trip to Terras Gauda
Our very own Paul gives his impressions about this wonderful trip…
Ivan Dixon explores Terras Gauda and Pittacum
Ivan Dixon’s impressions of Galicia…
Dangerous topography in Chavignol
Some more images from our recent trip to Domaine Bourgeois in Sancerre
Northern Spain 2008
Our office manager, Will, gives us his take on the recent staff trip to Getaria and Rioja
Them Demned Slopes - Les Caves Visit Bourgeois in Chavignol
Sancerre, famous wine, almost a brand in itself. Domaine Henri Bourgeois has been a reference in this region for many years. They have built their reputation not through compromise but through passionate desire for quality. The Bourgeois family have always looked forward, whilst remaining true to their heritage: the accumulated knowledge of ten generations of wine production. I was looking forward to seeing the fabled vineyards and tasting the wines in situ…
Take a trip to Provence
Stay in a 12th century Château in Haute-Provence
Northern Italy by way of Savoie Part 1
Savoie is one of those offbeat wine regions that even many French people only seem to have a vague idea of its location. Viticulture here seems like opportunism and local demand sucks up the thin, often acidic wines without discernment. Amongst the patchwork scattering of scrawny vineyards and tiny wineries there are but a few gems and serendipity alone would lead you to the ramshackle village of Ayze and Domaine Belluard
Northern Italy by way of Savoie Pt 2
Part 2 of ‘Northern Italy by way of Savoie’
Kate Thal’s Tuscan Adventure
Disgustingly early start - 3:50 wake up, for an early flight to Pisa. Jude and I plus Giselle and Kamila from Lordship Lane and Olly from Clapham as well as four young people from The Grove (one of the hotels I consult for) were off to Tuscany on the now annual trip with the biggest supplier to Green & Blue and one of the biggest to The Grove.
I often say, and it is completely true really, that if Eric Narioo’s company did not exist, then neither would Green & Blue. Although I was a few years in to my wine career before I really got to know them, they have in the last ten years or so, introduced me to the wines I love most in the world and quite apart from that, they are also an amazingly wonderful group of people. They seem to attract a certain type of person - those who are really passionate about wine without being even slightly precious, who also have an incredibly well developed sense of humour and more than a touch of eccentricity about them.
RETURN TO TERRAS GAUDA
Galicia, Santiago di Compostela apart, is slightly off the tourist radar. With the Mediterranean coast of Spain gradually metamorphosing into an endless succession of hideous hybrid-style crazy-paved villa developments and golf course complexes designed by the ubiquitous Jack Nicklaus, it is good to know that this raw, somewhat elemental part of the country rises above such frivolities. The weather is perhaps a deterrent to the sun-seeking expat - this is a green land where mists roll in off the Atlantic and where the cascading rain reminds one forcibly of other celtic regions.
BASQUET CASE - A Tale of One Txacoli
Verde que te quiero verde,
Verde viento. Verde ramas
Green I love you green. Green wind. Green branches.
Federico Garcia Lorca
People ask why Txacoli is so expensive and difficult to obtain outside the Basque country. After all it is the greenest of green wines, surely mere water off a Biscayan duck’s back. However, consider the tiny size of the average farm-holding; there are only a handful of producers who can lay claim to more than one hectare of vines and those vines teetering and straggling every which way on slopes, in dells and hollows, cheek-by-tendril with orchard trees and flower nurseries.