Etiquette rule for wine and friends
	2:50pm Thu 9 Aug 07
	I HAVE never had a problem with estate agents. Not that is until this week, when I had invited one in to have a look at the house. From The Oxford Times

	Riding into storm of condescension
	4:03pm Thu 2 Aug 07
	I HAVE spent the whole of my life in the wine trade extolling the virtues of the independent wine merchant. I have enthused about the variety, raved about the energy and knowledge of the staff and been upbeat about supporting local business. From The Oxford Times

	Gold medal-winning success from Chile
	12:02pm Thu 2 Aug 07
	One of these days I am going to take the plunge and realise an ambition of mine - to ride horseback across the Andes. From The Oxford Times

	Fine wines of the Loire
	2:31pm Fri 20 Jul 07
	The vineyards of the Loire Valley follow France's longest river for around 400km - from Sancerre to Nantes on the Atlantic coast. You would be right in thinking that in covering such a distance you would be in store for a diverse range of wines. The regions "route des vignobles" covers a whopping 800km of road and should you follow it you would be able to sample everything from dry to sweet, still to sparkling and rosé to red. From The Oxford Times

	Journey into the unknown
	6:16am Fri 13 Jul 07
	Last week I referred to an Italian grape variety that I'd never heard of before - drupeggio. I confess that it wasn't until today that I finally got round to looking it up in The Oxford Companion to Wine. From The Oxford Times

	Delights of Italian wine
	1:21pm Thu 5 Jul 07
	Sir Terry Wogan's love affair with pinot grigio has clearly penetrated the nation's subconscious in a way that few of us in the wine trade could have anticipated. The British are drinking more Italian wines than ever and, as David Gleave MW recently said "it has never been easier to sell Italian wines especially if it's pinot grigio". From The Oxford Times

	South-West French whites
	1:28pm Fri 29 Jun 07
	Stretching south from the Bordeaux vineyards all the way to the Pyrenees and then east towards Toulouse is an area that the wine trade refers to simply as the south west'. This is one of France's most rural and sparsely-populated regions yet it is steadily and determinedly making its presence known in the UK. From The Oxford Times

	Don't forget the summer reds
	10:55am Fri 22 Jun 07
	It's hot and humid and I have just spent the last two days tasting my way through some pretty hefty reds from Argentina, South Africa and Italy. I'm exhausted, my palate is weary and the prospect of another few days of the same is not that appealing. From The Oxford Times

	Wines for outdoor eating
	2:29pm Thu 14 Jun 07
	There's no denying it - the barbecue and picnic season is upon us. Every single wine seems to come with the line perfect for barbecues'. Many of them may well be, but just before I get caught up in the whole business of giving advice on what sort of wines you should be drinking with your sausages this summer, I would like to remind all of us - myself included - of a few home truths about outdoor eating. From The Oxford Times

	Getting to know Rioja
	10:39am Fri 8 Jun 07
	My general knowledge is truly terrible. I never, ever win at Trivial Pursuits and I would struggle to get beyond £1,000 on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? I just don't retain information that I don't find interesting. Still, if I were 15 wine questions away from a case of 2000 Château Pétrus, I reckon I'd be in with a pretty good shot. From The Oxford Times

	Bright future for English wine
	10:55am Fri 1 Jun 07
	It seems that barely a week passes without it being a week for something: national construction week; national giving week; national insect week; national downshifting week. You name it, we've got a week for it, and in truth, the majority pass me by without as much as a second thought. This week, though, is the exception to the rule. From The Oxford Times

	Get out the cooking wine
	11:05am Fri 18 May 07
	Not that long ago, the Fence Gate Inn in Burnley concocted the world's most unusual and luxurious steak pie, using some rather unusual and expensive ingredients. From The Oxford Times

	Great wine by the thimbleful
	4:30pm Thu 10 May 07
	The wine writer Simon Woods once said that great Burgundy was like an orgasm. If you are not sure whether you have had one, you haven't. Certainly, there is nothing quite so sexy or sensual as great Burgundy, whether red or white. From The Oxford Times

	Riesling returns to table
	5:16pm Thu 3 May 07
	Believe it or not, a century ago, top-class German Riesling used to be more expensive and considerably more in vogue than cru classe claret. Indeed even 40 years ago, Riesling was regarded as infinitely superior to both Chardonnay and Cabernet. So what went wrong? From The Oxford Times

	Big name glamour adds to blend
	4:43pm Thu 26 Apr 07
	Apart from their obvious celebrity, what do Cliff Richard, Ken Hom, Ernie Els, Mick Hucknall, Nick Faldo, Gerard Depardieu, Francis Ford Coppola, Ian Botham, Bob Willis, Sam Neill, Greg Norman and Paul Burrell all have in common? From The Oxford Times

	New World wines beating Bordeaux
	5:00pm Thu 12 Apr 07
	NOT that long ago, I went to a tasting of affordable red Bordeaux wines at Somerset House in London. From The Oxford Times

	Don't miss Cloudy Bay
	11:58am Thu 5 Apr 07
	A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece about New World Sauvignon Blancs in general and New Zealand's Cloudy Bay in particular. However, did the offer include a single bottle of Cloudy Bay's cult Sauvignon Blanc? From The Oxford Times

	Oxbridge wine tasting
	1:37pm Thu 29 Mar 07
	It's fair to say that the annual Oxford versus Cambridge varsity wine tasting competition isn't even remotely as well known as the forthcoming varsity boat race between the light and dark blues. But if you ask any of the wine-tasting participants of the last 50 years, they will tell you that it is just as keenly contested. From The Oxford Times

	Sauvignon Blanc at its best
	2:46pm Thu 22 Mar 07
	If you had to name the world's most famous Sauvignon Blanc, which would you choose? The chances are that it would be Cloudy Bay, New Zealand's one and only cult wine with its stunning flavours and famous silhouette label showing off the distant Richmond Ranges. Yet 20 years ago, the joint phenomenon of Cloudy Bay and Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc were barely out of short trousers. From The Oxford Times

	How to do a tasting session
	4:16pm Thu 15 Mar 07
	It may sound odd, coming from me, but while I love tasting wines, I don't always like wine tastings. One of the problems isn't usually what I'm drinking (or rather tasting), it's the people I'm doing it with. That's because far too often, they take the whole thing much too seriously. It makes me want to say: "Come on, lighten up. You're supposed to be having a good time here, not taking an exam." From The Oxford Times

More ...