Sergio, our Italian wine guru and all round good guy, has just returned from hosting a series of wine dinners and tastings aboard a cruise ship in the Mediterranean. No, he wasn't moonlighting - merely helping out a customer by entertaining and enlightening their guests. By the sound of it, he was quite lucky to ...

Out of the host of new wines which we have welcomed into our range this year, there is one unsung character which really deserves a special mention. Biferno, from Camillo de Lelis, is a most unlikely star. When Sergio first plonked it in a line up of the usual Barolo, Barbera, and other stars, my ...

Our intrepid taster (and pourer) Edgar was at the Big Fortified Tasting (or BFT for acronym fans) yesterday. Here's his breathless report:
Fortified wines at tastings: do you see them as the poor relations to be shunned at the last table on the way to the toilets? Yesterday The Big Fortified Tasting brought together a ...

Very good to meet Florence Castarede of the eponymous Armagnac house this week. She gave us a fascinating history of Armagnac (did you know it was first mentioned back in 1310?). In fact a local monk gave a very positive view of the health benefits of Armagnac (in moderation, bien sur): "...it makes redness disappear ...

It's one of those moments that buyers live for. There in the line up, after the Viura, the barrel fermented Sauvignon from New Zealand, the spatlese and the Douro Reserva, was our surprise wine of the day.
The black wine. Sent by an unknown 'admirer', this bottle proudly boasts that it 'contains ginseng'. What does it ...

This is an excerpt from an article by Victoria Moore which appeared in The Guardian on Saturday 3 April.
"'Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!" Chiara Boschis launches noisily into Handel's famous chorus as a bowl of handmade pasta is put down in front of her and a musky truffle is produced and shaved on top of it. The ...