Anyone who knows my family will know that the Southern Rhone is one of two favourite regions. Within that region is a beautiful hilly village called Chateauneuf du Pape (or CH9 if you enjoy abbreviations). I could go on for paragraphs about the overall enjoyment of tasting wines from this appellation. The ability that two vineyards have that are next to each other to produce starkly different wines. To produce wines that are both undeniably fresh, but also powerful and robust with extremely long term ageing ability. However I will let you do more of a deep dive if you...

We are here with a new Up from the Cellar tasting! So in February my partner and I were in Spain visiting my grandparents. I thought to myself… well were here so we might as well grab a few bottles and see what we’re looking at. So we chose 3 Priorat wines supplied by the fabulous wine warehouse Jordi Grau. Seriously this place is massive so if you’re ever in or around the Costa Brava go and check it out. A quick note on Priorat for those of you who aren’t familiar. So Priorat lies in the north east of...

So British sparkling wines. As you may or may not know, British sparkling wine is coming on rather well and has been for the last decade. The key growing areas are Surrey, Kent and Sussex. However, certainly you can see vineyards across the entire south and south west of the country. The 3 primary grapes that are grown are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier (surprisingly the same ones used for Champagne!). We then have Bacchus, Ortega and a couple of others. The rise in British sparkling wines is almost certainly assisted by the increase in temperature due to climate...

So, sweet wine. As you will have noticed from the title this article is focusing on New World sweet wines. So you won’t find your Sauternes or Tokaji here. Instead you will find a very interesting mixed bag of wines. You will come to recognise some of the grape varieties used here, we have Vidal, Muscat and Malbec along with others. These span from all over the world, from Canada to China and then Australia including others. The best word to describe this tasting is ‘interesting’. I know that is boring because it is generally a very over-used adjective. But...

The Northern Rhone red wines are synonymous with the Syrah grape variety. It is not the exact centre of where the first Syrah vine appeared but it is certainly the benchmark region that other Syrah’s are measured against. The style in which this region produces Syrah however, is completely different to any other region in the world. Their white wines are also considered to be some of the best in a warm climate. However, we are currently focusing on the reds as the Northern Rhone white wine tasting will happen at a later date. Starting quite literally at the base...