I was in a process of writing an offer on some beautiful wines form Piemonte, when Parker's Wine Advocate turned up in my mail box. Knowing that inside would be reviews of my favourite Spanish estates, I could not resist to peak in. And... Don't worry, fine wines of Gianni Abrigo will be coming your way very soon but, thanks to high ratings, this has become quite urgent.   First of all, I am pleased to say that all the usual suspects have been given appropriate (read: very good) scores, but one specific wine caught my eye more than others …

I hope you are enjoying this Mediterranean summer we are having in England this year. I am quite happy with the sun and the heat, but must admit that few days of rain and wind over the weekend were a welcomed break.   Talking about long hot summer, I have had quite a few people in the shop asking about the right serving temperatures for reds and how to keep the wine in the right condition. So, I thought I would write few words on the subject within this offer - those of you who are interested will find detailed …

It's been a busy couple of weeks in Bordeaux and pretty much all the properties have now been released.   Unfortunately (and as expected) most of the Bordeaux Chateau decided that it easier to borrow the money rather than to release the wines at the price that would be attractive to us. Essentially, they can borrow at (or close to) 0% and figured out, it would make more sense to keep the wine and finance production by borrowing from the banks. I suppose, now that Draghi has confirmed that the interest rates in Euro zone will stay at these levels …

It is late April and that can mean only one thing - the Bordeaux en primeur circus is back in town. It's been the tradition since 1996 that I have spent a week in Bordeaux tasting barrel samples of the latest vintage.  This time we were tasting the "weird and wonderful" 2017 vintage. The weird part comes to play thanks to the freak frost in late Spring which devastated number of vineyards in St Emilion, Pessac Leognan and central Medoc. Large number of properties lost over 30% of the crop with some, like Fleur Cardinale losing 98% and some really …

Garmon 2014 - release offer of the latest project by Mariano, Eduardo and Alberto Garcia   "One of the most anticipated projects in Ribera" according to Louis Gutierrez of Wine Advocate fame.   Good afternoon good people, and I hope you are all having a great weekend. It is raining here in Richmond but, we have a bottle of Garmon 2014 open and so it all looks much sunnier.   Garmon is the latest project by Mariano, Eduardo and Alberto Garcia (they also own Mauro and San Roman, and Mariano is Technical Director of Aalto). The idea is to make …

Hello good people and I hope everyone is coping well with this spell of miserable weather. Perhaps if we all wish really hard the sun might come out to play...   Fortunately, this week was made a touch sunnier and easier to bear as I was invited to a preview tasting - launch of 2015 vintage of the legendary Sassicaia.   The "Sass", as it is known in the trade, does not really need much introduction. It is the original Super Tuscan - the wine that started the whole revolution in Tuscan wine making back in late 60s (good old …

Good afternoon good people and hope you all had a good New Year's holiday.   It's cold and unfriendly out there so in the tradition of the last few Januarys, it is time to bring some sunshine in to your lives in the shape of 2015 Vintage of Aalto.   The winery releases the wine in the late Autumn but, as that is my busy time of the year, I never get around to it at the time. Also, it somehow feels right to start the year with one of my favourite wineries.   The 2015 was (very much like …