Tag cloud
aroma balance biodynamics book bordeaux burgundy cellaring complexity critics douro etna faults film food france georgia germany greece italy labelling lebanon madeira majorca manchester matching merchant myth natural note objectivity perception pinot noir port portugal qvevri restaurant santorini science sicily smell spain subjectivity tasting terroir travelSubscribe
Social
Other blogs
-
-
© 2010-2017 Steve Slatcher
Author Archives: Steve Slatcher
Some wines from Vinnaturo
They first caught my eye at love + labourâs natural wine tasting at Salut Wines the other week. There were several nondescript pouches of wines sitting on one small table, and it was largely that low-key presentation that piqued my interest. … Continue reading
The Grand Cork Experiment – stunt or science?
At the end of July, The Grand Cork Experiment was launched with as much fanfare as could be mustered in the wine media. According to an article in The Drinks Business “a space in Soho was transformed into a laboratory to test whether … Continue reading
An embarrassment of wines
The reason these wines are something of an embarrassment for me is that I like them so much. So much in fact, that they all got my top rating at some point in the past year or so. You might think … Continue reading
Wine appreciation and architecture
I’ve been taking a bit of a break from wine recently and catching up on an old interest of mine – architecture – and eventually came across my copy of Andrea Palladio’s The Four Books on Architecture. Here I paused, partly because I … Continue reading
What is it with wine?
For your amusement, let’s kick off with a video rant about the French and wine… Well, it amused me. It also touched on a lot of issues most people have with wine, not just in France. At the risk of taking it far too … Continue reading
Why is wine the colour that it is?
Aren’t red wines red because they are made from red grapes? And white wines white because their grapes are white? That is usually sort-of correct as far as it goes. At least if you take red to be sufficiently loosely defined to include various shades of purple; … Continue reading
Wine, ideology and quality
Particularly in recent months this topic has been on my mind a lot, as I have been drinking more natural wines, thinking about them, and listening to what others have to say. I’ve been wanting to write about it for a while, but couldn’t … Continue reading
Qvevri winemaking – variety, tradition and innovation
Although qvevri winemaking does indeed have an 8,000 year continuous history in Georgia, it is important to realise that it has not remained unchanged throughout that period, and that practice varies from region to region, even within regions. It is not a single concept that should … Continue reading
Qvevri – manufacture, use, and rise to fame
Qvevri – a large clay vessel of distinctive shape, used for winemaking. The Georgian word á„áááá á apparently means that which is buried, and gets transliterated into the Latin alphabet as qvevri or kvevri. The two spellings exist as, while the … Continue reading
Georgian wine labels – understanding and pronouncing
When trying to understand a Georgian wine label, I would first try to locate any bits of text that refer to region or grape variety. Continue reading