Articles
10th Oct 2011
Wine dynasties and how to survive them
by Tim Atkin
The comedian John Cleese once published a conversational if surprisingly serious book called "Families and how to survive them". You don't have to be Sigmund Freud, or a member of the Monty Python team, to recognise that... Read more
3rd Oct 2011
Au revoir, Monsieur Dubosc
by Tim Atkin
It’s hard to imagine the Cave de Plaimont, one of the most forward thinking co-operatives in France, without André Dubosc. He’s been associated with the Gascon operation since 1972, first as winemaker and then as... Read more
30th Sep 2011
Cherishing the unpredictability of wine
by Tim Atkin
The jazz singer Nina Simone was a notoriously moody performer. Catch her on a good night and she was sublime; hear her play on a bad one and she was terrible: grumpy, sullen and uninterested. Fans of Van Morrison and Elvis Costello will recognize... Read more
27th Sep 2011
Wine Families and How to Survive Them
by Tim Atkin
The comedian John Cleese once published a conversational if surprisingly serious book called “Families and how to survive them”. You don’t have to be Sigmund Freud, or a member of the Monty Python team, to recognise that relationships... Read more
19th Sep 2011
Bordeaux 2011: first impressions
by Tim Atkin
It feels as if the 2010 Bordeaux campaign has only just ended, but attention spans are shorter than ankle socks in the Gironde. As the world’s largest fine wine region grapples with a much more difficult harvest, the focus has already... Read more
15th Sep 2011
Independents' day with The Dirty Dozen
by Tim Atkin
Dartmouth House, the home of the English Speaking Union, is an unlikely place for a revolutionary gathering. Set in the heart of Mayfair, it feels like a slightly fusty gentleman's club and has the Duke of Edinburgh as its president. The sense of... Read more
1st Sep 2011
Human rights in the Cape winelands
by Tim Atkin
Talk about negative publicity. No wine industry would welcome headlines about the "dismal, dangerous lives" of its agricultural workers, but for South Africa, still keen to persuade the world that it has moved on from its benighted past, the... Read more
29th Aug 2011
Lodi: California's missing link
by Tim Atkin
You can drive from the southern end of the Napa Valley to Lodi at the northern end of the Central Valley in just over an hour, but the two regions belong to different worlds. To many people, they are the alpha and omega of the California wine... Read more
19th Aug 2011
What price wine elitism?
by Tim Atkin
Maybe no one should be surprised that when looters took to the streets in Clapham Junction last week, one of the few shops they left untouched was Waterstone’s. They were evidently more interested in trainers, cigarettes and sunglasses than... Read more
4th Aug 2011
Celebrating 25 years of the IPNC
by Tim Atkin
What would a neo-Prohibitionist make of the International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville, Oregon? There's enough wine consumed over the course of the three day festival to stock a... Read more