A sparkling weekend in Champagne: Épernay, Aÿ and beyond
A weekend from Reims: a small train through Mercier’s chalk cellars, de Venoge and Veuve Clicquot in the glass, and the growers in Aÿ I ran out of time to visit.
Stories from the vineyard and the glass
Visits to the places behind the wines, notes on why wine tastes the way it does, and the story of how I ended up here, glass in hand.
Why wine tastes the way it does
Climate, soil, the choices made in the vineyard and the winery, and the balance between them all shape what ends up in your glass. The grape is only the starting point.
Why do some dry wines feel softer than others?
A dry wine can still feel soft, round and generous. Acidity, tannin, alcohol, ripe fruit and winemaking choices set the feel, and there are clues for spotting the softer bottles.
Tasting Cyprus at Tsiakkas Winery
A winding climb into the Troodos hills, a guided tasting of six wines shaped by altitude, and a chance meeting with our guide Anastasia at a London wine show.
Binifadet: a Menorcan winery with rocky soils, sea breezes and a cellar carved into the rock
A walk through Menorca’s red, stony vineyards, the orange Chardonnay that surprised me most, and a long island lunch on the terrace at Binifadet.
How wine became my story
It began with supermarket bottles and an Instagram blog in Ukraine. Then came a move to London, WSET qualifications, and a career in wine I once thought unrealistic.
My journey to Chablis: cool climate, pure expression
I tasted my way through seven Chablis cellars and learned how a few metres of slope, from windy Petit Chablis plateaus to the grand cru amphitheatre, change the glass.