Scores. Out of twenty (the old guard, the English), out of 100 (our American friends, the young guns). A nightmare. I don’t score wines as a matter of course, but ask me to and I can. The Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon that I’m drinking right now? 85 points: no clear faults, drinkable but forgettable. Last night’s…
“I like the way you spit”. One of the seedier chat up lines I have heard. Go to a morning tasting, with work in the afternoon, and you’ll soon realise why spitting is necessary. If you don’t then you’ll end up drunk which, even (especially?) in the business I work in, is not good form…
“I am not a winemaker”. An odd comment maybe from a man who quite clearly makes wine, but one that impressed me. The man was Manuel Marchetti of Azienda Agricola Marcarini in La Morra, Barolo. His point was that he didn’t intervene, didn’t interfere with what he had harvested. No new oak, no fancy fermentation….
Knowing a little about wine has a bit of kudos to it: oh, you’re the wine expert, that sort of thing. And the nature of wine is such that one only needs to know a little to know more than most others. Read Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book and you’ll likely know more about wine…
I’m not what you would call a religious man. I haven’t been to church since I was last coerced into a Mothering Sunday visit, and I have some pretty strong feelings on religions and their ability to either control or provide an excuse for their followers’ behaviour. But I have met God a couple of…