Pasión de Bobal Rosado – Last of the Summer Wine

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, Organic, Spain, Sustainability

Pasión de Bobal Rosado

Pasión de Bobal Rosado – Last of the Summer Wine In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the late August Bank Holiday is on the last Monday of the month. It represents the last gasp of the Summer holidays.*  After this comes the Great Return, whether to work, to college or school. Who hasn’t had cause to dread that dreary prospect? And after …

Le Pupille – Delicious Summer Drinking

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, Italy, Organic, Sustainability, Toscana

Le Pupille Terroir Morrellino di Scansano

Le Pupille – Delicious Summer Drinking For many lovers of Italian wine, the Fattoria Le Pupille winery and founder/owner Elisabetta Geppetti will need no introduction. Le Pupille’s name derives from the two farmhouses (the Pupils), located on the top of the hills near the village of Pereta, in the deep south of coastal Tuscany. We are in the Maremma, in a DOCG …

Herbert Hall English Sparkling Brut Rosé 2016

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, England and Wales, Organic, Sparkling Wine, Sustainability

Nick Hall, Herbert Hall winery

Herbert Hall English Sparkling Brut Rosé 2016 My first encounter with Herbert Hall wines was in 2016 with their Traditional Method Brut. That’s from Kent, and it proved to be one of the outstanding wines in a lineup of high-quality Britfizz. You can read about that here. However, Herbert Hall also makes a Brut Rosé of a similar calibre. Herbert Hall …

Gvino: the wines of Georgia, Part Two

Paul HowardArticles, Biodynamic, Blog, Georgia, Organic

Georgia Kakheti Gvino

Gvino – The Wines of Georgia, Part Two Following on from Part 1, about the wines of Georgia, Gvino is the word for wine in Georgian. This Part 2 has a baker’s dozen, selected from those available in the UK. I’ve grouped these firstly into those Gvino made “conventionally” and then those made in traditional Qvevri. There’s something here for …

Georgia Gvino – a brief introduction to wines of Georgia

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, Georgia, Travel

Georgia Wine

Georgia Gvino – a brief introduction to wines of Georgia In Part I, we journey to the Black Sea and the Caucasus, to the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Georgia is an ancient country that’s been a melting pot of cultures. It also lays claim to being the origin of winegrowing. It has an 8,000-year wine history evidenced by archaeology, …

Mas Llossanes, Côtes Catalanes, Southern France

Paul HowardArticles, Biodynamic, Blog, France

Mas Llossanes Solenn & Dominique Génot

Mas Llossanes Solenn and Dominique Génot own and run the small biodynamic estate of Mas Llossanes. It’s about 40km / one hour west of Perpignan, in the Roussillon region of deepest Southern France. For over ten years they managed the Caiarossa Estate in Tuscany, whose superb biodynamic wines I have followed closely and written about here. Having decided to create a domain …

Mirabeau: Rosé from the Côtes de Provence

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, France, Wine Business

Mirabeau: Rosé from the Côtes de Provence

Mirabeau: Rosé from the Côtes de Provence This article is about Provençal rosé and the wines from one of its leading companies, Mirabeau. Mention the word “Provence” to virtually anyone, and that will invoke an immediate response, accompanied by a smile. Such is its resonance. The images and memories it conjures might be of chi-chi glam locations; of Aix-en-Provence or the …

Chateau Musar, Legend of Lebanon

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, Lebanon, Organic

Chateau Musar Red, Lebanon

Chateau Musar, Legend of Lebanon They say that any self-respecting wine writer should have an article on Chateau Musar, the legendary wine from Lebanon. So here’s mine. Lebanon Winemaking in Lebanon possibly started as far back as 7,000 BC, in Canaan and Phoenicia’s Biblical countries, lands of milk and honey. Phoenicians traded Lebanese wines around the Mediterranean, and then so did …

English Fizz comes of age

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, England and Wales, Sparkling Wine

English Fizz comes of age

English Fizz comes of age. For English Fizz, this is the year that a step change happened. In years to come, we’ll look back at 2016 as the year everything seemed to go together. Climate change, professional winemaking, maturing vines, grape varieties, site selection, business and investment skills, media recognition, coveted awards and sheer self-confidence mean that English Sparkling Wines …