I have just been watching Lost Horizon, the 1937 Frank Capra movie. It is a delightful film - beautifully shot, charmingly acted - and it has prompted much rumination on my part.

It tells the story of a group of travellers in Asia, led by a dashing British soldier-philosopher played by Ronald Colman. As they escape a violent insurrection in China, their plane is hijacked. Eventually they crash-land in the remote Himalayan valley of Shangri-La. Read the rest of this entry »

The most surprising thing about this Chianti is how much they make of it: around half a million bottles each year, shipped to more than 80 countries. You would not expect such a wine to be better than competent, perhaps like one of those high-volume Californian reds: clean-tasting, unobjectionable and anonymous. But no description could be less true of this Chianti, which is an elegant, upmarket wine, beautifully perfumed and brimming with character. It has set the standard for all Chianti for most of the last 81 years.

“Riserva Ducale” means “Reserve of the Duke”, in honour of the the Duke of Aosta, who was understandably fond of the stuff. The first such Riserva was made in 1927, and was joined twenty years label by this “Riserva Ducale Oro” or “Gold label”. Both are cuvées, blended from grapes from the firm’s best vineyards, with the “Oro” only made in the better years. Read the rest of this entry »

In the past I have poked fun at the European systems for classifying wines. As these offer no guarantee of quality, I wondered whether anyone really benefited from them and their accompanying bureaucracies (apart from the bureaucrats, obviously). I contrasted this system with the more relaxed approach of the New World, which tends to leave the description of wines, and their reputations, to the market.

The contrast was something of an exaggeration. In point of fact, the US does have a wine appellation system. The so-called American Viticultural Areas, or AVAs, are administered by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, part of the US Treasury Department. The chances are you have never heard of them, and there is no reason why you should, because like all such systems, the AVA classifications are of no use at all to drinkers of wine. Read the rest of this entry »

Is Talbot slain, the Frenchmen’s only scourge,
Your kingdom’s terror and black Nemesis?
O, were mine eyeballs into bullets turn’d,
That I in rage might shoot them at your faces!

Shakespeare, Henry VI Part 1

Once upon a time a sizeable chunk of France lay in English hands, and it was the task of John Talbot, First Earl of Shrewsbury, to keep it that way. The old boy was good at his job. He won more than forty battles and in the process killed many revolting Frenchmen. Read the rest of this entry »

“UNQUESTIONABLY ONE OF THE WORLD’S FINEST WINE PRODUCERS” The producer is Mr David Powell of Torbreck, a firm in South Australia’s Barossa Valley. I do not know who described him thus; the quote flashes up on the Torbreck website without attribution. Perhaps it was one of Mr Powell’s friends. Perhaps it was Mr Powell himself. There is no law requiring winemakers to be modest, and to judge from the photo of Mr Powell underneath the quote, he is not a man crippled by self-doubt.

I remember Carlsberg beer used to be advertised in Britain as “probably the best lager in the world”. That “probably” must have taken up an entire creative conference. “For Christ’s sake, why are we using the modifier?” some ad man must have said. “Let’s just call it the best.” “Oh no,” someone else would have countered. “This is the UK. Everyone hates show-offs. By saying ‘probably’ we’ll sound modest and reasonable, while really, we’ll still be calling it the best.” Read the rest of this entry »

Many years ago some friends and I explored the Italian South Tyrol. I do not believe there is such a place as Paradise, but if there were, it would not look very different from what we found: Alpine mountains, fairytale castles, exquisite villages, a region whose highest altitudes remain snowy all year round, yet whose valleys are so warm that palm trees thrive in them.

Best of all, this is a land of wine. Its valleys and hillsides bristle with vines; its summer air tingles with the odour of grape. They say Gewürztraminer originated here, in the village of Tramin. This is also the only place I know that makes a really good Müller-Thurgau, Tiefenbrunner’s remarkable Feldmarschall. Better yet, this region makes the finest Pinot Noir in the Italian peninsula. Read the rest of this entry »

I have never found Jesus an especially attractive personality, but one of the few things he did that meets with my wholehearted approval was to turn water into wine. One wonders what the results tasted like. A great DRC Burgundy, such as La Tâche? A Pétrus-style Bordeaux? Or, given that the occasion was a wedding, a mighty Champagne like Dom Perignon or Krug? In first-century Palestine that would have made their eyes pop.

Whatever the miraculous wine was like, one can only hope it did not resemble the other stuff that has been sloshing out of the Holy Land for the last few thousand years. Most of the so-called sacramental wines are sweet, syrupy reds fit only for comparison with Coca-Cola. Had any of these been served at my wedding, I would have been grateful to see them turned back into water.  Read the rest of this entry »

With so many fine new labels coming out of Australia nowadays, it is easy to forget the ones that have been around a long time. The grandaddy of them all is Penfolds, a firm that has been in business since the 1840s.

During its first hundred years of existence, Penfolds concentrated on fortified wines and brandies. All that changed after the firm’s chief winemaker, Max Schubert, visited Europe in the late 1940s. Schubert was taken up by the Bordeaux winemaker Christian Cruse, who taught him the craft of making first-class wine. The young pupil became obsessed by the idea of making an Australian wine to rival the French classics.   Read the rest of this entry »

The world’s Pinot Noir makers divide into two schools. There are those who say “We are striving for greatness.  The greatest Pinot Noirs are made in Burgundy. Therefore our Pinot Noir will be as Burgundian as we can make it.”  Others say “We too are striving for greatness, but greatness can take many forms.  It is impossible to fake a Burgundy, so we are not going to try. Our Pinot Noir will take on whatever character our location and technique give it. If the results are not Burgundian, so what?  All that matters is that the wine be outstanding.”

The first school contains some Oregon houses, one or two in California, and many more in New Zealand. The second covers just about everyone else, including the Argyle winery of Dundee, Oregon. Read the rest of this entry »

Alistair Darling is the minister responsible for Britain’s finances. Lately Britain’s finances have not been doing well. However unfairly, many people are holding Mr Darling to blame. In an interview with the Guardian, he revealed how these people are expressing their displeasure. He and his wife recently ate in a restaurant with another couple. When they tried to order a second bottle of wine,

“The waiter came over and said ‘too much wine’ in a loud voice. So we stuck to one bottle for the entire meal.”

If you have ever wondered why British food and British restaurants are so awful, this story tells you all you need to know. Read the rest of this entry »