Posts Tagged ‘France’
Notebook – November 2017
In the first in a new occasional series of articles, Peter Ranscombe flicks through the pages of his notebook to share some of his vinous highlights from the past month. GETTING to meet winemakers and to sample their wares at tastings is a real privilege, whether in Scotland or London or out in the vineyards.…
Read MoreAcclaimed Glasgow artist stages first exhibition at Edinburgh gallery
An award-winning Scots artist is to present his first exhibition at an Edinburgh gallery. John Kingsley delivers an intensity of light, heat and emotion that is almost tangible at the Doubtfire Gallery, running from Saturday, November 4, until November 25. With an exciting sweep of colour, texture and verve across a range of styles and…
Read MoreSingle vineyard garnacha from Rioja
Whether you call it garnacha, grenache or even garnatxa, Peter Ranscombe wants to praise the often-overlooked red grape variety. BLENDING is at the very heart of the winemaking tradition in Rioja. Whether it’s mixing the tempranillo, garnacha and other grape varieties used to make Spain’s most-famous red wine or fusing together wines from the Alta,…
Read MoreBonnie Prince Charlie exhibition is a star attraction
Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites is a new exhibition at Edinburgh’s National Museum of Scotland. It shows how he attempted to achieve his dream of becoming the King of Scotland. Charles Edward Stuart reached Scottish soil for the first time in his life in 1745 at Eriskay. The Bonnie Prince was born in exile…
Read MoreFrom riesling to the Smiths: Wine, food and music matching
Food isn’t the only match for wine – you can also pair it with music too, as Peter Ranscombe finds out. WHAT happens when you mix wines from Alsace, food from a French bistro and Brit Pop from the 1980s? The answer is you get Foulques Aulagnon, the export manager at CIVA, the trade body…
Read MoreOddbins goes au natural
Peter Ranscombe salutes Oddbins’ new range of natural wines. LOVE them or hate them, natural wines are here to stay. There’s a lot of confusion over what constitutes a “natural” wine – and how organic, biodynamic and natural wines sit together. Probably the most useful definition focuses on “low intervention” wines, in which the grape…
Read More1821: A new number for wine in Edinburgh
Peter Ranscombe joins one of Italy’s venerable wine families in Edinburgh for the launch of its inaugural ‘wine hotel’. EDINBURGH last night became home to The Wine House Hotel 1821, the first in a chain of hostelries being opened by the Zonin family. Zonin is best known for its prosecco, Italy’s most-famous sparkling wine, but…
Read MorePowell & Son: Two heads are better than one
Australian winemaker Dave Powell has teamed up with his eldest son, Callum, to create wines from Australia’s Barossa and Eden valleys with freshness and fruit purity, writes Peter Ranscombe. THE phrase “colourful character” could have been coined to describe Dave Powell, the tall Australian winemaker with his grey beard and ponytail holding court in Le…
Read MoreErrazuriz wants to put Chile on the map
There’s no need to be snobbish when it comes to big brands, as Errazuriz shows with its high-scoring Chilean wines, writes Peter Ranscombe. Branded wine is an interesting phenomenon: for some, it’s the reassurance they need to part with their cash, safe in the knowledge that this bottle will taste the same as the previous…
Read MoreCharles Heidsieck: Keeping something in reserve
Peter Ranscombe explores the use of higher proportions of reserve wines in Charles Heidsieck’s range of Champagnes. Walk along the aisle of any bottle shop or take a quick glance at a decent wine list and the choice of Champagne brands appears almost endless. It’s easy to dismiss France’s flagship sparkling wine as simply being…
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