Posts Tagged ‘wine’
Armchair exploring: Returning to Romania with Cramele Recas
Restrictions on movement present an ideal opportunity for Peter Ranscombe to return to Romania’s native varieties and great-value wines. WHENEVER friends or acquaintances ask about the wine adventures on which I’ve been, one trip more than any other always piques their interest – Romania. So many people still have images of Anneka Rice’s 1990 visit…
Read MoreAn odyssey through Italy’s indigenous grapes – via Zoom
Falanghina, montepulciano and passerina all featured in the latest online tastings attended by drinks blogger Peter Ranscombe. FEW countries can boast as many varieties of grapes as Italy – the International Organisation of Vine & Wine (OIV), the keeper of the geekiest of all statistics, lists 454 varietals as being grown from the Alps down to…
Read MoreThe final straw
In an unanticipated side-effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, shops in Glasgow have been forced to stop selling Buckfast, the iconic tonic wine made by Benedictine monks in Devon which is popular on the west coast of Scotland, as supplies have dwindled. “It’s really bad,” Whiteinch-based shop owner, Sobhan Rashid, told the Glasgow Times. “At the…
Read MoreGeorgia on my mind: wines for lockdown armchair explorers
Being stuck at home is the perfect time to try wines from Georgia, writes Peter Ranscombe. REMEMBER the days when we could just hop on a plane and fly around the world? Or catch a bus or a train? Or just leave the house whenever we fancied? Lockdown has definitely given me time to reflect…
Read MoreIt’s Bordeaux, but like you’ve never seen it before
Before the lockdown, Peter Ranscombe travelled to Bordeaux to visit winemakers who are caring for the environment as well as their vines. JEAN-BAPTISTE Cordonnier knew he was doing something right when the baby grass snakes started coming back into his kitchen. His father, Pierre, had farmed the family’s vineyards near Moulis in Bordeaux organically “without…
Read MoreHow one wine firm helps hospitality heroes in the lockdown
Peter Ranscombe reviews six bottles from Berkmann, a wine wholesaler that’s donating cash to help the hospitality trade. THEY’RE the unsung heroes who make our nights out really special – the waitresses, the waiters, the barmen, the barwomen, and all the other members of the hospitality trade. They were also some of the first casualties…
Read MoreRaasay Rising
The Isle of Raasay Distillery has launched an exclusive cask membership programme called the Raasay Rising. The first 45 casks ever filled at the distillery have been made available for £4,000 each as part of the ’45 cask offering, in a nod to Bonnie Prince Charlie’s time hiding out on Raasay following the 1745 Jacobite…
Read MoreLockdown lamb: Five online ideas for wine pairings
As Holy Week continues, Peter Ranscombe picks five bottles to go with your Easter feast. IF YOU’VE managed to find yourself some lockdown lamb to celebrate Easter on Sunday then wine merchants from across Scotland and further afield are on hand with some perfect pairings. My go-to matches for lamb tend to centre around the…
Read MoreHow does an online wine tasting work?
Peter Ranscombe joins Diana Thompson for her first Wine Events Scotland online tasting to learn how the format works – and tastes some great-value Chilean bottles along the way. I WISH I’d bought shares in Zoom. The video-conferencing app has become almost as ubiquitous during the covid19 lockdown as Jason Leitch, the Scottish Government’s national…
Read MoreSocial distancing? Brush up on your whisky knowledge
Peter Ranscombe goes back to school to put the online ‘focus on flavour’ module from Edinburgh Whisky Academy through its paces. REGULAR readers will know that my geekiness knows few bounds when it comes to wines and whiskies. I even put myself through the diploma from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET), the equivalent…
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