Vineyard Magazine

Vineyard Magazine – August 2026 – Mirror Images
Vineyard Magazine
I covered a comprehensive haul of English Wines on my website for English Wine Week, including a load I found at the London Wine Fair in May. Re-reading this piece, I noticed a fascinating pattern. There were a number of pairs of wines, which in taste terms, at least, represented two sides of the same coin, or mirror image flavours,…

Vineyard Magazine – July 2026 – LWF 2026
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I must admit I preferred the London Wine Fair when it was held at the Kensington Exhibition Centre (below the famous Roof Gardens in Derry Street) back in the ‘80s. It was packed, visceral, dynamic, sensationally exciting, and it felt like the pinnacle of the year rather than a warehouse you felt obliged to slink around,…

Vineyard Magazine – June 2026 – Conquering Chardonnay
A link to the June Issue of Vineyard
In last February’s issue, I wrote up the longest-named wine in my wine-reviewing career: MV bonkers zombie robot alien monsters from the future ate my brain (sur lie) Chardonnay, from Sugrue South Downs. This dual-vintage mash-up of wines from 2022 and 2023 pushed still Chardonnay a few more paces into the future…

Vineyard Magazine – May 2026 – Pole Pole
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There were three expressions we were taught on a recent break with the kids in Zanzibar. The Swahili “Hakuna Matata” (yes, it’s not just a Disney ditty) is used with extraordinary regularity, and it means chill out. “Jambo” (or more accurately “Mambo” for locals) means hello, and most frustratingly “Pole Pole”,…

Vineyard Magazine – April 2026 – Iechyd da!
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It’s a small tasting, the annual Welsh Wine Showcase Event, but it is vitally important because it appears to me that this niche celebration shows in just perhaps 20 minutes of deliberations the absolute progress and evolution of Gwin Cymreig. And it is overwhelmingly positive, even if the natural voices, and there are a few,…

Vineyard Magazine – March 2026 – Sheer Luxury
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I think it’s fair to say that we have collectively cracked the sparkling wine code in the UK. We have a complete range of styles, price points, flavours, formats and colours. Job done. Or is it? Have we, as a movement, fully considered not only wines that fulfil specific tasks, like celebrations, gift-giving, aperitif…

Vineyard Magazine – February 2026 – Destination London
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I have focused exclusively on London-based wineries in this elite publication only twice in eight years. In June 2019, I wrote a piece entitled ‘Urban Jungle’, and in September 2023, my column was headed ‘London Calling’. Following this timeline, a fascinating and invisible thread of unrelenting progress has ensued.…

Vineyard Magazine – January 2026 – What I’m Drinking
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Perhaps I should have waited two more columns, until my 100th for this brilliant publication, to write such a personal piece, but it’s Christmas, and the perfect time to splash out, so here you go. This is the ideal time to let you know what I will be drinking with my best friends and family this Christmas, and, by definition,…

Vineyard Magazine – December 2025 – If you like this…
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Do you remember the various collections of ‘If you like this, you’ll like that’ wines crowding the supermarket shelves in the ‘90s? If you like Sauvignon Blanc, you might like this weedy, soulless, hastily thrown-together white from some unknown corner of the globe. It was a catchy fad that was masquerading as…

Vineyard Magazine – November 2025 – Dinner Party Wines
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I recall playing a game during the quieter moments of my first stint in the wine trade, when I worked at the Barnes Wine Shop in London, SW13 (now a branch of Lea & Sandeman), in 1987. The challenge my colleague Katie MacAulay and I set ourselves was to select the perfect trio of wines for a dinner party, all within…

Vineyard Magazine – October 2025 – Fake News
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The most memorable wines are made by those who are prepared to make great efforts, have a whole-hearted commitment to their cause, draw on inspiration from their colleagues and friends and who don’t shirk from making strong and well-founded leadership decisions. We are good at these disciplines in the UK, and I believe…

Vineyard Magazine – September 2025 – Last Orders
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I am guilty as charged of wanting to taste wines as soon as they are bottled. It is my job. Better still, when they are in a barrel or a tank, it is my job. I like scoops. It is my job. However, continuously chasing young wines, pre-releases screenings, if you will, is the job of the reviewer or critic, but in the…
I am a lifelong fan of English wines and I am extremely proud to have been asked to contribute to Vineyard Magazine from the very first issue published in January 2018. Vineyard is a monthly, specialist publication for viticulturalists and winemakers in Great Britain. I write the only consumer-facing article in the magazine highlighting three terrific wines of particular interest, tying them together along a singular theme – www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk.
