Vineyard Magazine

Vineyard Magazine – December 2021 – Goodwill to all wine lovers

Vineyard December 2021 Goodwill to all wine lovers www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk  I have decided to perform a radical U-turn in this year’s December column, so you will see no sparkling wines and no gift boxes whatsoever opposite.  I am taking a stand against over-elaborate packaging, which will stay this way forever.  Less is definitely more in…
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Vineyard & Winery Show Special 2021 – Fine Wine

Vineyard & Winery Show Special 2021 – Fine Wine 24th November 2021 - Kent County Showground www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk  As this is a special edition Vineyard Magazine singing the praises of the upcoming Vineyard & Winery Show, I thought I would throw caution to the wind with my theme and my wines this month.  The reason for this is that…
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Vineyard Magazine – November 2021 – Speaking Fluent Pinot

Vineyard November 2021 Speaking Fluent Pinot www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk I tasted every single wine at the WineGB event in September.  After a restorative visit to my dentist, thanks to the plethora of sparkling wines and their bristling acidity, my palate has finally calmed.  I very much enjoyed re-reading my tasting notes, and it occurred to me…
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Vineyard Magazine – October 2021 – Sweet Treats

Vineyard October 2021 Sweet Treats www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk  There is a wonderfully unfashionable style of wine that I love with every fibre of my being.  While we may have collectively, and hopefully only temporarily, fallen out of love with sweet wines, I can tell you that consumers go wild every time I show a great example at an event.  I…
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Vineyard Magazine – September 2021 – Subtly Oaked Whites

Vineyard September 2021 Subtly oaked whites www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk Subtly oaked whites are fast becoming my favourite style of white wine.  Neither too skinny and sour nor too hefty and oily, these wines manage to cover a vast landscape of flavour and they inevitably possess greater food-matching skills than those without this sometimes undeclared…
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Vineyard Magazine – August 2021 – Not that weird and very wonderful

Vineyard August 2o21 Not that weird and very wonderful www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk I often use the expression ‘weird and wonderful’ in my wine writing as a catch-all phrase for wines made from grape varieties that don’t fit into conventional sets like Bordeaux blends, Rhône varieties and so on.  This month I have found a collection of wines…
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Vineyard Magazine – July 2021 – Kissing Cousins

Vineyard July 2021 Kissing Cousins www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk I am calling for the Pinot Class System to be abolished. Posh Pinot Noir lauds it over middle-class Pinot Meunier and Meunier looks down on working-class Pinot Noir Précoce. This varietal hierarchy is both outdated and also blinkered and so I have decided to spend this month’s column…
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Vineyard Magazine – June 2021 – Sporting Chance

Vineyard June 2021 Give yourself a sporting chance www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk  We have all been crossing our fingers that, as we emerge blinking into the sunshine after a year of lockdown, spectator sports might finally be allowed to take place.   As sporting venues start to open their gates and tested and be-masked fans gingerly take their places…
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Vineyard Magazine – May 2021 – Green and Pleasant

Vineyard May 2021 Green and Pleasant www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk While we are inching closer to being allowed out of our houses to enjoy ourselves, it appears that holiday travel abroad, this summer, is far from certain.  Having gambled last year, and lost, the Jukes family has decided to play safe, make the most of our green and pleasant land and…
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Vineyard Magazine – April 2021 – Women & Wine

Wine & Women Our industry is powered by hard-working, visionary women with world-class taste www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk Years ago, I remember hosting a tasting of Australian wines for The Wine Society at One Great George Street, in Westminster.  These facts I remember, but the moment which most sticks in my mind about this event was one of the…
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Vineyard Magazine – March 2021 – Pinot Noir

Vineyard March 2021 Pinot Noir – the cornerstone of our vinous empire www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk Is Pinot Noir the most talented red grape variety on the planet?  I certainly believe so.  It makes celestial red wines, albeit in frustratingly few wine regions on earth and these bottles invariably cost a bomb.  It also makes epic sparkling wines,…
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Vineyard Magazine – February 2021 – Label Design

Vineyard Magazine - February 2021 Label Design www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk There were two concurrent inspirations for this month’s theme.  Firstly, my wife Amelia made an off the cuff remark over the Christmas break about how a number of English wines, with delicious flavours, are let down by their lack of original and inspirational label design. …
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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.