These Top 5 drinks lists will introduce you to my favourite wine regions, bars, wines, cocktails and wine folk.
While sweeter wines tend to appeal to novice wine-drinkers, with more experienced quaffers expressing a preference for drier styles, good sweet wines are some of the most delicious, sought-after drinks in the wine world. Like all fruit, grapes contain natural sugars and acids, and the best sweet wines contain a balance of the two, the […]
Time to delve into one of my greatest liquid passions, the wines made around the town of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, southern Spain – known as Jerez in Spanish and Sherry in English. If you’re not yet a Sherry drinker, forget whatever you think about sweet cream “sherries” sipped by elderly aunts and […]
I was in Paris less than a week after the terrorist attacks in November 2015. It was confronting to see the bundles of flowers, candles and notes outside the restaurants and other sites … but also uplifting to see the Parisians defiantly out and about, eating, drinking, socialising and celebrating life. One of their favourite […]
Top 5 Vermouths (& Aromatised Wines) Vermouth, fortified wine aromatised with botanicals, is increasingly appearing as a separate category on wine lists – great news for anyone looking for a pre-dinner drink with a difference. For most of my life vermouth meant Noilly Prat for cooking or Cinzano Rosso in cocktails (such as negroni). Recently […]
This is not about wines from the district of Orange in NSW, but wines with an orange (or amber) hue – in fact ‘amber wines’ is becoming the preferred name to avoid confusion. Virtually all grapes – red or white – produce clear juice. Grapes for white wine are pressed and the juice immediately run […]
I’m a riesling girl through and through! I love its fresh acid zing when it’s young and its rich kerosene notes as it ages, mostly I like it dry, lean and minerally, but occasionally I like just a touch of sweetness to stand up to chilli heat. I tried to share the love around the […]
