A wine merchant walks into an Italian restaurant with a former Sicilian sommelier and the restaurant’s own Sicilian sommelier soon asks; ‘Would you like to try a wine made by a friend of mine? It’s very individual – you should taste blind’.
No, this isn’t the start of some bizarre wine trade...
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I am fairly picky when it comes to Australian Shiraz, as a good friend of mine knows only too well. I look for wines with freshness to offset the richness of the fruit and I am no fan of styles that are shrouded in new oak – I prefer the fruit to shine through and to speak of its origins. Perhaps it was a brave call to recommend I t...
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How about this for a notable difference? Take a good look at the two notes below and their respective reviews. Both wines have the same score from Antonio Galloni – in fact, Galatrona, an oft-championed wine by us all at Atlas, scored the same as Masseto. They were the joint top-scoring wines in the same review yesterday of new releases fr...
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One client of mine bemoans the fact that wine prices have escalated – part of that is down to inflation and part of that is down to discovery. I can’t do much about inflation (right now I am wondering who can?), but I can do something about discovery. When regions or producers become more touted, interest builds and prices are drawn ...
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The Chenin Blanc Reserve from DeMorgenzon has become such a dependable part of our range, delivering great quality and value. It is easy to see why it has garnered such a following.
The 2020 impressed greatly when we tasted at Atlas House. South Africa had had a run of very dry, low yielding vintages, that was broken by the co...
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Situated east of Wellington, towards the southernmost tip of New Zealand’s North Island, Ata Rangi is firmly established as one of the top four or five New Zealand Pinot Noir producers, yet few estates have such a colourful story to tell.
The majority of their vineyards consist of a specific clone of Pinot Noir, referred...
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