tasting notes

My detailed take on important horizontals and verticals, with the odd diagonal comment thrown in for good measure, usually with my scores out of 20 and, unusually, suggested drinking dates because I feel very strongly that the wine trade doesn’t give us consumers nearly enough advice about when to drink specific wines. For more explanations see My scoring system and What my scores mean.

See also the tasting notes list for a list of all the major vintage assessments on this site, although remember this is by no means an exhaustive list of all the thousands of tasting notes here. To find specific tasting note(s) use the tasting notes search.

Recent articles

New posh-ish wines from Thresher Aug 29, 2008: Julia Harding shares her tasting notes on some French additions to the shelves of Britain's last remaining big off licence chain.

Some great white Australians Aug 26, 2008: A pretty impressive selection of Australia's current white wines - all assessed blind and some of them quite surprising.

Terrific Pacific Rim Rieslings Aug 25, 2008: Linda Murphy tastes Randall Grahm's new single-vineyard Rieslings.

Comte Liger-Belair and vintage variation Aug 22, 2008: A revealing line-up of wines from this 'new' Burgundy domaine, from 2006 back to 2002.

Those 2004 bordeaux at four years old Aug 21, 2008: Julia Harding shares her impressions after three days tasting this potentially useful vintage.

Favia Wines - worth the wait Aug 19, 2008: The pedigree of this new small California producer involves Abreu, Corison and Screaming Eagle. Not a bad combo.

Current - and deceased - white burgundies Aug 15, 2008: Extremely varied tasting notes on more than 60 hopeful white burgundies.

The best bottle of my life? Aug 13, 2008: An account of a mind-blowing dinner at Heston Blumenthal's Hinds Head. And the wine trumped even this food.

Castel’s last stand at Oddbins Aug 11, 2008: Julia Harding files tasting notes on 60 of the wines the old owners of this UK chain were presumably most proud of - and is disappointed.

Some solid American values Aug 8, 2008: ...including some impressive Benziger wines. Europeans should buy now while the exchange rate works in their favour.

Purple notebook - May-Jun 2005 Aug 6, 2008: Some great wines tasted as they should be - at the table. The second in this occasional series.

Tesco shows off its Finest Aug 5, 2008: Melanie Jones shares her notes on her 58 favourite wines from the premium range of Britain's biggest supermarket.

In praise of white bordeaux Aug 1, 2008: About 40 notes on a wide range tasted blind with some real bargains.

Wine writers' wines Jul 30, 2008: What happens when four British wine writers, quite independently, try their hand at practising what they preach?

Jeroboams - 66 varied offerings Jul 28, 2008: Some wines from this London merchant definitely worth trying - some overpriced and some not.

Crawford River Riesling back to 1989 Jul 25, 2008: An inspiring Australian vertical.

Lebanese wines - the tasting notes Jul 24, 2008: Lindsay Groves’ tasting notes on current wines of Lebanon.

Serious stuff from Waitrose Jul 23, 2008: Notes on more than 130 wines, many available worldwide, from the British retailer that employs more Masters of Wine than any other.

M&S - good buys if you can find them Jul 18, 2008: Tasting notes on 100 wines available from Marks & Spencer - sometimes. Fifteen strong recommendations.

New Wave Spanish reds Jul 16, 2008: Tasting notes on 74 wines selected as some of the best that Spain has to offer British wine lovers.