How, faced with the array of bottles in a wine store, do you pick the right one off the shelf? Here are few random but specific suggestions:  ...

Several purple pagers have asked me in advance of going to a tasting involving particularly young wine what they should look out for and here are my suggestions. Tasting young red wine...

Organic and biodynamic wines   This is a vast subject growing in importance which has been covered in some depth on the site already. Although an increasing proportion of...

In Part One , we looked at how much wine, water, and non-alcoholic drink to provide. Here are some specific suggestions as to what sort of wine to serve at which sort of...

Quantities   A tricky one, this. Individuals' capacity for alcohol varies enormously, as you have doubtless observed yourself. No-one could possibly accuse a...

Some people think that because of their age or status, it is somehow not 'done' to bring a bottle. Others would never dream of crossing a friend's threshold without a bottle of wine in...

As far as I'm concerned, the enjoyment of wine has to begin with the glass in your hand. Swotting up wine geography and vintage ratings is an optional extra and comes a long way down the...

Decanters   You can use any clean, watertight vessel to decant (pour the contents of) a bottle into. A china jug would do but glass is provably inert and has the great...

For me, choosing the right wine to serve on a particular occasion is almost as thrilling as the wine itself - perverse as that may seem. It gives me real pleasure to feel that the bottle, or...