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Oct 15, 2024 | 
the-buyer.net | Mike Turner
They say that imitation is the finest form of flattery. If that’s true, and you’re a producer of Provence rosé, you must walk around with the biggest swollen head imaginable. Winemakers, importers, retailers and sommeliers across the world know an obvious truth, that if a rosé doesn’t look, smell or feel like it comes from Provence then no-one will buy it.
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Oct 15, 2024 | 
the-buyer.net | Mike Turner
They say that imitation is the finest form of flattery. If that’s true, and you’re a producer of Provence rosé, you must walk around with the biggest swollen head imaginable. Winemakers, importers, retailers and sommeliers across the world know an obvious truth, that if a rosé doesn’t look, smell or feel like it comes from Provence then no-one will buy it.
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Sep 11, 2024 | 
news.wine.co.za | Mike Turner
Journey’s End has been a celebrated fixture of South African wine list sections in the UK for decades now. Since its rebirth under the ownership of Roger Gabb in 1995, this Stellenbosch winery has produced fabulous quality Chardonnay and Bordeaux blends at a price and style point that fits the UK market. But the Journey’s End story is so much more than simply great wines, as The Buyer’s Mike Turner found out at a recent lunch with winemaker Mike Dawson. What can I say about Journey's End Vineyards?
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Aug 28, 2024 | 
the-buyer.net | Mike Turner
What can I say about Journey’s End Vineyards? Well, for a start, it’s one of the most well-known wine names from South Africa with many Journey’s End wines ending on bar and restaurant lists up and down the UK. Each time I’ve tried the wines I’ve been more than happy to finish the glass and order another. That’s a given. The wines are great.
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Aug 17, 2024 | 
the-buyer.net | Mike Turner
When the Frescobaldi family invites you out to Florence for a few days, you don’t say no. One of the most famous names in Tuscany, let alone Tuscan wine, the chance to visit the city and surroundings with one of the founding families of the famed Florentine Republic was something the history tragic in me was bubbling with excitement to experience.
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Aug 6, 2024 | 
the-buyer.net | Mike Turner
With a nudge over 150 years of winemaking experience, the Catalunya-based Familia Torres group is responsible for some staggeringly successful brands (think Viña Sol and Sangre de Toro) and beautifully crafted niche wines from across their vineyards in Spain and further afield. But the wine is not the sole reason that Familia Torres was named Drinks International’s Most Admired Wine Brand 2024 (the 7th time in 11 years!).
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Jul 30, 2024 | 
the-buyer.net | Mike Turner
Following on from my three articles on the zones of Rioja earlier this spring and summer to promote the inaugural Rioja Somm'er School, I was lucky enough to be asked to join the chosen group, selected from across the UK and Ireland, on their immersive week of discovery to this most famous of Spanish wine regions.
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Jul 20, 2024 | 
the-buyer.net | Mike Turner
Someone once told me that wine is a mixture of art, science, history, and geography. If you’re a bit of geek of one of those, then you’ll be into wine. If you get into all four, then you’re in real trouble! Sadly for me, as a self-confessed 𝜋r2 maths obsessive, art has always felt a little bit out of my own personal reach. But it’s left me fascinated by artistic people, what they can produce and the feelings they can evoke. You can see why wine and art can be so tightly linked.
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Jun 27, 2024 | 
news.wine.co.za | Mike Turner
Krone Winery, based in the Tulbagh region north of Paarl, is known throughout its native South Africa as synonymous with the production of Cap Classique. Just over ten years ago, the winery went through its first change in ownership in its 300-year history. This summer, team members Abigail Rands and Rudiger Gretschel were in the UK to talk about the story so far and taste through their range of premium, traditional method sparkling wines. We sent The Buyer’s Mike Turner along to find out more.
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Jun 23, 2024 | 
the-buyer.net | Mike Turner
I love a bargain. Value for money is my MO. I’m the kind of guy that goes into a supermarket for a loaf of bread and some milk and comes out with a trolley full of yellow labels. Nothing changes when I’m stood in front of wine shelves, so when I first came across Methode Cap Classique wines about a decade or so ago, I felt like I’d been let into this random little secret that the wine trade wanted to keep to itself. These wines were incredible quality for the price you were paying.
