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Dec 4, 2024 | 
cluboenologique.com | Anne Jones |Natasha Hughes MW
The first time I visited the Yarra Valley, which lies just north of Melbourne, I was taken for a flight over its vineyards in a biplane. Flying low over the Valley’s ridges and folds lent real depth to my understanding of how terroir contributes to the character and diversity of Yarra’s wines. All the variations in altitude and exposure I saw allow the region to produce everything from crisp sparkling wines through to boldly flavoured Syrahs and Cabernet Sauvignons.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
worldoffinewine.com | Natasha Hughes MW
Natasha Hughes MW on the influential group of plucky Beaujolais vignerons who held out against industrialization and came to shape the style and winemaking philosophy of the region’s best modern wines. Kids in France grow up reading about the adventures of Asterix the Gaul. A series of comic books set in France during the Roman era, each witty, action-packed tale starts with the introduction “The year is 50BC. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans.
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Jun 7, 2024 | 
decanter.com | Natasha Hughes MW
It’s a bit like one of those bad dreams. There you are, with a line-up of glasses half full of red wine laid out in front of you. You know that you are going to be asked to identify the origins of those wines. No one will give you the slightest clue. And you’ve only got a few minutes per wine to do the job. Nightmarish as this sounds, the scenario will be familiar to anyone who’s ever sat a blind-tasting wine exam. But let’s make the task a little bit easier, shall we?
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May 28, 2024 | 
academieduvinlibrary.com | Natasha Hughes MW
Wild yeast means complexity and terroir influence, cultured yeast means bland and formulaic wines – or so the thinking goes. But it’s a whole lot more complicated than that, says Natasha Hughes MWThe headline might sound like the tagline for a low-budget horror film, but actually it’s a simple statement of fact about yeasts.
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Apr 25, 2024 | 
cluboenologique.com | Natasha Hughes MW
Some time in the early 1930s, according to local legend, the famed Burgundian negociant, Henri Mommessin, was asked by a friend why he looked so fed up. The answer was that he’d just returned from a sale in Beaune, where he’d been planning to buy a parcel of vines in Moulin-à-Vent and had been outbid by a competitor. As a result, Mommessin purchased what he felt was the next-best plot available, the Clos de Tart.
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Feb 29, 2024 | 
the-buyer.net | Natasha Hughes MW |Mike Turner |Roger Jones |Richard Siddle
By Natasha Hughes MW on February 29, 2024 “There are Crémants for your celebrations, easy-drinking wines for relaxed occasions and potent, structured wines for pairing with celebratory meals and, of course, there are the sweet wines sourced from Grand Cru vineyards.” That’s the diversity that Alsace can offer which the IWSC hoped to highlight in a special tasting, held in the region and co-hosted with the Comité Interprofessionnel des Vins d’Alsace (CIVA). Part of the judging team was Natasha...
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Dec 12, 2023 | 
cluboenologique.com | Louella Berryman |Ashleigh Arnott |Nina Caplan |Natasha Hughes MW
‘It’s Christmas!’, as Noddy Holder of Slade once bellowed. And don’t we just know it. From Wham! and Mariah invading our ears at every turn, to garish Christmas jumpers that seem to have somehow become the ironic fashion choice of an entire generation, no one could fail to notice that the season of goodwill has rolled around once again.
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Dec 11, 2023 | 
cluboenologique.com | Louella Berryman |Ashleigh Arnott |Nina Caplan |Natasha Hughes MW
Episode 139 of The Drinking Hour podcast focuses on Alsace and what the region’s wines offer drinkers today. Host David Kermode speaks to Olivier Humbrecht MW of Domaine Zind-Humbrecht and Véronique Muré of Domaine Muré about the region’s diverse soil types, the impact of climate change and the way Alsatian Riesling and Gewürztraminer have evolved stylistically in recent years.
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Dec 11, 2023 | 
cluboenologique.com | Louella Berryman |Ashleigh Arnott |Nina Caplan |Natasha Hughes MW
December, and more specifically the prospect of Christmas, often incites a few flurried weeks of eating out ahead of finishing work and going home for the end of the year. Combine this with winter’s arrival and the desire for hearty meals, and it’s a month that seems like a sensible one in which to launch a new restaurant. An Italian theme runs throughout our selection of the best new restaurants to visit in December, from casual dining in Berkshire to lavish luxury in London and New York.
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Dec 8, 2023 | 
cluboenologique.com | Louella Berryman |Nina Caplan |Natasha Hughes MW |Henry Jeffreys
For those who have yet to visit Burgundy it is difficult to convey how seriously the Burgundians take their chicken. Worldwide, apart from some pockets of resistance, chicken must rank as the most dumbed-down foodstuff of all. Produced by the million, the pasty-fleshed, limp and characterless fowl comes in shrink-wrapped blobs of flesh and bone that are about as tasty as the packaging. Industrial methods of production have driven the price down and the flavour out.
