Tuesday 24 February 2009

Wine attitudes in France

This was a fascinating article on the web
France is currently having an identity crisis for wine. Undoubtedly the anti alcohol lobby is becoming stronger, whilst at the same time wine is an important fabric of the heritage of France.
It is an interesting conundrum ......support a traditional part of the French lifestyle and pastimes or become a prohibitionist state!
Unfortunately President Stircrazy is not a wine lover......perhaps he will be convinced by his potentially new BF over the pond who likes an occasional tipple and an occasional surreptious ciggie!

Saturday 21 February 2009

Sitt 2009

No Sitt is not a typo!
It stands for Specialist Importers Trade Tastings.
This is a great opportunity for the UK wine trade buyers and journalists to taste a selection of quality wines.
There are usually about 40 different importers showing their various goodies.
We will be at Manchester this Monday 23rd (Bridgewater Hall) and London this Wednesday 25th (Vinopolis).
Bella Wines are at Table 12 where we will be showing some interesting new wines:

Logan Wines.....cool climate Australians....stunning award winning Sauv. Blanc.
Mas Amiel......fantastic Roussillon wine estate...aged Maury as well as deep reds.
Ch. Jean Faure...St.Emilion Grand Cru
Ch. de la Riviere......my favourite Chateau in Bordeaux...stunning wines.
Domaine La Prade Mari......wild hairy winemaker making exquisite wines....80 yr old Carignan aimed to retail at £5.50!!!
Cave Les Trois Blasons.....always innovative classy producer from the sunny South of France.

Look forward to seeing you this week.

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Weather and winter in Minervois


This winter seems to have dragged on too long! It is exciting and busy pre Christmas. It is fun when you have the chance to travel to a southern hemisphere country during the European winter.....but when the global economy is gloomy and the weather is bleak!
Time to plan optimistic ventures for the future......New wines to taste and discover. New prices to calculate (is this a good thing or not?). Tastings to plan. New customers to find. As I frequently get reminded ' people will always drink wine during a recession'. Lets see now.