Wine & Soul: Pintas and Manoella from Portugal’s Douro (updated with new notes, July 2025)
Website: https://wineandsoul.com/ Jorge Borges and Sandra Tavares have built something special with Wine & Soul. I first bumped into them
Read more
Regions
The wines of Masiero, a biodynamic producer in Italy’s Veneto
Website: https://www.verdugo.it/en/homepage-2/ Franco and Francesca Masiero founded this winery back in 1996, and they farm biodynamically. Their daughter Giulia Masiero
Read more
Justino’s Projects, Madeira, Portugal
This was a really interesting chance to try some special Project wines from Madeira producer Justino’s. The wines were tasted
Read more
Restaurants: Balabaya, London, amazing flavours of the Levant
Website: https://balabaya.co.uk/ Lunched at Balabaya, a really impressive restaurant in the Israeli/middle eastern flavour space – a cuisine that I’m
Read more
Highlights: two from new English still wine producer The Heretics
Website: https://www.wearetheheretics.com/ The Heretics Pale Rosé 2023 Crouch Valley, Essex12% alcohol. Pale in colour, as it says on the label.
Read more
English wine: there’s a new cool kid on the block – Sandridge Barton
Sandridge Barton is the new identity of leading Devon winery Sharpham who are making some innovative wines Website: https://sandridgebarton.com/ I
Read more
Slovenia: visiting biodynamic star Korenika & Moškon
Website: https://korenikamoskon.eu/ The latest part of my Slovenian exploration saw me head to the Adriatic cost, to a corner of
Read more
A spotlight on the Dão region, currently making some of Portugal’s most interesting wines
Portugal is a diverse wine country, and of late it has been making increasingly accomplished wines. In the north we
Read more
Highlights: Smith & Evans Higher Plot Pinot Chardonnay Late Disgorged 2010 England
This is really interesting; It’s a late disgorgement of an English sparkling wine that spent 13 years on its lees.
Read more
Highlight: the stunning first edition of Perpetual from English fizz star Langham
Langham Perpetual Chardonnay First Edition NV Dorset, England12% alcohol. The best wines from 2017, 2018 and 2019 blended together, and
Read more