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Tim’s Blog

Burgundy vs ROW
At Teddington and Richmond Wine Societies we set ourselves the challenge of pitting Burgundy against the rest of the world. Rather than some kind of grudge match, this was a celebration of the two iconic grape varieties of this fabled region, Chardonnay and Pinot...

Fliss wins The Vintners’ Cup
Yesterday I accompanied Fliss to the award ceremony for the WSET Diploma in wine, at the Guildhall in London. Over 500 graduates from around the world received their Diplomas, either in person or virtually, and a number of of them received additional awards and...

Portugal – A New Look
Richmond Wine Society gathered over two nights to sample the delights of Portugese wines that are off the generally beaten track. Our focus was on regions that are less well known, and because it was Portugal, a bunch of grape varieties that don't turn up in most...

Swiss wine – let’s go!
Last week I was extremely lucky, when a fellow Diploma graduate Susan took me to a tasting of Swiss wines, specifically from the Valais region, at 67 Pall Mall. Led by Simon Hardy, an expert in Swiss wines, the event was brought to life by Anouck Dann, winemaker from...

McLaren Vale and Adelaide hills
Richmond Wine Society met in February to indulge me in a trip down memory lane. In November 2019 I ran wine tours to three regions of Australia, and during our South Australia tour we spent two days exploring the McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills regions. During the...

Putting the cork back in the bottle
Last week I attended the first event run by WSET for their Diploma Alumni. The Wine and Spirit Education Trust is the leading organisation in wine education, world wide. Its qualifications take students from novice to tertiary education level in wine, spirits and...

South African innovation kicks off our year
Both Teddington and Richmond Wine Societies explored some innovative wines coming out of South Africa in January. Though categorised ‘New World’ South Africa has made wine for centuries but in the last few decades there has been huge investment in vineyards and...

Christmas Extravaganzas round off the year
As ever, the Christmas Extravaganza tastings at the Richmond and Teddington Wine Societies were sold out as we spoilt ourselves, and tasted a broad and eclectic range of wines. We kicked off our tastings in typical celebratory style with champagne. A single vineyard...

Teddington Wine Society explores Eastern Europe
We explored a fascinating range of Eastern European wines at TWS in November and tasted a host of grape varieties that many people had never experienced before. When I first started selling wine in 1989, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary were providers of very acceptable...

Argentina’s extreme latitudes and altitudes
Argentina was the focus of the tastings at Richmond, Teddington and on Zoom in October and as usual, the wines of this wonderful South American country did not disappoint. The theme was latitude and altitude, with the focus falling onto principally wines from Salta –...