John writes:- Almost every email I seem to receive nowadays is wine-related, excitedly promoting this or that unmissable new discovery, a formal tasting opportunity, or perhaps offering the chance to invest in the latest vintage of a world classic.   Given the vinous onslaught it is no wonder that I and maybe my colleagues in wine [...]

Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra in South Australia and a recipe for marinaded barbequed lamb are John Ducker's recommendations for May. Having recently spent a fortnight with a lively group of people attending a couple of weekend conventions in Australia, some other organized activities were looked for on ‘days off’.   A lunch in Melbourne with my [...]

For April 2016, John Ducker has picked a stylish Douro Valley red as his wine of the month. A traditional Portuguese way with Guinea Fowl is his food match. John writes:- Curioser and curioser!   I recently found myself encountering, like Alice through her Looking-glass, a bottle marked ‘DRINK ME’.    Again, like Alice, I approached with caution, but as there [...]

A Pinot Blanc from Germany is John Ducker's wine of the month for March 2016.  His food match is trout cooked with smoked ham - a traditional Black Forest recipe. John writes:- My wine choice for March offers some really fresh and delicious drinking with a spring in its step, and shows off another face of [...]

A Pinot Noir from Oregon is John Ducker's wine pick for this month. Perhaps echoing the grumbling of the Euro-sceptics on our own shores, the vignerons of France seem none too happy with the latest wine edict from Brussels which came into force on January 1st this year. The new EU liberalization that now extends [...]

The word ‘unprecedented’ has been used more than ever just recently to describe the worst the weather can throw at significant parts of north Britain, and clearly (whatever your own views on global warming) there seems to be plenty of evidence to show that the world’s climate is becoming ever more capricious in its apparent [...]

It is perhaps difficult to equate the popular image of sunny ‘holiday’ Spain with that of a country capable of producing coolly elegant, crisp, aromatic dry white wines – but if you know the country’s attractively rugged coastal province of Galicia which sits atop Portugal’s northern border, then you’ll remember that the picture is rather [...]

I had originally wanted to show you an autumn ‘warmer’ as the colder days of winter threaten to advance, and to that end I had ordered ‘sight unseen’ from one of my favourite wine merchants a fine red wine from the Rhône Valley.   Sadly, to my own palate, that wine’s sheer size and weight of [...]

If the Alsace Pinot Gris is my ‘white’ choice for September, the ‘red’ is in a much humbler bracket – a real surprise discovery from the hinterland of a supermarket bottom shelf!   There’s no elevated classiness here, merely good value at a bargain price, and I can’t see anything wrong in that.     One is probably [...]

With summer eating in mind I’ve chosen a very characterful red wine from Piedmont, Bric del Salto 2013, Dolcetto d’Alba DOC as a fruity and wonderfully cool partner (in every sense) to open-air foods – especially char-grills of meat.     The early ripening Dolcetto grape translates itself as ‘the little sweet one’ – and though the [...]