They say, ‘good things come in threes…’ Back to the Future, definitely. Godfather Trilogy, absolutely. The first and second Chicago Bulls three-peat (’91-’92-’93, then ’96-’97-’98), big time… So, what about Rootstock Sydney, 2015? “The collaborative spirit from food and wine people… was palpable.” A lot has changed since 2013, when Rootstock Sydney humbly tumbled out … Continue reading ‘Good Things Come In Threes’ – Rootstock Sydney 2015
The Real Wine Fair has a lot to answer for. You see, it was the Real Wine Fair, held over three years ago, in May 2012, in London, that triggered my love for natural, organic, and biodynamic wine. I attended as a relative newbie to the natural wine scene where I encountered Adam and Julian … Continue reading What’s In Your Glass? 2015
2014 has been a remarkable year. It started with a bang and is ending with a flourish… Way back in February, I was fortunate enough to have the privilege of participating in vintage 2014, in the Hunter Valley, picking grapes, and actually making my very own wine. Thanks to Ross McDonald of Macquariedale, I was able to … Continue reading The Wine Idealist – 2014 Year In Review
Placing the word ‘natural’ in front of the word ‘wine’, without any apology, or fear of reprisal, the considered use of quotation marks, or adding the phrase ‘so-called’, in order to soften the divisive blow that strikes upon wine’s face whenever the words natural and wine meet one another, is finally a risk I’m willing to … Continue reading ‘Natural Wine, Defined’ – The Chicken Nugget Argument
“Just as any fad becomes a fashion, a fashion becomes a trend, a trend becomes a change; so then, when enough changes unite, it becomes a paradigm shift…” The Wine Idealist has taken a small step into the realms of self-publishing by releasing, ‘Wine Idealism’, A Brief Introduction into the Changing State of Australian Wine. A … Continue reading Wine Idealism – The Changing State of Australian Wine
Two years ago I attended the first Real Wine Fair as a nervous wine novice. I went to taste some wine to, perhaps, include on the list of a West London wine bar I worked in. That experience changed my perception of Australian wine forever. Two years later, I’ve been given the opportunity to go to the Real Wine Fair again, … Continue reading Advance Australia and New Zealand Real Wine Fair – 2014
1978, and a young Morgon winemaker named Marcel Lapierre is experimenting in Beaujolais with no-sulphur winemaking, from grapes grown organically. In doing so, Lapierre along with a few local cohorts, had unwittingly caused the modern genesis of vin naturel… or natural wine. Of course this didn’t happen overnight, but soon enough, with the help of some Parisian sommeliers, … Continue reading Avril Lavigne et Le Vin Naturel – Is Natural Wine a Fad?
Coming back bigger and better is a term usually reserved for rubbish sequels of big blockbuster films, and a bit of a cliché these days, but this is fact, not fiction, and Rootstock 2014 was bigger, and we were all excited to see just how much better it was going to be. Expanded over two … Continue reading The Rise of the Counter Culture – Rootstock 2014
May, 2012. Having quit my job at the BBC, and swapping it for a full time gig in a wine bar just down the road, I was asked by, my boss, to attend the first ever Real Wine Fair, in London. I was to attend, as a representative of the west London bar, Albertine, and report back, … Continue reading An Origin Story… Genesis – The Wine Idealist Is One Year Old
7 days to go, and it’s looking pretty bleak. The response has been less than impressive in the opening few weeks of ticket sales, but people keep telling me – “don’t worry, it’s Newcastle, the Hunter Valley, and they always buy at the last minute”. My partner in all of this, Patrick Haddock – aka, … Continue reading What Went On at What’s In Your Glass? – Newcastle’s ‘real’ Wine Fair!
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