As part of the run-up Fizz Feast on Saturday 19 November at Edinburgh Academy, now in its sixth year, we’re giving you a brief introduction to the fabulous feast and fizz exhibitors lined up to tantalise taste buds and please palates. This year we’re delighted to welcome new exhibitor Sugarbird Wines to the Fizz Hall. On the SugarBird stand, look out for De Grendel Proposal Hill Brut Rosé, a perfect welcoming drink to enjoy with canapes; the Boschendal, Brut NV, SA, is pa

As part of the run-up Fizz Feast on Saturday 19 November at Edinburgh Academy, now in its sixth year, we’re giving you a brief introduction to the fabulous feast and fizz exhibitors lined up to tantalise taste buds and please palates. This year we’re delighted to welcome new exhibitor 'Cap Classsique Association' to the Fizz Hall again. Established in 1992, the Cap Classique Producers Association (CCPA) came about through a group of producers who shared a passion for bot

As part of the run-up Fizz Feast on Saturday 19 November at Edinburgh Academy, now in its sixth year, we’re giving you a brief introduction to the fabulous feast and fizz exhibitors lined up to tantalise taste buds and please palates. Popular all year round for excellent, value-for-money wines, we are delighted to welcome Lidl back to Fizz Feast. With everything from Cava, Prosecco, Crémant and Champagne, the award-winning supermarket wine retailer will have something spe

As part of the run-up Fizz Feast on Saturday 19 November at Edinburgh Academy, now in its sixth year, we’re giving you a brief introduction to the fabulous feast and fizz exhibitors lined up to tantalise taste buds and please palates. This year we’re delighted to welcome regular exhibitor Goldenacre Wines back to the Fizz Hall again. Familiar to Edinburgh’s Inverleith residents, Goldenacre Wines might be a new name to those outside the area. Tucked away at the back of Cost

As part of the run-up Fizz Feast on Saturday 19 November at Edinburgh Academy, now in its sixth year, we’re giving you a brief introduction to the fabulous feast and fizz exhibitors lined up to tantalise taste buds and please palates. This year we’re delighted to welcome new exhibitor Mionetto Prosecco DOC to the Fizz Hall. Dating from 1887, when master wine-maker Francesco Mionetto established this winery in the hills of Valdobbiadene, in the heart of Prosecco country,

As part of the run-up Fizz Feast on Saturday 19 November at Edinburgh Academy, now in its sixth year, we’re giving you a brief introduction to the fabulous feast and fizz exhibitors lined up to tantalise taste buds and please palates. This year we’re delighted to welcome new exhibitor Vino Fandango to the Fizz Hall. A small, family-run, independent wine merchant based in the pretty Perthshire village of Comrie, Vino Fandango is well-known for the diversity of its wines, a

As part of the run-up Fizz Feast on Saturday 19 November at Edinburgh Academy, now in its sixth year, we’re giving you a brief introduction to the fabulous feast and fizz exhibitors lined up to tantalise taste buds and please palates. This year we're delighted to welcome regular exhibitor Hoods Honey back to the Fizz Hall again. Beekeeper George Hood was the founder of the company which is based in East Lothian and has been producing honey since 1950. Remarkably, almost 70

As part of the run-up Fizz Feast on Saturday 19 November at Edinburgh Academy, now in its sixth year, we’re giving you a brief introduction to the fabulous feast and fizz exhibitors lined up to tantalise taste buds and please palates. This year we're delighted to welcome Sardinian Sparkling Wine Producer Sella&Mosca to the Fizz Hall for the first time Sella&Mosca was founded in Alghero in north western Sardinia by Mr Sella, an engineer, and Mr Mosca, an attorney, in 1899. S

As part of the run-up Fizz Feast on Saturday 19 November at Edinburgh Academy, now in its sixth year, we’re giving you a brief introduction to the fabulous feast and fizz exhibitors lined up to tantalise taste buds and please palates. This year we're delighted to welcome Seabuckthorn Scotland to the Feast Hall for the first time. Seabuckthorn is a hardy, thorny, pioneer plant that thrives in conditions where other plants cannot – has long been known for its powerful antioxi

As part of the run-up Fizz Feast on Saturday 19 November at Edinburgh Academy, now in its sixth year, we’re giving you a brief introduction to the fabulous feast and fizz exhibitors lined up to tantalise taste buds and please palates. One of the best-known names in the world of sparkling wine, we are delighted to welcome Taittinger Champagne back to Fizz Feast. Taittinger is one of the very few Grand Marque Champagne Houses still owned and managed by the family name on the l

As part of the run-up Fizz Feast on Saturday 19 November at Edinburgh Academy, now in its sixth year, we’re giving you a brief introduction to the fabulous feast and fizz exhibitors lined up to tantalise taste buds and please palates. We are delighted to welcome Ailsa Proverbs, MBE, and her delicious creation The Big Cheese Making Kit to the Feast Hall this year. When Ailsa first tried making cheese at home, she had no idea her passion would grow into The Big Cheese Making K

As part of the run-up Fizz Feast on Saturday 19 November at Edinburgh Academy, now in its sixth year, we’re giving you a brief introduction to the fabulous feast and fizz exhibitors lined up to tantalise taste buds and please palates. We are delighted to welcome Woodhouse Wines back to Fizz Feast for our 2022 event! Wine merchant Jonathan Simpkin heads up Woodhouse Wines and is as experienced and passionate a wine expert as you are likely to find. After establishing his win

Following on from last week's Wine Trivia for a Christmas Quiz and having had a fascinating tasting with Bruce Jack who packed the tasting full of interesting facts I thought it would be fun to include some. Hope it might prove as inspiration for any Christmas quiz you might have. 1. Why is The Beagle important to Continental Drift The Beagle was the name of Charles Darwin’s ship which he sailed around Cape Point in the late 1800’s. He stopped at Mouille Point where he saw t

Whether it be for family, friends or work colleagues there's often the challenge of a Christmas quiz. I thought you might enjoy some wine related trivia which could prove as inspiration if you've been set a challenge. 1. At what speed can a cork come out of a sparkling bottle of wine? 46mph 2. Why was Pinot Noir historically the only red grape planted in Burgundy? In 1395 Philip the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy was eager to keep the fantastic reputation of red Burgundy wh

Behind every Bruce Jack Wine lies a special story The Moveable Feast label tells the story of the people involved in this wine, past and present. They are all part of Bruce Jack’s wider family, off on a moveable feast; Thandi is Bruce’s mum’s old dog who was an ex bomb squad dog Benjamin, Bruce’s youngest son is carrying the food for the feast Robert his eldest is carrying a chair for the feast. Penelope, Bruce’s wife carries the candles – no doubt being the light of Bruce’

As we're all aware Lidl have some cracking wines at cracking prices. Every couple of months they have a special "Wine Tour" and the New World launched on Thursday 23 September. Here are the results of how we scored them compared with the scores Richard Bampfield MW and his team scored them. If you're tempted by any you'll need to be quick as these wines don't tend to stay on shelf for long! The White Wines The Red Wines

To add a bit of extra fun with our Lidl French Wine Tour Preview Tasting we included a few wines from Lidl's Core Range and had a great evening tasting and scoring them. Not only did a few comment on Richard Bampfield MW's similarity to Star Trek's Jean-Luc Picard but it caused even more hilarity when on that theme, Richard told us about the ban on UFO's landing in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. In 1954 Châteauneuf-du-Pape's mayor Lucien Jeune issued the ban, stating “Any aircraft, k

Lidl's current French Wine Tour is another great selection of wines and those we tasted last Saturday 24 July were all very well received. We enjoyed two sparkling wines and four whites, all of which scored highly. To add a bit of fun we included some from the current Wine Tour and some from Lidl's Core Range in our tasting. It was great fun with Lidl's Lead Taster Richard Bampfield MW offering some valuable insights into the wines and why they were chosen. We also had som

My newsletters often cover a wine related book review and on this occasion I invited my sister-in-law Amanda Skinner from Private Cellars to recommend her favourite book. Since she's written such a comprehensive and superb piece I thought it was definitely worthy of a blog post. I was delighted to be invited by my sister in law to write a review of my favourite wine book. It was a really tough choice as there have been so many great publications over the past two years bu

As always Lidl's Wine Tour unveils some great hidden gems and their Summer 2021 Wine Tour is certainly no exception. There were a few familiar friends within the Tour and plenty new interesting wines to discover. Lidl's Lead Taster and Master of Wine Richard Bampfield and I had great fun presenting these wines over the course of the two weeks. Thankfully we kept on track by Chris Scott, Lidl's Marketing Manager for Scotland. We tasted 6 whites on Saturday 22 May which