Monthly Archives: June 2010


Was interviewed at the London International Wine Fair by Nathan Nolan of soon-to-launch drinkprice.com. The wine in this first video is Le Champ d’Orphée Braucol 2008, Tarn PGI, which won a trophy at the recent Top 100 IGP competition – see the full list of winners here. Delicious as the […]

Interview with Nathan Nolan of Drinkprice.com


At least I had some decent grog to ease the pain… The first four wines are pairs of the regular and non-dosage cuvées from two different Champagne producers – found myself preferring the unsweetened version on each occasion. Champagne Laurent Perrier Ultra Brut Nature NV (£43-£51 Selfridges, Harrods, Jeroboams, Harvey […]

Six Champagnes on a gloomy day for English football


Just had this press release through giving details of the elevation of the red wines of Rasteau to full AOC level. Previously the mainly Grenache-based reds had to settle for being one of the named villages in the Côtes du Rhône Villages appellation. Top Rasteau producers include André Romero/Domaine la […]

Rasteau reds promoted to AOC status



It’s exactly a year since simonwoods.com went from being a passive ‘click here if you want to go to a half-hearted blog’ entity to being a fully-fledged website. What prompted the move? There wasn’t one single major event, just a series of disappointing episodes over the course of three or […]

Happy Anniversary – www.simonwoods.com one year on…


Advertising maven John Hegarty – sorry – SIR John Hegarty needs no introduction for those in his field of influence. And the good news is that his field of influence is spreading ever wider- he’s due to do a presentation to the Institute of Masters of Wine about how wine […]

Quite lovely Languedoc reds from an advertising legend


Recorded with unjustified optimism before the England v US game… Montana Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Marlborough, New Zealand (£7.99 Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s Morrisons, Asda) Refined, quite elegant style for Marlborough, with a lean stony character to the citrus and lemongrass flavours; good tense minerally finish too. S- De Grendel Sauvignon Blanc […]

Southern Hemisphere Sauvignon Blanc