Eternity
He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy
He who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise
William Blake - 1757-1827
The Beast
Provence is a geological masterpiece millions of years in the...
The Baron and the Jewel
In 1868, Baron James de Rothschild of what was to become known as the ‘French branch’ of the Rothschild family purchased the Medoc estate, Chateau Lafite. This was 15 years...
A Wine for the Devil’s Throat
“The ancient Egyptians believed the god Anubis met each of us on the other side, and that he stood before a great scale on which our hearts were...
The Pariah
The Cabardès AOC is a tiny sub-region in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of Aude, France. Husband and wife winemakers, Stephanie and Olivier Rame are the third generation of their family to tend the vineyards...
Penfolds ‘Super Blend’ Bin 802A, Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz, 2018, South Australia
At an exceptional evening of Hikaru’s superb, contemporary Japanese cuisine at the Himawari Hotel in Phnom Penh, with the team from Chhivtimex,...
A Thing of Kalimna
I partly organized and then wholly attended a small ‘trade-&-friends’ dinner last week; it had a ‘bring-a-bottle’ theme, which is an ingenious way for trade to come together and taste, assess...
The Beast
Mont Ventoux; for the world's finest cyclists its name is legend, “The Beast of Provence”, a will-sapping, heart-breaking, soul-destroying stage of the world’s most famous bicycle race, the Tour de France. When...
Chateau d’Etroyes
Mercurey
The village of Mercurey was an important trading post for the Romans in the days of Empire. Set along the Arles-Lyon section of the Via Agrippa trade network -built during the...