“Have you photographed this bottle? Can I throw it away now?” Not an uncommon question in the Bigpinots house as, like some sort of digital hoarder, I photograph and document every different bottle of wine we open. I try to document some at tastings too, but that’s often just too laborious.
I’ve struggled with tasting notes for years: full ta [...]
VINPIN
“Have you photographed this bottle? Can I throw it away now?” Not an uncommon question in the Bigpinots house as, like some sort of digital hoarder, I photograph and document every different bottle of wine we open. I try to document some at tastings too, but that’s often just too laborious.
I’ve struggled with tasting notes for years: full ta [...]
Sandeman Port 2011 Vintage
Published 1 May 2013
A guy wearing a polo shirt turned to me and declared “I bought more Port last year than the rest of London”. It was clear that I was in a room full of serious Port nuts.
The Sandeman logo
I’d eaten at The Don (in The City of London) a few times and was familiar with the mural of a Zorro-like figure that greeted visitors. [...]
The Milestone Hotel
Published 24 April 2013
“I’d come back just to eat the truffle butter again”. When a dinner starts off with statements like that, you know you’re in for a treat.
Having just worked on the rebuild of Red Carnation Hotel’s website, I knew quite a bit about their hotels – including the fact that they hold the top 3 spots on Trip Advisor for best [...]
By The Bottle
Published 16 April 2013
I grew up (in terms of wine education) with Decanter magazine. I have an enormous amount of respect for the contributors, consider the reviews thorough and think the articles on regions, personalities, markets, etc, to be of the highest standards. Decanter, to me, is like The Spectator, Time Magazine and National Geogr [...]
Time hungry? Fed up with throwing awa...
Published 23 March 2013
None of us has enough time and nobody likes waste. But what do you do when a recipe asks you to add four shavings of a unicorn horn, and Waitrose only sells whole horns? You buy it, then it sits at the back of a cupboard because you never see it mentioned in subsequent recipes. Juniper berries, mace, fenugreek … I’ve g [...]
Laithwaites’ Sips Nations
Published 15 March 2013
Laithwaite’s has taken the social tasting platform to another level by bringing out ‘Sips Nations’ to accompany the final of the Six Nations rugby this weekend. They asked famous rugby players from the Six Nations sides to name their favourite national dish, then match a wine to go with it.
The so cal [...]
The Vineyard
Published 27 February 2013
I recently asked “why isn’t everyone using video for their blogs?” In fact, I think the bigger question is “why aren’t we all moving to California?” It is the centre of the tech industry and produces fantastic wines.
However, the problem us Brits have is that it’s difficult to appreciate just how good Californian wi [...]
Cru Bourgeois goes techno
Published 21 January 2013
When thinking of Bordeaux chateaux, you probably imagine pretty towered buildings and men in bow ties; I doubt that adding codes to bottles so that consumers are taken to a bespoke site with information on the vineyard (details of varieties grown, planting density, yield, etc), history of the chateau, food pairing su [...]
Chirpify
Published 5 January 2013
“Wow, this could take social media to the next level” ~ my initial thoughts when I heard about Chirpify.
So what is it and why did it make me so excited? In short, Chirpify allows people to buy, pay or donate through a simple retweet (or via Instagram). There’s no “enter your name, address and last three l [...]