Category Archives: Blog

Vincent Gaudry

To drink Vincent and Séverine’s Sancerres is to fall in love with wine all over again. Not the characterless, green Sancerres so loved in Paris, nor the tarted up, Kiwi-accented Sancerres found on shelves across Asia, and most definitely not … Continue reading

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Patience

Please do not order the 2010 Nicolas Joly Les Vieux Clos at a restaurant and send it back, claiming heat damage. The grapes were harvested at above 15° potential alcohol, went through a fairly hot fermentation, and spent time in … Continue reading

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A sense of humour

Chris Kissack, who publishes one of the better English language guides to the Loire at The Wine Doctor, has this to say about YiXin in his update on Guy Bossard: “…YiXin Ong, once the UK’s most famous wine-drinking student but … Continue reading

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2009 La Jalousie

We just finished a bottle of the 2009 La Jalousie from Château des Vaults (which many would know better as Domaine du Closel). There’s a great story behind the name of the cuvée (obviously, with a name like that, in … Continue reading

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Environmental concerns

Eric Texier, as quoted1 by Jancis Robinson in today’s Financial Times: “Natural wines are full of good intentions. They are full of fossil fuels too.” Tractor usage, which is covered briefly in the column, is just the proverbial tip of … Continue reading

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The importance of process

I read with interest two separate articles in the Financial Times last month – a typically erudite, intelligent and self-referential piece by Martin Amis on Philip Larkin and his poetry, and a column on Giaconda’s Rick Kinzbrunner by Andrew Jefford, … Continue reading

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Joe Dressner

He passed away yesterday. I remember my last phone conversation with him, when we discussed some of the Loire producers both of us imported into our respective markets. The last few e-mails we exchanged were short, simple and quite mundane. … Continue reading

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Origins

I’ve just finished rereading Kermit Lynch’s ‘Adventures on the Wine Route’, which has stayed fresh despite the intervening decades. The mentions of Frank Schoonmaker got me thinking about origins and inspirations, and the debt we (as KOT Selections and individually) … Continue reading

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Godchildren

Like many of our winegrowers, we often demur when asked to pick a favourite wine from the new vintage. And just as many of them explain their reluctance by drawing an analogy between wines and children, we excuse ourselves by … Continue reading

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Champagne – Laherte Frères

Originally, we had not planned to visit Champagne, having already decided on our portfolio from previous trips and grown tired of seeing the sad state of the region’s many chemically-abused vineyards. But over dinner in Charnay, our friend Eric Texier … Continue reading

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