The flavor of jalapeno in wine of Colombia

Think of Colombia, think of balmy evenings dancing to salsa, fuelled by shots of aguardiente and arepas. But there’s plenty more than the anise-based spirit and cornmeal cakes to sample in the South American country. Chefs have stepped up their game to put gastronomy on the map, with sommeliers and bartenders following suit. Not just appreciating local ingredients and distilling spirits, they also seek out wines from around the world to accompany fine-dining experiences. Their endeavours have pa ...

I’d like to say we took advantage of the lockdown and its related commotion to do a stock-take, explore new avenues, turn over intriguing stones, widen and deepen our drinking, taking careful notes as we went. Sadly, no. I won’t say we got stuck in a rut, but we did tend to stick with comfort wines – and “comfort”, in our case, means familiar. Regular readers of this quarterly column can probably guess the labels on the resulting empties. We have a wider range of comfort foods, I’m afraid, than ...

Tasting the 2020 Côte-Rôties reminded me of the 2016s – while some are on the light side, the wines are ripe with a fine tannic frame. They are noticeably more slender and less potent than the previous few vintages and will drink well straight away. Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for the Côte-Rôtie & Condrieu 2020 top-scoring wines {"content":"PHA+U3TDqXBoYW5lIE9naWVyIGJlbGlldmVzIHRoZSBjb29sIG5pZ2h0cyB3ZXJlIGFuIGltcG9ydGFudCBmYWN0b3IgaW4gdGhlIGZyZXNoZXIgc3R5bGUgb2Ygd ...