The Winery Benjella of Victoria

When I started my nomadic winemaking project, in 2018 at Niepoort Vinhos in Portugal’s Douro region, I had no idea how large a part Spain would go on to play – I certainly never intended to make it the locus of my project. So how did it happen? Yes, there was an element of chance and taking opportunities where they arose. But also, among the talented winemakers to whom I pitched collaborations, I sensed an openness and a readiness to collaborate which seemed particular to Spain. Held in June las ...

Last year, there was much mirth on wine Twitter about a particularly excruciating tasting note. You’re right. The wine trade needs to get out more. But still… this one was a beauty. It began well enough – really quite beautiful, in fact. But before long the imaginative descriptions were getting more ornate and strained. It moved from poetic to meaningless before finishing with a reference to Burnt Norton – the first of TS Eliot’s Four Quartets – that put it firmly in Private Eye magazine’s ...

R&B Distillers, operator of the Isle of Raasay Distillery, plans to open The Machrihanish Distillery at Dhurrie Farm, Machrihanish, as a ‘farm-to-bottle’ single malt distillery, along with a visitor centre and whisky club. The company aims to make Machrihanish a sustainable, net-zero distillery that uses no fossil fuels in its production, as well as using biological farming practices to create greater biodiversity on the adjacent farmland. Plans are expected to be finalised during 2022, with ...