The Journal
Notes from the cellar.
Practical writing on buying, provenance, cellars, tasting, serving and hosting, with plain guides to the great regions.
Buying
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5 min readEn Primeur: When It Makes Sense and When It Does Not
Strip away the ritual and it is a forward contract. It should be judged like one.
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4 min readBuying in Europe, Drinking in Asia: Duty, Shipping and Real Landed Cost
The ex-cellar price is the smallest interesting number in the transaction.
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7 min readBuying Wine at Auction: How to Read a Catalogue and Bid Well
How to read a lot description, what a lot really costs once the premium is added and what to do when the hammer falls.
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6 min readWhy Is Fine Wine So Expensive? What the Price Really Buys
Land, yields, oak, time, scarcity, scores and the trade: what the price of fine wine pays for and where the value hides.
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5 min readMagnum Wine Bottles and Large Formats: Why Big Bottles Age Better
Why a magnum ages more slowly, what the big bottle names mean and when a large format is the wrong choice.
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6 min readWine Gifts in Hong Kong: How to Choose for Clients, Hosts and Festivals
Choosing wine for clients, hosts and festivals in Hong Kong: the recipient, the drinking window, the customs and the heat.
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6 min readBuying Mature Wine: When an Older Vintage Is Worth the Premium
When a mature bottle is better value than cellaring a young one, which styles to buy old and how to avoid the risks.
Provenance
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5 min readHow to Check a Bottle's Provenance Before You Buy
Most disappointing old bottles were not badly made. They were badly kept. What to look at and what to ask.
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6 min readHow to Spot Fake Wine: The Checks That Actually Work
Counterfeits cluster at the top of the market. The checks that work start with the story and the paperwork, then the bottle.
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6 min read
Ullage and Wine Fill Levels: What an Old Bottle Tells You
What each fill level means, what is normal at each age and when the gap below the cork should worry you.
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5 min read
Insuring a Wine Collection: Documents, Valuation and Cover
What to keep, how to value a collection, what insurance really covers and how to leave instructions others can follow.
Cellars
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5 min read
Storing Fine Wine in Hong Kong: Heat, Humidity and What It Costs
One of the world's great wine markets and one of its worst places to keep a bottle at home. Both are true.
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5 min read
Your First Twelve Bottles: A Cellar Built to Be Opened
The common first-cellar mistake is buying twelve great bottles that all come good in the same decade.
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5 min read
Drinking Windows, Explained Without the Mysticism
A window is not a date. It is a distribution and most of its width comes from how your bottle was stored.
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6 min readWhich Wines Get Better With Age, and Which Do Not
Most wine is best young. A short map of the minority that improves in bottle and the reasons it does.
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6 min readWhite Wines That Age Well: Riesling, Chenin, White Burgundy and Beyond
Which whites reward patience, what time does to them and the one big caveat of the last thirty years.
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6 min read
Screw Cap vs Cork: What the Closure Means for Your Wine
Cork and screw cap can both age wine well. What each closure means for ageing, storage and faults, without the dogma.
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6 min readWine Cellar Inventory: Keeping One You Will Actually Use
What to record for each bottle, how to map your racks and the routine that keeps an inventory worth using.
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6 min readPlanning a Wine Cellar: From Fifty Bottles to Five Hundred
How to keep a growing cellar in balance, so that it gives you good bottles every year rather than all at once.
Tasting
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6 min readHow to Taste Wine: A Simple Method That Works
Four steps in the same order, every time: look, smell, taste, conclude. The way professionals work, without the jargon.
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4 min readWhat Blind Tasting Teaches You That Labels Never Will
Everyone believes they taste the wine. Almost nobody does. They taste the label, the price and the story.
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5 min readWine Legs: What the Tears in Your Glass Really Mean
The tears on your glass are physics, not quality: evaporating alcohol pulls a film of wine up and gravity brings it down.
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6 min read
Tannins in Wine: The Grip That Carries Red Wine Through Time
Where tannin comes from, how it feels, why it softens with age and how to handle it at the table.
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6 min readAcidity in Wine: Why the Best Bottles Taste Alive
How to recognise acidity, where it comes from and why it decides freshness, ageing and food matching.
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6 min readHow to Tell If Wine Is Corked, Cooked or Just Closed
Cork taint, oxidation, heat damage and the rest: how to recognise each fault and what to do about it.
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6 min read
What Is Terroir? The Real Meaning and Where the Idea Stops
What terroir really means, how to taste it for yourself and where the idea is asked to carry more than it can.
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6 min readDoes Vintage Matter in Wine? Reading Vintage Reports Without Being Misled
Where the vintage matters, where it hardly does and how to use a vintage report as a starting point rather than a verdict.
Serving
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6 min readWine Serving Temperature: Why Your Red Is Probably Too Warm
Most reds are served too warm and most whites too cold. The right range for each style and simple fixes for a Hong Kong room.
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6 min read
How Long to Decant Wine: Sediment, Air and When Not to Bother
Decant for sediment or for air, never out of habit. Which wines benefit, how to pour cleanly and how long to wait.
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6 min readDoes Wine Glass Shape Matter? Choosing Glasses Without the Hype
What actually matters in a wine glass, what is marketing and why one good shape covers almost every bottle.
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5 min readHow to Open an Old Bottle of Wine Without Losing the Cork or the Wine
A calm, step-by-step method for old bottles, from the day before to a crumbling cork and a glass worth pouring.
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6 min readHow Long Does Wine Last After Opening? A Guide by Style
Style by style, how long an opened bottle keeps, how to slow the clock and how to tell when a wine has gone.
Hosting
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5 min read
How to Host a Blind Tasting for Twelve Without Losing the Evening
The failure mode is always the same: too many wines, not enough glasses and a host stuck in the kitchen.
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6 min read
Corporate Wine Tasting: How to Plan One People Remember
Formats, pacing, inclusivity and logistics for a corporate wine tasting that works for enthusiasts, beginners and non-drinkers alike.
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6 min readBlind Wine Tasting Ideas: Twelve Themes, Twelve Lessons
Twelve themes for a blind tasting, grouped by audience, each designed to isolate one variable and teach one lesson.
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5 min readHow Many Bottles of Wine per Person? Planning a Wine Dinner
Pours per bottle, bottles per guest, running order, decanting schedule and pacing for a seated dinner built around wine.
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6 min readWine Pairing With Chinese Food: A Cantonese Guide, Dish by Dish
The principles that make wine work with Cantonese cooking, then dish by dish: dim sum, steamed fish, roast meats, braises and banquets.
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5 min readWine With Sushi and Japanese Food: Pairing Beyond Sake
What to pour with sushi, tempura, yakitori, miso glazes and wagyu, with a note on the dishes where sake suits the food better.
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5 min readCorkage in Hong Kong: BYOB Etiquette and Practicalities
Calling ahead, choosing the bottle, arriving ready, service, glasses and settling up: the etiquette of corkage in Hong Kong.
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7 min readWine Etiquette at a Business Dinner: Ordering, Pouring and Toasting in Asia
Order early, taste for faults rather than approval, pour for others and let the host and the room set the pace.
Regions
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5 min readBordeaux 1855 Classification: Left Bank, Right Bank and the Rankings
Two banks, several classifications and one famous list from 1855: what each of them means for a buyer today.
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6 min readBurgundy Premier Cru vs Grand Cru: How the Hierarchy Works
Burgundy ranks vineyards, not estates: the four levels, how to read the labels and where the value hides.
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5 min read
Champagne Label Explained: Dosage, Vintage and Who Made It
Sweetness, style, producer and disgorgement date: how to read every line of a Champagne label and use it.
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5 min readBarolo vs Barbaresco: Nebbiolo at Its Most Serious
One grape, two neighbouring appellations: what separates Barolo from Barbaresco, how to read the labels and when to drink them.
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6 min readRioja Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva: What the Ageing Terms Mean
What Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva mean, how long each spends in oak and bottle, how each tastes and where the value lies.
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6 min readRiesling Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese: Reading a German Wine Label
Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese measure ripeness at harvest, not sweetness. How to read a German Riesling label and choose the style you want.
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6 min readTypes of Port Wine: From Ruby and Tawny to Vintage Port
Port comes in two families, aged in bottle or in wood. What each style is and how to serve it, from Ruby to Colheita.
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5 min readTypes of Sherry: From Fino and Manzanilla to Oloroso
Fino, Manzanilla, Amontillado, Palo Cortado and Oloroso explained through flor and oxygen, plus the sweet styles and how to serve each.
Study
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6 min read
WSET Level 2 Exam Tips: An Independent Plan for the Award in Wines
An independent study plan for the WSET Level 2 Award in Wines. The exam, where the marks are, how to study and exam-day technique.
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6 min read
WSET Level 3 Exam Preparation: Theory, Written Answers and Tasting
An independent guide to the WSET Level 3 exam. The theory paper, written answers, the blind tasting and a plan of twelve to sixteen weeks.
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5 min read
The WSET Level 4 Diploma: Units, Exams and How to Prepare
An independent guide to the WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines. The six units, how each exam works, the pass rules and a way to prepare, one unit at a time.