Graeme (shaggybreeks)

A while ago I talked about the lore behind this label, now it's time to talk about the wine inside this swashbuckling bottle! So this is an amontillado sherry that has a slight residual amount of sweetness. It is beautifully complex with lots of tertiary flavours from development with the Flor and with oxygen! (Check out that lush chocolate brown colour). For more notes make sure to check out the video. If you are curious to try it yourself, the producer is @valdespinosherry . They have an entire range of fantastic sherrys, all the way from fino to oloroso and even Pedro Ximinez. I hope you enjoy ☺️

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19 crimes: a Halloween review. Hey guys, happy Halloween. 19 crimes is an Australian wine that is very prominent in most supermarket aisles in the UK. It is from Australia and from memory tends to be serving that younger more vanilla style of Winemaking. This is no exception, especially with the addition of the rum cask matured wine in the blend. All that said, I actually didn't mind it too much! Check out the video to find out more, and enjoy my vague attempts at making a spooky intro for this review. 👻 #halloween #halloweenwine #spookyseason #19crimes

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Appassimento: the pumpkin spiced latte of the wine world. If you have shopped around Italian wines before you may have come across this term. I have been asked before what does it mean? Is it a grape? A place? Is it a bird, a plane... Nope, it's none of these things. Rather, it's a style of Winemaking that has quite a big influence on the final taste. Have you ever left a piece of fruit out on a very hot very dry day? When you come back you will notice it will have evaporated a lot of its water content and will have started to shrivel. In Italy this can happen very easily to grapes that have either been picked and left in the sun, or left on the vine beyond their usual harvest date. In these appassimento wines, winemakers will dry the grapes like this on purpose. This has the effect of concentrating the juice in those grapes, as well as helping them develop ripe, and even over-ripe slightly baked fruit flavours. That was the case in this wine pictured, a Primitivo from Puglia made in the appassimento …

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It's that time again! Who will win tomorrow in the Euros final! Will it be the swift and skillful Spanish, or the enigmatic and elusive English! Representing both sides we have Vina Tondonia, the excellent and refined Spanish Rioja! And the young upstarts on the wine scene, Nyetimber English sparkling classic cuv…

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Contrabandista Amontillado: Valdespino Classic Collection What a cool label right!? It makes me think of old action adventure movies from the 90s. The three musketeers, the legend of Zorro, Indiana Jones. The label depicts a Contrabandista (a smuggler) as he travels from Jerez, smuggling goods to and from Spain and British occupied Gibraltar. Here he waves to a beautiful innkeeper who looks after the inn, 'Venta Del Gato'. The cats Inn. Naturally they have decided to paint in a dog instead, despite the name. The horse is finely kitted out with beautiful red and gold fabrics, and the smuggler goes past in what looks like a uniform. What kind of uniform it is, I am not sure. Maybe an army uniform so as to better hide himself in plain view? Who knows! It's amazing when a label like this conveys a whole story within such a small tableaux. I am immediately transported to another time and place, and can almost feel the sun on my skin and taste the dust off the road from the horses hooves kicking up a small…

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Good day Phaver So as always, questions abound and last night's question led me down the path of researching a bit more about the actual meaning behind the term 'Langhe' on a wine. Thankfully as I studied, I had the opportunity to enjoy some Langhe Nebbiolo 2022 from Andrea Oberto. At this point I was digging more…

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'The Don' : The story behind an iconic logo Have you ever seen this unusual mysterious man on the bottle of Port Fortified wine? In the wine world, branding can often be as strong as the quality of the wine itself in determining its legacy, and this logo stands as one of the original examples. @sandemanporto is al…

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