We’re big believers in assessing the marketplaces we operate in. We’ve always felt this is important, both as a courtesy to our clients and because it’s beholden on us, as with all suppliers, to show our value and make our case credibly. In our latest market intelligence work one element became apparent – when we […] Read more »

On 3 September 2022 it will be The Tasting Quarter’s 20th birthday. Looking back at the last 20 years, I wonder if the last week of March 2020 was the most memorable. I can see from our records that the first national lockdown was declared on 23rd March 2022, and I remember well the 7 […] Read more »

Work has changed forever. I won’t bore you with how because you know already. Our collective adoption of Zoom, Webex, Microsoft Teams and other platforms has shown us all new methods of communication. With this adoption comes profound change (for most of us) on how, when, and in some cases if, we travel to the […] Read more »

Climate change is impacting us all. We know some of the broader societal changes we need to make – switching to electric cars, eliminating unnecessary travel, choosing renewable energy and making our homes more energy efficient, but what about our hobbies, past times and pleasures? Wine and climate change together rarely make the national news, […] Read more »

I’ve used every type of corkscrew under the sun over the years, from the twin lever corkscrew, to the zig zag/fish corkscrew (not a fan, sorry), to the lever arm corkscrew, and everything in between. Every time, I’ve come back to the waiter’s corkscrew (sometimes called the waiter’s friend corkscrew or the wine key). I […] Read more »

After over 20 years in the wine business I felt the time was ripe to let you know which independent UK wine merchant I think you should buy from, if you could only buy from one. I’m doing this in part as I don’t cover this subject in any depth in my first book (Hosting […] Read more »

We’ve been using Jean Lenoir’s wine aroma phial kit for nearly 16 years in our wine tasting events and would like to christen our blog with a super useful Le Nez du Vin review. The below gives you the insider information on the product, namely: What it’s all about Smaller versions of the kit Why […] Read more »

There are many expensive wine fridges available on the market which offer a controlled cool range of temperatures, and allow you to chill multiple bottles at the same time, but as well as cost, they can take up a lot of space, and they are not portable. So what else can you use when the […] Read more »

Anyone who has attended our events will know we’ve long been fans of aroma phial kits – dictionary sets of aromas which aid in scent recognition (and are used both within and outside the drinks industry). A number of kits cover the Wine category, with one or two covering Whisky, but there’s only one in […] Read more »

Our friend Charlie Maclean, who has been kind enough to host our Whisky Explorer tasting from time to time, recognises no less than 32 primary aromas in Whisky tasting (compared to the four primary tastes of sweet, sour, salt and bitterness). Charlie has also told us that there can be as many as 20 to […] Read more »