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We are living in – as the Chinese might say – electorally interesting times. India has just collectively decided to hand its governance to Narendra Modi who is variously described as the subcontinent’s economic great white hope – its Margaret Thatcher – and a man who, as chief minister of Gujurat, has been accused of initiating and condoning the […]
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Picture by Tim Atkin Wine competitions are the worst way to identify the world’s best wines. Apart from all the others that have been tried. I make no excuse for mangling Churchill’s famous quote about democracy and using it here because the process of getting a group of people to blind taste a series of […]
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A hundred years ago – well maybe 20 – when I was still co-chair of the International Wine Challenge (IWC) the then buyer of the UK retail chain Thresher rounded on me, saying that the problem with the IWC was that it only existed as a means for the company organising it to make money. […]
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A(nother) article and brief interview covering my presentation about wine tourism in South Africa. Robert Joseph the Creationist (A punning headline that is explained in the first three paragraphs). 15 May 2014 – by – Jonathan Snashall send to a friend email author “You are in the entertainment business” Robert Joseph told 140 attendees at the Great […]
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antique wine co / beltracchi / electronic nose / fake petrus / Fake wine / kurniawan / white club / wine fraud May 14, 2014
READ MORECalling all inventors. If there’s anyone out there who can come up with a convincing project to build an affordable, portable electronic nose that would – with the help of an online database – reliably establish the grape variety/ies, origin, age and cleanliness of a wine, I’ll be the first to chip in some of […]
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cape wine / Great wine capitals / wine marketing / wine tourism May 14, 2014
READ MOREAn article published on wine.co.za today covering a speech I made to members of the South African wine industry at a Great Wine Capitals event last week.Accept that wine is a commodity, says International Wine Commentator There is almost no such thing as a global wine brand that is not fortified and does not have […]
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apple / design / imac / iphone / ipod / jonathan ive / jony ive May 10, 2014
READ MOREIf there’s one thing most wine professionals – the producers, distributors, marketers and critics – seem to believe in, its the value in talking about the winemaker. Consumers, it is assumed are bound to be interested in John or Jean, the person who performed the magic of turning grapes into a pleasant alcoholic beverage. And […]
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“Would you to like to host a wine dinner for 100 people in Hong Kong/New York/London [delete as applicable]?” If you have not yet had this kind of invitation and you’re a producer with any prestige in any of the major regions of the world, you soon will. And on one level, what could be […]
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(A piece commissioned by, and originally published on, Timatkin.com)Imagine, if you will, two equally-skilled chef-restaurateurs whom we’ll call Jean-Paul and Jean-Jacques. J-P’s philosophy is simple: he makes the most out of locally-grown ingredients – even when they aren’t very good – and only cooks dishes he personally likes; J-J, on the other hand takes pride […]