The Chronicle
Latest dispatches
58 results across all types
videoTOWTC: Wines of Australia (2025)
Jamie and Alex go down under on a contest: who can find the best White Wine which represents Australian winemaking and who can find the best reasonably-priced Grenache... And an added complication: no Shiraz!
videoTOWTC: Wines of Spain (2025)
Jamie and Alex take a tour of Spain, showing off 6 wines both classic and surprising... who knew that Spain made an Ice Wine!?
videoWine Advent Calendar Day 24 – Sussex, England
It's our final day and we're back in England. Where better to stop on the way up to London than at Oastbrook – the home of America and Nick Brewer... and their wide array of projects. From making world-class Chardonnay to honey, cricket bats, glamping, opera, Tolkien-themed holiday stays, samba, even beauty products... this entrepreneurial family do it all! But wow the wine is great. A fitting end to our epic journey around the world. We've covered 24 different stops, some very silly means of transport, and definitively proven that wine is infinitely varied and full of character and soul – just as soon as you step away from the homogenised brands that make up too much of what the world drinks. We hope you have enjoyed our journey as much as we have. What an astonishing adventure of discovery. Now we can rest our weary £9.99 Amazon costumes and get back to our regular monthly tastings! But, what's that... a song, you say??? Portions of the video © BRB Internacional / Televisión Esp
videoWine Advent Calendar 2024 Day 23
We rush down the Douro Valley to head towards Spain and get up into the Pyrenees foothills, to Somontano, where we catch up with a long-term friend of the club: Tom Holt. Paso-Primero is his award-winning wine project, where he makes wines, mainly from local varieties of grapes, in a low intervention style but with one guiding star... that they're the kind of approachable, lovable wines that he wants to drink day in, day out, rather than trying to appeal to the Zeitgeist or critics. That's a message we wholly buy into! This Rosado is one for all seasons, not just the summer. With a vibrant, bright colour, it's unashamedly big on flavour and character. We absolutely love this one. So... one last trip to get back to England, and on to London where we think we've done a pretty good job at showing off the incredible diversity of wine in 24 days!!
videoWine Advent Calendar 2024 Day 22 – Porto, Portugal
Fogg and Smith have lost time, so desperately try to catch up. After a celebrity offers them a lift to Porto, they razz it up the Douro Valley to try some Port. And who better to go to than Graham's – one of the most historic and legendary producers? And we're not just drinking any old wine. This is their 20-year old Tawny: a real treat. Like Madeira, Port shares many techniques in common – fortification and ageing in large oak barrels for a long time, but the wines are vastly different. We then have to rush up the Douro Valley and on to Somontano to catch up with the wonderful Tom Holt!!
videoWine Advent Calendar 2024 Day 21 – Madeira, Portugal
We brave one of the toughest landings in commercial aviation as we fly from South Africa to the Portuguese island of Madeira, home of some of the world's most distinctive wines. Why? Well, the techniques are really unintuitive! Wine gets damaged by heat and Oxygen... so, instead of trying to resist that, Madeiran techniques embrace it and give it as much heat and Oxygen as they can in the early days! They balance that with acidity, alcohol and a touch of sweetness, depending on where you sit on the scale between Sercial and Malmsey wines. We visit Justino's, operating since 1870, to try a Boal wine, made from the Boal Cachudo grape, otherwise known as Doña Blanca... however, it seems more genetically-related to Malvasia Fina from the Douro Valley. Grape lineage is complicated! Boal sits in the middle on the sweetness scale. It's well "boalanced". See what we did there? Justino's works with more than 800 of the 1600 growers on Madeira, giving it plenty of choice. This 10 year old
videoWine Advent Calendar 2024 Day 20 – Paarl, South Africa
Fogg and Smith are entering the final stretch, but the distances are racking up – a whopping 38,000 miles so far! They chartered a very rapid yacht to get across the South Atlantic, pulling into Cape Town in style, before heading to the vineyards to explore arguably South Africa's most famous and unique grape: Pinotage – a cross between Consult and Pinot Noir. The legendary Fairview estate, owned by Charles Back II, dates back to 1693, and Charles is South Africa's most awarded winemaker – also winning the International Wine Challenge's Lifetime Achievement award recently. They grow all their own grapes in order to control the quality, and work hard on sustainable practices: both environmental and, importantly in South Africa, socially, providing well-trained, reliable, safe work to an empowered local team. Oh, and did we mention the goats?! Portions of the video © Fairview Wine & Cheese Estate
videoTOWTC: Best of 2024 (Christmas Special)
Jamie and Alex revisit some of the winning wineries from earlier in the year, some of the wines and people we've found on our international trips and maybe a few of our favourites!
videoWine Advent Calendar 2024 Day 19 – Canalones, Uruguay
We head over to Uruguay for our last stop before departing the Americas. What an incredible adventure. In Canelones, we find the Traversa Family and their high-end Vina Salort brand, named after one of the founding partners, Maria Salort. Tannat in France can be a very challenging drink, but here it's far more restrained and pleasant. Portions of the video © Familia Traversa
videoWine Advent Calendar 2024 Day 18 – Salta, Argentina
We trek across the Andes to visit our friend Karim Mussi, winemaker extraordinaire at several top Argentinian wineries, and owner of the Abras winery, which makes... not a Malbec, but a Torrontes, right up in the Andes. This potentially divisive, yet brilliant food wine works incredibly well with strong and spicy foods, adding a beautiful herbaceous element. Portions of the video © Abras Winery