Amanda Barnes, Author at Circle of Wine Writers

Old vine time is nigh

Posted on November 30, 2025 by Amanda Barnes

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All change in Alsace

Posted on November 30, 2025 by Sue Eames

Sue Eames scopes and scans Alsatian soils, studying how the different grapes varieties perform in them, and also senses the strong shift to organic and biodynamic farming. Back in March, I was lucky enough to be invited on the Association of Wine Educators’ visit to Alsace, and found it be a region that has changed dramatically since when I last visited in 2022. We learnt so much about how the di...

All hail Acadie Blanc

Posted on November 30, 2025 by Jochen Erler

Shared expressions of the Turbiana grape

Posted on November 30, 2025 by Robin Goldsmith

From the southern shores of Lake Garda, Italy’s largest lake, Robin Goldsmith loads up on Lugana and savours a tantalising trio of tannins, acidity and salinity, served up with freshness and clarity. A version of this article was originally published on The Write Taste. Lugana DOC, which encompasses five municipalities, lies on the southern shores of Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy. It's on...

New Member: Allison Sheardy

Posted on October 31, 2025 by Amanda Barnes

Allison Sheardy’s wine career began a decade ago, born from a lifetime love of food and fine dining that evolved to encompass wine as well. She has mainly worked in the hospitality sector of the industry, creating a niche for herself working for boutique, family-owned wineries in unique wine regions around the United States (Texas Hill Country, historic Livermore, CA, and now Minnesota). Alliso...

New Member: Emma Dalton

Posted on October 31, 2025October 31, 2025 by Amanda Barnes

Emma Dalton is a multilingual fine wine, sake and spirits consultant with over 20 years of experience. Currently an MW student, she was awarded the Cálem Port Scholarship for her performance in WSET Diploma in Wines and Spirits. She works internationally, specialising in providing bespoke consultancy services including masterclasses, wine dinners, written reports and photojournalism. She judges ...

Chinese wine condensed

Posted on October 31, 2025 by Janet Wang

How Satake shaped sake

Posted on October 31, 2025 by William F. O’Connor

William F. O’Connor polishes up our knowledge on the company that made wine-like sake possible. What is the original alcoholic beverage of Japan? Is this a simple question that the vast majority of people are likely to answer correctly? Well, suspicious readers will have accurately guessed that the rhetorical question posed above suggests that the answer is not sake, or nihon-shu. It just has to...

“Wine lit something up inside of me that I have never been able to turn off.”

Posted on October 31, 2025 by Tony Harries

Unapologetically British

Posted on October 31, 2025 by Robin Goldsmith

Robin Goldsmith heads on down to Hattingley Valley, where he digs deep to uncover the past, present and future of this Hampshire diamond. Peter Ustinov once famously described English wine as his "idea of hell". Yet, this once laughed-at industry is now the UK's fastest growing agricultural sector and wine tourism is gathering speed, too. Latest figures show that there are 1,104 vineyards in the ...