Amanda Barnes, Author at Circle of Wine Writers

Block by block: Planting Jardin Altamira

Posted on October 23, 2022October 25, 2022 by Amanda Barnes

Amanda Barnes visits one of Mendoza's fascinating new vineyards, Altos Las Hormigas' Jardin Altamira, which is being planted by soil blocks. A version of this article was originally published on SouthAmericaWineGuide.com There's something quite fascinating about new vineyards being planted in Mendoza. Rather than the regular square blocks of vines, you are increasingly seeing vineyard...

Meet the Member: John Salvi MW

Posted on October 23, 2022October 25, 2022 by John Salvi MW

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Wines of the lake and the mountains

Posted on October 23, 2022November 27, 2022 by Keith Grainger

Keith Grainger zones in on beautiful Bardolino, with its myriad of soil types and mesoclimates, charting the key and ever-increasing role played by the classy Corvina in its well-known red blend. He also sips saline, crispy Chiarettos. Let me begin this article at the bottom. I well remember the nadir of the wines of the Veneto and other northern Italian regions. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the...

Meet the Friend: Neil Palmer, Vintage Roots

Posted on October 23, 2022October 25, 2022 by Amanda Barnes

Neil Palmer is the Founder and Director of organic wine importer Vintage Roots, which he founded at the age of 26 with his friend Lance Pigott. In this Meet the Friend interview, Amanda Barnes finds out how Neil’s harvesting experiences in his 20s sparked a lifelong passion for wine and reggae. What got you into wine? Well, it was Dad who first showed me how to use a corkscrew. He liter...

New Member: Colin Harkness

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Colin Harkness

Colin Harkness started in the wine industry in the late 1980s when he studied the WSET before opening a restaurant. Since then, he moved to Spain where he has developed a specialism in Spanish wine regions and is a frequent wine judge and the IWSC's Spanish Ambassador. Colin founded the wine column for an English-language regional newspaper group, for whom he wrote for over 20 years, and contri...

The benefit of going Pro on Wine-Searcher

Posted on October 23, 2022October 25, 2022 by Wink Lorch

Wink Lorch explores the benefit of one of The Circle's Benefits — a complimentary Pro subscription to Wine-Searcher. She delves into all the reasons why this 23-year-old platform offers more than first meets the eye and can be a useful tool for wine communicators. As I write, Wine-Searcher, which was established in 1999 in London by Martin Brown (also designer of a pioneering website for Berry Br...

My wine Bucket List

Posted on October 10, 2022October 25, 2022 by Neal D. Hulkower

New Member: Charlie Leary

Posted on October 10, 2022October 10, 2022 by Charles Leary

After earning a doctorate in history from Cornell and teaching at Tulane, Charlie Leary became an organic farmer and artisan cheesemaker. He was inducted into the Guilde Internationale des Fromagers. He then opened a Creole vegetarian restaurant in New Orleans, directing the wine program. He managed wine programs in Costa Rica, the Dordogne, and Nova Scotia, the latter winning Wine Spectator’s Awa...

Keith Grainger wins 2022 Prix de l’OIV

Posted on October 6, 2022 by Amanda Barnes

For his greatly detailed Wine Faults and Flaws: A Practical Guide, Keith Grainger has won the 2022 Prix de l'OIV for the Oenology Category. Receiving the award in Bordeaux last month, Keith shares his excitement: "I am so thrilled! And following on from my success in the Gourmand Awards for The Best Wine Book for Professionals, I am over the moon!" Congratulations to Keith! Congratulation...

New Member: Anne-Wies van Oosten

Posted on October 6, 2022October 6, 2022 by Amanda Barnes

Anne-Wies van Oosten, DipWSET and Registervinoloog, is a Dutch wine and food journalist, currently living in Romania. In 2022 she graduated as Weinakademiker with her thesis on the “Development and Future of Wine Tourism in Transylvania”. She spends part of the year in her house in Transylvania, from where she visits and consults Romanian wineries and importers. For the other part, she travels th...