Features Archives - Circle of Wine Writers

English effervescence

Posted on June 27, 2022June 28, 2022 by Tobias Gorn

To access this post, you must purchase Friend of the Circle (inc one-off joining fee), Corporate Friend of the Circle (inc one-off joining fee), Friend of the Circle (renewals) or Corporate Friend of the Circle (renewals).

Small but beautiful: the return of London Wine Fair

Posted on June 27, 2022June 28, 2022 by Colin Hampden-White

Colin Hampden-White celebrates the small, but beautiful, return of London Wine Fair earlier this month. It was so good to see the London Wine Fair return this year. I have read various accounts of how this year was very small, and the number of visitors was down on previous years. This all may be true, but I think it was all the better for it. Most visitors come to London Wine Fair for two of t...

Ambassadorial knowledge acquisition

Posted on June 24, 2022June 28, 2022 by Marc Millon

Meet the Friend: Sylvia Petz

Posted on June 24, 2022June 28, 2022 by Amanda Barnes

Sylvia Petz is a Friend of the Circle with her prominent, and eponymously named, agency in Austria. In our Meet the Friend interview, we discover why she realised the value of top-quality Austrian wine at a young age and how she strives to drive forward organic wine production through her agency. How did you get into wine? My grandfather already attached great importance to good wine at ...

Meet the Member: Jochen Erler

Posted on June 24, 2022June 28, 2022 by Robert Smyth

A regular contributor to The Circular, Jochen Erler got in to wine writing while living in England, after a career in academia and the international civil service. He has written for Harpers and many other London-based wine publications, and has been the foreign correspondent for Austria’s WeinBau, as well writing for various German wine magazines. Nowadays, he writes for Dionysos, the magazine of...

Contemplating the future of wine writing from the Gourmand Awards in Umeå

Posted on June 24, 2022June 28, 2022 by Keith Grainger

Keith Grainger heads to Sweden to receive a prestigious Gourmand Award, a couple of awards in fact, and shares his thoughts on the future of wine writing. The 2022 Gourmand Awards Ceremony took place from June 1st to 5th in Umeå, together with the International Food Symposium. I was delighted to receive an award, and also make two presentations at the symposium. Umeå is in the north of Sweden a...

Bringing small scale to the big stage: Some Chilean highlights from London Wine Fair

Posted on June 24, 2022June 28, 2022 by Amanda Barnes

Amanda Barnes dives back into Chile, in London, while visiting the niche producers who came to London Wine Fair to share their old vines and artisanal wines. There was one particular corner of London Wine Fair I was keen to taste through earlier this month. Although there were some exciting and diverse samplings from Greece, Georgia and Uzbekistan, it was the unassuming stand of ProChile that off...

Hashing out Neszmély

Posted on May 26, 2022 by Robert Smyth

Meet the Friend: Sarah Hargreaves

Posted on May 23, 2022 by Amanda Barnes

Sarah Hargreaves specialises in PR and communications in southern France with her company In The Mood PR. She explains in this Meet the Friend interview how she developed her career there and why she finds the Languedoc-Roussillon one of the most fascinating regions to work with. Amanda Barnes also learns about Sarah’s favourite way to discover new wines and some the vineyard ambles that Sarah is ...

Meet the Member: René Langdahl

Posted on May 23, 2022May 27, 2022 by Amanda Barnes

René Langdahl is wine writer, podcaster and educator in Denmark. In this interview, he tells Amanda Barnes why he never got that promised taste of DRC from his confirmation party, and why writing about wine for cash-strapped students was the start of his wine writing career. He also shares an insight into the post-pandemic wine world of Denmark and comments on the trends that excite him, including...