I’ve often wondered why exactly the same wine can taste different on one day versus another.

I’ve often put it down to the way I’m feeling physically and mentally, the weather (well I’m English and naturally obsessed with meteorology like most of my fellow countryman and use it to blame just about everything!), the circumstances under which the wine is being drunk etc.

I’m sure these factors all play their part.

BTW, this has nothing to do with the wine being spoilt by a bad cork. Purely about knowing the character of a particular wine very well, like a good friend, and finding that character inconsistent with what you would normally expect.

There might be another explanation. According to those interested in bio-dynamics, the phases of the moon dictate those days of the month which are best for the cultivation of certain crops. Wine apparently flourishes best on either a “fruit” or a “flower” day. Avoid “root days” like the plague!

This bio-dynamic calendar should help you enjoy your wines at their very best. Cheers!

Our good friend Matthew Jukes visited our London office this morning to taste through the newest and freshest ever Stormhoek wines.

It was great to see him again and catch up on all the news.

Nick and Matthew getting stuck into Stormhoek Shiraz

I think it’s safe to say he was pretty stoked by the tasting and reckons that the new Stormhoek Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Shiraz and Pinotage are our best ever.

Thanks dude!

No mention though of the new Rosé………The samples painstakingly prepared by Graham, were “lost” in transit from the winery to London.

Sorry mate, but, you’ll have to send some more, Matthew can’t wait to try it!

Every year there is this standing joke that the good vignerons of Bordeaux have created the finest wines in living memory. I normally treat such statements as pure hogwash.

In 2005 though, there does seem to be some justification to the claim. My impression is based on the quite excellent reports posted by Jancis Robinson, Robert Parker, Jamie Goode and Decanter, to name a few.

The problem is that the Bordeaux mafia are charging accordingly. Prices have gone beserk over the past few weeks. In some cases up by nearly 50% over 2004 (which again was billed as a top quality year).

Although the prices for the First Growth wines, such as Chateau Lafite, have yet to be released, the view is that they could open at up to £3500.00 for a case of 12 bottles. Add to that duty, delivery and VAT on the whole lot and you’re staring down the barrels of over £4000. Ouch!

Oh, BTW, if you do lash out the cash, you can probably expect to wait for up to 50 years before the wine will be at its best. I reckon I’ll be dead by then.

I’d rather fill my cellar with a selection of my favourite bottles to drink now, so by rough calculation I could buy the following for £4000. (12 bottles of each):

Champagne Billecarte-Salmon Rose Brut
Champagne Louis Roederer Brut Premier
Meursault Domaine Vincent Bouzereau 2004
Bernkastler Lay Riesling Spatlese Dr. Loosen 2004
Keith Tulloch Huter Valley Semillon 2005
Yering Station MVR Yarra Valley 2005
Piero Chardonnay Margaret River 2004
Chambolle-Musigny Les Fuees Nicolas Potel 2003
Castello di Calosso Barbera d’Asti La Badia 2000
Flagstone Mary le Bow 2003
Ridge Geyserville Zinfandel 2002
De Toren Fusion v 2003
Felton Road Block 5 Pinot Noir 2004
Cote Rotie Rene Rostaing 2000

Let me see….um… one case of Bordeaux that won’t be drinklable for fifty years or fourteen cases of really yummy stuff I can start dipping into tonight…hmmm hard decision.

I Reckon that the latter would keep me amused for the foreseeable!

Just found out that our good friend from Oddbins, James Forbes is moving on.

He’s set to join Wines of Argentina as their head honcho in the UK.

Well done James and all the best.

Every year in April London plays host to the International Wine Challenge. It’s a huge event with nearly 10000 wines being submitted from all around the world. Each wine is judged as to whether or not it can claim a medal position with only very few being awarded a coveted Gold and even fewer going on to win a category trophy. All the wines are tasted “blind” so their identity remains a secret.

I attended the event today. Our team tasted through about 70 wines this morning several of which we judged to be good enough to be put forward to the final taste off next week. Makes your teeth ache, I can tell you!

Apart from having the chance to indulge in some serious tasting, it’s always great to catch up with old friends and colleagues and share our news and views. Bumped into Matt Pym from Majestic Wine, and, Pierpaolo Petrassi from Waverley TBS which was cool. Also had a good laugh with my old buddy Dominique Vrigneau from Thierry’s who like me, reckoned it’s time we got into training for next years London Marathon.

For those of you who don’t know, Robert Parker is a world renowned wine expert and over the years his 100 point scoring system has attracted much attention. Parker, himself, is possibly the most influential wine writer in the world and for many, a coveted 100 point score for a wine is held in the same regard as three Michelin stars would be for a restaurant. And, likewise, failure to achieve this Holy Grail has tipped normally sane people over the edge. Power, indeed.

He says though, that he’s misunderstood and targeted by his fellow critics, you can read the full article here. Whenever someone wants, to have a pop, it’s he who is in the gun sight.

Well Bob, sorry but you set yourself up. The world of wine writing can be a dangerous and fickle place, success breeds resentment. I wouldn’t complain though, at least people are thinking of you.

Mind you wish I’d thought of that 100 point system back in the ‘80’s. Might be able to spend a bit more money on the equipment we need to replace this year at Stormhoek if I had!

Anyway, it’s Friday and you guys might like a recommendation for the weekend so here it is in good old wino speak without the Parker pizzazz:

If you live in the UK get out to Oddbins and track down a bottle of – Glaetzer “The Wallace” Barossa Valley Shiraz-Grenache 2004 – It’s an absolute ripper for £10. There is virtually no Grenache planted in South Africa and it’s a variety that I love. The flavours are wild and uncontrolled yet its got this rich tasting kinda Blackberry Shiraz thing holding it all together. Genius stuff, well done Ben Glaetzer!

We’ve been out and about again this week taking part in the Specialist Wine Importers exhibition. On Monday we were at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and on Wednesday at Vinopolis in London. The two venues attracted smaller independent retailers and wholesalers from all over the UK.

The organisers did extremely well to get so many people along to both events and at each venue an opening address was given by marketing guru, Drayton Bird. He summarises what business is all about by “Looking after and listening to your customers”. Yeah, we all know it but how many actually do it? I hope and think at Stormhoek we get the message loud and clear.

Met up with Jamie Goode yesterday afternoon. He’s a guy that really gets the whole blogging scene and his blog Wineanorak which started life three years ago is one of the few devoted to wine.

He also writes the wine column for The Daily Express.

We compared notes and reckon that the rather insular nature of the wine industry and its general lack of ability to engage a two way conversation with its audience pretty much explains the lack of wine discussion going on out there.

Jamie hopes that his blog will encourage others to follow and that we can get a good wine buzz going on out there in the future.

I was talking the other evening with a good friend, James, who like me has worked in wine since about 1870!

We were discussing what it would take to get wine drinkers to return to that sense of adventure that seemed to prevail in the early to mid 1990’s.

For those who can remember, the Australians had really taken the UK by force and new and exciting wines were emerging from South America, South Africa, New Zealand and even areas of Eastern and Central Europe. It seemed that there was a real buzz for experimentation and all these new wines were capturing the hearts and minds of a generation brought up on Liebfraumilch and the odd bottle of French red.

I worked as wine buyer for ASDA at the time and we really had a “No Fear” attitude towards wine. Our reasoning was that “It was better to have tried something new than not” and you never got criticised for testing something that didn’t work only for not having given it a go in the first place. Radical stuff, especially by today’s standards.

The analogy James and I came up with was that the Australians having brought the market together evolved into a Great White Shark swimming, at lightning speed, into a huge shoal of fish. The shoal disperses and heads in different directions, some return to reform the group and some don’t, they actually form new, smaller shoals of their own. Short lived though.

As more predators join the feeding frenzy. The shoals reform as an even tighter, single group bound together by fear.

We reckon that’s what’s happening to wine. The huge brands are eating up the market and homogenising it. The consumer is bombarded every day by hundreds of pieces of information and doesn’t any longer have the time, patience or courage to make a personal choice. It’s easy just to buy what’s easy to buy without thinking. Be told what to do in other words.

As an industry, we seem to have done a great job of grabbing the attention of the consumer, getting them into a frenzy and then feeding off them like sharks and scaring them half to death.

It’s pretty depressing stuff, especially when you go to such lengths to do the very best you can and try to encourage your customers to aim a little higher and drink much better.

We talk about it a lot at the winery and never have I been more convinced that our success or failure is entirely about how we engage with the market. Encourage feedback, move the ownership to the customer and provide them with an environment that engenders a sense of adventure and enjoyment.

The big retailers have to provide the platform for this to happen. At the moment, I think their concerns are more one dimensional. It’s just about volume and profitability rather than the needs of the consumer.

We made a trip out yesterday evening in Yorkshire with Stormhoek.

85 prominent business people turned up at 42. The Calls in Leeds for a tutored tasting on our wines from South Africa.

It was great to have a chance to talk with them face to face about what we do and how communication is such a key feature of our business. Many of the group were astonished at the success we have had in spreading the Stormhoek meme and were surprised that it wasn’t used by other wine businesses as “surely word of mouth is the advertisement”! Yes, sure do agree with that!

The event also gave me the chance to explain about the stunning geography and diversity in culture, flora and fauna which makes South Africa such an unusual and exciting place.

This is actually the message that Wines of South Africa, the government sponsored marketing division for all South African wine, is trying to get across to consumers around the world. Guys, I have to say that the only way you can do this with any sort of success is face to face. Booklets, ad’s and CD ROM’s just don’t convey what is a pretty complex message in an understandable way.

The feedback from the tasting was great and thanks to Rachel and Deborah for organising the event.

Lastly, I invited the group to visit us at Stormhoek should they ever be in South Africa and, of course, this is extended to all you folks who visit our blog. Just let us know when you’re going so we can stoke up the Braai and chill the wine.