Author Simon J Woolf

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Simon J Woolf
Contributor
Simon is an award-winning English wine and food writer, currently based in Amsterdam. He writes mostly, but not exclusively about organic, biodynamic and natural wines. Fermented grape juise has been his muse for the last 15 years. Originally he just drunk the stuff, then started studying, and finally got the urge to communicate in 2011, starting with www.themorningclaret.com. Simon contributes regularly to Decanter magazine, Meininger Wine Business International and other publications.

DWCC 2015 heads to Bulgaria

Simon J Woolf
Feature Stories
2 min read
  The 500 or so alumni from past Digital Wine Communications Conferences (this year will be the 8th edition) indulge in a torturing game every year. During the winter months, social media channels hum with activity as everyone starts playing “guess this year's location”. DWCC has always been adventurous, taking

Retsina Revolution

Simon J Woolf
Feature Stories
3 min read
Only half a year ago I was bemoaning the rise and rise of flavoured wines, when in May I found myself in a serious wine tasting being asked to evaluate one. No, it wasn't a “Rosé Pamplemousse”, “Girls night out Strawberry Samba” or “Gallo Brothers Wild Vines Raspberry Zinfandel” (I

Any color you like as long as it’s orange

Simon J Woolf
Feature Stories
4 min read
Picture this: a postcard perfect seaside town in Slovenia, blue skies, fresh seafood and a wine festival. But not just any wine festival – in Slovene and Italian (the two most encountered languages in this part of the world) the description is rendered as “white wines with long maceration”. But

From grape to grain in Greece

Simon J Woolf
Beer Reviews
3 min read
When it comes to 21st century microbrewers, I have a certain image in my head, probably heavily based around the world's most famous “Gypsy brewer” Mikkel Borg Bjergsø. Hailing from Scandinavia and sporting a resplendent fisherman's beard, Bjergsø is a defining figure in today's dynamic microbrewing world. Sophocles Panagiotou, master brewer

A silver bullet to replace copper in the vineyard?

Simon J Woolf
Feature Stories
3 min read
When I first meet Dutch winemaker Stan Beurskens, I've already heard quite a bit about him. He's one of very few Netherlands producers farming organically, he's an interesting character, he likes to work with unusual grape varieties,and so forth. Our first exchange therefore baffles me: Me: “I saw there is

Lightness and weight: an ode to Schioppettino

Simon J Woolf
Feature Stories
4 min read
One of the most beguiling things about Italy's finest red wine varieties is their balance between weight and complexity on the one hand, and finesse and lightness on the other. Milan Kundera spends the entire length of his classic 1984 novel “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” iterating over a similar