Simon Woolf

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Simon Woolf

Wine is more than just a product

Simon J Woolf
Features
3 min read
2014 might just be the year of the fruit-flavored wine. If you've missed this trend, just do a quick Google search – fruit-flavored cocktails with wine as their base have been gaining massive market share over the past three years, with growth of “aromatized wines” at 70% a year, compared

The fine art of not drinking wine

Simon J Woolf
Feature Stories
3 min read
  Maybe this is a problem that no self-respecting wine lover should ever have. But it can happen – you cook up a storm in the kitchen on a Monday night, your significant other looks longingly at the wine rack – and quicker than you can say “Agiorgitiko” there's an

Outstanding value in St. Chinian

Simon J Woolf
Feature Stories
3 min read
Developing a taste for fine wine can sometimes be more a curse than a blessing. There are moments when drinkability alone isn't enough. Simple fruit-driven wines fail to satisfy. Perhaps you crave more sophistication, character, elegance or complexity – a wine that goes beyond being mere liquid, providing contemplation into

Give me a word beginning with “N”

Simon J Woolf
Features
4 min read
Is there a single word that's caused more controversy and argument amongst wine connoisseurs/geeks/lovers than “natural”? At least recently, I doubt it. The debate about “natural wine” has raged for a good few years now. During that time, zealots and detractors have nailed their colours to the mast so frequently

The Lugana Lottery

Simon J Woolf
Features
3 min read
Tasting note: Intense bouquet of mushrooms and stale toffee, with fecal overtones. Great gobs of vinegar, wet earth and unripe apple, with a persistent finish of candle wax. Tempting? I'm describing the typical profile of white wines that have been matured – more like abandoned – way beyond their shelf

A whole bunch of hot air

Simon J Woolf
Feature Stories
3 min read
Winemakers love to talk about “terroir expression” - a slippery phrase, but for me it readily translates into variety, regionality and interest. Small artisan producers often adopt and justify traditional, low intervention techniques to achieve that expression. For example: Wild yeasts produce more complex ferments Unfiltered wines are more vibrant

Judgment of Napa: Five Cabernets

Simon J Woolf
Feature Stories
3 min read
A Brit writing on Napa Cabernets, for an American wine magazine – isn't that a bit bloody minded? A tad “coals to Newcastle”, if you will? Stay with me, it might get interesting. California's Napa Valley has nothing left to prove – the 1976 and 2006 Judgments of Paris are