Wine

I am a big fan of supporting local initiatives. Especially now, during the eternal Corona misery but also in the times before (whenever that was). This weekend I’ll participate in the online tasting of Chateau Amsterdam, the following week I’ll be sleeping in the Court hotel in Utrecht for a staycation. Read some great...

To really be surprised by a wine. It doesn’t happen every day. Not every week and not every month. Once in a while you taste something so special that it can keep your mind wandering for days on end. Read here which wines we should drink more often anyway. Coral wine I had heard...

I often catch myself drinking the same types of wine on a regular basis. As a wine lover I don’t really think it should be that way. There is so much to discover… And yet, laziness quickly takes over. There I go, grabbing a glass of Riesling or a Burgundy Pinot noir. Nothing wrong...

Aligoté was known for many years as the ugly duckling of Burgundy. In the shadow of the famous grape Chardonnay people used Aligoté to make kir. For those who don’t know the drink; a kir is a dry white wine with a dash of crème de cassis. For a kir royal you replace white...

Sabering is my new hobby. I recently got a beautiful Laguiole Champagne saber knife for my birthday and I am totally obsessed. I have forgotten about everything I was taught as a child – not to play with knives and like a real wine ninja I uncork one bottle of bubbles after another. I...

I think it’s totally fun all those beautiful jugs in which you can pour wine. They have round shapes, pear shapes, some have huge horns, some even look like boa constrictors. What exactly is a wine decanter good for? Does decanting have a function or is it just for decoration? Why decant a wine?...

Wine from South Africa is hot and happening. And I’m talking about good wine. With capital G. Not long ago I interviewed Andrea Mullineux, (watch the interview here) female winemaker who produces top wines in Swartland. The 1st of September is Cap Classique day and in cooperation with the WOSA I want to have...

Pet-nat is totally booming! If you want to keep up with the hype as a wine bar, restaurant or winemaker, you have to serve or produce a pet-nat. Totally fun of course, but what exactly is a pet-nat? Pet-nat stands for pétillant naturel. Which means as much as naturally sparkling. So it is a...

The wine bar is great. For me one of the best discoveries of the past five-hundred years, together with gel nail polish and the wheel. I mean what’s better than a place where you can sit down, order good wine by the glass from someone who knows the wine better than you do, where...

A visit to a vineyard is always inspiring. It brings you closer to nature and reminds you of life. Masses of green leaves resonate with fertility in an almost religious way. My visit to the Etna area was special in many ways. Nerello Mascalese is a very precious grape to me. The centuries-old Palmento’s...

We are allowed out of the country! Yes! Because of those months of Covid misery, you’d almost forget that there are great wine regions around the corner from Amsterdam, well, almost around the corner. I left for the Mosel region on a self-organised wine trip to take a closer look at this well known...

We know by now I’m a chatterbox. On social media, especially Instagram, I ask people – to annoyance – what their favourite wine is. Why do you think? Certainly not because I don’t have any inspiration for nice wines myself, but because there is nothing I like more than the discovery of a great...