Everyone keeps saying what strange times we’re living in, and it’s true. Never in living memory has the world shut down like this. Walls are being erected, markets are tumbling, travel is curtailed, work is cancelled, schools are shut and socialising is taboo. Welcome to our new reality. Covid-19 and the wine industry But before […]
Do you know about these common (and not so common) wine additives? Winemaking, in theory, is such an easy process – you pick grapes, crush them and let the naturally present yeast work its magic. Using the sugar from the grapes, the yeast turns the resulting liquid from grape juice into wine. But life isn’t […]
You may not realise it yet, but the changing trends of what you eat are largely due, in part, to the rise of the generational powerhouse that is millennials. Millennials being those people born between 1980 and 2000. More importantly, millennials represent 42% of total expenditure on all wine purchases, and by 2026 they are […]
The legend goes that champagne was first invented in the 17th century by a French Benedictine monk by the name of… Dom Pierre Pérignon (sound familiar?). On discovering his creation, he reportedly shouted to the rest of the monks, “Come quickly! I am drinking the stars!” Now, whether this urban legend is true or not […]
If you’ve ever heard the term Méthode Traditionelle and wondered what it means, you aren’t alone. It’s not a phrase heard regularly in common parlance, instead, it’s a wine word associated with the process developed in the Champagne region of France, to produce bottle-fermented sparkling wines. While the phrase Méthode Traditionelle (or the Traditional Method) […]
Valentine’s Day is the perfect moment to show your loved one how much you care, and just when you think you’ve navigated the vast mountain that is Valentines Day planning and you’ve both sat down to dine across the romantic candlelit setting before you, one obstacle remains – The Wine List. Where do you begin? […]
As Yazz sang in the ‘80s, the only way is up, baby. And in 2020 the same is true of organic wines. Organic wines have never been more in demand and as we enter this bright new decade, the world of organic wine is only going to grow in prominence. The growth of organic wine […]
Augusta and Robert are the fifth generation of the family to farm the fields now flourishing with vines and home to Raimes English Sparkling wines. Together with land farmed on the historic Tichborne Estate, the farm stretches from the protected and ecologically diverse water meadows of the River Itchen to the grassy rolling hills of the South […]
‘Being allegedly the only two (literate) students to Graduate Healesville High School in ’97, we were always destined to work together’. Behn (the Payten) drove his first Tractor at the age of 5. Troy (the Jones) was talking by the age of 1 and hasn’t shut up since. “Naturally we fell in with the wrong […]
Your deliveries for Christmas 2019 Christmas is drawing near. To make sure we deliver the service you need, we’ve made some small changes to our delivery schedule to enable us to manage increased volumes. Last Orders will be taken on Tuesday 17th December. You can contact the team on 02037804896 until Thursday the 19th of […]
We’ve only gone and made gifting a bottle of wine a thousand times better than it already is… If you’re looking to send a sustainable gift that says ‘I’m thinking of you’, one that doesn’t include a lame bunch of flowers or anything equally generic, then our Thinking Of You Hamper is the perfect present to […]
It’s that time of year again folks, yup, it’s Organic September brought to you by Soil Association, and to get you into the mood for all things organic for the month ahead, we thought we’d give you a few reasons why organic is better than conventional. We’re big supporters of all things organic here at […]
Natural wine is here to stay. And before you ask – but isn’t all wine natural? The short answer is no. Yes, wine is a natural product, a result of fermenting grapes, but conventional wine, the stuff most often bought in supermarkets and online, isn’t natural in terms of what wine should be. Here is […]
A few weeks ago we compiled our PTC wine certification guide in which we talked about sustainable agriculture, but we didn’t mention sustainable wine. And in a recent article we looked at sustainability in the wine industry as a whole, but again, didn’t go into what specifically makes a wine sustainable. So what is it […]
In a recent article, we talked about the link between sustainable farming and natural wine, and elsewhere we’ve touched briefly on what sustainable farming is in terms of wine certification. But we wanted to talk more in-depth about sustainability in the wine industry. In particular, what is being done to ensure that the nation’s favourite […]
At the beginning of setting up PTC, we received an email from over the water from Nancy and Peter of Pull That Cork. Since then we have both been in regular contact and we thought it would be nice to present them to the UK because they have a cracking blog and Instagram account that […]
First things first – no, orange wine isn’t made from oranges. In fact, orange wine has absolutely NOTHING to do with oranges, except they share the same colour, kind of. Orange wine is a type of white wine, but one that has been made like red wine. Are you following? Orange wine is essentially white […]
There is a topic on the lips of oenophiles the world over – fermentation. In particular, wild fermentation. Wild fermentation is synonymous with natural wine. Industrial fermentation is what the rest of the wine-producing world does. Now, wine doesn’t require any additional yeasts or additives to get it to ferment and produce that wondrous liquid […]
You may be wondering what on earth the link between a wonky carrot and a bottle of natural wine is, but bear with us. The nation has fallen in love with wonky veg We have seen food campaigners in recent years highlight the plight of the 795 million people who inhabit our little green planet, […]
Natural wine can be divisive amongst those who consider themselves oenophiles. And yes, not all natural wines are great examples of the category, but that is the case the wine world over – even in the same cellar there will be great years of one wine and poor years of the same one. Such is […]
There was a debate recently on the Natural Wine Forum, a page set up on Facebook to give organic, biodynamic, red, white, rosé and orange low intervention wines from all over the world the love they deserve. The natural wine movement has been the biggest game-changer in the 21st-century wine world (according to Decanter) and […]
Recently we’ve been getting into all kinds of debates on how the Wine Certification should be addressed, and how categories and filtering should be presented, so we’ve made some changes, and feel that this is the right way to tell you why… Farming Practices Organic According to the Soil Association, organic farming is a form […]
If you’re investing your hard earned money ensuring that you eat well by only purchasing organic food, you are doing yourself a disservice if you aren’t then purchasing organic wine too. It’s actually incredibly surprising how few organic devotees truly follow through all the way on their quest to only nourish their bodies with organic […]
Organic farming is farming which uses no synthetic chemical products. Organically certified wine is wine that is produced from 100% organically grown grapes and the wine is manufactured without the use of any chemicals. So it stands to reason therefore, that organic wine must be sulphite free. But hold on, don’t jump to any conclusions […]