This time last year we were limping home from Gorizia, grateful to be alive and mobile after David’s gall bladder crisis, and not overly bothered to have missed the largest wine fair in the world - VinItaly. This year David  had been asked to serve as a  judge for the Cinque Stelle wine competition - … Continue reading Summa – and Verona’s churches – April 2018

Sunday 21st January 2018: rest day in STELLENBOSCH  A lazy start in the familiar hotel after a week of early rising,  and a morning enjoying the town’s distinctive architecture - and saddened by an alarming security feature of South African life David’s researches had produced a table at nearby and very busy Delaire Graf in … Continue reading January 2018 – so it must be South Africa – Part 3

Thursday 18 January - ROBERTSON AND BREEDEKLOOF (incl MCC focus) We left the Jan Harmsgat Country House, somewhere on the R60 between Robertson and Ashton to join a senior Brewer (Abri and Jeanette’s father?) at Springfield estate, close to the Breede rver, just south east of Robertson. The boundaries of the various estates were marked by … Continue reading January 2018 – so it must be South Africa – part 2

How did this happen? David’s work of course. Research - for the new WSET Diploma I had mixed feelings about his travelling alone for a fortnight. Keen to be useful I overcame my misgivings (12 hour flights, problematic politics, 30% unemployment, historic prejudice) and booked my flights - and tried not to think too much … Continue reading January 2018 – so it must be South Africa – part 1

After ten fascinating days hurtling around the winelands of the Cape, following a packed itinerary devised by WOSA - Wines of South Africa - David and I were ready for a holiday.  (I shall post a commentary and photos in due course) Ronnie, our driver from the company Go Cape, drove us for the last … Continue reading Franschhoek and Cape Town: January 2018

David had already spent a day in Trento, visiting the sparkling wines makers of the region before spending three days practising blind tasting with largely Italian MW students in Verona. I flew to join him, first passing the previous night in what felt like a luxurious padded cell on the seventh floor of a sort … Continue reading Trento and Alto Adige: November 2017

My mind turned to Pliny the Elder as we sat in the car at teatime on All Saints day, gridlocked just south of Erculano on old Strada Statale 18. We were attempting to travel north along this narrow strip of coastal plan between the sea and Monte Vesuvio - along with what suddenly felt like … Continue reading Oh! No! Vesuvio! All Saints Day 2017

We left Campania, heading east from Atripalda towards Melfi on the northern foothills of volcanic Monte Vulture, just inside Basilicata’s northern boundary, the region of Italy perhaps least known or visited, shown in red: It feels remote and unreconstructed, and there are some desolate spaces as well as extraordinary places. Matera, which we visited in … Continue reading And on to Basilicata ….October 2017

This view from Gli Dei hotel of the Pozzuoli part of the bay of Naples with the island of Ischia in the distance gives no sense of the immediate landscape. We were surrounded on all sides by the crators and sulphorous fissures of the Campi Flegrei, a volcanic landscape punctuated by webs of roads, tightly … Continue reading Campania: autumn 2017

Sail Croatia has an office in London and trades in pounds, but is a Croatian company sailing a fleet of smallish cruisers (less than 50 metres, capacities up to 36 people) locally owned, newly built and beautifully designed. Different vessels cater for different types of clients - we signed up for the 'elegance' range targetting the … Continue reading 2017 summer sailing : the Croatian islands