2012 - The Wandering Palate

Analysis of Burgundy is something that I normally steer well clear of and most happy to leave this Rubik’s Cube of man and environment to the more obsessed dedicated and knowledgeable. I do enjoy Burgundy and visit frequently enough to embrace the subtleties, but not enough to comment on the dissection of a vintage. There is of course much commentary (noise) available on the net and from every quarter of the wine writing fraternity, but here’s some candid assessment from Alex Gambal, a vigneron of the English tongue that gives us a good insight of his toils and what we might expect in bottle. And while you’re there check out the Alex Gambal website www.alexgambal.com for a unique and fascinating story. Read More >

Buying Wine | Related to: 2012, Alex Gambal, Burgundy |

From a lost play by Eubulos, (c.405 BC - c.335 BC)
‘For sensible men I prepare only three kraters (large vase used to mix wine): one for health (which they drink first), the second for love and pleasure, and the third for sleep. After the third one is drained, wise men go home.

The fourth krater is not mine any more - it belongs to bad behaviour; the fifth is for shouting; the sixth is for rudeness and insults; the seventh is for fights; the eighth is for breaking the furniture; the ninth is for depression; the tenth is for madness and unconsciousness.’

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.

But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defence of the new.”

As uttered by the vitriolic restaurant critic Anton Ego, in the film “Ratatouille”, after his epiphany.