TMG Blog

A dosage syringe beside a shallow copper dish of syrup and a coupe glass catching low light, pale bubbles rising — Dosage is what finishes the wine
Champagne

Billecart-Salmon and the dosage that finishes the wine

Dessert arrives and someone pours out the last of the dry Champagne to go with...
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Stacked oak barrels of different ages crowd a cellar floor, an unlabelled bottle and a wax sealed ledger on the nearest barrel head — Negociant is not just reseller
Burgundy

Benjamin Leroux and what negociant really describes

In Burgundy there is a word that quietly halves a wine's perceived value before anyone...
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A weathered stone urn beside scattered Pauillac gravel and a coiled length of rusted chain, morning fog over distant vine rows — The 1855 list undersold this one
Bordeaux

Chateau Batailley and what the 1855 list undersold

In the spring of 1855 the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce received an awkward request. Paris...
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Two decanters side by side on aged oak with one hand carved stopper set between them, gravel and vine leaves scattered — Two estates, one Barton hand
Bordeaux

Barton in Saint-Julien: two estates, one set of hands

Here is a problem that anybody who has tried to learn Bordeaux by tasting has...
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An unlabelled bottle on a terracotta sill beside a torn strip of parchment and a wax seal, cypress trees in hazy hills below — Antinori broke the label rules
Italy

Antinori and the wine that broke Italy's label rules

In the early 1970s a red wine left Tuscany with the words vino da tavola...
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A whisky glass filled dark and undiluted, a small glass jug of water and an eyedropper beside it, faint ripples spreading — Add water to cask strength
Serving & Storage

Cask strength whisky and the water you should be adding

You buy a cask strength bottle because 58 per cent sounds like more whisky for...
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Rough stones, a clump of dark peat, dried sea kelp and loose grain husks in separate small piles beside a whisky glass — A region is geography not taste
Buying Guide

Whisky regions describe geography, not flavour

Shelves get organised by region because region is the easiest thing to organise by. Speyside...
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An opened whisky bottle beside a small humidity gauge, condensation fogging a nearby windowpane — Humidity fades open whisky fast
Hong Kong

Storing whisky in Hong Kong humidity, open and unopened

You opened a bottle around Christmas. It is August now, a third is left, and...
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Two plain whisky bottles of the same shape side by side, one sealed in red wax and one in green, a cask sample vial between them — The bottler is not the distiller
Buying Guide

Independent bottlings and why one distillery tastes different

Under the distillery name, in smaller type, sits a company nobody has heard of. Then...
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An unopened whisky bottle wrapped in plain brown paper with loose ribbon, set apart from a row of identical plain boxes — A known name is not a safe gift
Buying Guide

Choosing a whisky as a gift when recognition is the trap

You have twenty minutes and you need a bottle. Dinner at someone's flat, a wedding,...
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Three whisky glasses of differing amber hues lined up, oak staves behind them stained by sherry, port and Sauternes — Cask finishes add wood, not age
Buying Guide

Sherry, port and Sauternes cask finishes: what the wood adds

The label says finished in oloroso sherry casks. The one beside it says port pipe...
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A single whisky dram beside a weathered oak cask end, grain worn and faded, curls of sawdust on a dark wooden bench — Age names the youngest cask
Buying Guide

An age statement is a fact about the youngest cask

An 18 next to a distillery name is a fact. It is also close to...
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Recent Post

Macallan TIME : SPACE Sherry Cask and Mastery
Glass Notes
Glass Notes: Macallan's yellow case is out. Why is the red one selling for half? 黃盒上市，紅盒點解跌咗一半？
Neat rows of dark oak whisky casks stacked beneath a wooden warehouse roof, a single dram glass resting on a barrel head — One distillery, its own casks
Producer Guide
Yamazaki and why Japanese distilleries do not swap casks
Fossil flecked grey limestone fragments with tiny oyster shell imprints scattered on dark soil beside a pale tinted glass of white wine — Kimmeridgian rock shapes Chablis
Burgundy
William Fevre, Chablis and what Kimmeridgian rock does