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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