May 2024 Newsletter

The summer season has finally approached English shores, giving me the right motivation to write this newsletter...

Travel has been limited over the past few months, except for a very enjoyable (albeit incredibly wet ) week in Galicia last month. I've dedicated much of my time to my consulting work, primarily for a new project I'm handling for a major wine & spirits distributor.

In the meantime, I've been continuing my work on the American Distilling Institute's new Europe-focused newsletter (if you haven't subscribed yet, you can do so at this link). I also taught a class on New World wine for the UK Sommelier Association, and hosted a couple of tastings in Manchester for the folks at House of Rum.

I haven't been quiet on the writing front, of course. Beverage Media, the print magazine of SevenFifty Daily, finally published a story I had been working on for some time, focusing on labor issues in the vineyard. More recently, Distiller magazine featured my review of the European craft spirits sector in 2023, while for Harpers, I broke the news that France approved a measure allowing for the dealcoholization of the country’s IGP wines, making it the first EU country to do so. Speaking of news stories, I also reported on a groundbreaking project involving a vineyard and the new airport of Florence (Decanter). Unlike most of the coverage this story received globally, my piece includes insights beyond the press release and an interview with the architect behind the project, so I dare say it's worth a read if you're keen to know more.

Meanwhile, some of my travel-related stories have been published in Club Oenologique and Wine Enthusiast. The former explores Conegliano Valdobbiadene, while the latter analyses how geopolitical tensions in the southern Caucasus region are impacting the Armenian wine industry.

In my regular consumer reports (Canvas8), I've looked at the growth of canned wine in the UK, and was thrilled to also work on a report about what's attracting Gen Z to old digicams. It was my first-ever piece of writing on photography – I felt almost emotional when it went live. 

I'll be particularly busy with travel in the coming months. In a couple of weeks, I'm off to Lille to moderate a session on beer's "terroir" at the EBC Congress & Brewers Forum. Alongside that, I'll be creating content for Good Beer Hunting and researching a piece for First Key Consulting Insights on innovations in no and low beer production, while also enjoying plenty of delicious beer...

Just a few days after that, I'll be taking a (long) flight to León, Mexico, to judge the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. I hope to squeeze in visits to some distilleries and explore the surrounding wine region during my stay. I'm told it's remarkably beautiful.

A few weeks later, it's back across the channel for a few days of beer research in Belgium. After that, I'll finally head back home to focus on writing (and pitching). Until then, you may receive more out-of-office notifications than usual, but rest assured, you'll hear from me again before the summer holidays.

Before I sign off to pack my camera bag for a quick trip to a nearby distillery, I wanted to share some positive news: I've been longlisted for 67 Pall Mall's inaugural Global Wine Communicator Awards. Being "longlisted" isn't typically an achievement I would consider noteworthy enough to boast about. But having noticed well-known colleagues proudly sharing their longlisted status, I realised I was naively missing out on a good opportunity to promote myself. So here you go.

Wishing you a sunny and warm early summer, enjoy your week and drink well.