The Joseph Report

Natural selection

2012-03-12T14:33:00.003+01:00

Wine is a natural product... So, obviously there's no reason for anyone to need to print a list of ingredients on a label; after all, what are you going to put there apart from grapes and SO2. Then you take a look at contents such Diammonium phosphate (yeast nutrient), Bentonite and Pectinolytic Enzymes (fining agents), whose names appear on bottles of own-label wine at the Co-op in the UK, and

We are so Amateur! - Postscript to London Intl Wine Fair Post

2012-03-09T12:22:00.004+01:00

I'm fascinated to see that among the most frequent comments (on Twitter, Facebook and in the replies in this blog) about the London Intl Wine Fair and Prowein are complaints about Excel being an inconvenient place to get to and about the cost of WiFi and unavailability of food in Dusseldorf.Get real! Excel is a successful exhibition venue; the LIWF is one of its smaller events. Thousands of

Let this be a warning!

2012-03-08T21:04:00.003+01:00

The anti alcohol lobby still has a few (old) tricks up its sleeve...

Last chance to save the London Wine Fair

2012-03-07T17:37:00.004+01:00

No-one who wandered the halls at this week's Prowein fair and remembers last year's London International Wine Fair (LIWF) can have failed to have noticed the difference between these two events. For anyone who has been to neither, just imagine the contrast between New York and Norwich or Lille and you will have a pretty fair idea. Prowein is huge and growing huger (there's a long waiting list and

Parker still packing a punch

2012-03-06T07:56:00.004+01:00

We all tend to look for confirmation of beliefs we cherish. Keen fans of organic food leap upon every scrap of anecdotal evidence of the growth in organic grocery sales, even if the hard data reveals that the number of people buying green foods and drinks is actually dropping.The same applies to the members of the wine world who dislike the power that is wielded by Robert Parker and wish that it

Not needed on voyage: the apparent dispensability of Portuguese wine

2012-03-06T00:32:00.004+01:00

No-one is indispensable, as Andre Villas-Boas the manager of Chelsea football team discovered this week, after a series of lost games led to his dismissal by the team's owner, Roman Abramovich. Underperforming wine regions and indeed entire countries can suffer a similar fate, and coincidentally, Portugal is facing a similar removal from the scene - or at least from the shelves of Majestic, the

Looking for a free lunch?

2012-03-02T08:04:00.004+01:00

How big was your Google bill this month? Have you paid Facebook yet? Cutting down on your Youtube usage to save money? Ok, I apologise for my customary facetiousness but, unless you've paid for advertising or, like me, signed up for extra space on the gmail server to store gazillions of old emails (because I'm crap at throwing stuff away), I'm pretty sure that you've never actually given any of

We don't need no education!

2012-02-29T00:47:00.005+01:00

At the risk of sounding presumputous, I believe that I may have the answer to a long list of the problems that assail the world today, from Islamic extremism to teenage pregnancy, smoking, gun crime, gang warfare, drug and alcohol abuse... You name the issue and my solution stands a sporting chance of solving it. All we need to do in any of these cases is... to sprinkle it with a little pixie

Stop supersizing wine

2012-02-24T07:40:00.006+01:00

"What can I do? It's up to society to deal with alcohol abuse. It's not the responsibility of the wine industry..." That was the response (through social media) of many wine professionals to my post on the Alastair Campbell "Britain's hidden alcoholics" programme. I did my best to point out that saying "If people use my product irresponsibly, it's not my concern" is precisely the argument put

Japanese miniatures

2012-02-23T10:36:00.002+01:00

Water colours or oils? Chamber music or orchestral? Those were the kinds of questions that sprang to mind as I tasted my way through a series of Japan’s best Koshus. For anyone unfamiliar with this Japanese grape (a description that I’d imagine applies to 99.9999% of wine consumers), it is a pink skinned vinifera grown in Yamanashi, a region close to Mount Fuji. It is Japan’s most widely grown

What's the frequency?

2012-02-23T10:07:00.002+01:00

“My grandparents drink wine every day. I remember, when I was about 6 years old [15 years ago], my parents used to do that too. Now it’s when they see friends or for more special meals. Once or twice a week. Maybe three times...”Single conversations should not be accorded undue significance, but when they seem to illustrate statistical trends it’s worth paying them a little attention. The words

Reaction to Alastair Campbell's BBC Panorama programme: "Britain's hidden alcoholics"

2012-02-21T10:21:00.006+01:00