I hear that Tim Atkin is the latest victim of the recession, downsizing, dumbing down - call it what-you-will. Tim is one of the UKs more readable wine writers and his weekly column in the Observer was always worth taking in. Now it is to be reduced to a handful of wine recommendations aka the Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph who have also dispensed with their regular columnists.  But as poacher turned gained keeper I am not sure if anyone is really listening to wine writers (or politicians) in the UK. With the exception of Jancis Robinson’s erudite and lively column in the FT, I have never found that anyone takes notice of the recommendations or wine scribes. Whenever Pedra Basta is recommended in the UK press I try to monitor the sales uplift and it seems to be virtually nil.  An excellent write-up in a leading regional newspaper led to the direct sale of one bottle! But as a wine producer I am always grateful for any product endorsement and delight in reprinting and reproducing any praise for our wine. So wine writers, please keep writing if only to instil reassurance and confidence in wine makers – just one good tasting note makes us all very happy.   

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Since my January detox I have reduced my consumption of alcohol considerably and almost totally cut out sugar apart from its natural manifestation in healthy cool climate fruit: apples, pears, blueberries, raspberries. I found that my taste has changed and that anything with sugar, especially if I sample processed foods like my children’s breakfast cereal, now tastes incredibly sweet. This also applies to wine where I have become super-sensitive to residual sugar when I taste. I always disliked the residual sugar in certain New World wines, considering it a fraud. Now I loathe it.  Any remotely artificial taste now hangs around on my palate all day as I found when I ate a muffin at Café Nero. Port tastes violently sweet and tannins, when only slightly under-ripe, taste very bitter as I found yesterday when I drank a glass of 2007 Douro red. We will soon be blending the 2008 Pedra Basta so I will have to attune my taste or compensate for this. But for all this I feel better than ever!  (I recommend a visit to www.born2move.co.uk/   for more information on exercise and diet).  

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