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Wine of the Week

In my Wine of the Week (I did toy with other names, but settled on the 'it does what it says on the tin' approach) feature I throw the spotlight onto whatever wine has piqued my interest in the last few days or week. It is a feature that continues a Winedoctor theme that has been present here since the inception of this site back in May 2000. Since the very beginning I have used my Monday updates to explore the wines of prominent European wine regions, starting with Burgundy, and progressing through Alsace and the leading German regions, the classic DOCs and DOCGs of Tuscany, Piedmont and Veneto, the top wines of Languedoc, then Roussillon, then Provence and South-West France (these four regions were explored over a two year 'journey' in all) and, finally, the red wines of the Loire.

Today, however, I wish to be more flexible with the wines I taste and write up. My cellar has broadened in depth and spread considerably over the last few years, and there are a multiplicity of wines in there I have never tasted, some of which are well on their way to maturity. The joy of owning such a cellar should not be underestimated; having the right bottle to hand, at the right time, served with the right food, is a pleasure that has to be experienced. There came a times when this site needed to reflect my cellar's omnifarious character. With this in mind, my themed Monday tastings gave way to a much more flexible tasting opportunity; my now regular Wine of the Week slot. No longer will I spend months, or even years, exploring specific wine regions; from now on I can flit here and there, tasting whatever wines take my fancy, profiling domaines of quality, wherever their location. It is a shift in emphasis on the site which has been, from the beginning, most enjoyable.

One thing Wine of the Week does not foster is a string of dull supermarket wine recommendations. This isn't an outlet for the puffery that can build up around such wines, frequently manufactured and unnatural, and of little real interest. That isn't to say, however, that I won't focus on readily available inexpensive wines providing they are of real merit. These wines are certainly part of my Monday free-for-all; providing the wine holds my interest, for whatever reason, I will write about it. Expect wines both old and young (perhaps too old and too young, in the case of some!), aged cellar-orphans and wines plucked from recently delivered six-packs and cases, off-the-shelf inexpensive bargains as well as the rare and the unusual from the depths of my cellar. (14/7/06)

Wines of the Week 2010

For previously featured wines, see my 2009 Wine of the Week Archive.