Richard Ehrlich, the Independent on Sunday's wine correspondent, is hanging up his pen (or resting his typing digits! and will no longer be writing his weekly column. Whilst taking a fairly broad swipe at wine blogs he does conclude his musing as follows: "My recommendations for the week affirm one thing I have grown increasingly convinced of over the past decade: that French wine is the best on Earth." He goes on to recommend 3 wines, two of which are technically Vins de Pays, both more expensive than the White Burgundy he also recommends! That farewell selection says much about the way French winemaking has evolved over the recent years - inspired, well-made exciting wines from lesser-known regions, often based on less popular grapes (e.g. the 100% Carignan that is one of his choices), whilst you can also find decent examples of good classics at affordable prices.
I shall miss Ehrlich's column, which was always independent, opinionated and did not slavishly promote supermarket offerings or unaffordable fine wines. He also gave our old wine business "Allez Vins!" some plaudits when he recommended our Gaillac wines from Domaine de Labarthe - their Cuvée Guillaume being "the bottle we drank whilst on holiday" (in southwest France)!
