Oliver Walkey

Uruguay Wine

By Oliver Walkey / 11th October 2024

It was harder to find a date for Uruguay’s Wine origin, but it has been in operation for at least 250 years, it wouldn’t be until 1870, with the help of Italian and Basque immigrants with the planting of the Tannat grape that the modern Uruguayan Wine industry started to really grow. Producing over 18 million…

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Chilean Wine

By Oliver Walkey / 9th October 2024

The first Vines planted in Chile were transported over on Spanish ships, we sort of know the grape variety as well and it could have been ‘País’ or ‘Vitis Vinifera’, they planted them in the middle of the 16th century in 1554 during the Spanish Conquest. There is even a legend of conquistador and former…

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Discovering Pays d’Oc Wines

By Oliver Walkey / 8th October 2024

If you need to find a reason to travel down to the South of France, other than it’s fantastic weather, yacht filled blue waters, fantastic architecture and Michelin star food, then let me share with you, one of the biggest reasons of all. If I had to give a quick summary of Pays d’Oc in…

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Argentinian Wine

By Oliver Walkey / 7th October 2024

The Spanish transported Vines from Spain over to Argentina during the early Age of Discovery, the first time a European stepped foot into Argentina was in 1502. The city of Santiago del Estero serves as a birthplace for Argentinan Wine, housing the first commercial Vineyard in 1557, planted by Jesuit Missionaries The country has in…

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Portuguese Wine

By Oliver Walkey / 4th October 2024

In Portugal, vines were planted in the Sado and Tagus valleys in at least 2000 BC, it was in the 10th century BC when the Phoenicians introduced new grape varieties and some new Winemaking techniques to the country. The main wine regions of Portugal are the following: Vinho Verde Trás-os-Montes Dão Bairrada Beira Interior Lisboa…

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American Wine

By Oliver Walkey / 2nd October 2024

During the Age of Exploration, Spanish ships would carry with them bottles of Wine, leading to the first bottle of Wine on U.S. soil. It’s slightly unclear on a definitive answer for when Wine was first made in the U.S. but it seems to point towards the 1500s. Although we do know that the first…

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The 3 Most Popular Bottles of Champagne Lanson

By Oliver Walkey / 30th September 2024

One of the most loved Champagne brands on the market and the official Champagne of Wimbledon since 1977. In this feature we’ll be explore the 3 most popular labels from Lanson, sharing our tasting experiences, from playing a Piano in the St Pancras Tower in London to an end of Summer glass in the Garden,…

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Does Prosecco Go Off?

By Oliver Walkey / 29th September 2024

When you buy a bottle of Prosecco, sometimes it will have a year on it, letting you know that it’s a vintage or even sometimes telling you when it was bottled, but it never gives you an expiration date, is it because there isn’t one? Let’s find out. The simple answer would be that Prosecco…

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Chinese Wine

By Oliver Walkey / 27th September 2024

The production of turning grape juice into Wine in the powerhouse of China dates back to at least the Han Dynasty which lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD, an imperial envoy led by Zhang Qian opened diplomatic relations with a number of Central Asian kingdoms, that at the time, did produce Wine from Grapes.…

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