The Infinite Ideas blog

We write on a variety of subjects and often post exclusive ideas by our bestselling authors. We publish a diverse list and our blog reflects this so if you don’t find a post that interests you today check back later in the week and you’ll probably find something that takes your fancy. Happy reading.

Cultivating a passion for fortified wine

3 August 2022 by in Classic Wine Library, Wine and spirits

Wines go in and out of fashion. Madeira’s heyday was in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but recent decades have seen a revival of interest in this unique wine. Tourism in the 1970s brought a new audience, and then, in 1986, Portugal joined what was to become the EU, aiding trade as well as leading …
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Extract: Madeira (2nd edition) by Richard Mayson

Extract: Madeira (2nd edition) by Richard Mayson

22 July 2022 by in Classic Wine Library, Extracts, Wine and spirits

Nearly every Madeira wine worshipper has come to it after having had a Damascene moment. I recall my own quite vividly. I had only been in the wine trade for two years when I attended a pre-sale tasting in October 1986 at Christie’s in London for an auction held to commemorate the six-hundredth anniversary of …
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Extract: The wines of Georgia by Lisa Granik MW

Extract: The wines of Georgia by Lisa Granik MW

13 June 2022 by in Classic Wine Library, Extracts, Wine and spirits

Qvevri: the vessel of dreamsQvevri are the clay vessels used for making wines according to the traditional Georgian winemaking method. (In western Georgia they are called churi.) They are found in the marani, more wine storage shed than cellar in some cases, but it can be a perfectly designed cellar. Whether attached to the house …
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Extract: Côte d’Or by Raymond Blake

Extract: Côte d’Or by Raymond Blake

8 June 2022 by in Classic Wine Library, Extracts, Wine and spirits

Principal vineyards of the Côte de NuitsFor many people, their mind’s eye picture of the Côte d’Or stretches from Gevrey-Chambertin, the first commune that is home to grand cru vineyards, to the last, Chassagne-Montrachet. Until recently this was a safe mental attenuation, lopping off the northern and southern country cousins and not paying much heed …
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Extract: The wines of Great Britain by Stephen Skelton MW

Extract: The wines of Great Britain by Stephen Skelton MW

30 May 2022 by in Classic Wine Library, Extracts, Wine and spirits

Sparkling wineThe production of sparkling wine in Britain – although not from home-grown grapes – is verifiably over 350 years old, and we know from the two papers read at the newly founded Royal Society in December 1662 that sugar added to a fermented product and sealed in a bottle with a tightly bound stopper …
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Extract: The wines of northern Spain by Sarah Jane Evans MW

Extract: The wines of northern Spain by Sarah Jane Evans MW

16 May 2022 by in Classic Wine Library, Extracts, Wine and spirits

For the people who lived here in previous centuries Rioja must have seemed a blessed enclave. Any time is good to come: autumn is particularly beautiful; winter brings snow (and sometimes problems driving); in spring there’s blossom on the trees and in the summer it’s hot, but with plenty of cool places to enjoy wine in the evening. Too many wine regions can be flat monocultures of vines. Come to Rioja, it’s altogether more human.
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