I picked up a book the other day which almost everybody knows about but which most, I suspect, have not actually read: Dorothy Hartley’s Food in England. It was published in 1954, which most of us would consider the nadir of English food: rationing, the beginning of industrial production, lack of variety, lack of flavour, lack of interest, awful cooking; the darkness before the dawn of Elizabeth David.| Tim Atkin - Master of Wine
I started writing this as a piece about Bolgheri, and ended up writing about myself, but perhaps you will see that as we go along. As in, we talk about wine, but really, we just talk about ourselves, our taste, our palate and our stories. And this piece, the piece about Bolgheri, wasn’t even supposed […]| Tim Atkin – Master of Wine
If anything teaches you patience, humility and a degree of circumspection, it’s making wine. However much of a hurry you may be in, a vineyard takes three years to produce a useable crop and, once it does, has a habit of undermining your best laid plans. Older, more established vineyards can struggle to cope with the vicissitudes of the seasons, too, especially in a world pummelled by climate change.| Tim Atkin - Master of Wine
Marta Labanda led me up the steep, black slopes of Barranca del Obispo. Here in Lanzarote, growers cultivate vines in hollows dug out of the granular black volcanic ash. It’s an extraordinary lunar landscape, and brutally hard work: everything is done by hand and yields are tiny. On slopes like this one, where Labanda and […]| Tim Atkin – Master of Wine
Climate change, with its pattern of extreme weather, has produced complex chains of events and decisions. One of them has led many producers in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, among Canada’s most important wine regions, to source grapes from elsewhere, and that in turn has compelled them to navigate complex commercial and political issues.| Tim Atkin - Master of Wine
‘No, I don’t agree with this Kate’, award-winning wine writer Andrew Jefford replied to my question: are tasting notes a form of poetry? As I write this, cringing, I know my query was a little foolish. Tasting notes, for the most part, are commercial tools: writers are invited to taste a wine (for free) in […]| Tim Atkin – Master of Wine
An old wine professional I occasionally engage with on social media is not very impressed with Greek wine. He claims he has never had one he would describe as world class. Where one draws that particular line might be up for discussion, nevertheless this is not a sentiment I encounter often. If anything, my main […]| Tim Atkin – Master of Wine
Sometimes it seems as if the entire wine industry is braced in a defensive crouch. We have been browbeaten with dire warnings about health risks; we are terrified of Gen Z’s (possibly antithetical) moves towards cocktails and abstinence; in the language of Sellar and Yeatman’s comic classic 1066 and All That, we appear to have accepted that wine is a Bad Thing.| timatkin.com
Nicolas Potel: An Appreciation| timatkin.com
The charismatic, warm and fiercely-loved Nicolas Potel left the world stage on Friday afternoon, June 27, 2025. His warm smile, boisterous sense of humor and affinity for a good time had a way of making everyone in his presence feel that a fine time was about to be enjoyed by all. A natural entrepreneur with […]| Tim Atkin – Master of Wine
Every generation of wine writers declares that it wants to remove the mystique from wine: to demystify it. I say, enough. Demystify by all means; but I will stand up for mystique. Remove that at your peril. What is mystique? (I learn from Wikipedia that it’s a Marvel Comics character, but please, let’s leave that […]| Tim Atkin – Master of Wine
Wine exam week. The long MW one. Close to 22 hours of high-level performance over four days. It’s intense. I sat six weeks’ worth of MW exams. Enough I decided, for my lifetime. No more exams. Ever. I even have a tattoo to remind me of that self-promise.| Tim Atkin - Master of Wine
The times we live in being what they are, I need to start with a few disclaimers. No, I don’t doubt at all that there is a dark side to the wine industry, especially when it overlaps with hospitality. Also no, I have never worked full-time in the wine industry, so you could argue, if you were so inclined, that I do not see the whole picture. And finally, of course my views are based on my experiences, which, unavoidably, are a function of who I am so, sure, for others it might well be quite...| Tim Atkin - Master of Wine
