Simon Reilly
- Jun 27, 2019
- 4 min
The (vin de) French Revolution
An edited version of his article was originally published in Issue 21 of Root + Bone magazine. Whilst the “in your (rich, elitist) face” rampage of the gilets jaunes through Paris has been front page news, another French revolution has been quietly building through the ranks of France’s winemakers. To understand what has caused this ripple of discontent, one must look at the laws that govern the wine industry in France. The AOC (Appelation Origine Controlle) system, governed

Simon Reilly
- Jun 11, 2019
- 8 min
Making Etna wine with I Vigneri
Another family holiday, another vineyard trip craftily sneaked in. I am the booker of holidays in our family, a role which allows me to strategically map my way around Europe’s wine regions under the guise of family time. As long as I can spin a story that there is something the kids really want to do in the general vicinity, I can usually create a gap in the family schedule to get my fix of talking to winemakers and tasting fermented grape juice from barrels. Last year we we