Simon J Woolf

It's all part of the job I guess. Carry on writing for long enough and you're bound to offend someone eventually.

A Week in the Life of a Wine Journalist Spoiler: It wasn't wandering around vineyards sipping and spitting

I rarely write about myself, but this week was the right moment to pull back the curtain and talk about journalism, what it means, and how it can blow up in your face sometimes.

themorningclaret.com/p/a-week-in-...

Looks like people still like their herbicides there?

Why Organic Matters More than Natural Wine What you're spraying in the vineyard matters more than a pinch of sulphites

I wrote this short piece after reading @emmabentleyvino.bsky.social 's report on a landmark industrial pollution case in Italy.

themorningclaret.com/p/why-organi...

Drinking the cheap stuff I see!

I finally made a starter pack.... if you want to find some more wine people to follow on here, maybe it will help.

go.bsky.app/U3ZkLQr

I think it's been common for a while though. Bianca Bosker talks about it extensively in her book Cork Dork.

Well this is about a winemaker a couple of hours south-west of there, in Primorska.

But still, enjoy Slovenia!

Meeting Marinko UOU and the Consortium of Abandoned Vineyards

A little story about tracking down one of Slovenia's most eccentric winemakers.

themorningclaret.com/p/meeting-ma...

An open letter from educators who refuse the call to adopt GenAI in education

If you work in education please share this and consider signing it.

openletter.earth/an-open-lett...

This feels like a ✨prime✨ week to close the book on Amazon.

Wine producers in the Douro take to the streets More than 500 wine producers have taken to the streets in Portugal to protest at the crisis affecting the area, and demand solutions from the government to prevent producers going bust.

Sad to read about the protests in Douro (reported by @teamdb.bsky.social in link below). I wrote about these issues (selling grapes below cost of production etc) in Foot Trodden (with @ryanopaz.bsky.social) in 2021. The problem has only intensified.

www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/07/wine...

Wow. This is what over-production looks like....

Smart marketing I think, a wine that's gulpable - smashable, gluggable, whatever your favourite word might be.

Gulp Hablo is a budget priced Spanish orange wine that's been selling like hot cakes and ruffling a few feathers in the natural wine world.

I took a look at what it's all about.

themorningclaret.com/p/gulp-hablo...

My ad blocker is too effective, I don't see the ads at all 😂

I think you're right about Marissa. Maybe she's a character in Robert's book.

The only writer credit I could find was one Marissa Funkler.
Who, surprise surprise following a quick Google, doesn't actually seem to exist.

I was doing background research for this week's newsletter, and discovered a wine review website (purportedly) that I'm pretty sure is 100% AI created

mpwwine.com

A lot of it is beyond random. Sample article: "Does wine contain caffeine?"

Who is stuff like this for? What's the point of it?

It's a very important topic. Look forward to reading the piece.

I guess that's a 300% markup on the retail... I've seen worse!

Orange is a bit less esoteric than amber IMO. And it's the same word in at least three languages (Eng, French, German). So has quite a lot going for it.

Plus I suggest it sits better in the white, red, rosé paradigm than amber.

Good to hear.

I hardly think you can call Piemonte or Emilia-Romagna the margins?

Promise I'll stop now, but I would just mention (for diversity's sake) Volcanic reds fr Etna, Emilia-Romagna and Piedmonte's varied Frizzante styles (Brachetto, Asti, Lambrusco etc), ethereal Pinot from Aosta, Nebbiolo from all over Piedmonte, mineral whites from Alto Adige, crunchy reds from Ciro

If you like elegant, lightish reds, I would definitely investigate Austrian Blaufränkisch or Zweigelt.

I love Mencia, but the problem in Bierzo is finding examples that haven't been oaked to death. Perhaps better to look in or around Galicia or other NW parts of Spain where there's loads of Mencia.

So you're part of the problem 😂

And we didn't even start talking about Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia or Croatia...

Bezos invited you on his next voyage?

I'm sorry but this is blatantly not true. Spain has cool mineral whites in the NW, classical reds in Rioja & R del Duero, Hedonistic reds in the south. And sherry, and Cava and sweet wines. And Tenerife.
And Italy? Diversity is unending. Far more than France (or than I can fit into one msg here!)

So I think this proves my point. What you see is that it's totally disproportionate to production volumes.

Italy produced around 41mhl in 2024, compared to 37mhl in France.

If it was Decanter that would mean £15 - £50 I believe!!