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A linguist by education and a company director by profession, Tom Lewis lived in Austria for several years where he first developed a love of Austrian wines, especially Wachau Riesling and Burgenland's dessert wines.
A couple of trips to France later and the same was true for Bordeaux, Languedoc and Alsace.
Launching this blog in 2009 was a way of recording impressions of various wine events and later, increasingly, individual wines.
His comments have been published on Jancis Robinson's website, Local Wine Events as well as in the local press in his home town of Cambridge, UK where he is the wine critic for City Connect and writes for other publications.
Tom is married with two children who both think he should get off the computer and spend more time with them.
Tom on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tgjlewis
Tom on Facebook - Tom Lewis Create your badge
Tom on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/CambWineBlogger/
Q&A
New World or Old - Old
Put these in order: red, white, rosé, fortified, sweet, sparkling - red, white and dessert all equally, then fortified; sparkling and rosé I could live without, but only if I had to
Any styles you don't like ? I'm not particularly fond of overly floral whites (Gewurz, Muscat) or overly light reds, such as Gamay
New Zealand or Australia - New Zealand
Bordeaux or Burgundy - Bordeaux
Riesling or Chardonnay - Riesling
France or Italy - France
Cork or Stelvin - cork
Buying from the producer, a wine merchant or the supermarket - ideally the producer, but in the real world you can't beat a good French supermarket like Auchan for everyday drinking.
Garden or dining room - in this country, it has to be the dining room, but with a view of the garden
Most expensive purchase - bought personally, a couple of Knoll Rieslings from the Wachau, still waiting to drink them, but the most expensive ever was a gift of a magnum of Troplong Mondot from an appreciative boss
Most frequent purchase - Austrian whites and red Bordeaux
Buying philosophy in 10 words - buy as close as possible to where it comes from
You are planning a dinner party; which comes first, the food or the wine - the food, as long as we have a suitable wine to go with it
South Africa or South America - I am increasingly impressed with Chilean regionality, but having not visited either yet, it's impossible to say with any authority
The CWB Scoring System
Like one's politics, income or religion, scoring systems are very personal and sensitive subjects.
In general, I do not like the idea of scoring wine, but have developed a shorthand code:
- Stylistically sub-standard or technically faulty: I say so in the review
- Pleasant enough but nothing special: no additional comments
- Rather good but not outstanding: Very Pleasant
- Beyond this, there are three more levels of increasing noteworthiness - Good, Very Good and Very Good Indeed
