My apologies for the recent dormancy of this blog: I have been travelling for the last six weeks, and the fact that my thoughts on mainstream wine topics now go up on www.decanter.com every Monday morning has diverted resources in that direction. Do take a look if you haven't already, and feel free to get involved in some of the lively discussions there. But there will be more reviews here before long, and I will be continuing to post on left-of-field wine topics and personal topics here whenever I can.

If anyone would like to join me to a Provence tasting lunch on Saturday June 18th at Cigalon in London's Chancery Lane, please click on the following link to find out a little more: http://www.sipandsavour.co.uk/upcoming-events/provence-wines-at-cigalon. Amber Dalton, who organises the Sip and Savour events, tells me that there are still some tickets available (though Amber is away over the coming week so if you don't hear anything for a few days, don't panic). We have some wonderfully elegant wines from Provence to try, including Sacha Lichine's Château d'Esclans. (If you happen to be a World of Fine Wine reader, that was the wine I featured in my 'One Bottle' column in the latest edition, Issue 31.) It's rosé, of course. Come and help us pin down what great rosé could and should be ... though there will be red and white wine matches, too, to ballast the discussion.