Ourglass

Ourglass We are the wine discovery club. We deliver serious wine that doesn’t cost the earth straight to

What is wine for?For Robert Parker, pleasure. For Jancis Robinson, balance, purity, precision. For Hugh Johnson, story. ...
14/05/2026

What is wine for?
For Robert Parker, pleasure. For Jancis Robinson, balance, purity, precision. For Hugh Johnson, story. For Antonio Galloni, development. For Dan Keeling, sharing the moment.
Eight critics. Eight palates. Eight answers to the same question.
That divergence is not a failure of criticism. It is the most useful thing about it. Knowing what question a critic asks is the first step to knowing what question you want answered.
Amelia Singer on critics as shortcuts not verdicts, Tim Hayward on what criticism owes the reader, and Rory Sutherland on why understanding a wine and experiencing it cannot be separated.
Reviewed by Jancis Robinson MW and William Kelley.
One question underneath all of it:
How do you build your taste without outsourcing your judgment?
Full piece at ourglass.wine. Link in bio.

Cordón trenzado. Vines woven into long strands along the ground, lifted and laid by hand.Phylloxera rewrote wine between...
05/05/2026

Cordón trenzado. Vines woven into long strands along the ground, lifted and laid by hand.

Phylloxera rewrote wine between 1860 and 1890 but it didn’t reach the Valle de la Orotava.

The vines above Orotava are between 90 and 250 years old. Ungrafted.

The system did not evolve to make better wine. It evolved because the land was shared with potatoes. The vines could be lifted. The crops could grow underneath.

The potatoes are gone. The braid is still here.

Jonatan García Lima is the winemaker at Suertes del Marqués. He is planting new vineyards in cordón trenzado and converting trellised vines back to it. Not because it is easier. Because he believes it is right.

This piece is not about volcanic wine. It’s about what remains when you strip the usual stuff back.

Read Ungrafted at the link in bio.

In collaboration with

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Esto es cordón trenzado. Vides trenzadas en largos cordones sobre el suelo, levantadas y colocadas a mano.

La filoxera reescribió el vino entre 1860 y 1890.

No llegó al Valle de La Orotava.

Las vides en La Orotava tienen entre 90 y 250 años. Sin injertar.

El sistema no evolucionó para hacer mejor vino. Evolucionó porque la tierra se compartía con las patatas. Las vides podían levantarse. Los cultivos podían crecer debajo.

Las patatas ya no están. La trenza permanece.

Jonatan García Lima es el enólogo de Suertes del Marqués. Está plantando nuevas viñas en cordón trenzado y reconvirtiendo viñas en espaldera a este sistema. No porque sea más fácil. Porque cree que es lo correcto.

Este no es un artículo sobre vino volcánico.

Es sobre lo que permanece cuando todo lo que normalmente da forma al vino ha sido eliminado.

Lee Ungrafted en el enlace en la bio.

En colaboración con

“Wine making requires very little ego. Nature leans on you all the time. If you’re not in tune with her, she’s going to ...
27/02/2026

“Wine making requires very little ego. Nature leans on you all the time. If you’re not in tune with her, she’s going to brutally remind you who’s in charge.”
Chiara Pepe. Third generation at Emidio Pepe. Seven harvests into a sixty-year project she didn’t start and won’t finish. Same five pillars her grandfather set in 1964. Pergola for shade. Concrete tanks. No oak. No filtration. Native yeast. Completely different climate.
35ppm sulphur. 13% alcohol. No nostalgia. No shortcuts. Adaptation in continuity.
We tasted the 2022 Montepulciano from two single vineyards. Branella was taut, almost nervous – red berries, herbs, a floral lift. Casa Pepe was its opposite: dark fruit, iron, an enveloping warmth from the first sip. Brought to mind Chambolle vs Gevrey in terms of contrasting character. Side by side, as stark a demonstration of terroir as any Burgundy comparison I’ve encountered. The most compelling Italian wines I’ve tasted this year.

Why are people buying less wine but spending the same?Because one bottle that actually matters beats three you forget.We...
29/01/2026

Why are people buying less wine but spending the same?

Because one bottle that actually matters beats three you forget.

We wrote about it. We call it The Premiumisation Paradox.

UK wine volume: down 11%.
UK wine value: flat.

The industry sees decline.
We see rebalancing.

Premiumisation isn’t irrational. It’s taste catching up with intent. It’s your brain choosing satisfaction over volume. It’s the most rational satisfier economists can’t explain.

We asked some of the sharpest minds in taste to help us make sense of it ~

The full essay is live now.
Link in bio.

“You have to unlearn everything you think you know before you can learn.”Gang of Four’s Jon King followed that logic. Fr...
12/12/2025

“You have to unlearn everything you think you know before you can learn.”

Gang of Four’s Jon King followed that logic. From Sevenoaks to Leeds to the sweat of CBGBs, from post-punk manifestos to Sicilian Chardonnay, his education in taste was never about accumulating the right answers. It was about learning which questions to discard.

Gang of Four became famous for what they refused to do. No solos. No ballads. No ornament. Riffs that never changed. Lyrics lifted from overheard conversations and everyday speech.

Impact is not polish. Originality not complexity. Clarity through subtraction.

The same method applies to wine. Set constraints. Know the occasion. Pay attention. Do not drink on autopilot.

The next time you pick up a glass, do not ask whether you like it. Ask what it is doing. It might start something.

Jon King’s memoir To Hell With Poverty! is published by Constable.

Link in bio

15/11/2025

“This wine is f***ing delicious.”

Max Halley in full flow, full Hunter S Thompson. No airs, no graces. Wine as pleasure, plain and simple.

Max joins Taste Decoded, our series with Rankin, Oxford’s Charles Spence, Amelia Singer, Rory Sutherland and Michael Sager, asking a simple question: how does taste work, and what does that knowledge provide?

Great wine opens minds. Orthodoxy shuts them.
Max is on the side of the angels.

Watch the film: ourglass.wine/taste-decoded

12/11/2025

“I knew nothing about wine when we opened. I still know nothing. But sharing that journey is important to me.”

Michael Sager (Sager + Wilde) on learning in public.

Eating the best food, drinking great wine, and not sharing? That’s a bit selfish.

Part of Taste Decoded ~ featuring Rankin, Amelia Singer, Oxford’s Charles Spence, and voices on wine, art and science.

The joy isn’t in knowing everything. It’s sharing the discovery.

🎥 ourglass.wine/taste-decoded

06/11/2025

“There are so many wine clubs out there. But these sound like the kind of people I’d like to drink wine with.”

Amelia Singer on why Taste Decoded matters.

Amelia is one of the warmest and most switched on voices in wine – known for Food Magazine among others. Her policy: only mention wines she genuinely likes. “I just want to be able to sleep at night.”

What caught her eye about Ourglass: the link between wine, music, art and culture. Plus self-deprecation. Human not standoffish.

Amelia’s take: “Fresh, not patronising. These sound like decent, cool people.”

That’s the point of Taste Decoded – making great wine accessible without compromising quality. Using art and science to decode taste and liberate in the process.

Because the best wines aren’t just about what’s in the bottle. They’re about who you drink them with, where, and why.

What a pleasure,

Taste decoded. Taste liberated.

Link in bio for the full series.

03/11/2025

“I used AI to plagiarise myself.”
Rankin trained AI on decades of his work. Dead people. Vested forms. Everything distinctly “Rankin.”
“The pictures were quite good. Very similar to my pictures.”
If AI can replicate your technique, what’s left that’s yours?
Your taste. The curation you can’t articulate in a prompt.
Taste is the moat.
Watch & read everything - link in bio

31/10/2025

“I’m a Groucho Marx. I don’t want to be part of the gang.”
What makes Rankin the same as his friends?
“We want an argument. A debate. To be proved wrong and proved right.”
That’s taste.
Not comfort. Not consensus.
Watch Film 2 - link in bio.

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