Holding Still: Julie Battisti, 2026.
We live in a culture that competes relentlessly for our attention. Algorithms anticipate what might keep us scrolling, feeds refresh without end, and the boundaries between one stimulus and the...
A Quacking Good Merlot
Decoy Limited, Alexander Valley, Merlot, 2022
The Duckhorns have been turning out exceptional Merlot almost from the very beginning in 1978, releasing their first vintage just two years later. Their Duckhorn ‘Three...
The Armagh: Eight Acres of Ambition
The First Qualified Man
Jim Barry came to the Clare Valley in 1947 carrying a piece of paper that nobody else in the district possessed. He had begun studying oenology...
When the Devil Comes to Town
Melbourne, the early nineties. I was a brash young salesman on the floor of an upmarket wine boutique, and Chilean Merlot was one of the easiest sales in the...
The Tea Chronicles – Wabi Cha
"Though you wipe your hands and brush off the dust and dirt from the vessels, what is the use of all this fuss if the heart is still impure?"...
Sons of Ceylon
Tea with Thierry
The pot arrives first. It always does now.
For eighteen years, Phnom Penh has been my home, and for most of those years there has been a standing appointment in my...
A Cinnamon Life
Sri Lanka is cinnamon: the birthplace of this spice, and its natural producer in its finest form, taste, and scent. Cinnamon permeates all life in Sri Lanka — the island produces over...
Chapter Two: The First Earthrise
All human suffering concerns every other human being.
— Václav Havel, New Year’s Address to the Nation, 1 January 1990
The photograph that changed how the human race understood itself was taken...
