Lisse Garnett

Feature Writer, lover of stories. 

Copy, podcasts, features, shorts and ideas - lots of those..

Ex BBC Broadcast Journalist with a Masters in Radio from Goldsmiths, WSET Diploma Wine, GNVQ4 Broadcast Journalism, WSET Level 3 Sake. BA Hons English 2:1 Leeds University

My Recent Work

The Buyer | Terroir-driven gems drive Corney & Barrow's fresh look at Argentina

Four of the most exciting and cutting-edge wine producers working in Argentina today have been snapped up by UK importer Corney & Barrow, prompting a restructuring and enhancing of its entire Argentine portfolio. Eight new terroir-driven wines were shown by these producers in a masterclass hosted by Tim Atkin MW and Corney & Barrow buyer Rebecca Palmer followed by many more in a walkaround tasting afterwards, held at the Argentine Ambassador’s Residence in London. Lisse Garnett talked to all con..

South Africa in England: we taste the inaugural gold medal winning vintage of Tidebrook Wines, from medieval Mousehall, the Jordan winery and distillery in Mayfield, East Sussex –

Gary and Kathy Jordan are well known for their Stellenbosch winery. Back in 2018 they began their quest for the perfect soil conditions to inspire a UK venture in partnership with their daughter Christy. Today a small vineyard, sustainable gin distillery, botanical garden, bee hives and a herd of curious livestock are all housed in the beautiful East Sussex countryside. And it’s all down to the soil. What’s more this small but perfectly formed sustainable farmstead is now welcoming holidaying gu
Club Oenologique •

10 top summer reads for food and drink lovers

Having a cocktail poured for you by Agostino Perrone must be one of the world’s finest drinking experiences. The leading light of The Connaught Bar in London is a ‘director of mixology’ and a master of hospitality, someone whose service has its own motto: ‘straight up with style, and don’t forget the smile’; and whose Martinis are prepared on an extravagant trolley rolled up to your table, with the liquid delivered in an artful, boozy stream from a mixing glass held up high in the air. Let’s be

English Wine: Lost in Translation | The Arbuturian

As English Wine Week gets underway, Lisse Garnett reflects on the rise of this enigmatic tipple…

English wine remains the most underrated category in the wine world. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve sung its praises to foreign winemakers only to be given a derisive, pitying look. There are notable exceptions: the Vikings love our wines and buy them by the container load; the Americans are our loyal customers, as are Hong Kong, Japan, The Netherlands and Switzerland. In Denmark, Engli

The Buyer | Lisse Garnett on Sebastían Zuccardi and the new age of Malbec

“Beef Welling-Ton!” exclaimed Sebastián Zuccardi with delight when presented with Kerridge’s finest fillet wrapped in spinach, mushroom mouse, and crispy suet pastry.“This is a craze now in Argentina.” His unguarded happiness lit up the room.

There had also been a distinct waft of awe in the room as ten of us sat in hushed devotion although Zuccardi, clearly a visionary, appears immune to adulation; I’m not sure he even noticed.

Thanks to a population that loves to eat and drink its own produc

Ortega, Britain’s great white hope or just another white elephant? –

‘If there is one varietal that cannot be accused of a lack of flavour, it is the German vine crossing Ortega, but when it comes to this bodybuilding grape, less is most definitely more’,

English wine – far from a joke now

A critic I know was almost cancelled for using the term ‘vine racism’ during a stateside live in defence of certain vine crossings and PIWIS. I see his point. To many drinkers, Germanic crossings and PIWIs are verboten.

Lisse Garnett asked winemakers Salvatore Leone, Adrian

The Buyer | Francisco Baettig on where his new project sits within Chilean wine

Chile remains woefully misunderstood. There is one idea of Chilean wine, and then there are the terroir-focused winemakers to whom I dedicate this piece. For they are causing a quiet revolution of their own.

There is a reason why the third and final Sideways book was set in Maule and focussed on VIGNO, volcanoes, earthquakes (and sex). Francisco Baettig, Garage, De Martino and Bouchon have busted out of the straitjacket that ‘value and volume’ created. High-priced icon wines represent another s

The Buyer | Lisse Garnett: ViuManent and getting Chilean Malbec on the map

In 2021, I wrote a piece for the Spectator entitled 'How Argentina conquered Malbec'. I might just have easily cited Chile. The back story of Malbec's unlikely journey from Cahors to Chile to Argentina in the hands of a French agronomist from Tours is a good one. Human struggle drove Malbec's exodus to the promised lands of South America, and everyone from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Napoleon III played a part.

Thanks to copper, gold, and nitrate reserves, Chile became richer than Sweden and twice
Roussillon •

Beguiling Banyuls

Lisse Garnett on discovering the enthralling sweet wines of Banyuls in beautiful, picturesque Collioure.

I supped sweet Banyuls in Collioure and fell in love with this complex, sensual, alluring,

unfathomably affordable ancient cure for melancholy. Octogenarian vines furnish the

grapes for these poetic endeavours, which now languish under-priced, unseen, and

undervalued by a world set on dryness.

Collioure lies on the cusp of Spain, a fishing village set in a bay protected by cliffs, pep
Academie Du Vin Library •

Why the Douro Valley should be on every wine lover’s wish list

The oldest wine region in the world is a marvel of ancient vines and beautiful landscapes

Portugal’s Douro Valley is the ultimate three-day wine destination. Porto, with its international airport, hilly vistas, elegant iron bridges, fish-focused cuisine and ancient Roman roots, is a marvellous architectural and epicurean prelude to the delights of the Douro.

Scenic travel upriver via Pinhão may be accomplished by train, road or boat. The once tumultuous Douro, now dammed, allows for gentle pas

Gateway to Patagonia: Hotel Antumalal | The Arbuturian

Hotel Antumalal and Spa in Pućon offers the most authentic marriage of man-made structure and nature I have ever encountered within a commercial setting. The hotel is a mid-century modernist masterpiece with unrivalled views of Villarrica Lake and its namesake picture-perfect snow-dusted Volcano. Built in 1948 by Czech wartime refugees in a Bauhaus style from local materials, it was meticulously designed to enhance the natural contours of the 5-hectare park that surrounds it.

This is both indig
The Buyer •

Tim Atkin MW's Best of Rioja - the best new Rioja wines to have on your radar

Tim Atkin MW’s The Best of Rioja tasting in London last week delivered the very finest of fine wines to enraptured city mouths without missing a beat. Terroir-focused beauties dominated the proceedings with whites making an indelible mark on Lisse Garnett and the many educated savvy consumers she met. This was a far cry from the “Rioja is in crisis” headlines that have been regularly appearing in the wine press of late – with splits within the regulatory council, high profile bankruptcies, overs

Chateau Lagrazette, a film with Alain Dominique Perrin

Lisse Garnett visits the romantic castle of Château Lagrezette, which was purchased as a ruin and renovated by Alain Dominique Perrin in the 1980s to house his extended family. He shows her around his beautiful home, filled with antiques collected from Europe, especially the north of England. This fortified house was built just after the Hundred Years' War; before that, the farm had been known for the black wines of Cahors it produced. Transported on the waters of the River Lot, these wines travelled as far as England, where they were used to bolster wines imported from Bordeaux. The war put paid to this trade, and the Castle dungeon or oubliette, unearthed by Alain during renovations, contained human remains from this dismal period. Today, the castle is surrounded by vines and offers the most inviting accommodation to the weary wine traveller.
Wine Anorak •

Why should we care about the age of the vine that made our wine? –

Man’s history with the vine predates the written word. Old vines map man’s passage to the new world and our genesis in the old. Prized for complexity, flavour and their marked tendency to express terroir they offer up a stimulating smorgasbord of taste and nostalgia; a living link with summers past.

As Lisse Garnett prepares to attend her third Old Vine Conference, she reflects on what inspired her about the last. Sarah Abbott MW led the charge, brilliantly assisted by Michèle Shah, Belinda Sto
The Buyer •

Best wines of 2023 - a selection of top wines that should be on your radar

For Lisse Garnett her Best wines of 2023 were inextricably linked to the wine regions she visited, the estates and the many inspirational people she met on her travels. From an empowering winery in South Africa, to the second Wine Writers Retreat in Bordeaux, a Quinta in the Douro and a wine odyssey along the Loire, 2023 was a year in which Garnett re-evaluated her career and found that it is always the wine that takes pride of place.

“2023, for me, was the year I took a good hard look at mysel
Club Oenologique •

The best new wine books - reviewed and rated

Wine books make the perfect gift, especially at Christmas – a great time of year to curl up in peace with a really good read. And luckily for the wine lover in your life, the second half of 2023 offered some fascinating new books about wine, released just in time for Christmas gifting. As a result, we asked some of our writers to leaf their way through the latest and greatest titles to find the best wine books for Christmas – from a history of wine fraud to a collection of pieces on one of the w
Académie du Vin Library •

Ortega is best for British wine, say a new wave of British winemakers

A growing number of UK winemakers prize English still-white wines made from Ortega – enthusiasts say they rate the texture, taste and versatility of this German-made post-war crossing.

Still wine makes up a third of all UK wine production, and demand is growing. Hybrids and crosses such as German-developed Ortega grow well in our damp, cold climate. Hybrids are environmentally friendly: they need fewer chemicals because they contain disease-resistant American vine DNA. Ortega, a crossing, can c
The Buyer •

South African white wines discovered at Bibendum's Cape & Boot tasting

Bibendum’s run of imaginatively curated trade tastings continued earlier in the month with Cape and Boot, an opportunity to sample a wide selection of its South African and Italian wines in a reasonably relaxed, albeit crowded, manner. Lisse Garnett threw herself headfirst into the scrum and sampled all she could, focusing particularly on South African white wines from the likes of Graham Beck, Creation, Ghost Corner, Stellenrust, Journey’s End, Shannon Vineyards and Springfield Estate. Here are
The Buyer •

Alois Lageder: which of these wines should be on your buying radar

Finding unique wines with a story to tell is the meat and drink of the on-trade. Few, though, are as good as Bibendum, argues Lisse Garnett, in unearthing idiosyncratic winemakers who like to push boundaries to the limit. To prove the point, the importer invited Garnett to visit one of the many jewels in its crown – the 13th Century estate of Alois Lageder, who is making biodynamic mountain wines in the fairytale world of Alto Adige, complete with Alpine cows in the vineyards and barrels of wine
The Buyer •

Wiston Estate - are these English sparkling wines worth buying?

When the stewards of Wiston Estate make a plan, it’s for the next 50 years, not five. For 300 years, they’ve been planning for the next generation, and their mindfulness has served them well. Wiston land produces enough grain each year to keep 18,000 people in Weetabix. Beer and whisky are also beneficiaries. The estate restaurant ‘Chalk’, housed in an old flint barn and led by Michelin-starred Chef Tom Kemble, feeds a further fortunate few. Wilton Park, at Wiston Park, the Goring’s ancestral ho
The Buyer •

Ferrari Trento: are these Italian sparkling wines as good as Champagne?

Cyril Brun’s high profile appointment at Ferrari Trento is a fitting one for the ex-chef des caves of Charles Heidsieck. The North Italian sparkling wine has always had a close relationship with Champagne – as an inspiration, as a competitor and as a doppelgänger. But Ferrari’s quintessentially Italian take on high-end luxury sparkling has defiantly ploughed its own furrow from the regional authenticity of the wine to the brilliant marketing strategy behind getting the bubbles into the hands of
Académie du Vin Library •

Back to the future – Old vines link to the cooler past

Esca, a wood-rotting fungus, is one such disease. Pruners advocate operating rather than plant removal and the results are good – so good that Sirch travels the world operating on afflicted vines. Sap flow is paramount, he explained: if it’s cut off the vine will be compromised. Only first- or second- year growth is pruned: room to expand with energy rather than vigour is key.

As vines age, sap flow increases: healthy plant structure is a physiological gain of time served. Older vines are less
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