Sarah Ahmed is an independent, London-based wine writer, educator and judge with a particular interest in the wines of Portugal and Australia.
Sarah was awarded the Vintners Cup in 2003, the Portuguese Annual Wine Awards’ Wine Writer of the Year 2009 and was short-listed for the International Wine & Spirit Competition Communicator of the Year in 2009 and 2010.
In addition to publishing www.thewinedetective.co.uk she writes for several respected magazine titles including Decanter and The World of Fine Wine.
Since 2006, she has contributed on Portugal, Port and Madeira to Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book. Sarah consulted on Portugal and Australia for the seventh edition of The World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson MW and has contributed on Portugal for the upcoming 4th edition of Jancis Robinson MW’s The Oxford Companion to Wine. Counted among Decanter’s “experts par excellence,” she is Regional Chair for Portugal at Decanter World Wine Awards, the world’s largest and most prestigious wine competition. In 2013, she was admitted to the rank of Cavaleiro of the Confraria do Vinho do Porto for her commitment and contribution to Port wine.
Text Sarah Ahmed
Each Douro harvest, Luís Sottomayor clocks up between 10,000 and 15,000 kilometres in two months driving back and forth between vineyards and wineries to assess the grapes and make wine. Hard work!
Text Ilkka Sirén
It’s all about character. Unique wines with tons of personality, right? It’s not good enough to make just technically solid wines, you have to have something that sets you apart.
Text Sarah Ahmed
Leading Australian fortified winemaker Jen Pfeiffer of Pfeiffer Wines reckons she tasted her first Port wine before the age of 10.
Text Ilkka Sirén
Ridiculously awesome that is! I’ve been curious about this little wine region in Lisbon ever since I tasted one bottle during harvest in Douro back in 2008.
Text Ilkka Sirén
Ridiculously awesome that is! I’ve been curious about this little wine region in Lisbon ever since I tasted one bottle during harvest in Douro back in 2008.
Text Sarah Ahmed
Pedro Marques’ story is familiar among Portugal’s young winemakers. Although he is the fifth generation in his family to make wine, the thirty-four year old is the first to have studied winemaking.
Text Ilkka Sirén
Traveling up and down Portugal is an experience. Driving through the little villages, endless number of roundabouts and beautiful landscapes is part of the fun when hopping from wine region to wine region.
Text Sarah Ahmed
It’s hard to think of a worse injury for a professional goalkeeper than a broken hand. Occurring just a year into André Manz’s stint playing for a Portuguese club you might have thought he’d head back home to Brazil. But even in his twenties, Manz didn’t do the obvious.
Text Ilkka Sirén
I’m not a great cook I can tell you that right now. I mean, I like to cook but I’m just not very good at it. At home I cook everyday. That wasn’t always the case though. Not many years ago I could hardly boil water.
Text Ilkka Sirén
If there is one thing I know, one thing I’m absolutely certain of is that winter in Finland is inevitable. As a season it is not my favorite. But not because of the snow, that might sometimes be waist deep. It’s not even the cold which can reach -40°C in some parts of Finland. It is the darkness that really takes it out of me.
Text Sarah Ahmed
The motto at Fita Preta is “why spend a lifetime trying to blend in, when you were born to stand out.” And so it is with the wines.
Text Ilkka Síren
We Finns are known for all kinds of weird traditions. We invented and host annual world championships for Wife-Carrying and mosquito killing. We have competitions for throwing rubber boots and cellphones. We celebrate midsummer by disappearing to the countryside to drink amongst ourselves.
