iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 05/08/2026

This is not good. From joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/projects-and...

Graph showing the amount of land in the EU burnt by wildfires in 2026, compared with 2025 (the previous worst year on record, now significantly exceeded in 2026) and the 20 year average.

As of 29 July 2026*, the area affected by fires has reached 434 976 hectares.

This exceeds both the area recorded by the same date in 2025 (the worst year on record) and the long-term average of the last 20 years (2006–2025).

*Data updated from EFFIS on 30 July 2026 at 8:18 CET.

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 27/07/2026

I really need to have a cat in my life.

Picture of a glass held in someone's hand with some beer in it. Engraved on the glass is the text "IT'S NOT Drinking alone IF THE CAT IS HOME"

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 09/05/2026

UK, you are going to hell.....

UK local council election results, showing a massive gain for Farage's Reform UK party and a massive loss for Labour. The only bright point is the gain in the number of Green councillors

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 02/05/2026

Love it when I discover a bottle at the back of the fridge with a glass left .. and after 10 days open, it's delicious - better than it was on the first day This is Domaine Didon's Bourgogne Blanc 2022, a natural wine from husband and wife David and Naïma Didon, who farm 2ha in Beaune.

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 15/12/2025

@janetrad.bsky.social I thought you'd like this: vinalchemy.com

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 12/12/2025

How could you not trust this marketing?

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 02/12/2025

If you ever needed proof that China is an authoritarian country.....

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 02/12/2025

Wow! I feel that this, made by Sühring restaurant in Bangkok, could have given the prizewinner a run for their money: When they brought it to the table, I thought it was a fake - just an ornament to illustrate the origin of the dish. Then they sliced it and served it to us. OMG.

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 14/10/2025

"The people who make our lives more difficult don't arrive on rubber dinghies, they arrive on private jets" Ross Creer MSP on BBC Debate Night. Applies everywhere, not just the UK.

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 03/09/2025

It's my montage showing queen foot treading grapes 😂

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 14/08/2025

A slightly snarky guide to Amsterdam's natural wine scene, with my off-piste favourites and a survival guide if you really want to do battle with the hipsters. Second half of the piece is for paying subscribers. It'll only cost you €5 to become one of them! themorningclaret.com/p/amsterdam-...

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 11/08/2025

Not sure about AI? Here's how to stop search engines from showing you AI answers in preference to actual web sites. Google: use www.udm14.com (performs google search with the option &udm=14) Better yet, change your default search engine to DuckDuckGo and don't forget to tweak this setting:

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 04/07/2025

Gulp Hablo is a budget priced Spanish orange wine that's been selling like hot cakes and ruffling a few feathers in the natural wine world. I took a look at what it's all about. themorningclaret.com/p/gulp-hablo...

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 25/06/2025

What is it about French Wine? Why and how one European nation has dominated the wine world for centuries. Is it time for a change? themorningclaret.com/p/what-is-it...

Photo of author Simon J Woolf at a typewriter with a French flag protruding up. A thought bubble above Simon's head suggests frustration. A glass of orange wine sits on the table by the side of the typewriter. Photo: Han Furnée.

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 20/06/2025

I fundamentally don't believe they do. I've always held it's a philosophy not a style. At the same time (as I wrote in this piece), if a wine tastes squeaky clean and simple/monothematic, one might cast aspersions as to its "naturalness" and ponder how much intervention there was.

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 19/06/2025

Are these the world's cheapest natural wines? I review three new releases from Romanian giant @cramelerecaseu.bsky.social (finally a winery that's actually on here!) Together with thoughts about how natural (or not) they are. themorningclaret.com/p/cramele-re...

Three bottles of wine from Romanian producer Cramele Recaș, the Solara Orange 2024, Solara Red 2023 and Orange Natural Wine 2024.

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 19/06/2025

Really impressed with Lonely Planet - wanted the latest edition of their Greek islands guide & my local bookshop didn't have it. Ordered direct from their site, arrived the next day w free shipping. Seems they have a distribution centre in NL. I've boycotted Amazon for years so this was a big win.

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 29/05/2025

A lot of people have a romantic idea about family businesses in wine. Alex Zahel is not one of those people. He and his wife Hilary gave me a full and frank interview about his painful exit from his family winery, and their new negoce project. themorningclaret.com/p/austrian-f... #biodynamic

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 15/05/2025

On the eve of one of Europe's biggest fairs dedicated to Central European wines, I dug into the term a little and tried to figure out what it means and how it really relates to wine. themorningclaret.com/p/the-empire...

A poorly comped image of a vineyard in Herzegovina with a hand-drawn Darth Vader. Even though this article has nothing to do with Star Wars. Text: The Empire Strikes Back - Making sense of the phrase Central Europe, and what it means for wine.

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 17/04/2025

Got it. I've come up with a formula that will auto-generate the score.

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 21/03/2025

Yes I still love Bordeaux. And I explain why in this guide, where we review 37 organic, biodynamic, low-intervention reds. No there aren't any scores. Yes you have to pay. I worked like crazy to bring you this guide. themorningclaret.com/p/tmc-guide-...

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 07/03/2025

I was thinking about the published sub-title.

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 28/02/2025

Both parts of themorningclaret.com 's first ever wine guide are now online! We blind tasted through 44 orange wines from Collio (= every producer & nearly every orange currently made in the region). Read our faves, recommendations & tasting notes here: themorningclaret.com/p/tmc-guide-...

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 16/01/2025

Joking apart, I was recently mentioned (with other international wine ppl) in Air Serbia's onboard magazine (oh the glamour). The article (abt a big wine fair we were all attending) was in Serbian & English. In the Serbian version they respelt our names phonetically to read well in Serbian.

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 07/01/2025

Started watching Black Doves on Netflix, and my first thought (apart from that it's really very good) is how much of modern drama revolves around the (mobile) phone. Every few minutes someone has to answer their phone, and that's how the story advances. This is the modern way.

Character from the Netflix series Black Doves on a mobile phone

Mobile phone display showing missed called, in the Netflix series Black Doves

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 30/12/2024

Two of the most stunning bottles I enjoyed over Christmas. The Tondonia reserve 07 opened wonderfully over the course of an hour to reveal so much beautiful fruit. Bellene 10, wow, so fresh, aromatic and pure but with proper grunt and structure underpinning the fruit. Sensational.

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 02/12/2024

Even by my standards, this was an insane blind tasting selection for one evening: Château Palmer 2004, Radikon Ribolla Gialla 1998, and a 2022 orange natural wine from Korea!

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 26/11/2024

Well, that's the blue bird of yore aka the Excrement gone from my life. (Archive downloaded, account "deactivated" which seems the only way to delete it) Onward!

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Simon J Woolf @simonjwoolf.com · 24/11/2024

Enjoying a cold sunny day in Belgrade

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