News

Arneis grapes on a vine in Piedmont. In Decanter magazine’s April 2025 issue, David Way writes about ‘Piedmont’s shifting focus’, which delves into the increase in plantings of white grape varieties in the Italian region and the reasons behind this change. He notes: ‘The quality of Piedmont’s white wines made with the likes of Cortese, Arneis, Timorasso, Erbaluce and Nascetta …

Inside the Mazzei winery, where Siepi is made. New releases from some of Tuscany’s top wineries reflect both challenges and innovations in winemaking. Discover wines shaped by a unique growing season and evolving production techniques.  Notes and scores for the latest releases from Tuscany… Source : https://www.decanter.com/premium/tuscanys-top-tier-new-vintage-releases-553500/

April is the cruellest month. No sooner have we mixed memory and your desire for good claret with our comprehensive retrospective of the 2022s then we make you wait a full month before the great Bordeaux highlight of the year – the review of the new vintage and en primeur! But that’s coming in May don’t fret, and we’ll have …

Roman Tournier showing his wines made from Piwi grapes at Millésime Bio wine fair 2025. After studying viticulture and oenology, he worked in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, in the Rhône valley, at Domaine de Beaurenard, followed by stints in New Zealand, Languedoc and Luberon. The Piwi adventure started in 2021 when he returned home and realised that fungal vine diseases were a big …

Welcome to the world of wine’s press releases coming to me. The only way to evaluate all this info is to look trends straight in the face, and study the facts. As I put bits and pieces together, we can all comprise the global perspective and form our own opinions. Enjoy the ride. The global […] The post Best Press …

Peter Richards MW, Ben Gubbins and Andrew Johnson tasted 137 wines, with 4 Outstanding and 26 Highly Recommended Value South American reds: Panel tasting scores 137 wines tasted Exceptional 0 Outstanding 4 Highly recommended 26 Recommended 92 Commended 15 Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their still, dry red wines from any region and classification in …

On Wednesday, the eyes of wine geeks and those in the wine industry will turn to the the Supreme Court. Wine will be on the docket, and, as you might expect, reds and whites do not map on to a political right and left. A love of wine is non-partisan even though no justice has ever proclaimed “I love wine” …

On the sidelines of her NY distributor’s recent tasting, I grabbed a quick three minutes with the supremely lovely Evelyne de Pontbriand. She is the third consecutive woman in her family to run the estate Domaine du Closel located at the Chateau des Vaults in the Loire region of Savennières. Aging Savennières: underrated or overrated? I think it is quite …

Spain makes a lot of wine. Overall, it’s the third biggest producer in the world. One problem the country has is that many of the country’s wines sell at low prices–don’t get me wrong, there are certainly some pricey ones too. Another problem is that as wine enthusiasts and producers around the world rejoice in delving into fiendish detail about …

One winery I wanted to be sure to visit when I was in Champagne last month was Pierre Péters. I have always tremendously enjoyed the racy wines in the US and Rodolphe Péters not only commands a lot of respect in the wine world for his Champagnes but I had heard he had a new (sparkling) wine project in California …

The trade war gets real! As if tariffs on hundreds of billions of consumer goods made in China weren’t real enough, the latest escalation from the Trump administration has found a new target: French wine. Late yesterday, word came down that the Trump administration will impose $7.5 billion in tariffs on goods from our European allies. The impetus is subsidies …

Our post about the 25% tariff that will be imposed on the $.2.5 billion of wines imported from France, Spain and Germany as of October 18 raised some questions. We respond: Rick: How do you suppose this will affect futures orders that are in place? Dr. Vino: They will be hit by the 25% levy if they arrive in the …

For those looking to explain the oddities of the recent tariffs on French wine, a clue may have come last week in Texas. But first, those oddities. It is not really going out on a limb to say that this administration has a haphazard, govern-by-tweet style of policymaking. So it should not be a surprise that there were some head-scratchers …

The Kincade fire has already burned 54,000 acres in Sonoma County, roughly the size of the area also under vine. There have been mandated evacuations of 180,000 residents and the 3,400 first responders have it only 5% contained. Strong winds have blowing sparks and embers huge distances but the winds are moderating. The governor has declared a state of emergency. …

“Wine is geography in a glass,” Hugh Johnson said recently. He and Jancis Robinson were in town to promote the new edition of the World Atlas of Wine. He said that back in 1970, the publisher was unsure if a book of wine maps would really fly. So he had to impress upon the publisher how wine and maps were …

Late yesterday, the US Trade Representative unsheathed a champagne saber. But it wasn’t for sabering champagne in celebration; rather, it was for dealing it a blow by threatening tariffs of 100%. French sparkling wine (not still wine) as well as cheese, handbags, makeup and enamelware would be affected. (See the whole list here.) While that would be very bad news …

Another day, another wine tariff post… Last week, news trickled out that the US Trade Representative might raise the tariff on European wine to 100%. Oh, and the tariff on 31-pages of other items. Unsatisfied with progress in the aircraft dispute with Airbus, which was the cause of the 25% tariff imposed on some European wines on October 18, the …

Tariffs of 100% may soon hit European wines in America. The price of some wines will double. But mostly it will mean that many of the most coveted wines will no longer be available. The comment period ends today at midnight over at the site of the United States Trade Representative. Fully 24,071 people have submitted comments. Add yours! My …

The global nightmare known as coronavirus has brought enormous tragedy, uncertainty and change to the way we live. In the pre-2020 part of my life, I led lots of wine tastings, large and small, in real life. They were fun and informative! Now that we are all in a pants-optional world of Zoom, it’s no surprise that wine tastings are …

I’ve been leading a ton of Zoom tastings during this quarantine period–a Zoom boom, if you will. We had this pair with a group recently and they really hit the ball out of the park: Pierre Peters, “Cuvée de Réserve,” Champagne and the 2019 rosé from Domaine du Bagnol in Cassis. (Find these wines at retail) The Pierre Peters has …