News

With the appointment of new head of BWS Caroline Thompson-Hill as well as new buyers Giota Polizoudi and Harriet Coates, Marks & Spencer continues to build on its the successes of the past few years with a host of medal winners at this years’ Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA). Alongside the introduction of the Classics range in 2020, the supermarket has …

Vineyard in Burgundy. Famous regions such as Burgundy and Champagne have projected one of the smallest wine crops in recent years. The Burgundy and Beaujolais harvests are both expected to fall by 35% year-on-year, while the Champagne crop will be down by around 33% compared to 2023. Last month, the agriculture ministry’s Agreste statistics projected a total harvest of 39.3 million hectolitres …

View of Ada Bridge in Belgrade, Serbia. Whether you’re a wine connoisseur, culture vulture, archaeology aficionado, history buff, culinary explorer or nature lover, a journey through the Balkans brings feelings akin to those of a child in a candy store. You’ll find yourself delightfully overwhelmed, unsure of where to start or which of the many flavours to taste first. Hidden …

Rare Champagne has surprised followers by releasing a 2012 vintage after the lauded 2013, which was awarded a Platinum medal at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards. Scroll down to see the Rare Champagne 2012 tasting note and… Source : https://www.decanter.com.master.public.keystone-prod-eks-euw1.futureplc.engineering/premium/first-taste-rare-champagne-surprises-with-2012-vintage-release-540290/

Perched on the Mediterranean coast in northern Spain, Hostal de La Gavina transports guests back to the glamorous heyday of the Costa Brava. Opened as a family-run ‘hostal’ with 11 rooms in 1932, it was a Hollywood hideaway in the 1950s and even became a film set for Liam Neeson’s 1930s detective film Marlowe. Black-and-white photographs of famous former guests …

Damage caused at Rayak Winery and Distillery. Elias Maalouf was squishing grapes at his Rayak Winery and Distillery, a smaller vineyard with 12 hectares of cultivated land in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, on 23 September, when a bomb flew out of the sky and landed in front of his building. The blast blew out the roof of his laboratory and shattered …

The diversity of Piedmont’s terroirs gives its DOCGs and DOCs their famed characters. Piedmont, one of Italy’s premier and most distinctive wine regions, is blessed with an embarrassment of riches. Four DOCGs and 10 DOCs, many of them famed worldwide, are overseen by the Consorzio Barbera d’Asti e Vini del Monferrato, established in 1946. These highly individual wines, produced from …

The sandy soils of Sablet. Imagine you’re an actor in a film with a large ensemble of other highly competent artists. None of you are household names. But the lead role has just been cast – and it’s gone to Arnold Schwarzenegger. On the one hand, it’s good to have a superstar to draw attention to the movie. But on …

Duckhorn Vineyards. Duckhorn stockholders will receive $11.10 per share from the all-cash transaction, which is expected to complete ‘this winter’. Adam Waglay, co-founder of Butterfly Equity, said: ‘This is an incredible opportunity, and we look forward to bringing our specialised expertise and deep food and beverage network to bear to help amplify and accelerate the company’s mission to have their …

Napa Valley’s Ovid earned perfect, 100-point scores from Decanter for its 2013 and 2021 Cabernet Sauvignons. Although both wines come from Ovid’s six hectares of vines atop Pritchard Hill, overlooking the Oakville AVA, they are separated not only by eight vintages but also by differences in climate, vine age and myriad other micro-transformations of the site. Continuity and change Winemaker …

Château Palmer director Thomas Duroux. Delegates from the Paso Robles CAB Collective (PRCC) recently visited Bordeaux. They met with sustainability leaders to address challenges posed by climate change in cultivating Bordeaux varieties and to learn best practices from the historic French region. ‘With the changing climate in the world, it’s essential to share skills,’ said Marielle Cazaux, general manager and …

Italy boasts the world’s oldest and largest tradition of truffle hunting, which is part of the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list. Over 70,000 licensed hunters wander in the Italian forests at night with their dogs, which are essential to detect the scent of truffles beneath the soil. Its truffle capital is Alba in the Piedmont region, which is home to …

Harvest in Julienas, Beaujolais, France. The third Thursday in November used to be a date of note in the oenophile’s diary. Since 1985, it had been decreed as the official release date of Beaujolais Nouveau, an annual cause for celebration of the fruity, purple-tinged debutante. The heyday of Beaujolais Nouveau has long since passed but at the higher-quality end of …

My curiosity grew with age and led me to sign up to my first wine course. Years later, I was determined to transform my interest in wine into a career. Naively, I assumed that passion would be enough, but soon realised that it wasn’t so. My lack of experience as a sommelier resulted in countless application rejections and unsuccessful interviews. …

Hello and welcome to my weekly roundup of the wine stories that I find of interest on the web. I post them to my magazine on Flipboard, but for those of you who aren’t Flipboard-inclined, here’s everything I’ve strained out of the wine-related muck for the week. Lulie Halstead Identifies the Opportunities in the Beverage Alcohol MarketLulie knows what she’s talking …

Five years after going public, Duckhorn will be leaving the stock exchange. Executives at the Duckhorn Portfolio announced this morning that Los Angeles-based private equity firm Butterfly has agreed to buy the Napa-based wine powerhouse for $1.95 billion. According to Impact Databank, a sibling publication of Wine Spectator, Duckhorn is the 20th-largest wine marketer in the U.S. by volume, producing 2.6 …

Gisborne vineyards on New Zealand’s east coast. Credit: New Zealand Winegrowers. Compared to Sauvignon Blanc’s stratospheric rise, New Zealand’s most-planted red variety has had a somewhat slower burn. The first Pinot Noir was planted in 1889 in Hawke’s Bay, but things didn’t really get going until 1980s pioneers such as Martinborough’s Dry River and Ata Rangi, and Central Otago’s Gibbston …

Chief blender Shinji Fukuyo used whisky from the company’s Yamazaki, Hakushu and Chita distilleries to create this exclusive blend. Hibiki 40 Year Old is described as ‘the pinnacle of generations of learning and craftsmanship, and a unique and incredibly rare embodiment of the finest standards of Japanese mastery, making a statement of the spirit of innovation at The House of …

Il Nizza DOCG in Piedmont, Italy Nizza, unlike the other Barbera-focused appellations of Piedmont – Barbera d’Asti and Barbera d’Alba – does not state the variety in its name. Instead, Nizza is a terroir wine in the French tradition, identified by its place of origin rather than its grape. First recognised as an official sub-zone of Barbera d’Asti DOC (later …

The Mazzei family’s Castello di Fonterutoli wine resort, north of Siena Everything that comes from Tuscany is perceived as more desirable. ‘Even water brand Acqua Panna achieved a boost in sales by starting to showcase the word Toscana on the label,’ observes Stefania Saccardi, head of the region’s agricultural department. Art, culture and marvellous landscapes contribute to the lofty reputation …