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Katherine Cole: ‘I have had it with stemware – enough already’

Katherine Cole profile picture credit: She Saw Things This is absurd. A reasonable person should only own one style of wine glass. I don’t need a towering Pinot Noir, a cavernous Cabernet Sauvignon, a bulbous Chardonnay and an abstemious Riesling glass. And yet, here they all are, vying for shelf space. And now, there are new ‘must-have’ shapes on the …

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Best Press Releases for 01.17.25

As 2025 begins, I’ve received some really interesting press releases. The following are my 2025 best launches, so far. Why Doesn’t The W.H.O. Go After Pharmaceutical Side Effects? Why doesn’t the W.H.O. go after pharmaceuticals’ side effects or even poisonous plants? It vehemently as it goes after wine, beer, or hard liquor, yet pharmaceutical products […] The post Best Press …

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The enduring appeal of Muscadet: 18 fabulous wines to try

The biodynamically farmed vineyards of Jo Landron. The river Loire drains into the Atlantic ocean on France’s western coast just south of Brittany. Stretching between the coast and roughly 120km inland are the vineyards of the Nantais. This area comprises four Muscadet appellations (Muscadet, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, Muscadet Coteaux de la Loire, Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu), along with the …

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Vinography Unboxed: Week of 1/12/25

Hello and welcome to this week’s dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of the better bottles that have crossed my doorstep recently. This past week included a couple of nice wines from the Margaret River, a once-obscure …

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2019 Chateau Larose-Trintaudon Haut-Medoc

The New Year is really off to an amazing start with some of the new Costco wines we are finding, and this one is certainly among the best of the bunch. This is an Haut-Medoc with the Cru Bourgeois designation, which is usually a good sign. When you find the right ones with these markings […] Source : https://costcowineblog.com/2019-chateau-larose-trintaudon-haut-medoc/

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Synaesthesia: The sommelier’s secret weapon

When sommelier Jaime Smith drinks a Châteauneuf-duPape, he sees blocky, heavy red and blue pentagons approaching him – clumsily bumping together. Alcohol drips from above, pushing the muscular shapes out of the metaphorical ‘box’ in his mind. Smith, the first director of wine at the famous MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas and twice named best sommelier in America by …

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Vinography Images: Horn of Plenty

Perhaps the most iconic and controversial aspects of the biodynamic farming regimen are Preparations 500 and 501, which involve packing a cow horn with either manure or pulverized quartz and burying it over a winter or summer. The horns are dug up half a year later, and the materials inside are added to water to make sprays designed to improve …

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Susana Balbo Signature White Blend: Talking about a revolution

Susana Balbo’s Signature White Blend That Susana Balbo has been a pioneering force in Argentine (and South American) wine goes without saying. Her talent as a winemaker, entrepreneurial spirit, resilience in the face of many challenges and the way in which she has reframed the possibilities for women in the wine industry make her one of the sector’s most respected …

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Great-value sparkling wine: 18 bottles to try

Decanter brings you the first in a new series of articles celebrating great buys by wine category from UK supermarkets and wine merchants. We’re focusing on bottles chosen for their great value and taste whilst also highlighting a few curveballs with points of difference to discover. The collection kicks off with a look at great-value sparkling wine, with a price …

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Market Watch: Blue-chip Burgundy in the spotlight

Opportunistic buyers have been replenishing their cellars with blue-chip Burgundy at lower prices in recent months, according to merchant commentary cited in the Market Watch section of Decanter magazine’s new-look January 2025 issue. The monthly Market Watch pages, also published on Decanter Premium, are sponsored by international merchant Bordeaux Index and its LiveTrade online trading platform. It’s been a subdued …

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Distilled: A new range of cocktail seasonings from Mr Lyan

Sri Lanka in the mix Award-winning bartender Ryan Chetiyawardana, aka Mr Lyan, has launched an innovative range of cocktail seasonings that pay homage to his Sri Lankan heritage. He has joined forces with Amal de Silva Wijeyeratne, MD of Sri Lanka’s oldest distillery Rockland Distilleries, and Dilhan Fernando, CEO of Sri Lankan tea producer Dilmah, to create Three Families (Alc …

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Meet the judges: Q&A with Matthew Stubbs MW

Matthew Stubbs MW, DWWA Regional Chair Matthew Stubbs MW achieved the Master of Wine title in 1996, earning the Bollinger Medal for the best tasting paper. Since then, his contributions to the Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW) has been invaluable, serving as a practical examiner, seminar lecturer, and currently as the practical Chair for the IMW Education Committee. With …

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International White Wine Festival: February 15, Boonville

There are public wine tastings dedicated to individual grape varieties. Others are dedicated to the wines from a particular region of the world. Some are dedicated to only organic wines, or natural wines. But to my knowledge there’s only one dedicated to the whole category of white wines, and it’s taking place next month in the bucolic Anderson Valley. In …

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Los Angeles Restaurants Grapple With Wildfires

Ryan Gowhari and his team at Spruzzo Restaurant & Bar had been open for business for just half an hour on Jan. 7 when the call to evacuate came. Located in the Pacific Palisades, sandwiched between nearby hillsides and the Pacific Ocean, the restaurant lay right in the path of the Palisades fire, the largest of the wildfires to sweep …

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Old Vines, New Steps (Pedroncelli Recent Releases)

The post Old Vines, New Steps (Pedroncelli Recent Releases) appeared first on 1 Wine Dude. “Old vines are great, but they’re, well, old.” Late last year, I had the pleasure of catching up (via Zoom) with Julie Julie Pedroncelli, who (after her father officially retired at the age of 90) is now President of Pedroncelli, a stalwart fixture on the …

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William Lowe MW

William Lowe MW is a judge at the 2025 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA). DWWA Judge, William Lowe MWWilliam Lowe MW With over a quarter of a century in the trade, William Lowe MW is both a master distiller and master of wine. Currently writing a PhD at the University of Cambridge on the “Chemistry of Quality in Wines and …

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Victoria Anderson

Victoria Anderson is a judge at the 2025 Decanter World Wine Awards. Victoria Anderson, DWWA JudgeVictoria Anderson Victoria Anderson began her career in the wine industry after discovering a love of wine while living in Madrid. She spent seven years in London with fine wine merchant Armit Wines becoming one of their buyers, responsible for developing exclusive agency relationships for …

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Wine investment: Top-tier Burgundy prices soften

Opportunistic collectors have been replenishing their cellars with blue-chip Burgundy wines at lower prices, but the market’s near-term outlook has remained uncertain. Buyer interest in certain top-tier Burgundy producers picked up in 2024, within a challenging fine wine trading environment, according to some merchants. Bordeaux Index reported ‘a big recovery’ in trading volumes of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC) and …

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