The Loire lies at the heart of France, in so many ways, literally and symbolic.  A fascinating region of great beauty, the Loire is steeped in history and culture, a land of contrasts –of religious...

Chile is a land of drama, of contrasts and vast extremes within formidable natural boundaries. Chile is the longest country in the world, unfurling itself over four thousand kilometres of Pacific coas...

Blink and you’d have missed it but that was Bordeaux 2019, folks. That vapour trail you see disintegrating in the clear blue sky? As ephemeral as an allocation of Mouton 2019. Before we get into the...

Wines from the UK – and particularly our sparkling wines – are garnering critical acclaim worldwide, and for good reason: they are world-class. The best are earning the UK a deserved place o...

With such diversity of geography, climate, grape variety and above all, vineyard husbandry and winemaking talent, it is incredibly difficult (some would say impossible), to make generalisations about ...

Phew, what a week. Fears that there would be no 2019 Bordeaux campaign have been swept away in a deluge of releases, reaching a high-water mark last week. Things started positively and, in retrospect,...

The wine culture of the Iberian Peninsula is truly ancient. Vines are most likely to have been introduced by the maritime Phoenicians, even before the Romans and the church but the latter two had a ma...

‘We are in unprecedented times’ goes the standard phrase. Running any business at this time presents its challenges, so you can only imagine what life has been like for vine-growers and winemakers...

Bordeaux finds itself in a dilemma. How to sell the 2019 vintage as the starting pistol is fired on what will likely prove to be the global recession of a lifetime? The elephant in this particular roo...

Producing wine is a delicate balancing act, producing it well is another thing entirely. Wines that are truly exceptional often come from producers or areas on the margins of grape-growing, whether th...