Richard chooses an archetypal Grüner Veltliner that is not to be sneezed at. From €16.33, 21.80 Swiss francs, 269.90 Norwegian kroner, £22.90 Find this wine Someone, somewhere, once remarked – perhaps in an offhand fashion, maybe even as a joke – that Grüner Veltliner smells of white pepper. Ever since then, wine students have scrupulously

The Story of Wine From Noah to now  Hugh Johnson  Academie du Vin Library  ISBN 9781913141066  £30  In the mid eighties, Hugh Johnson managed to persuade producer Michael Gill and Channel 4 to let him make a TV series on the history of wine from its birth to the (then) current craze of Beaujolais Nouveau. He employed a young Cambridge

Too much tannin can be bad, but acidity is your friend...

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Three magnums of Domaine Jean-Claude Ramonet, Montrachet 2017 at an estimate of £3,600- £5,500 ($4,769- $7,286) each.

Zachys has announced details of its second London sale this year, following a debut in September after decades of auctions in New York and Hong Kong. It also represents the auction house’s first multi-vendor sale in Europe. Named ‘London II’, it has a total estimated value of £2m and will take place on Saturday 14 […]

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Entrants from 20 countries recently tested their ability to blind taste in the finals of the World Wine Tasting Challenge 2020, held at Bordeaux’s Château Smith Haut Lafitte. The French team just beat the Chinese group in the final, with Sweden and Finland tied for third. It’s eight years since the first tournament was held at […]

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29 October 2020 Heralding our 20th anniversary this Sunday, we're republishing what seems to be the first wine article ever published on JancisRobinson.com, a year before the creation of Purple Pages. Read those prices and cry. Oddly, the article below reads as though it was written in 1995. I still think it was good advice and wish I'd bought even

Walter goes on a mission to the mountains. Above, the Gschleier vineyard, proof of Schiava's potential magnificence. Schiava, Alto Adige's historic red wine grape variety, is capable of making transparent, complex, elegant wines, but suffers from overproduction and standardised practices. The region needs to wake up to the excellence of this

Foods such as smoked salmon, sharp sauces, pickles and vinaigrettes can be tricky to pair with wine.

An extract from the new book from 67 Pall Mall, Wine and Food. The Perfect Match.

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Ryan Reynolds Aviation Gin

The relationship between famous people and alcohol used to be simple enough. They drank it in copious quantities, got into fights, broke things (TV sets, hotel windows) and ended up in the gossip columns. But we’ve moved on from the hell-raising days of Richard Burton and Oliver Reed, and celebrity booze today is big business […]

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As part of our 20-year anniversary celebrations, Richard investigates how winemaking and consumption have changed since the year 2000. Purple Pagers are reminded to submit questions for our first-ever livestream event this Sunday 1 November. Twenty years might represent an aeon online, but it’s the mere blink of an eye for viticulture. It can

See Bordeaux 2018 in bottle, part 1 for an introduction to these wines, and Bordeaux 2018 – the guide for all our coverage of this vintage. In the Tucker Image above Julia is hard at work in front of Stephen Brook, author of The Complete Bordeaux, and, left, our retail specialist Andy Howard MW. As for most of the wines from the Médoc and

Wynns chief winemaker Sue Hodder with the John Riddoch line up

Acceptance of 2016 John Riddoch by La Place de Bordeaux in September – the first Australian wine distributed by this influential vinous marketplace – will see this Cabernet Sauvignon, beloved in Australia, now reach a prestigious network of international fine wine buyers and collectors in more than 100 countries. Fans will also be able to […]

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Smoke from the Glass Fire in Napa Valley on 27 September 2020.

Smoke taint concerns and damage from recent wildfires mean fewer Napa Valley 2020 wines are set to be made overall, although the exact amount remains unknown. Trade body Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) said that 80% of its members were still ‘moving forward’ with the vintage. ‘The 2020 vintage, while challenging, is not lost,’ said Linda […]

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In November of most years, Richard Orders, a wine collector based in Hong Kong, generously opens up Burgundy bottles from his extensive collection to share with a select group of like-minded individuals. Scroll down to see Robin Kick MW’s Domaine Michel Lafarge tasting notes and scores Verticals of one or two vineyards are highlighted from […]

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Ageing is a legal requirement for some whiskies, including Scotch.

US-based Bespoken Spirits said its new ‘sustainable maturation process’ could save the spirits industry $20bn by replacing the ‘wasteful’ barrel-ageing process; a reference to the ‘angels’ share’ lost via evaporation during maturation. It said the patent-pending technology can enhance a spirit’s aroma, colour and taste, ‘enabling almost limitless recipes within days, not years’. The US […]

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Awarded a record number of medals at the 2020 Decanter World Wine Awards, discover some of the UK's top-scoring wines with award-winning retailer Grape Britannia.

Now until 20 December 2020, while stock lasts, Grape Britannia is offering Decanter readers 10% off their DWWA 2020 mixed case online with the code DWWA2020 at checkout, including Best in Show medal winner Roebuck Estates Classic Cuvee Brut 2014. Scroll down to see all the award-winning English wines included in this promotion Proud to stock […]

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For all our earlier coverage of this ‘extraordinary’ vintage see this guide, including Julia's overview of the wines when she tasted them 18 months ago en primeur. The second half of this report, on Graves and the right-bank reds, follows tomorrow. Tucker Images took the pictures. Julia writes It was touch and go as to whether Sue Glasgow of

Two new ways to package and deliver small quantities of wine that look seriously promising … and deeply sustainable. In his speech for The Wine Society's AGM, Pierre Mansour, head of buying, announced that they are in the process of reducing the bottle weight of their own-label wines. ‘The glass bottle accounts for approximately 40% of

The new appellation of Côtes du Rhône Villages Nyons was officially granted by the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine (INAO) on 15th October 2020, bringing the total number of Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages with a geographical name to 22. The growing area is spread over four communes in the Southern Rhône: Nyons, Mirabel-aux-Baronnies, Piégon and Venterol. The new […]

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Smith-Madrone vineyards in Spring Mountain, Napa Valley.

One of Napa's pioneer estates...

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