Wijnnieuws

This Sunday 1 November (All Saints’ Day) we’re planning a livestream celebration of 20 years of JancisRobinson.com when we hope very much as many Purple Pagers as possible will join us. We'll publish the relevant Zoom link this Friday and will be making the whole thing freely available next week. What would you like to ask me? We’re looking

US wine importer Bartholomew Broadbent who represents De Martino wines from Chile (so, admittedly, is hardly an impartial commentator) contributes this coda to our sustainability wine writing competition. We don't want to open the door to numerous members of the wine trade extolling the virtues of their principals, but it's a good story and we

Watch out, Côte d'Or! The Australians are coming. I have a particularly soft spot for the Macedon Ranges in the state of Victoria. For an Australian wine region it is remarkably chilly (see winter pruning at Curly Flat above), and therefore produces some of the country’s finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. On my first visit there I had the good

A shorter version of this article is published by the Financial Times. For most French people who can afford it, the summer holiday is sacrosanct. Doubtless many visitors to JancisRobinson.com have encountered offices, shops and restaurants in France that were routinely closed for the entire month of August, long before COVID-19 came along.

Two weeks in France left Nick open-mouthed in admiration of the French. Why do eating habits vary so enormously from country to country? This was the thought that kept bugging me after a fortnight in France recently. In Burgundy – OK, home to a multitude of winemakers and with a rich tradition of eating substantially – there was barely an

A thrilling, food-friendly stony white from the beautiful Greek island of Cephalonia. From €14.25, $25.20 (if you buy 10 bottles), £21.05 Find this wine Stony by name and stony by nature, Vino di Sasso (wine of the stone) comes from the limestone slopes of Mount Ainos – often spelt Enos, which is how it is pronounced – in the southern half

Two sommeliers, on different sides of the Atlantic, tell their stories of grit, spit and triumph. Victoria JamesWine GirlA sommelier's tale of making it in the toxic world of fine diningVictoria James Fleet ISBN 9780349726274 £16.99, $26.99 ‘She was full-bodied but with a short finish.’ In describing herself as a ‘juxtaposition of blue blood and

Some fine Brunello 2016s, charming Barbaresco 2018s and rather more challenging Barolo 2017s. This photo of Barolo vineyards is by Lucia Gherra via Unsplash. This was only my second tasting in London since March. Importers, merchants or brokers such as Vinexus, trying their best to get their wines in front of buyers and journalists, have been

The subject of Max's column this month is all too obvious: an argument about academic attribution that is gripping the Australian wine establishment. I don’t want to be writing this story. I’d much rather be spending the next 1,500 or so words telling you about the new Sustainable Winegrowing Australia trust mark, launched last month, and about

Tam falls in love. It was one of those, 'Where have you been all my life?!' moments. I recently had such a strong reaction to a group of wines that I actually doubted myself. The next day I got those same wines lined up for me, but this time blind, interspersed with some ringers (six rosés from Romania, Italy, France, South Africa and Spain

See Austria's super-pure 2019 Grüner Veltliners and More Austrians – mainly 2019 Rieslings for my review of 200+ current releases, mostly 2019s. Twenty 10-year-old wines provided an excellent foreword to the tasting of the Österreichischer Traditionsweingüter (ÖTW) 2019s, which were the focus of my short trip to Austria last month. The tastings

How the American wine industry is gearing up for the US presidential election on 3 November. Image courtesy of Crush the Vote. See also Alder's video message on behalf of the Napa wine community in the wake of the fires. For the longest time, the American wine industry has managed to maintain an apolitical veneer, steering clear of endorsements

The prince of the Languedoc shows off his latest single-vineyard wines. Portrait of the master of all he surveys by Marie Ormières. Gérard Bertrand is one of the most important producers in the Languedoc, with offices in Dallas and Shanghai, 320 employees worldwide and more than $145 million-worth of wine (£112/€123 million) sold in more than

Samantha Cole-Johnson on how life goes on in the winery after the fires. Employees were technically allowed back into our winery the day after evacuation orders as a result of the recent fires here. However, under a red-flag warning and with respirator-recommended air quality, our winemaker and assistant winemaker opted to come in themselves for

A version of this article is published by the Financial Times. All over southern England, and even as far north as Yorkshire, the 2020 grape harvest is under way, rather earlier than usual with notably small bunches of good-quality grapes being the most common report. The UK is a bona fide wine producer nowadays with sales of 5.5 million bottles

A version of this article is published by the Financial Times. It was 3.30 in the afternoon and I was just about to leave Myrtle restaurant, just off the King’s Road in London’s Chelsea, having interviewed its chef/proprietor Anna Haugh, when I witnessed an example of true Irish hospitality in action. A couple approached and asked whether her

A stunning monument to a grape whose wines were once regarded as white Barolo. From €15, £16.50, $32.90. Find this wine Five years ago I reported here on a modest event held in the magnificent Castello di Grinzane in the village of the same name in Barolo, in which a private producers' association, Indigenous Langa, launched its foundation

Gabe Cook* introduces us to a drink that deserves much more attention. Here in the heart of October, across the cool, temperate climes of the northern hemisphere, there is a harvest in full flow. From Oregon to Kent to Trentino to the Mosel, the beverage produced from this crop will be purchased and consumed by millions across the planet. Fro

Many a wine of serious interest to buyers, wherever they are in the world. As usual with offerings from The Wine Society, there are many, many bargains here. Search for GV and VGV. These notes were taken at a carefully socially distanced tasting put on for wine commentators at 67 Pall Mall, just like The Bunch tasting I described on Tuesday this

Richard confesses to 'everything I got wrong about wine in Asia'. There are at least seven different Godellos currently on sale in Singapore according to Wine-Searcher – including this no-added-sulphur, skin-fermented orange wine. I mention this because before I moved to Singapore in July 2019, I haughtily told people that I wanted to widen the