Articles
22nd Nov 2013
The 2013 harvest in France: un millésime du vigneron
by Tessa Segal
Earlier this month the French Ministry of Agriculture published its current estimate of the country’s wine production this year. At 42.3 million hectolitres, it looks like 2013 will narrowly surpass the historically low harvest of 2012 but... Read more
18th Nov 2013
Wine, minerals and bull schist
by Robert Joseph
"I go with the flow." Lubricated by six serious Mojitos - his favourite drink - Danny Makeabiggabuck is surprisingly loquacious about the approach he takes to the wine business. The cigar-chomping, New York-born founder of... Read more
15th Nov 2013
Bordeaux 2009 revisited: plush, lush, but no shoe-in
by Sarah Abbott MW
The annual Bordeaux tasting by the Institute of Masters of Wine brings together 100 or so of the best wines of Bordeaux four years after the vintage. Most of the Médoc Cru Classés (including 1st growths) are there, as well as top producers of... Read more
1st Nov 2013
The Official 2013 Bordeaux Vintage Report
by Ron Washam
Here in Bordeaux, we’re Singin’ in the Rain over the wonderful 2013 Harvest. Many might compare 2013 to the magical vintage of 1984, a vintage memorialized by the great George Orwell, who borrowed doublethink from our legendary Bordeaux... Read more
1st Nov 2013
A spoonful of sugar
by Tim Atkin
There’s nothing like delivering a speech about the UK wine market to make you focus on its strengths and weaknesses. I was asked to talk to a group of Spanish producers at the inaugural ... Read more
25th Oct 2013
The First Rule of Wine Club
by Matt Walls
Over the past twenty years book clubs have become part of the social fabric of the UK. A recent article in The Telegraph... Read more
21st Oct 2013
Wine and the Académie Française
by Robert Joseph
The arrival of President Jean Suis-Convaincu at the Elysée Palace in 2017 changed everything - but only briefly after Tea Party Republicans drove the world into a second financial crisis in 2016. His newly formed l’Exception... Read more
19th Oct 2013
What it takes to make great wine
by Tim Atkin
What does it take to make a great wine? An amazing vineyard is the most obvious answer, preferably but not necessarily planted with old vines. You can’t put lipstick on a pig, as the old advertising adage would have it, and the same is true of... Read more
7th Oct 2013
The Wisdom of Age
by Tim Atkin
“A vineyard planted at the gates of hell”, doesn’t sound like the most promising source of fine wine. You’d expect it to make a pruney, full-bodied red or a fiery fortified at best. But the 1.4 hectares of field-blended Semillon Blanc,... Read more