Scholarly Tasting Technique

A new Wine Scholar Guild initiative aims to change the way consumers assess wine, as Lisa Riley reports.

MW 2021 examination tests candidates on marginal climates

The Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW) has made available every question posed to students taking the 2021 MW exam, including the list of wines for the practical tasting segment.

Sud de France: Incredible white diversity on display

Tim Atkin MW has paid homage to huge breadth of white wine available across the Languedoc-Roussillon and the South West, even comparing its diversity to a South American wine cousin.

Enotria refreshes France ahead of tasting return

Enotria & Coe has taken on two new, yet very different, additions to its France portfolio.

Famille Helfrich tasting moves to London and Manchester

The Famille Helfrich portfolio tasting, which normally takes place in Birmingham, will this year move to Manchester and London in a bid to increase awareness in those areas.

Annual Wine GB tasting to return this September

Wine GB has announced that its annual Trade & Press Tasting is to take place on 7 September at RHS Lindley Hall in central London.

Bordeaux en primeur report 2020

Is 2020 another top Bordeaux vintage and what are the chances of a strong en primeur campaign after the success of the 2019s? Gavin Quinney, our man in Bordeaux, reports

Events: A hybrid future

With a degree of normality beginning to return, Andrew Catchpole gets a taste of the tastings to come.

Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris 2021 to focus on ‘Bouncing Back’ with digital format

Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris 2021 will be providing live sessions focusing on the upturn of the wine and spirits industry called Bouncing Back after the year long pandemic. 

Chianti Classico Collection offers taster of ‘new normal’ for events to come

In many ways London’s first significant regional wine event of 2021 bore all the familiar, pre-pandemic hallmarks of a regular Spring tasting. Heading to the India Room at The Oval, transport ran predictably late and the weather was so awful that wind and rain stopped play between Middlesex and Surrey just as Harpers entered the glass-sided cricket viewing gallery-come-tasting room.

Guy Woodward: Why we need underdogs

The European Super League was always doomed to failure. Think about it from a wine perspective. It would be like a region – in France, say – initiating a system whereby its châteaux were ranked purely on the basis of how much their wines cost, maybe put into mini ‘divisions’, and then this classification being set in stone in perpetuity, regardless of any change in quality on the part of either the incumbents’ wines or those of any would-be challengers. Surely it would never last…

Tim Atkin MW: Valuing our old vines

Call it serendipity, call it fate, but there are times when events and conversations seem to align. You go for months without thinking about something and then it’s everywhere, filling your inbox and your brain. Spooky, possums, as Dame Edna Everage once put it.

Walker & Wodehouse unveils virtual tastings

Bibendum’s Walker & Wodehouse has unveiled a series of virtual tastings for customers.

Guy Woodward: Challenging the wine nerd herd

It’s when the first question about clone types crops up that I begin to despair; or a query as to the length of time the juice spent macerating on its own skins. Or – kill me now – the wine’s exact pH level.

Steven Spurrier passes away

Steven Spurrier, one of the most widely respected and liked people in the wine trade, has passed away.

The dark and light of rum

Harpers’ recent consumer tasting panel revealed a category that is yet to emerge from its mixology-focused reputation. But rapidly growing awareness and availability of quality liquid mean it could soon sit on a par with top-level Cognac and whisky. Jo Gilbert gets the 360° view.

Tring Winery packs a postable punch

Alex Taylor and Jamie Smith of Urban Craft Wines at Tring Winery are sending innovation out the door, as Andrew Catchpole reports

Paving the way back to tasting

Special IXSIR and Enotria tasting organises relief for Lebanon

Etienne Debbané, president and co-founder of IXSIR will be hosting a special tasting on Enotria’s Instagram page tomorrow (Thursday), with 50% of the proceeds going to relief efforts for Lebanon.

Graft bolsters Australia and South African portfolios as it gears up for digital tasting

Graft Wine, last year’s merger of Red Squirrel and The Knotted Vine, is gearing up for a bumper month of activity in September, with two Southern Hemisphere additions joining the company as it takes its autumn tasting online.