Visiting Aya Estate for the opening of their winery: Bulgarian wine playing at a new level
Website: https://ayaestatevineyards.com/en/ I’m just on my way back from the Struma Valley in southern Bulgaria, where I was attending the
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Features
Bonhams is auctioning off the cellar of Locanda Locatelli, and a few of us get to try some of the gems over lunch
Back in January 2025 well known Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli closed the doors on his London restaurant Locanda Locatelli rather
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A quick guide to New Zealand wine
New Zealand is a relative newcomer in the roll call of significant wine-producing countries. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that
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Tablas Creek and Château Beaucastel: a Wine Society tasting telling the story of how a leading Rhône domaine fell in love with California
Jason Haas of Tablas Creek and Andrew Bayley (GM of Beaucastel’s UK operation) presented this really interesting tasting, telling the
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Tasting some wines from Bolivia: Jardín Oculto and Yokich
I’ve tasted a lot of wines before, but this was the first time I’d tried any from Bolivia. Nayan Gowda,
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Champagne Salon and Delamotte: the 2015 Salon release, and a look at the current Delamotte range
Champagne Delamotte is based in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, a grand cru village in the Côte des Blancs. It was founded back
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Icelandic pharma-titan, Robert Wessman of Maison Wessman in Bergerac and his Wine Director, Lise Sadirac, fight for a new Issigeac micro-appellation with musical backing from Nora Jones
Wessman seeks vinous validation for Issigeac and Conne-de-Labarde, which lie on a clearly defined limestone plateau and merit their own micro-appellation according to Vineyard Director Lise Sadirac, who is working hard to convince the INAO. The layered limestone plateau of D’Issigeac took 1.5 million years to form. Vines take a decade to root in the fissured rock, where soil is a mere 20cm deep. Bergerac has 13 appellations and no distinct identity. Fine wine would benefit from a perceptible point of difference and a dose of celebrity stardust.
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The Judgement of Cape Town
Earlier this month I was invited to contribute to The Judgement of Cape Town, a blind tasting of premium Chardonnay
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Weingut Rosi Schuster, with Hannes Schuster, who’s making some of Austria’s best wines
Website: https://www.rosischuster.at/en/ Hannes Schuster is based in Sankt Margarethen on the western shores of Lake Neusiedlersee. Most of his vineyards
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Tomcsányi: natural wines from Somló, Hungary
Website: https://tomcsanyibirtok.hu/en I met with Árpád Tomcsányi to taste his wines, which are made from 3 hectares of vines, farmed
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