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Published: 25 October, 2024
This mountainous former Soviet republic in the south Caucasus has long traditions of Christianity and hospitality, and an ancient wine culture that dates back Millenia. It also has outstanding territorial issues and has recently endured conflict and has a large neighbour with whom it has a history of bad relations. The country is modernising but also grappling with corruption, bureaucracy and cronyism. Its shrinking population is mitigated to some degree by returning former emigres, who are active in a revitalising a wine industry where traditions and indigenous grape varieties are being rediscovered, with winemakers aiming for wines that appeal to a modern palate rather than a typical Russian one.
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Portuguese winemaker Luis Cerdeira has left his family’s renowned Soalheiro wine company to establish a new Vinho Verde wine project with his son Manuel, a Plumpton College graduate.
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Published: 22 March, 2024
Following the launch of Jable de Tao’s first artisanal wines, Barnaby Eales charts the progress being made to protect the hoyos-grown vine legacy of La Geria, asking if enough is being done to secure their future.
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Published: 05 January, 2024
The launch of a smartly-packaged £395 English sparkling wine may show quite some chutzpah, but as James Lawrence reports, it’s not alone in helping nudge the category into triple figure pricing.
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Rowena Curlewis, head of design agency Denomination, extols the virtues of disruptive branding in a crowded wine and spirits world.
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Published: 10 March, 2023
Barnaby Eales uncovers some exceptional contemporary wines in an unexpected corner of France.
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Published: 24 February, 2023
Chiaretto for Christmas? Sadly, despite more and more people drinking pink all year round, Italy’s bestselling Rosado Chiaretto di Bardolino didn’t grace many British dinner tables last December and won’t at Easter. A quick Google suggests some retailers stock it – Fortnums has two – but most main supermarkets and even The Wine Society draw a blank, suggesting the limited inroads it has made here. Which is frankly rather surprising, given the history of this wine, and the increasing popularity of the rather similar Provence rosé.
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Published: 09 November, 2022
Wine Talk’s Sarah McCleery meets a new grape with ‘star performer’ credentials while travelling in Sardinia
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Published: 19 August, 2022
Blind Ambition is a documentary film that follows the journeys of four Zimbabwean migrants who separately discover wine in South Africa before joining forces to compete at the World Blind Tasting Championships in Burgundy.
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As a Senior Reporter for Harpers, I am required to know a thing or two about wine. This was made clear when I was appointed three months ago, after three years of working as a general news reporter for numerous titles.
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Published: 23 February, 2022
From the second you taste that first sip of alcohol, whether it be a frothy pint during freshers week or a glass of wine at a family dinner, a lifelong balancing act has begun.
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Published: 16 September, 2021
Hugh Jones fell into the drinks industry 14 years ago while trying to become a rock star and never left, learning his trade at Majestic Wine, Pernod Ricard, and Mentzendorff. After a locked-down winter teaching strangers how to make cocktails over Zoom, he is now sales manager at Colwith Farm Distillery.
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Published: 01 April, 2021
If Bordeaux declares another 'vintage of the century' in 2021, then eyes will undoubtedly roll.
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Published: 11 March, 2021
Sam Hellyer, head of wine and spirits at Chiswick Auctions, counts 10 years at Oddbins as part of a varied résumé where he headed up the Fine Wine branch in Oxford.
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Published: 14 January, 2021
As if 2020 wasn’t bad enough, France faced a drought so bad that water restrictions were put in place. Nowhere was the lack of water felt more keenly than in Burgundy, where irrigation is illegal.
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Published: 03 December, 2020
With 30-40% of people made homeless this year estimated to be former hospitality workers, the situation has become dire for many. Hugh Jones, who also lost his job this year as a result of the pandemic, investigates the depth of the problem, and how the trade can help.
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Published: 23 September, 2020
From an almost complete unknown beyond the Americas, raicilla is now making inroads overseas, including markets such as the UK. David Furer reports on the new kid on the spirits block.
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Published: 03 September, 2020
Pernod Ricard, Mentzendorff and Lucky Saint alum Hugh Jones upped sticks recently and headed to Baltic capital Riga where he found an emerging drinks industry with parallels to the UK's own.
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Published: 20 August, 2020
Wine is an odd consumable. It’s a drug, it isn’t legally required to list ingredients, and it’s often described with vague, ambiguous terms. In the wake of the natural wine movement and the age of ‘wellness’, it was just a matter of time until a brand tried to hoodwink us. Quickest to the mark were Cameron Diaz and Katherine Power with ‘clean wine’, Avaline.
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Published: 06 August, 2020
South Africa’s wine sector has rightly been the focus of much attention over the past weeks as export markets are urged to support its producers by encouraging consumers to buy their wines.
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