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Bill Blatch runs Bordeaux negociant Vintex and is one of the members of the Bordeaux wine trade who is most fascinated by how wines actually taste. For some years he is widely acknowledged as being responsible for by far the most detailed analysis of each Bordeaux vintage and kindly gives us. More...

In champagne's major export markets, which, now I come to think of it, coincide rather neatly with those countries where my newspaper the FT is most read, the current fashion is for growers' champagnes. The champagne business has long been a delicate balance between the growers who grow. More...

Bill Blatch runs Bordeaux négociant Vintex and is one of the members of the Bordeaux wine trade who is most fascinated by how wines actually taste. For some years he has been widely acknowledged as being responsible for by far the most detailed analysis of each Bordeaux vintage and kindly. More...

Hardly is the northern hemisphere wine harvest over (in fact when last I heard, some Canadian wine producers were yet to pick their 2009 Icewine), than the southern hemisphere harvest begins. Gary Jordan of Jordan Estate in Stellenbosch (and, incidentally, co-owner of the new London restaurant. More...

  See a new report on the potential for safely using lighter bottles for sparkling wines here . Unlike most, South Africa's wine industry is doing rather well in terms of exports, but this presents it with a problem in its attempts to be one of the world's most ecologically. More...

UK importer Liberty Wines, founded by Italian specialist David Gleave MW in 1997 and winner of the International Wine Challenge's Italian Specialist Merchant award in nine out of the last 11 years, has produced this report on the 2009 vintage (or vintages) in Italy. While there is an. More...

When Spanish wine producer, journalist and active purple pager Victor de la Serna told us on our members’ forum how much less his 2008 production would weigh after he switched to lighter bottles, I thought he had put a decimal point in the wrong place. But no, he assured me that by choosing. More...

See Southwold 2006s – a guide for links to my tasting notes and related articles. The Chinese may be in love with Château Lafite and any wine remotely related to it – a six-litre impériale of the 1982 sold for HK$363,000, twice Sotheby’s already optimistic pre-sale estimate at. More...

Here is a signpost to our coverage of last week's marathon tasting of over 200 bordeaux 2006s blind in the Suffolk seaside town of Southwold, where we tasted in an upper room at The Swan Hotel and enjoyed bed and board at The Crown, which is not cheap but is extremely convivial, friendly and easy. More...

This is the time of year when we invite applications for the annual Geoffrey Roberts Award , an international travel award of £3,000 (about $5,000) for a journey that we judges feel is capable of making a positive difference to the worlds of food and/or drink. Apply here by 31 Mar 2010. The. More...