Over the first eight months of 2008, international exports of French wine decreased by 10% in volume, so perhaps it's good news that the French ministry of agriculture is forecasting a drop of around 15% in yields for the 2008 harvest. Well it would be good news if that drop were at the. More...

The lowest number of barrels in 21 years went on sale at the Hospices de Beaune auction yesterday and prices for red wines were dramatically lower than last year. This year's total of 544 barrels of the Hospices' 2008 burgundy compares with 607 last year (-10,4%), 680 in 2006 and 789 in. More...

While Nick was in Boston speaking to a group of leading hoteliers, our son suggested we console ourselves at Terroirs, a brand new very wine-minded establishment just opposite Charing Cross, on a site puzzlingly vacated by a Davys wine bar, The Tappit Hen. I say puzzling because this is surely an. More...

Copia, the downtown Napa food and wine showcase built with $20 million in seed money from Robert Mondavi, yet now mired in deep debt, will build a second campus in San Francisco in an attempt to draw more tourists to its programmes. Garry McGuire, president/chief executive officer of. More...

Twenty-two years ago I was the first British journalist to write about an American wine critic called Robert M Parker Jr. Today I bring you a completely new American force in wine communication. For someone so self-avowedly wedded to new media Gary Vaynerchuk was surprisingly difficult to. More...

Is there any point in all the words and opinion we wine commentators churn out? Do wine buyers take a blind bit of notice? Wine Intelligence is a UK-based market research consultancy specialising in the wine business which regularly undertakes surveys to draw attention to their work. A press. More...

Cotswold wine merchants Bennetts of Chipping Campden (pictured) are holding a wine tasting in London on Wednesday 26 Nov at St Stephens Club in Queen Anne’s Gate. Tickets are £37.50 a head (£32.50 if you are a purple pager and use the code given here when you book) and Bennetts promise. More...

'Another great Classico vintage', reports the not-totally-objective press office of the Chianti Classico Consorzio (the regulatory and promotional body for the region) now that the 2008 harvest is complete. They give their reasons for such an upbeat assessment below. (The Gallo Nero is the. More...

One of the things I couldn’t help noticing on my recent trip to New York (apart from the fact that there seemed to be some sort of election on) was how much more embedded in the bar and restaurant scene sake is than almost anywhere else other than Japan. If you’re based near London and. More...

The most interesting thing I learnt at last month’s tasting of smart 2006 bordeaux in bottle in London was that Frédéric Castéja, son of powerful Bordeaux négociant Philippe Castéja, was to marry the daughter of Xavier Borie of Château Grand Puy Lacoste that Saturday at Bordeaux’s. More...