Jancis Robinson on Wine’s Intriguing New Directions

As editor of The Oxford Companion to Wine, renowned wine critic and journalist Jancis Robinson knows what both serious oneophiles and everyday wine lovers will want to decant (and add to their cellars) in the next few years. Based on the guide’s new fourth edition, she sees a clear theme from her regional contributors: a shift toward wines that are lighter, fresher, and more geographically focused.

That translates into more expressive wines with less alcohol and oak; vineyard agrochemicals replaced by organic and even preindustrial techniques; and wines labeled not just with a region or district but increasingly with the name of the specific vineyard responsible for it. Some producers, Robinson finds, are even omitting grape names from the label to more closely link wines to the place of their origin.

Robinson—who writes on wine daily for JancisRobinson.com and weekly for theFinancial Times, has authored and edited many books on the subject, and even advises Queen Elizabeth on her cellars—shares more of the wine world’s trends in a conversation with Dave McIntyre, the Washington Post’s wine columnist. Afterward, raise a toast as you sample a selection of wines representative of today’s trends, and have Robinson sign a copy of the substantially revised The Oxford Companion to Wine (Oxford University Press), available for purchase. Cheers!