Is what I describe as a ‘burnt rubber’ aroma or flavour in some – mainly less expensive – South African red wines a figment of my imagination? If not, what causes it? These questions...

A tasting in London of a selection of Saint Clair’s Pioneer Block Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir with winemaker Matt Thomson (International Wine Challenge white winemaker of the year 2008,...

Please note that italics refer to grape varieties that have their own entries in this guide to hundreds of the most significant grapes currently grown around the world to produce white...

2008 Sonoma’s earliest harvest, and very early throughout northern California. 2007  Harvest began early, mid August in the warmer regions, then a cool September slowed...

No grape has known such a dramatic upgrade in its fortunes and image in the last 20 years than Barbera in Piemonte, north west Italy.   This grape was once regarded as rather ordinary,...

Over the last few years I have become increasingly aware of a new phenomenon in a worrying proportion of red wines. These wines leave my palate feeling as though it has been energetically scoured...

Flying in to San Francisco last Wednesday was a trial. Haze from Northern California's serious fires, many of them in Mendocino County, had so affected visibility that my flight had to be...

See also our German 2007 tasting notes - A-K   Below is the second half of our roughly 450 tasting notes on Germany’s attractive and useful 2007 vintage. Where both Julia...

After all these years I have become relatively inured to the distracting lure of tasting notes. I can usually read through hundreds quite clinically, without being tempted to go and rip open a...

Writing my 200+ tasting notes on current-release Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons is an interesting exercise when one knows the notes will be viewed by a readership wider than Americans...

The 2007 vintage is quite extraordinary - as exceptional as the 2003 heatwave year but in an entirely different way. In fact it is almost its polar opposite. The whites, both dry and,...

Max Marriott, a young Queenslander and Riesling fan who recently completed a viticulture and oenology degree at Lincoln University and now manages a fine wine store in Christchurch, New...

Summary A very good vintage for New Zealand, with a generous crop of high quality grapes in many regions, even though some saw reduced yields due to frost. On Waiheke Island, Chardonnay...

See also tasting notes on more than 150 Slovenian wines, some outstanding. Slovenia’s is possibly the most unusual wine culture in the world, certainly in Europe....

See also my overview Australia changes its focus , Australian Rieslings and Australian Semillons . Below are tasting notes on about 250 mostly really interesting...