In 2006 the first branch of The Sampler wine shop in Islington broke new ground in wine retailing for London, offering its customers small tasting samples of about 80 fine wines and carrying a...

The following tasting notes were made last week at a blind tasting of 64 non-vintage and vintage champagnes organised by the London wine broker Fine & Rare Wines. Most of the wines came from...

17 Jun - Interesting to note that sales of growers' champagnes have been healthier than most in this report on decanter.com about how reluctant growers are to reduce yields, as requested by...

I can’t stress enough what great value is to be found among the better growers’ champagnes – those made by the people who grow the vines, as opposed to the wines blended by the big houses...

    Robert Caldicott, London:   I can recommend Bonnaire of Cramant. I used to import his wines before I retired from business...

I thought it would be useful to publish this updated list of growers who produce superior champagne since they generally offer much better value than the big houses. It is based on one kindly...

As we walked into Franco’s, the excellent-value Italian trattoria recently re-invigorated by the Hambro family who own the far more expensive Wilton’s next door, my guest Bob...

M English, Hertfordshire:   In terms of regularity of blend, I wondered whether small growers were more constrained (by limited numbers of separate tanks, the need to blend...

W A Stanton, Delaware: I was pleased when I turned to your column in today's FT . Your philosophy is the same as mine: seek out grower's champagnes. But, alas, your favourites are mostly...

Greenies might like to know about this First International Symposium on Grapevine which is being organised with great enthusiasm in Lisbon, Portugal 30 June - 3 July, 2003. The organisers have...

For the USA For the UK This is the time of year we tend to treat ourselves to the in-between wines. Not just the reds and still whites we drink all the time, but bottles plucked...

If everyone in Champagne used Pierre-Eric Jolly's three-legged, single-wired muselet , over 1,000 km of wire could be saved (based on their own saving of 4 km of wire in three months, tracked on...

We’re great admirers of grower champagnes here, Jancis having written about them a number of times, including Growers' champagnes from Son of Sampler and Great growers' champagnes . So I...

High heels, black silk stockings, velvet ruffs, and my first ever taste of champagne... at 14, I was bedazzled by the slinky hostesses, the velour-lined electric train (complete with Disney-like...

1 Apr: Note the excellent price for Roederer just added to the list at the bottom of this article, and see my tasting notes for more than 80 NV champagnes. As the French wine trade staggers...