The other night I undertook a small experiment. New Zealand wine producers Vidal, part of the Villa Maria group, had sent me out of the blue a few years ago 12 bottles of Vidal Estate Reserve...

The Médoc was looking beautifully spring-like last week as I spent a couple of days being sped around by the Conseil des Grands Crus Classés slumming it, tasting 1995s and 1996s at some of the...

10 Feb - And now Paul White sends a long riposte to Bob Campbell's yesterday.  I am adding them both in separate comments boxes below, continuing stoppers' inflammatory tradition. 9 Feb...

The natural cork movement is currently on a charm offensive with its ilovenaturalcork.co.uk campaign. Jilly Goolden was recently espousing cork’s benefits in Hyde Park, and Prince Charles is...

Nino Pieropan and his sons Andrea and Dario have decided to bottle their 2008 Soave Classico under screwcap, which makes it their Soave and not their Soave Classico, even though the grapes are...

Yesterday I visited the new/old Bonny Doon winery in Santa Cruz, California, to taste the weird and sometimes rather wonderful. (More about that later.)  Over lunch in a tasting pod made out...

Mario Mizzi, Malta:   I suppose there is a point about the possible risk in storing srewcapped bottles upright but, assuming it was safe, there could then well be another...

New Zealand wine writer Paul Tudor has passed both parts of his Master of Wine exams and is now wrestling with The Final Assault, the Dissertation which the IMW now insists that all successful...

Chris Honeywill, Surrey:   One of my favourite New Zealand Pinot Noir wines is Ata Rangi and the 2002 vintage is bottled with a screw top, as are many wines from NZ. I wonder is it necessary...

Reid V Rapport, Old Vines, Florida: Here in Central Florida our customers are relatively accepting of screwcaps for the most part.  A few are a little surprised, but turndowns are extremely...

Purple pager David Morgan wrote yesterday (see below) to ask whether screwcapped bottles should be stored upright or horizontal. I was able to get advice from Sir Screwcap himself, Jeffrey...

I don't often give space here to unedited comments from wine producers, but Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon in California is truly an exception in almost every way. His wine names, labels, packaging...

Just before the tasting described in Rheingau throws down the gauntlet , six of the producers presented one ‘rarity’ each, along with their report on the 2010 vintage, and the prospects...

One of the most interesting encounters I had while in Porto last week (see my videos this week) was with the current head of Amorim, the world's leading cork supplier. The energetic António...

In the light of yesterday's article in The Observer (or Sunday Guardian , as we must get used to calling it) about natural corks and the alternatives, I thought you might be...