One important feature of tomorrow’s annual generic tasting of New Zealand wines in its major export market the UK will be the presentation of sweet wines (‘wines over 15% potential alcohol’...

For many of us in the northern hemisphere, temperatures are sub-zero, and the prevailing feeling is that we deserve all the calories we can get. Why not from sweet wines, then? Here’s a...

This is the prime time of the year for indulging in wines that are strong and/or sweet, the treats we tend to deny ourselves the rest of the year, to the chagrin of producers in Jerez, Oporto,...

Here is the last of Julia's wonderfully detailed reports on the tasting marathon that was Landmark Australia .  She must be thoroughly relieved but I think we have all benefited from her...

See also this recent coverage of fine, dry German whites: A final fling with Sylvaner Great Sylvaner Do German dry whites last? Great dry Rieslings 2002-2007...

Vin de Constance’s reputation precedes it: it is the wine lauded by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Napoleon, the wine that, at one time, people clamoured for in preference even to Tokaji...

For many a wine drinker in the northern hemisphere, even (perhaps particularly) in the current economic climate, the chilly depths of winter is the time when pulling out all the stops seems not...

From $14.99 a half. Find this wine The other day I was at one of our regular blind tastings at Buckingham Palace (if you’re going to drop a name, it may as well be a...

This is the time of year when there really is no excuse not to open bottles of wines that are stronger and sweeter than the norm, and here are some that are looking especially delicious or...

See full tasting note s on Seppeltsfield and Roussillon wines, including six wines more than 100 years old. There is an upside to unfashionable wines. People don't buy them, so...

I don’t often post tasting notes on wines that are more than a century old here but below are descriptions of no fewer than six centenarian wines from an extraordinary source that is just...

Purple pager Barbara Burlingame of Rome has just reminded me of an article I wrote for the Financial Times five years ago which she found particularly useful. It occurred to me that the...

Does anyone else in the world celebrate Valentine’s Day with as much commercial gusto as Americans? We give our loved ones – romantic and familial – greeting cards, long-stemmed...

Until recently the range of sweet wines on offer, in the UK at least, was seriously limited. Other than fortified wines such as various ports, sherries and madeiras, we could choose from...

‘Tis the season to be merry and forget that forthcoming visit to the dentist. This is the time of year in the northern hemisphere when temperatures plummet and a glass of something sweet...