Before I get to global news, a couple announcements from us. On Sunday 16 November from 6.30 to 9 pm we will be holding a 25th anniversary celebration in London at Caravan King’s Cross! The event will feature 50 excellent sparkling wines – half champagne, half English fizz – as well as canapés. Jancis, Julia, Tam, Tara and I will be there with our party hats on.
In addition to celebrating our 25th anniversary I would also like to take a moment to celebrate the fact that JancisRobinson.com was voted the most consulted wine media in a poll taken for 67 Pall Mall’s London Fine Wine Trends Report. 67 Pall Mall is a private members club with over 10,000 members – 3,800 of whom are part of the London club. Most members of 67 Pall Mall have made wine a very large part of their life. It means the world to us that they trust our team’s recommendations over any other site.
Michelin Guide wine rankings?
On 8 October, Gwendal Poullennec, head of the Michelin Guide, announced at a Michelin Key awards ceremony in Paris that the company would be launching a wine guide … which is confusing seeing as Michelin already owns Wine Advocate – a publication originally started by Robert Parker. Michelin’s CEO Florent Menegaux was quoted by La Revue du vin de France stating that the Michelin brand is much stronger than the Wine Advocate brand but that the new guide is not intended to replace the Advocate.
My question is, how is Michelin intending to do this? As our Alder Yarrow rightly points out on his blog Vinography, if Michelin isn’t going to leverage Wine Advocate’s content, they’ll have to start reviewing from scratch. He also points out that Michelin hotel and restaurant reviews are free to the public. Will their wine reviews also be free?
Pink Chardonnay now allowed in Champagne
On 16 October the Comité Champagne announced, via press release, authorisation of Chardonnay Rose for production of champagne. Chardonnay Rose is a natural mutation of Chardonnay Blanc that has been part of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research’s national grapevine collection since 1950. This variety was selected by the Comité Champagne because of ‘commitment to genetic diversity, its plant heritage, and its ability to adapt to climate challenges.’ Chardonnay Rose joins three main grape varieties – Chardonnay Blanc, Pinot Noir and Meunier – and four less-used varieties – Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris – in being approved for Champagne production.
New Vino de Pago for Spain
On 2 October the European Union recognised a new Vino de Pago for Spain – Vino de Pago Tharsys. A Vino de Pago is a single vineyard that is recognised as being of such high quality as to merit its own denominación de origen (DO). Because of this legal structure, these are sometimes referred to as ‘Spanish grands crus’. However, unlike grands crus, a Vino de Pago must be owned by the winery that makes the wine. At present there are 28 Vinos de Pago in Spain. This latest, Pago de Tharsys, is entirely within Utiel-Requena DO in Valencia and is owned by a winery named Pago de Tharsys. The estate produces red, white, rosé and sparkling wine from 14 ha (35 acres) of vineyards.
Ukrainian wines stolen in London heist
On 13 October a lorry containing 12 pallets of wine belonging to Ukrainian Wine Company UK was robbed while parked in a CCTV-monitored parking area in London. The thieves stole five pallets-worth of wine, focusing specifically on sparkling wine. While there is CCTV footage of the whole thing, the Metropolitan police have said they won’t be getting involved because of insufficient evidence. According to an IG post by the company, police declined to even make an inspection.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I feel like video footage is pretty good evidence! The company is asking London wine lovers to keep their eyes peeled for Ukrainian wine being sold in suspicious places and keep them in the loop. If you’d like to support them you can buy directly from their site at https://uawines.co.uk/.
New Zealand wine exports update
New Zealand is the world’s 13th-largest wine producer by volume, and on 29 September New Zealand Winegrowers released their annual report. Exports account for 90% of New Zealand’s wine sales, totalling over NZ$2 billion. Total exports by value have dropped slightly, by 1% year on year, driven largely by sluggish sales in New Zealand’s three largest markets –the US, UK and Australia. Total exports by volume have increased by 5%. Combined with the value decline this indicates demand for more affordable wines. Exports by value to China have grown 47% and to South Korea have grown 92%. While slightly down in overall sales, New Zealand’s wine market is still in a much healthier place than that of most wine-producing countries.
France’s yield estimates fall (again)
At the beginning of August France’s Ministry of Agriculture predicted that 2025 would yield 40–42.5 million hectolitres of wine. After a month of severe heat, they revised that estimate down to 37.4 million hectolitres. On 7 October they brought the estimate down to 36.04 million hectolitres – dipping below the already painfully low yields of 2024.
Fighting fungal infections with bacterial injections
Esca is a fungal vine infection which was treated with the highly toxic and carcinogenic compound sodium arsenite until it was banned in 2001. Since then, esca infections have steadily increased in vineyards to the point that, in 2023, the fungus was found to have rendered 12% of French vineyards unproductive.
In April 2023, the French National Research Agency (ANR), the University of Pau and Pays de l’Adour, Hennessy, biocontrol specialist GreenCell, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux INP, Bordeaux Sciences Agro, INSERM, INRAE and the University of Reims pooled funds to launch WinEsca, a chair for researching solutions to esca. Since then, experiments have been underway. On 13 October Vitisphere announced that one of these experiments has seen some success.
Last year, post-doctoral fellow Ouiza Mesguida selected three strains of bacteria that she found to be capable of degrading the fungus associated with esca and began injecting high concentrations of these bacteria into the trunks of esca-infected vines. This year vines injected with the bacteria showed a 30–40% decline in the severity of symptoms related to esca. Researchers have injected affected vines with a second dose of bacteria to observe if the symptoms continue to diminish.
Personally, I think it is both crazy and very cool that we are giving vines the equivalent of vaccinations.
That’s all for this episode of the wine news. If you enjoy this newscast and would like to see it continue, please become a member of JancisRobinson.com. And if you have breaking news in your area, please email [email protected].
Photo at top is Chardonnay Rose from Sylvain Pataille’s Marsannay vineyard; photo taken by Michel Joly, courtesy Becky Wasserman & Co.
This is a transcript of our weekly five-minute news broadcast, which you can watch below. You can also listen to it on The Wine News in 5 Podcast. If you enjoy this content and would like to see more like it, please become a member of our site and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
