Before I get to global news, congratulations are in order! On 30 April the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, now in its 55th year, held their Diploma graduation ceremony in London. 809 graduates from 46 countries were honoured. A huge congratulations to all of them – especially to Jo Kitley, an NHS doctor who took home this year’s Vintners’ Cup for the highest mark across all areas of the WSET!
This year’s Outstanding Alumni Award, presented annually in partnership between WSET and JancisRobinson.com, went to Gus Zhu MW. The award recognises a diploma graduate who has made an exceptional contribution to creating positive change within the global drinks community. Zhu holds an MSc in Viticulture and Oenology from UC Davis and, as a researcher, he’s enhanced the industry’s understanding of the sensory qualities of cork. As a teacher, he’s educated his share of WSET and MW students. And as the author of Behind the Glass: The chemical and sensorial terroir of wine tasting, he has made wine science accessible and engaging. Congrats Gus!
Bordeaux 2024 en primeur
I discussed 2024 bordeaux en primeur last week and explained that, with past vintages retailing for less than their EP prices and 2024 being an incredibly difficult vintage, EP buyers should keep an eye on James Lawther MW’s EP scores and Nick Martin’s price comparisons on our forum. Last week saw many châteaux release well under their 2023 EP prices – but not enough to call anything great value. This week saw Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Angelus drop prices 31% compared with 2023. That’s a decent reduction if you intend on drinking the wines. But, as Nick Martin points out, if subsequent prices mirror those for the most recent comparable vintage, 2021, if you’re investing and you’re accounting for inflation and trading costs, then you’re barely breaking even.
Argentina’s early 2025 harvest
Thank you to Amanda Barnes MW for this – she wrote an excellent overview of the 2025 harvest that we published on Monday. I encourage you to go read her report.
Argentina’s 2025 harvest was one of the earliest on record, with reds beginning to be harvested in mid February. As Barnes explains, most of the growing season was relatively moderate and hazard-free but temperatures spiked in early February causing sugars to rise rapidly and pushing producers to rush to bring in fruit. Then, at the end of February temperatures plummeted and Cuyo, the area accounting for the largest production of wine, saw heavy rains. This created a distinct divide in the character of red wines in the 2025 vintage. It’s a bit early to make declarations on how the finished wines will show but Barnes’s report suggests that the early-picked wines are likely to be juicy and bold with later-picked wines being more restrained with riper tannins.
Accolade + Pernod Ricard = Vinarchy
In July of last year, the owner of Accolade, Australian Wine Holdco, entered into a deal to purchase all of Pernod Ricard’s Australian, New Zealand and Spanish wine interests. That deal closed on 30 April. On the same day, Australian Wine Holdco announced that it had bundled all of Accolade’s wine brands with the brands newly acquired from Pernod Ricard under a company called Vinarchy. Vinarchy consists of 11 wineries and 40 brands including Jacob’s Creek, Hardys and Campo Viejo.
Wildfires in South Africa
On 25 April fires erupted in the Tokai suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. The fires quickly spread across Table Mountain National Park into the Constantia GI. Malu Lambert, reporting for Decanter, wrote that vineyards of Buitenverwachting, Steenberg, Constantia Uitsig and Klein Constantia were at risk. Due to the combined efforts of firefighting teams and winemaking teams only about a quarter hectare of the Buitenverwachting vineyard was damaged. As of 30 April, eNCA reported that fires had been contained.
To be clear, fires did not affect the 2025 vintage. Fortunately, harvest for 2025 concluded about a month ago.
Bhutan’s first wine released
Last September, Jancis wrote about the fledgling Bhutanese wine industry – led by the recently established Bhutan Wine Company, which rooted their first vines in 2019. Since then, the company has planted a total of 80 ha (200 acres). The first commercial vintage will be 2024, from which Jancis tasted Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Syrah, Tempranillo and Pinot Noir. However, one barrel of 2023 was made. This barrel combined every red and white grape variety planted in Bhutan from every vineyard. From this barrel, two 7.57-litre bottles of a wine dubbed ‘The Himalayan’ have been released. One will be presented to the King of Bhutan. The other was sold at auction last week for $18,750. To be fair that price does include a week-long guided tour of Bhutan, lodging and in-country transport. But it’s still a pretty impressive feat for a country that’s never produced wine before!
That’s all for this episode of the wine news. If you enjoy this newscast and would like to see it continue, please subscribe to JancisRobinson.com. And if you have breaking news in your area, please email [email protected].
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