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In the latest dispatch from his Bordeaux 2021 en primeur tasting trip, Simon Field MW reports from Sauternes, where winemakers are doing their best to transcend a very difficult set of circumstances. Sauternes today is not enjoying the best of times. Nature’s caprice means that some blights are more welcome than others. The somewhat perverse… View Article
The World of Fine Wine’s Simon Field MW is in Bordeaux for the 2021 vintage en primeur tastings. In the latest of his dispatches from the region, he reports from Domaine de Chevalier, where the Pessac-Léognan white wine is the star of the vintage. “Le bon Dieu a bu beaucoup de Merlot en 2021,” says Rémi… View Article
The World of Fine Wine’s Simon Field MW is in Bordeaux for the 2021 vintage en primeur tastings. In the latest of his dispatches from the region, he gives his verdict on the “last of the garagistes,” St-Emilion’s Le Dôme. “We are poor peasants,” says Jean-Pierre Morgues of Le Dôme, pointing up the hill towards… View Article
Wine has long been thought to have medicinal properties, says Stuart Walton, who looks at the ways in which it has been used as a tool of the medical profession and as part of a healthy lifestyle since the 19th century. Long after the medical profession had ceased to lend credence to humoral theory, wine… View Article
The World of Fine Wine‘s Simon Field MW is in Bordeaux for the 2021 vintage en primeur tastings. In the third of a regular series of dispatches from the region, he gives his verdict on St-Emilion’s Châtaeu Pavie. The reconstructed Château Pavie resembles a Spanish hotel. A five-star hotel. Make that five stars deluxe: An… View Article
The World of Fine Wine‘s Simon Field MW is in Bordeaux for the 2021 vintage en primeur tastings. In his latest dispatch from the region, he gives his verdict on Pomerol’s Vieux Château Certan. It seems reprehensible in the extreme that my last visit to Vieux Château Certan was over 20 years ago. Nothing much… View Article
Over the past two decades, The World of Fine Wine’s annual reports on the Bordeaux en primeur tastings have become definitive statements on the latest goings on in the region. For the first 17 years of the magazine’s existence, the reports were written by the globally respected author and wine educator, Michael Schuster. As Schuster… View Article
The World of Fine Wine‘s Simon Field MW is in Bordeaux for the 2021 vintage en primeur tastings. In the first of a regular series of dispatches from the region, he gives his verdict on St-Emilion’s Château Figeac. Figeac’s natural atmosphere of calm and classical decorum was never likely to be especially perturbed by something… View Article
Joanna Simon‘s series on matching wines to wine country cuisine moves to Australia, and a complex contemporary calamari dish by chef Dan Hunter of Brae in Birregurra, Victoria. I have two abiding food memories from visits to the Barossa Valley around the turn of the century. One was having dinner with Peter and Margaret Lehmann… View Article
Jon Wyand, a regular and key contributor to The World of Fine Wine since the magazine’s inception, has been named the Errazuriz Wine Photographer of the Year, part of the Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year 2022 awards. Wyand’s winning entry, a depiction of a vineyard worker at the Corton Les Bressandes vineyard on… View Article
Some 30 years on from Priorat’s astonishing re-emergence as a fine-wine producer, Jim Clarke catches up with the original “Gang of Five” producers behind the renaissance to discuss how the Catalan region has evolved in the three decades since each made their first solo vintage. Three decades ago the Olympics came to Barcelona, placing an… View Article
Despite difficult growing conditions, global wine production in 2021 was not as bad as previously feared, with annual production just slightly lower than in 2020. The newest data on 2021 global wine production and consumption, announced on Thursday by Pau Roca, the Director General of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), also showed… View Article
Geographically and culturally closer to Chablis than Épernay, the distinctive Champagnes of the Côte des Bar deserve their new-found respect, says Essi Avellan MW, who introduces a tasting shared with Simon Field MW and Anthony Rose. This is an extract of an article from Issue 75 of The World of Fine Wine. For the full… View Article
From Ancient Greek and medieval strictures on serving sizes, to modern anxieties about serving temperature, Stuart Walton negotiates the elaborate history of wine etiquette. The wine connoisseur is a figure of fun in the popular imagination—a floridly complexioned old soak in a bow-tie, or perhaps an undernourished aesthete with a developed proficiency in the poetic… View Article
Vingt Vingt Vingt vingt: vin vin, you said, as we looked out into a new year, and for a moment we could see clearly —20/20—we could see vines laid like wool blankets over sheep stations at Bendigo and all around the Bannockburn basin; we could see vines rolled out like picnic rugs over paddocks at… View Article
The conditions were certainly challenging for the 2017 Barolo vintage. But as Michael Palij MW discovers, in a tasting shared with Bruno Besa and Andrew Jefford, they did not prevent skilled growers from producing some impressive and surprisingly balanced wines. This is an extract from an article first published in Issue 75 of The World… View Article
Joanna Simon delves into the unexpected origins and preparation of carne de porco à Alentejana—and picks out the best wines to serve with this classic Portuguese dish. Of the two things you would think it was safe to assume about carne de porco à Alentejana—that it’s based on pork and is from the Alentejo region—one… View Article
Chloe Ashton presents all the latest data from the thriving auction and fine-wine market, where both demand and prices have continued on their dramatic upward curve. Wine prices have never been higher. Following an initial stumble at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic (March 2020), Liv-ex indices have risen continually over the two years since,… View Article
Sarah Marsh MW continues her reassessment of Crémant de Bourgogne by profiling some of the style’s leading practitioners and their wines. Crémant de Bourgogne: Burgundy’s bubbles are rising Simonnet-Febvre, Chablis Simonnet-Febvre general manager Paul Espitalié met me on a chilly Saturday morning over a breakfast of warm brioche. Crémant de Bourgogne from Chablis is crisp… View Article
Sarah Marsh MW takes a fresh look at Crémant de Bourgogne, and finds a sparkling wine style developing its own, distinctively Burgundian identity. Crémant de Bourgogne: The producers and their wines Although I’ve been trotting to and from Burgundy for more than 20 years, I had never visited a crémant producer until recently. Crémant de… View Article
German wine-lovers don’t always love Alsace Riesling, and vice versa, says Stephan Reinhardt. But a tasting of top single-site wines shared with Andrew Jefford and Anthony Rose illustrated the merits of both places. For full coverage of this tasting, including detailed tasting notes on all 45 wines tasted by the panel, subscribe to The World… View Article
Tom Stevenson brings out the fascinating details in one of his favorite paintings, Le Déjeuner d’Huîtres or The Oyster Luncheon by Jean François de Troy (1735), which among other reasons is notable for featuring the first sparkling Champagne captured in art. It could be said that Jean François de Troy’s Le Déjeuner d’ Huîtres or… View Article
David Williams reports from the online launch of the latest release of the annual artistic project from Ornellaia. The process behind each vintage of Ornellaia’s Vendemmia d’Artista sounds straightforward enough. In the words of the estate’s director Axel Heinz, speaking from the winery in Tuscany at the online launch of the latest, 2019 edition, in… View Article
Some of Europe’s finest wine estates are the focus of a series of very special wine dinners at Hélène Darroze at The Connaught in Mayfair this year. The historic London hotel will welcome guests to six events, featuring vertical tastings matched with dishes devised by French star chef, Hélène Darrozze, and her resident executive chef,… View Article
Kathleen Burk reviews Wine and the White House: A History by Frederick J Ryan, Jr. The long-ago origin of this book is a touch unexpected. When the author was an undergraduate at UCLA, he carefully planned a first date that he knew would sweep the chosen woman off her feet. He booked a table at… View Article
A lockdown collaboration between French chef Fréderic Ménager of Burgundy’s La Ferme de la Ruchotte and Édouard Parinet of Château du Moulin au Vent inspired Joanna Simon to think anew about how to make and match coq au vin. You might wonder what of interest could possibly be added to the discussion (written and otherwise)… View Article
The wines of the 2008 Champagne vintage beat those from 2009 convincingly in a panel tasting hosted by The World of Fine Wine in 2016. But how do the two vintages compare today? Essi Avellan MW introduces a tasting shared with Simon Field MW and Anthony Rose. For full tasting notes on all 32 Vintage… View Article
After years providing fruit for some of the Napa Valley’s best producers from their Vine Hill Ranch vineyard, Bruce Phillips and family decided to make their own wine, with a first vintage in 2008. Margaret Rand caught up with Phillips for a mini-vertical of VHR, including the latest release. In magazine publishing, publishers often want… View Article
After the keenly anticipated annual tasting at UK agent Corney & Barrow in London on February 3, 2022, Michael Schuster reports on the 2019 vintage wines from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, a most particular style and expression of the Domaine’s vineyards in what is clearly a very grand vintage, fully worthy of a special anniversary… View Article
Terry Theise tastes—and drinks—the wines of Cedric Moussé, a Champagne producer at the forefront of the revolution in Meunier in the Marne Valley. You’ll have noticed, if your life is so drab and wretched that you’ve had time to read my previous reports, that I talk about the distinction between “tasting” and “drinking” wine, how… View Article
The World’s Best Wine Lists Awards, the global awards program created by The World of Fine Wine in 2014, has launched the 2022 edition with a call for entries. Judged according to a rigorous protocol by independent, international panels of leading professionals, including World Champion Sommeliers, Master Sommeliers, Masters of Wine, and highly respected wine… View Article
The late 2010s saw an unprecedented run of fine harvests in the Douro, each producing exceptional Vintage Port. But which of the four vintages from 2016 to 2019 is the greatest, asks Richard Mayson, who was joined by Simon Field MW and Andrew Jefford for a comprehensive tasting, first published in issue 74 of The… View Article
Sarah Marsh MW continues her coverage of the 2020 Burgundy vintage with detailed tasting notes on the wines of the Côte de Beaune. More in this series 2020 Burgundy: Classic wines from an extreme season 2020 Burgundy: A guide to the sub-regions and villages 2020 Burgundy: Chablis tasting notes 2020 Burgundy: Côte de Nuits tasting… View Article
The combination of chocolate and partridge, perdiz con chocolate, is a classic Spanish dish with many regional variations that works best with some very contemporary Rioja red wines, says Joanna Simon. That partridge cooked with bitter chocolate is a Spanish recipe is not in doubt but, as so often, a question hangs over whether one… View Article
Sarah Marsh MW continues her coverage of the 2020 Burgundy vintage with detailed tasting notes on the wines of the Côte de Nuits. More in this series 2020 Burgundy: Classic wines from an extreme season 2020 Burgundy: A guide to the sub-regions and villages 2020 Burgundy: Chablis tasting notes 2020 Burgundy: Côte de Beaune tasting… View Article
Sarah Marsh MW continues her coverage of the 2020 Burgundy vintage with detailed tasting notes on the wines of Chablis, a sub-region that enjoyed “a very good year.” More in this series 2020 Burgundy: Classic wines from an extreme season 2020 Burgundy: A guide to the sub-regions and villages 2020 Burgundy: Côte de Nuits tasting… View Article
Terry Theise concludes his immersion in the latest releases from the great Mosel estate Selbach-Oster with a look at the Spätlesen and Auslesen, as well as the wines of Weingut Alfred Merkelbach, where the Selbachs also oversee production. Click here for Theise’s notes on Selbach-Oster’s Spätburgunder and Pinot Blanc. And here for Riesling Trocken and… View Article
The World of Fine Wine’s Burgundy critic, Sarah Marsh MW, continues her comprehensive coverage of the 2020 Burgundy vintage with an overview of Burgundy’s sub-regions and villages. More in this series 2020 Burgundy: Classic wines from an extreme season 2020 Burgundy: Chablis tasting notes 2020 Burgundy: Côte de Nuits tasting notes 2020 Burgundy: Côte de… View Article
Despite the hot, dry conditions, 2020 Burgundy is characterized by “joyously” fresh, vibrant, classically styled wines, with consistent quality in the whites and many fine reds, says The World of Fine Wine’s Burgundy critic, Sarah Marsh MW, who introduces WFW’s comprehensive coverage of the vintage based on her extensive tastings in the region in late… View Article
Simon Field MW on a trio of special wines from Lustau, one from each of the towns that make up Sherry’s Golden Triangle, which have been released to mark the house’s 125th anniversary. 1896 was not an especially auspicious year in Spain. Farther afield, the Jameson Raid underlined tensions in the Cape which were to… View Article
As the Sicilian wine authorities approve an official change in name for the island’s most widely planted white grape variety from Catarratto to Lucido, Jim Clarke looks back on the recent history of grape re-christening in Italy. One doesn’t have to spend much time with Jancis Robinson & Co’s massive tome Wine Grapes to know… View Article
To mark the end of the year on worldoffinewine.com, we asked our writers to reflect on the bottles that meant most to them in 2021. For Joanna Simon the bottle in question was a rare lost gem of an Alsace Gewurztraminer that she uncovered during a house move. In terms of drinking, rather than just… View Article
To mark the end of the year on worldoffinewine.com, we asked our writers to reflect on the bottles that meant most to them in 2021. For Jim Clarke, the significant bottle was Bluet, a sparkling blueberry wine from Maine made by—and shared with—some old friends. For most of us I imagine 2021 turned out to… View Article
To mark the end of the year on worldoffinewine.com, we asked our writers to reflect on the bottles that meant most to them in 2021. Andrew Jefford finds his stars rising to the occasion on a single special night with friends in the Latvian capital. We all know why … yet I feel guilty. Should… View Article
Christie’s is hosting an auction of treasures from the Perrier-Jouët Oenothèque collection of historic Champagne releases on Thursday December 2, 2021. Simon Field MW reports from Paris where he was given an advance preview of some of the vintages of Belle Epoque on offer in London next week by Perrier-Jouët’s new Chef de Caves, Séverine… View Article
Simon Field MW introduces an instructive, heterogenous tasting, shared with Tim Atkin MW and Andrew Jefford, of red single-vineyard Rioja—including examples of the new official Viñedo Singular category. For full coverage of the tasting, including notes on all 67 wines, subscribe to The World of Fine Wine. I have been privileged to participate in many… View Article
Ken Gargett has a privileged early taste of what may be, in more senses than one, the ultimate Australian red blend, Penfolds G5. “A wine greater than the sums of its parts” is how Penfolds likes to describe G5, the latest and final release in its “G” series. To be brutally honest, if it is… View Article
Honors were even in an extensive comparative tasting of wines from the world’s two leading Malbec regions featured in Issue 73 of The World of Fine Wine, says Andrew Jefford, who was part of a tasting panel that also included Simon Field MW and Anthony Rose. For full coverage and notes on all 52 wines—26… View Article
The world of sparkling wine has been transformed in recent years, says the author of an important new book on the subject, Anthony Rose. No longer dominated by Champagne, it has never been more thrillingly diverse. In 1985, a piece about what wine would be like 25 years on gave me a leg up to… View Article
Each vintage, bottles of Château Mouton Rothschild feature the work of a world-leading artist. Sarah Kemp tells the stories behind the labels. It must have been quite a moment when the glamorous Baroness Philippine de Rothschild stepped off a small boat in the middle of a steamy Mexican jungle, there to meet the legendary film… View Article
In the second part of his review of the latest Riesling releases from the Mosel producer Carl Loewen, Terry Theise goes “ga-ga with bliss”. 2020 Ritsch GG (Full name Thörnicher Ritsch Riesling Trocken) ++ And once again we rejoice in 12.5% alcohol. Maximum flavor with minimum alcohol is the recipe for the highest satisfaction. Cards on… View Article
Chloe Ashton looks back on the Bordeaux en primeur 2020 campaign and picks out the wines that represented the best value and are still available to buy. As summer wanes, the Bordeaux en primeur 2020 campaign seems a distant memory. The season began hopefully, with Cheval Blanc an encouraging starter gun on May 11, 2021,… View Article
Joanna Simon’s journey through classic wine country dishes takes her to Alsace, where the meat, potato, and vegetable stew baeckoeffe matches with the local Pinot Noir (and Gris). It’s not just the cultural richness of Alsace cuisine or the number of Michelin-starred restaurants that makes eating in the region such a pleasure, it’s that there… View Article
Domaine Clarence Dillon, owner of Châteaux Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut Brion, has opened a new Bordeaux visitor center and shop: Le Pavillon Catelan and La Cave du Château, Bordeaux. After a four-year renovation project overseen by Prince Robert Luxembourg, Domaine Clarence Dillon has finally announced the opening of an important new attraction in the… View Article
In the second part of her climate crisis series, Katharine Swindells explores the practice of reducing carbon emissions in wine packaging and distribution. The wine bottle as we know it has been around for centuries—but as the wine world comes to terms with its carbon footprint, and sustainability becomes an ever more urgent issue, many… View Article
Alex Kongsgaard tells Kelli White about his latest venture, The Alexes, a range of three Chardonnays that has already attained mythic status in Napa Alex Kongsgaard builds surfboards, then he builds boats to carry those boards to the waves. Sometimes he creates these items from scratch. Other times, he attempts to make an existing vessel better. On the day of our tasting,… View Article
The 2020 en primeur campaign in Bordeaux was once again colored by Covid-19. But as Chloe Ashton reports, there is plenty of scope for optimism. It’s hard to believe the pandemic has imposed a second, virtual Bordeaux en primeur season. While lessons from last year’s unprecedented campaign have served well thus far—Zoom tastings and sample-sending… View Article
With Schloss Gobelsburg marking its 850th anniversary this year, Terry Theise spent a week tasting the great Austrian estate’s latest releases. Today, in the final installment of his three-part account of a profoundly impressive and affecting tasting, Theise presents his thoughts on Schloss Gobelsburg’s Rieslings. You can read Theise’s thoughts on Schloss Gobelsburg’s Zweigelt, rosé, and sparkling… View Article
The latest in Joanna Simon’s series on wine country cuisine focuses on a variety of traditional Catalan snail dishes, including snails a la catalana— snails tossed in an onion, garlic, and Mediterranean herb tomato sauce—a particularly good pairing with fresh, perfumed Garnacha. With its combinations of meat and seafood, sweet and sour, savory and sweet, a… View Article
With Schloss Gobelsburg marking its 850th anniversary this year, Terry Theise spent a week tasting the great Austrian estate’s latest releases. Today, in the second installment of his three-part account of a profoundly impressive and affecting tasting, Theise presents his thoughts on Schloss Gobelsburg’s Grüner Veltliners. You can read Theise’s review of Schloss Gobelsburg’s Zweigelt, rosé, and… View Article
With Schloss Gobelsburg marking its 850th anniversary this year, Terry Theise spent a week tasting the great Austrian estate’s latest releases. In this, the first installment of a three-part account of a profoundly impressive and affecting tasting, Theise presents his thoughts on Schloss Gobelsburg’s Zweigelt, rosé, and sparkling wines. In Part II, Theise presents his… View Article
This week, as the 2020 Bordeaux en primeur campaign hots up, The World of Fine Wine is publishing the in-depth analysis and detailed tasting notes of our longstanding Bordeaux critic, Michael Schuster, based on his extensive tastings at the châteaux this Spring. One of the world’s most experienced and respected Bordeaux critics, Schuster has been… View Article
This week, as the 2020 Bordeaux en primeur campaign hots up, The World of Fine Wine is publishing the in-depth analysis and detailed tasting notes of our longstanding Bordeaux critic, Michael Schuster, based on his extensive tastings at the châteaux this Spring. One of the world’s most experienced and respected Bordeaux critics, Schuster has been… View Article
This week, as the 2020 Bordeaux en primeur campaign hots up, The World of Fine Wine is publishing the in-depth analysis and detailed tasting notes of our longstanding Bordeaux critic, Michael Schuster, based on his extensive tastings at the châteaux this Spring. One of the world’s most experienced and respected Bordeaux critics, Schuster has been… View Article
This week, as the 2020 Bordeaux en primeur campaign hots up, The World of Fine Wine is publishing the in-depth analysis and detailed tasting notes of our longstanding Bordeaux critic, Michael Schuster, based on his extensive tastings at the châteaux this Spring. One of the world’s most experienced and respected Bordeaux critics, Schuster has been… View Article
Here we go again. It’s early May and Covid-19 is far from behind us. I visited Bordeaux just once in 2020, to make rounds on a few producers across both banks towards the end of harvest. Looking back now, I stupidly tempted fate, thinking to myself how wonderful it would be to taste the 2020… View Article
In the first of a monthly series exploring classic dishes from the world’s great wine regions, the award-winning wine and food writer Joanna Simon reflects on the Piemontese rice dish, Risotto al Barolo—and selects some accompanying local wines We may think of Italians as pasta eaters but, in the north, rice rules. Italy is Europe’s… View Article
Global wine consumption decreased slightly in 2020—with Covid-19 triggering a downturn similar to that seen in the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. New data from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) shows that after a strong decline in consumption in the first half of 2020, the latter half saw some recovery. Higher value wines, and… View Article
What can the ancient history of wine tell us about the role of alcohol in modern human society? Andrew Jefford explores the fascinating work of “the combination chemist and archaeologist” Patrick McGovern, the world’s foremost authority on the earliest beginnings of alcoholic drinks Illustration by Dan Murrell A glass of wine poured at the end… View Article
