Wine behind the label - The Award-Winning Wine Guide

The leading Champagne house of Deutz have just sent us their assessment of the 2019 season vine flowering. This is what they report.   “Should we now consider hard winters to be a thing of the past? That is the question we can legitimately be asking ourselves this year. We certainly didn’t have any really cold weather in winter 2018-2019. There were only a few morning frosts and a little bit of snow, forcing us to temporarily stop work in the vineyards, reminding us that we were in winter. We

For wine merchants, buyers and restaurants we are bringing you some advanced details of the substantial Paris based wine fair held early next year. Here then comes news of the event from the organisers. After a successful inaugural event and with 7 months to go before it officially opens, WINE PARIS is more than ever confirming its status as a major international wine trade event in Paris. With support from all the wine marketing boards, it is poised to welcome over 2,200 exhibitors and 30,000 visitors, including 35% from outside

The Boisset wine group is in the course of completing the purchase of the small American owned Burgundy producer Alex Gambal. The Boisset family has significant winery investments in France and in California with a vineyard area of over 700 ha. They also have an involvement in leading wine writer Steven Spurriers English sparkling wine project in Dorset, Bride Valley Vineyards. Boisset barrel cellar Key Burgundy producers in the group are Bouchard Père et Fils, Antonin Rodet and Domaine de La Vougeraie. The firm also has holdings in Chablis, the

The London Wine Fair is a  great event for discovering new wineries and renewing our acquaintance with old ones. During the three days of this event we tasted many wines and we will, in due course, be writing up our assessments of the wines we tasted. Listed below are wineries which we have highlighted and the vast majority of these will receive the benefit of a full entry in the 12th edition of the guide. Club members will have the privilege of being able to read these entries in advance

A customer who ordered a bottle of Ch. Pichon Lalande 2001 at £260 in the Manchester branch of Hawksmoor Restaurants, received a whopping bonus by getting a bottle of Ch. Le Pin 2001, on the wine list at £4,500, by mistake. Le Pin is a cult wine, highly priced for its quality and scarcity value as only about 500 cases are made each year. Ch. Pichon Lalande, is also a very, very, highly regarded wine which is never cheap, but has a much larger production.   Assessing the Quality/Price Ratio

We thought this report from the IWSR, the leading source of data and intelligence on the alcoholic beverage market, was interesting referring to a new study published in the medical journal The Lancet which reports a considerable upsurge in the global consumption of alcoholic drinks. However, the IWSR figures indicate “Many drinks operators are now focused more on generating value than volume and this is borne out in the premiumisation of the market and the rapid emergence of the craft movement. The IWSR’s figures show that while the overall global

Domaine Clarence Dillon, the family company owner of Château Haut-Brion, Château La Mission Haut-Brion and Château Quintus, is pleased to announce a distinctive new brand identity for the wines of Clarendelle, Inspired by Haut-Brion. The new logo, adorned by a crown and two majestic lions, is borrowed from the Dillon family coat of arms and provides a fitting replacement. The emblem signifies part of a story that is constantly evolving, the earliest chapters were signed by Mr Clarence Dillon at Château Haut-Brion in 1935.   Created in 2005 by Prince Robert of Luxembourg, the