Château de Fieuzal, one of the top cru classés in Pessac-Léognan, owned by Lochlann Quinn and his family, has announced that there will be no wine released  from the 2017 harvest because of severe frost damage to its crop on 27th April.   It’s rare when a producer decides not to release ANY  of its wine on to the market when they consider that its not good enough which makes us applaud their integrity – which sometimes has been singularly lacking in the world of wine.   Two other instances stand

‘Ted’ the robot at Ch. Clerc Milon. Credit: Baron Philippe de Rothschild Château Clerc Milon reports on the first trials in its Pauillac vineyard of TED, the first multi-purpose straddling electric robot specially designed for soil cultivation of high density vineyards. The trials mark the culmination of an ambitious project that started with a desire to address a particular issue. Vineyard work involves a number of time-consuming and laborious tasks, such as mechanical weeding beneath the rows. Baron Philippe de Rothschild, the owners of Ch. Clerc-Milon, therefore decided to take part

Those of you who have got the 10th edition of Wine behind the label will know that for some time, consulting input at COLGIN CELLARS has been supplied by Alain Raynaud of CH. QUINAULT in Saint-Émilion. Quinault has for some time been one of the properties owned by LVMH. So it may come as no surprise that LVMH has agreed to buy 60% of Colgin Cellars from founder, Ann Colgin, and her husband, Joe Wender, for an undisclosed price. It marks a further ingress into the Napa Valley following their purchase of NEWTON

Although the recent news stories from the California wine country north of San Francisco has been dominated by the wild fires the 2017 harvest remained largely untouched by the disaster. In fact all the indications are that this will prove to be a very good year. Here is an overview from the Wine Institute of California and below is a link to their detailed report. California’s 2017 harvest wrapped up early this fall following summer heat spurts and a growing season that saw significant rain throughout the state ending a

    The International Wine & Spirit Competition has announced its South America and Mexico wine results   ·  The Trophy-winning Malbec hails from a summit-scraping vineyard of the Argentine mountains   ·   High altitude wines are leading the charge in fine wines due to extreme weather conditions   A high altitude Malbec, produced at an incredible 1,020 metres above sea level, has been revealed as the best Malbec in the world according to the results of the world-renowned International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC).   The IWSC has revealed the 2017 South American

On Friday 13th October 2017 the offices of InterLoire in Tours were invaded by eight members of the militant group – Les Bonnets Rouges. The eight called themselves – Les Frelons (the hornets). InterLoire is the administrative and promotional body for many of the Loire appellations. photo credit: Les Bonnets Rouges The group – Les Bonnets Rouges – is based in Brittany and was formed in October 2013 to fight a new lorry transport tax, which they believed harmed agriculture in Brittany. Through demonstrations and militant action they forced the

Champagne Deutz provide us with an assessment of the 2017 vintage in Champagne appellation. This was a challenging year with spring frosts and late season humid conditions seeing grey rot effecting the two Pinot varieties with an inevitable loss in yield as well. Here then is the Champagne Deutz report. Excitement, fear and relief… Each year brings us its share of surprises, good or bad. The old folk used to say that one should never get excited about a vintage until the harvest has been brought home, and this year