Did you know that the UK's wine plantings account for a mere 0.07% of the global wine vineyard? Or that it was probably the Normans, not the Romans, who really got the English wine show on the road? Ever realised why Britain is one of the trickiest places...
We've been tasting a fair bit of English sparkling wine lately. (Lately?! Who are we kidding...
Since Decanter magazine launched its Man of the Year accolade in 1984, there have been 36 recipients. Nine from Bordeaux, five from the UK, three apiece from California and Australia. And now, it has its first name from Chile: Eduardo Chadwick. It's a big moment, not just for...
When I was asked to compile a selection of thirty great New World buys under £30, my first thought was: what does New World mean? And my immediate reaction was: excitement. That's what I want wines from new countries to give me - a real sense of...
This is a report on a very special tasting I attended in the gleaming riverside offices of Farr Vintners in Battersea, September 2017. It was a tasting with both a personal and political dimension. We were privileged to be tasting wines from the first decade of Royal...
January is the time of year when Burgundians show off their new vintage. Currently it's hard to cross the road in London without falling over a top-notch Burgundian producer clutching bottles of their 2016s - a year that is notable for reduced volumes due to spring...
Wine fraud is a big issue. It also makes for a fascinating story. So I was thrilled to be able to explore the topic in a recent BBC Radio 4 documentary called The Wine Detectives. (Click on the link to find the original 28-minute programme...
Carmenere is the James Bond of wine grapes. It's mysterious, with a past shrouded in conjecture. No one knows how best to handle or contain it. It's often been on the ropes - but has proved a dogged survivor. It also goes under many pseudonyms, from...
After Susie helped plant the first vines on Champagne Taittinger's brand new English wine estate in May 2017, she reflects in the pages of Decanter on how far and fast the category has moved on. From being an emergent category just a decade or so ago,...
In the 1970s, a French customs official famously declared that English wine simply did 'not exist'. How times change. From a meagre total of around 1,500 bottles in the mid-1960s, English wine production now averages around five million bottles, with a national vineyard of some 2,000 hectares....