I am pleased to present my Bordeaux 2024 En Primeur report. With release prices (heavily reduced in the main) being announced daily, it will be possible to find some good...
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Rod Smith MW
Rod Smith MW lives and works near Nice in the South of France. He is an educator, consultant, writer, marketer and wine tour leader. A master of wine since 2006, Rod has worked in the UK, Hong Kong and France and travelled widely throughout the wine world and the Far East. He has worked with the leading wine supplier to the superyacht industry in the South of France, and before that in the UK for a variety of fine w
Articles by Rod Smith MW
Under The Weather
by Rod Smith MW
Bordeaux needs a break. It was once regarded by the French themselves as the greatest of wine regions, but now youngsters are drinking less (and less wine) – just as...
Bordeaux En Primeurs 2023
£20.00I am pleased to present my Bordeaux 2023 En Primeur report. With prices dropping (in both senses of the word!) at a rate of knots, you can read what I...
Add to basketA Classic In The Making?
by Rod Smith MW
After the excessive heat of 2022, the vintage 2023 marks a return to normality for Bordeaux. Had this vintage happened 30, or even 20, years ago, it would have gone...
More Rayas Than Raisin
by Rod Smith MW
For many people in the UK getting into wine in the 1990s Australia was new and vibrant. The ‘sunshine in a glass’ mantra, coupled with labels in English, often with...
Bordeaux En Primeurs 2022
£15.00I am pleased to present my Bordeaux 2022 En Primeur report. After two separate packed trips to the region in April and May, tasting well over 450 wines, I am...
Add to basketThe Low-Down on Bordeaux 2022
by Rod Smith MW
The 2022 vintage in Bordeaux, as across all of France and most of the rest of Europe, was very hot. Regular news stories about daily temperatures exceeding 40°C were prominent....
Bordeaux 2019 bottled mini report
£5.00The Grands Crus Classés of the left bank and Sauternes (and a few others) As the En Primeur circus gears up for the first taste of the 2021 wines next...
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by Rod Smith MW
Brač is the largest island in the Croatian archipelago on the Dalmatian coast, and just eight kilometres (around an hour by catamaran) from the easily accessible and beautiful city of...
2020 Bordeaux En Primeur Report
£15.00Just how visionary is 2020? Rod Smith MW tasted through over 600 wines in situ in Bordeaux at the end of April and this report has complete notes and scores...
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Bordeaux 2019 mini report
FREEFor free (because of its incompleteness), download an assessment of the 135 samples of Bordeaux 2019 that I was sent, without having the opportunity to taste in situ. With just...
Add to basketWhither Bordeaux 2019?
by Rod Smith MW
Why on earth would anyone spend €370 for a bottle of Cheval Blanc when you can buy Figeac for €120? Both seem likely to score around the 98-100 point range...