What price wine elitism?

by Tim Atkin
Maybe no one should be surprised that when looters took to the streets in Clapham Junction last week, one of the few shops they left untouched was Waterstone’s. They were...

2008 AA Badenhorst Family White, Swartland

After an impressive tenure at Rustenburg, Adi Badenhorst is doing some really exciting things at his new project in the Swartland. This fruit salad white blend of mostly Chenin Blanc...

2010 Planeta Carricante, Sicilia

Is Mount Etna Italy’s greatest secret when it comes to whites? It certainly makes some amazing wines from the Carricante grape: taut, minerally and refreshing. This is stony and crisp...

Celebrating 25 years of the IPNC

by Tim Atkin
What would a neo-Prohibitionist make of the International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville, Oregon? There’s enough wine consumed over the course of the three day festival to stock a chain...

2008 Ramon Bilbao Single Vineyard Rioja

A high altitude blend of Tempranillo and Garnacha from the cooler Rioja Alta sub-zone, this modern blend typifies what’s happening in Spain’s most famous wine region at the moment. It’s...

Bordeaux 2010: end of term report

by Tim Atkin
At last, the 2010 en primeur campaign is over. Even for people who are fascinated by what happens in the world’s largest fine wine region, it had become a bore...

2007 Passopisciaro, IGT Sicilia

If your impression of Sicily is of a sweltering island making chunky reds, cheap, New World-style whites and Marsala, you haven’t discovered the Nerello Mascalese grape from Mount Etna yet....

Sleepless in Bordeaux?

by Tim Atkin
As Bordeaux prepares to welcome the world to the biennial Vinexpo trade fair this weekend, the increasingly overblown 2010 en primeur campaign has gone into hibernation. But what happened earlier...