Bordeaux

by Tim Atkin
Bordeaux is the world’s most famous fine wine region. Other areas may be more beautiful, more historic or blessed with better food, but Bordeaux is home to the greatest percentage...

Napa Valley

by Tim Atkin
The Napa Valley is the most famous wine region in the Americas and arguably in the entire New World – think Bordeaux crossed with the Hollywood Hills and more than...

Burgundy II

by Tim Atkin
Burgundy is a paradoxical place. The apparent contradiction is that it is both one of the simplest and most complex wine regions on earth. The easy part is that almost...

Top UK Wine Merchants

If you’re serious about developing a wine collection, don’t overlook the UK’s splendid array of independent wine merchants. These companies aren’t the cheapest places to buy a bottle of basic...

Wine Vintages

One of my favourite cartoons, published by the Pacific Wine Company, depicts a vintage bore surrounded by people who’ve hanged themselves out of tedium: ‘I’ve just started drinking the 1982s,...

Marlborough

by Tim Atkin
The 24th of August 1973 was a significant date in the history of New Zealand. It was equally significant in the history of wine. If that sounds a little over-dramatic...

The Douro Valley

by Tim Atkin
If you’re fond of trains, the 110 mile trip from Oporto to Pocinho, close to the Spanish border, is one of the most beautiful railway journeys in the world. For...

Lebanon

by Tim Atkin
Part salesman, part winemaker, part impresario, Serge Hochar is standing on the steps of Château Musar, arms extended in greeting. Hochar gives “good quote”, as we journalists like to say,...

Tempranillo

by Tim Atkin
Cenicero is one of the nicest towns in Rioja, with a picturesque central square, narrow streets of white-walled houses and an elevated walkway full of old-timers in black berets philosophically...

Shiraz

by Tim Atkin
I’ve always considered it neatly ironic that Shiraz, one of the world’s greatest red grape varieties, takes its name from a town in Iran. Ironic because Iran is not exactly...