News from Jancis Robinson

As we focus on ancient vines for this year’s writing competition, wine professional Adam Wells draws our attention to the very special produce of ancient pear trees. Flakey Bark is a marvel of a drink. Broad, bold, structural, it carries on its breath a muscular depth of pear skin, peach pit, earthy bacon rind and wet slate. Its tannins in youth

The bad news keeps on coming. The picture of frost damage to one of his vines in La Morra was taken by Alberto Cordero. See also Frost strikes European vineyards. Eyewitnesses from Barolo report much greater frost damage in large parts of the Langhe than initially expected. Vineyards at elevations up to 300 m (980 ft) have suffered badly, with

You don't have to be a writer to play a part in our old-vine initiative. We’re thrilled that the response to this year’s writing competition has been so positive. The theme is old vines. We’re looking for accounts of particularly old vineyards or parcels of vines and we spell out the rules again below. But you don’t have to write an article

Greater Burgundy has been particularly badly hit by the early April frosts. But then it seems as though last week's frosts have been devastating for growers of vines and fruit trees in all French wine regions. Damaging frosts have come early this year in Burgundy. Cécile Mathiaud of the generic BIVB press office confirmed last Thursday

An audit of wines that have made it across the Atlantic. Plus news of changes in one of Napa Valley's most famous families, pictured above. Jancis writes A rather good generic tasting of most of the California wines available in the UK was the last professional wine tasting I attended before lockdown in March 2020. California's Wine Institute is

Nick's life story … in this plea for a change from our dining table. My late mother never let us forget. She would always say to me, my sister and my brother ‘there are an awful lot of people worse off than you’. And she was, and continues to be, absolutely right. But just for one moment, let me have a moan, one that comes at the end of a

A version of this article about the need to re-evaluate old vines is published by the Financial Times. Image of ancient Etna vines supplied by master pruners of old vines, Simonit & Sirch. Some of the most interesting wines in the world are made from particularly old vines. A new UK-based initiative, the Old Vine Conference, is dedicated to

Discover the Vinho Verde revolution via a particularly appealing example. Alvarinho grapes are harvested in this distinctive green wine country above. From €8.88, £13.99, $17.99, CA$26.49, 19.90 Swiss francs, 139 Danish kroner Find this wine Not so long ago a student practising blind tasting would have had the following down as markers for

Reports of severe frost damage to vines in a wide range of European wine regions are flooding in. Chablis, the Côte d'Or (where Vincent Dancer's drone took this picture of frost candles in vineyards this week), Beaujolais, southern Rhône and Bordeaux all seem to have suffered – not least because the days have been warm, encouraging early vine

Portugal's most famous table wine sees the light of day, at 10 years old. Barca Velha is such an iconic name in the history of Douro table wines that it is mentioned in three separate entries (eg Ferreira) in The Oxford Companion to Wine, a book not generally given to mentioning specific wines or producers. Casa Ferreirinha, the home of Barca

What resulted from a night of white satin … This time last year Alistair Cooper MW reported on the lavish launch tasting high above the City of London of a new UK wine company Oeno. This year, prevented from repeating such an event by pandemic-related restrictions, the company sent out 30 of the luxurious hand-made heavy ash boxes pictured above

A progress report on a famous Burgundian's foray into Jura to the east. Now in its eighth vintage, Guillaume d'Angerville and François Duvivier's estate in Montigny-lès-Arsures in the Jura may not yet have the track record of the Domaine Marquis d'Angerville in Volnay but the wines are consistently excellent, with a promising future in

Copies of Nick's book are on their way to New York, Birmingham, California, Belgium, Newcastle upon Tyne and Dorset. Alice Waters of the iconic Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse is mentioned below and pictured above in more convivial times round a table at Viader, Napa Valley. I promised in Consolation for not eating out – a competition that I

Last week, speakers from Spain, Lebanon, Italy, Portugal, South Africa and the US seated themselves in front of webcams as a network of over 300 people from 25 countries lit up. The subject was old vines. The rest of the world might well have thought we were insane. The list of topics up for discussion would not have ameliorated this impression

What happens when you swap barrels between wineries in different countries, even different hemispheres? Above, left to right, Erni Loosen and Peter, Sam and Tom Barry in Clare Valley, South Australia. I’ve often thought that German wine exports would increase substantially if there were more German wine producers like Erni Loosen of Bernkastel

James Mayor discovers how a fifth-generation digital native is shaking up one of the best-known port shippers in its 140th year. Climate is changing what’s in the bottle. You have only to see these 37articles on JancisRobinson.com tagged ‘climate change’. I’m at Graham’s, one of the Symingtons’ port wine lodges in the Vila Nova de Gaia

Bardolino is a wine that should no longer be taken lightly. The evocative Lake Garda is pictured above and below by Jonathan Reeve (our James Bond specialist). It’s pretty brutal, but in our Learn section, we describe Veneto as ‘Italy’s wine factory’. I wince when I read that. Up-front confession: I've dabbled quite a bit in Italy's wine

A version of this article about a most unusual wine merchant is published by the Financial Times. See also Tips from The Wine Society's buyers. Membership of The Wine Society is a British rite of passage. My late father-in-law gave my husband a membership when he turned 21. I tried to give a young goddaughter the same, before being told that

Why a winter lockdown is better, or at least less awful, for chefs and their customers than a summer one. I have a recurring image of myself some time during one of the first three months of every year. We have walked into the River Café in Hammersmith. The sun is shining. We are made a fuss of as we sit down (I am with HRH) and the waiter

A groundbreaking way of exporting Australian wine plus the latest vintage releases from the Henschke family, including a 2019. In the top right-hand corner of the image above is PO Block 3, which supplies the relatively rare Hill of Roses bottling reviewed below. On Wednesday, as I was preparing to write this introduction to the latest releases