News from Jancis Robinson

A final round-up: family drama, an academic approach to history, glorious Burgundian visuals, undervalued treasures and – well – you read the review. See this guide to our book reviews. 10 Great Wine Families A tour through Europe Fiona Morrison MW  Published by Académie du Vin Library  ISBN 9781913141011  £25 online only I wondered, when

Purple Pagers asked for more lesser-known producers to feature in Julia's time in Burgundy last November. Your wish is our command. See articles today, Thursday and Friday. Today's two producers were not born in Burgundy and had no family background in wine. For the rest of our many articles on Burgundy 2018, see this guide. Maison M C Thiriet

Walter, an ex art history student, muses on the current, fluid state of Italian wine.The natural wine debate has flared up again or, perhaps, it never went away. I was pondering this at the Centre Pompidou in Paris last June, while looking at Henri Matisse’s Luxe, Calme et Volupté, the neo-Impressionist painting from 1904, of which I took this

Samantha Cole-Johnson, who will collect her WSET Diploma at the annual awards ceremony in London's Guildhall  tonight, provided us with last season’s illuminating Diary of a Willamette cellar rat. Here she ventures into the vineyard to submit a further despatch from Oregon wine country. The clayey Jory mud sucks at my boots, forcing me into an

Two winners and a runner-up announced below, on what we thought was the most appropriate date. What a thoughtful and inventive set of suggestions we received as to how to celebrate our 20th birthday this year, requested last month via these details of a competition. A couple of them were so stimulating that we have decided to award two first

London’s Burgundy Fortnight distilled. The late Michel Lafarge pictured below by Jon Wyand. Dry January is quite a challenge for anyone who loves and buys burgundy in or around London as there are so many opportunities to taste the latest vintage on offer at a panoply of merchants’ tastings. These tastings, begun on 7 January this year and not

A version of this article, about the couple responsible for the wines described in Long-lived treasures from Guffens' cellar, is published by the Financial Times. ‘My problem is that when I get drunk I say what I mean. And when I get very drunk I say what I don’t mean.’ With that threat, a wicked grin and his habitual wheezy snicker, Belgian

London is awash with hotel building sites. But who is going to work in them in post-Brexit Britain? The latest news in the hospitality media may seem somewhat unusual but in fact it is not all that surprising. Broadmoor Hospital, the mental institution once home to Peter Sutcliffe, aka The Yorkshire Ripper, and the Moors Murderer Ian Brady, is

Do we really need another wine guide? Aldo Sohm thinks so. See this guide to our book reviews. Wine SimpleA totally approachable guide from a world-class sommelier Aldo Sohm with Christine Muhlke  Published by Clarkson Potter  ISBN 9781984824257  £$32.50, CA$42.50, £25 Described on the inside front cover as ‘one of the most respected and

As the Australian bushfires continue to rage, we’re trying to find ways to help. One suggestion is to buy wines from the devastated Adelaide Hills and so today our wine of the week is from the biodynamic Henschke Lenswood vineyard, shown here with Stephen H pre-fires, that has been 90% wiped out. From £25.83 (as part of a case of six), £28.99

16 January 2020 Coming up for four years after this article was published, little has changed in the world of label-scanning apps. Vivino and Delectable remain the main players, with Vivino still the most popular and most useful overall. For full reviews, see the full article below. 18 April 2016  When the first wine label scanning apps appeared

A panoply of senior white burgundies from Guffens-Heynen and Verget. More on Saturday. If you have not yet discovered the Mâconnais wines of Domaine Guffens-Heynen, you are in for a treat. A massive retrospective tasting in London at the end of last year established what the Belgian bad boy has been attempting to prove for a winemaking lifetime

Arnica Rowan, seen here, describes hunting for the luxury product vying with vines for land in the Langhe hills, which should not be partnered with Barolo, according to her hosts. The hounds stand up on their back feet, pressed up against the fence of their enclosure, and whine in anticipation. ‘They are excited to hunt the truffles'

Our main contribution this week is our continuing daily addition of hundreds of tasting notes on 2018 burgundy as we work our way through Burgundy Fortnight, but this is offered as a minor distraction. These 14 wines from three producers just happened to arrive on my tasting table at the same time, so I thought that rather than hiding them away

The reputation, and style, of the humble Durif has been evolving markedly in California. Known for its brooding flavours and robust palate, Petite Sirah (as Durif is called in California) is sometimes described as the most decidedly California wine. Its wines easily fulfill the stereotype of a full-bodied wine with ripe fruit that is so often

So what happened last week when the American wine trade met US government officials to argue against a 100% tariff on imports from Europe? A clamour in the American wine media reached fever pitch last week, after several weeks of increasing consternation. The hubbub surrounds two separate tariff proposals by the Trump administration. The first

A change of heart and a change of style chronicled. A slightly shorter version of this article is published by the Financial Times. Florentine Carlo Ferrini, 65, is one of the most celebrated of the winemaking consultants that have been so vital to the Italian wine scene – possibly the most famous. Three times he has been awarded winemaker of

London's most keenly anticipated restaurant opening. A version of this article is published by the Financial Times. The recent opening in Claridge’s hotel of Davies & Brook restaurant by the Swiss-born chef Daniel Humm (pictured), who made his name in the US, was six months later than expected.  In an industry where restaurants have less-than

Reports from around the region. Is it as good as 2016? Seen here Walter's November 2019 view of the alps from Monforte d'Alba. Last November, while I was tasting my way through the brilliant 2016 Barolos in the Langhe, I also wanted to find out what producers thought of the 2019 vintage. The question attracted the suspicion of several producers

From 82 rand, €9.95, £10.99, NZ$24.99 Find this wine Visiting South Africa again six weeks ago, I was excited by the number of producers making and shouting about Chenin Blanc. As is well documented in the Oxford Companion and elsewhere, Chenin – or Steen in local parlance – was the high-volume workhorse of the South African wine industry