News from Jancis Robinson

Wine has replaced beer as the common man and woman's drink. A version of this article is published by the Financial Times. Wine bores have a lot to answer for. Partly thanks to their arcane and often off-puttingly self-satisfied musings, the myth that wine is an elitist drink persists. But it is a myth – certainly in the UK. A YouGov poll

Nick’s first two articles published in the first few days of JancisRobinson.com back in late 2000. Plus his new book. Our 20th anniversary gives me, one of this website’s two longest-serving contributors, the opportunity to explore the old and the new. The new is the paperback edition of my second book, On The Menu, just published by the

The Story of Wine From Noah to now  Hugh Johnson  Academie du Vin Library  ISBN 9781913141066  £30  In the mid eighties, Hugh Johnson managed to persuade producer Michael Gill and Channel 4 to let him make a TV series on the history of wine from its birth to the (then) current craze of Beaujolais Nouveau. He employed a young Cambridge

Richard chooses an archetypal Grüner Veltliner that is not to be sneezed at. From €16.33, 21.80 Swiss francs, 269.90 Norwegian kroner, £22.90 Find this wine Someone, somewhere, once remarked – perhaps in an offhand fashion, maybe even as a joke – that Grüner Veltliner smells of white pepper. Ever since then, wine students have scrupulously

29 October 2020 Heralding our 20th anniversary this Sunday, we're republishing what seems to be the first wine article ever published on JancisRobinson.com, a year before the creation of Purple Pages. Read those prices and cry. I still think it was good advice and wish I'd bought even more 1990s myself. Titles were a little longer then … Purple

Walter goes on a mission to the mountains. Above, the Gschleier vineyard, proof of Schiava's potential magnificence. Schiava, Alto Adige's historic red-wine grape variety, is capable of making transparent, complex, elegant wines, but suffers from overproduction and standardised practices. The region needs to wake up to the excellence of this

See Bordeaux 2018 in bottle, part 1 for an introduction to these wines, and Bordeaux 2018 – the guide for all our coverage of this vintage. In the Tucker Image above Julia is hard at work in front of Stephen Brook, author of The Complete Bordeaux, and, left, our retail specialist Andy Howard MW. As for most of the wines from the Médoc and

As part of our 20-year anniversary celebrations, Richard investigates how winemaking and consumption have changed since the year 2000. Purple Pagers are reminded to submit questions for our first-ever livestream event this Sunday 1 November. Twenty years might represent an aeon online, but it’s the mere blink of an eye for viticulture. It can

Two new ways to package and deliver small quantities of wine that look seriously promising … and deeply sustainable. In his speech for The Wine Society's AGM, Pierre Mansour, head of buying, announced that they are in the process of reducing the bottle weight of their own-label wines. ‘The glass bottle accounts for approximately 40% of

For all our earlier coverage of this ‘extraordinary’ vintage see this guide, including Julia's overview of the wines when she tasted them 18 months ago en primeur. The second half of this report, on Graves and the right-bank reds, follows tomorrow. Tucker Images took the pictures. Julia writes It was touch and go as to whether Sue Glasgow of

This Sunday 1 November (All Saints’ Day) we’re planning a livestream celebration of 20 years of JancisRobinson.com when we hope very much as many Purple Pagers as possible will join us. We'll publish the relevant Zoom link this Friday and will be making the whole thing freely available next week. What would you like to ask me? We’re looking

US wine importer Bartholomew Broadbent who represents De Martino wines from Chile (so, admittedly, is hardly an impartial commentator) contributes this coda to our sustainability wine writing competition. We don't want to open the door to numerous members of the wine trade extolling the virtues of their principals, but it's a good story and we

Watch out, Côte d'Or! The Australians are coming. I have a particularly soft spot for the Macedon Ranges in the state of Victoria. For an Australian wine region it is remarkably chilly (see winter pruning at Curly Flat above), and therefore produces some of the country’s finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. On my first visit there I had the good

A shorter version of this article is published by the Financial Times. For most French people who can afford it, the summer holiday is sacrosanct. Doubtless many visitors to JancisRobinson.com have encountered offices, shops and restaurants in France that were routinely closed for the entire month of August, long before COVID-19 came along.

Two weeks in France left Nick open-mouthed in admiration of the French. Why do eating habits vary so enormously from country to country? This was the thought that kept bugging me after a fortnight in France recently. In Burgundy – OK, home to a multitude of winemakers and with a rich tradition of eating substantially – there was barely an

A thrilling, food-friendly stony white from the beautiful Greek island of Cephalonia. From €14.25, $25.20 (if you buy 10 bottles), £21.05 Find this wine Stony by name and stony by nature, Vino di Sasso (wine of the stone) comes from the limestone slopes of Mount Ainos – often spelt Enos, which is how it is pronounced – in the southern half

Two sommeliers, on different sides of the Atlantic, tell their stories of grit, spit and triumph. Victoria JamesWine GirlA sommelier's tale of making it in the toxic world of fine diningVictoria James Fleet ISBN 9780349726274 £16.99, $26.99 ‘She was full-bodied but with a short finish.’ In describing herself as a ‘juxtaposition of blue blood and

Some fine Brunello 2016s, charming Barbaresco 2018s and rather more challenging Barolo 2017s. This photo of Barolo vineyards is by Lucia Gherra via Unsplash. This was only my second tasting in London since March. Importers, merchants or brokers such as Vinexus, trying their best to get their wines in front of buyers and journalists, have been

The subject of Max's column this month is all too obvious: an argument about academic attribution that is gripping the Australian wine establishment. I don’t want to be writing this story. I’d much rather be spending the next 1,500 or so words telling you about the new Sustainable Winegrowing Australia trust mark, launched last month, and about

Tam falls in love. It was one of those, 'Where have you been all my life?!' moments. I recently had such a strong reaction to a group of wines that I actually doubted myself. The next day I got those same wines lined up for me, but this time blind, interspersed with some ringers (six rosés from Romania, Italy, France, South Africa and Spain