The Week in Wine Episode 39

The Week in Wine Episode 39

End of Month special! Too many wineries in California is the story that continues to dominate the headlines, alongside En Primeur coverage from Bordeaux. The best value Sauvignon Blancs of 2026 gets eyeballs while Mexico's push to shout down prohibitionists also makes one of the top stories of the week. The month of May was dominated by the stories coming out of the USA, with the Too Many Wineries, Not Enough Consumers dominating readers' attention this month. Other showings included most-wanted wines and, more importantly, it turns out, most-wanted whiskeys, as well as ups-and-downs in Champagne and the rumors that Beyoncé and Jay-Z might be in the market for a château in Bordeaux. This week's wine news roundup covers top tennis player Amélie Mauresmo revealing she bought a 1945 Château Mouton-Rothschild on eBay several years ago.  Also, Vintae, the Spanish winery best known for its recognizable Matsu range of wines from Toro, has acquired a 90-percent holding in Bodegas Riojanas; Israel formally establishes the Negev wine region as a GI (Geographical Indicator); officials in Peru formally announce that June 11 will be Peru's National Wine Day; and a shadowy group in France contests last year's Cognac yield levels.

The Week in Wine Episode 38 - hopes and fears in the US wine market

The week is dominated by interest in the US wine market, with three W. Blake Grey stories driving readership. The stories span the current state of the market with recommendations that the number of wineries in the US drop to accommodate the size of the market; there is a glimmer of hope in the resolution of tariff disputes and the slowing of the decline (!) in the market; and there could be progress from Ohio on the much-debated efficacity of the three-tier system. News of wine-searcher's new owner also helps to drive readership as does our list of the world's most-wanted wines. A report from Bordeaux's Right Bank also has Don getting thirsty. Meanwhile, Olly's wine news covers: supermarkets in France trailling AI wine-merchant kiosks to help shoppers; a new medieval winemaking computer game is released; a French cooperage branches out into home décor (with some rather attractive tables); more hope in the US wine market; France's struggle to officially adopt/adapt to drones being used in the vineyard, particularly in emergencies; Clairette de Die looking to return to rosé (8 years after the "wars of the rosés" with Bugey Cerdon); and Marsala looking to officially announce four subregional designations.

The Week in Wine Episode 37 - Free Trade

When did supermarket wine labels start featuring their flavor profile prominently on their labels? Is the US three-tier wine distribution system unconstitutional? Recent rulings on Ohio may bring this question to the fore. Don't shoot the messenger? A piece on the right-wing press defending wine drinkers should not be dismissed because of the messenger. Meanwhile, our top 10 Most-Wanted Burgundy wines list does not hit the same spots as previous such articles. In the most-recent wine news roundup, Hungary is decimated by frost; Argentina halts funding for its Coviar national wine body (NB: Coviar has not been shut down, merely it's main line of funding has been stopped); Rioja sales are down; Chile sees 110 percent increase in wine exports to Russia; and Russia remains the pre-eminent destination for Georgian wines, despite the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries since 2008. We also look forwards to news from Champagne, more from the US Supreme Court and Wine-Searcher gets a new owner.

Beyoncé in the market for Château Palmer? The Week in Wine Episode 36

Is the world moving back towards big red wines, or is it just a generational thing? Don and Olly represent both parties this week with a big Argentinian Malbec  from Bodegas Estancia and an unusual California blend from Extradimensional Wine Co. Yeah! showing either an age-gap or simply a difference in tastes. We also review the etiquette problem of a host holding on to a bottle to open for a guest while we take a dive into the top single malt Whisk(e)ys, including some special Indian examples. Don also runs through the impact the Indian users of Wine-Searcher have on statistics generated by our website. Bordeaux 2024 continues to capture the imagination, as does the top white Burgundies of 2026. There's also a showing for Léoville-Barton in our most-read stories or last week, as there is for the 2025 vintage, current on-show in the region. But it's rumors of Beyoncé and Jay-Z looking to buy a château in Bordeaux the tops the bill of our weekly wine news roundup this time, with the tenuous suggestion that it might even be Margaux Third-Growth Château Palmer. In other news, Champagne house Maison Pommery looks to extend terms on an overdue debt of €50 million while Cognac looks to begin a major vine-pull program, with Olly pointing out that not all sectors of the wine and spirits industry are against a situation of oversupply. There's more on the generation gap with Château Larrivet Haut-Brion launching a Gen-Z cuvée (with the input of local design students) while a new wine estate in Brittany uses empty local oyster shells in the construction of its wine tanks – although it's not quite the environmental story it should be, causing Olly to also ask why it is that concrete wine tanks cannot, it seems, be made locally. As we look forward to the week ahead, there's also news that right-wing parties in the USA are doing more to protect wine from the prohibitionist lobby than their counterparts from across the political aisle. Cheers

The Week in Wine Episode 35

End-of-Month bumper issue! Don drinks a cyclone wine (Te Mata Awatea 2023) from Hawke's Bay's Cyclone Gabrielle vintage while Olly has a delicious Petit Chablis. We review the top stories of the week (our most-wanted Napa wines story blows them all out of the water and Olly wonders if the 2024 Bordeaux in-bottle retrospective is perhaps of more use to consumers than the current 2025 En Primeur coverage). In this episode, we also look back over the month, with top takes from the US tariff refunds and a showing from the most-wanted Tequilas. The news stories this week span Bernard Magrez 'announcing' his successor; a trial feeding farmed fish feed made from Albariño grape pomace (includes an aside about bacon production in Ireland); Natural Wines looking to clean up their reputation (includes an aside about craft beer and the 'charm' of the faulty); carbon dioxide and ferment aromas being put back into wine; and winemaking returning to the Eure department of France, 150 years since it crumbled thanks to the arrival of the steam train. We also look to an interview with the head of Château Léoville-Barton and talk about En Primeur as an invaluable PR exercise for the Bordeaux wine region.