In the autumn of 1990, Anthony Berry wrote an article for Number Three magazine looking back at the wine trade in 1945, struggling in the shadow of WWII, and recalling an unexpected encounter with two stars of the stage. When I came back to Number Three in November 1945 the wine trade was completely different from what it […]

Playing devil’s advocate, Chris Lamb responds to yesterday’s article, arguing that the use of sulphur is not only dangerous, but that it conceals a wine’s true identity. Sulphur dioxide: a toxic colourless gas, pungent, corrosive, allergen, irritating, suffocating, leads to acid rain, and was allegedly used by Napoleon’s forces for gas chambers in 19th century […]

With the trend for natural wine continuing, this month’s debate focuses on one of the geekier elements at play – sulphur dioxide. Today Adam Holden claims that SO2 is essential to quality winemaking and not nearly as ruinous as its reputation. The term ‘Contains Sulphites’ became a regular fixture on wines from 2002 (Council regulation […]

The people who manage to turn the dream of winemaking into a reality tend to be a pretty driven, creative and fascinating bunch. Testament to this is the fact that so many of the bottles on our list have amazing stories behind them. Here are five of the best… A tale of extreme winemaking (in […]