It is late Sunday evening when we arrive at Lyon airport for our annual Rhône En Primeur trip. Wet snow starts to fall heavily as we collect our rental car and race down the motorway to Ampuis, the centre of Côte-Rôtie. Monday morning we wake up to one of my favourite views in the world; […]

Our wide range of events caters for everyone, from the beginner to the connoisseur, but this event definitely fell into the category ‘for busy people’! I love teaching about French wines. France makes the world’s most famous and widely-emulated wine styles, yet it can be complicated to get to grips with, since the grape variety […]

The South does not recall 1991 with quite as much nostalgia as the North, so we shall restrict anecdotal comparisons to more recent vintages, although no-one seemed to agree on a specific vintage to highlight. The most nominated candidates were, in order: 2006, 1999, 2001 and 2004. To complicate the issue yet further, for Vincent […]

Michel Chapoutier is not alone in detecting similarities between 2011 and 1991. Both followed a brace of superlative vintages and both had rather uneven growing seasons, unusual even. Indeed 1991 took rather a long time to achieve its due recognition; hopefully the same will not apply to 2011, for all the sound and fury associated […]