On Friday 7th September INAO (Institut National des Appellations d’Origine) announced the new classification for St Emilion. The classification is revised every ten years to encourage producers to retain their top position by the quality of their wines. As estates can be downgraded as well as upgraded, the classification has a controversial history and was […]

Ending Wednesday evening with a tasting at the most consistent First Growth of recent times, Ch. Latour, was a great experience in their modern tasting facility – a stark contrast to many of the other more traditional rooms we had experienced earlier in the day.  Very much within the context of 2011, the Les Forts […]

Another overcast and gloomy morning greeted us as we jumped aboard our minibus to start tasting on Wednesday and we were still buzzing after a wonderful evening spent tasting at Ch. Palmer with Thomas Duroux and Bernard de Laage. The dark, grey skies followed us all the way to Pauillac and our first stop of […]

Like the wildebeest at the beginning of the rainy season wine buyers from around the world will migrate to new pastures very shortly. The Bordeaux Châteaux will open their doors to wine professionals in order to present the new 2011 vintage. I, along with 6 of my colleagues will be travelling to Bordeaux the 1st […]