To access this post, you must purchase Premium Friend of the Circle (inc one-off joining fee) or 2026 Premium Friend of the Circle (current Friends renewal only/April), or log in.
Read More
All hail Acadie Blanc
Shared expressions of the Turbiana grape
From the southern shores of Lake Garda, Italy’s largest lake, Robin Goldsmith loads up on Lugana and savours a tantalising trio of tannins, acidity and salinity, served up with freshness and clarity. A version of this article was originally published on The Write Taste.
Lugana DOC, which encompasses five municipalities, lies on the southern shores of Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy. It's on...
Read More
New Member: Allison Sheardy
Allison Sheardy’s wine career began a decade ago, born from a lifetime love of food and fine dining that evolved to encompass wine as well.
She has mainly worked in the hospitality sector of the industry, creating a niche for herself working for boutique, family-owned wineries in unique wine regions around the United States (Texas Hill Country, historic Livermore, CA, and now Minnesota). Alliso...
Read More
New Member: Emma Dalton
Emma Dalton is a multilingual fine wine, sake and spirits consultant with over 20 years of experience.
Currently an MW student, she was awarded the Cálem Port Scholarship for her performance in WSET Diploma in Wines and Spirits.
She works internationally, specialising in providing bespoke consultancy services including masterclasses, wine dinners, written reports and photojournalism. She judges ...
Read More
Chinese wine condensed
To access this post, you must purchase Premium Friend of the Circle (inc one-off joining fee) or 2026 Premium Friend of the Circle (current Friends renewal only/April), or log in.
Read More
How Satake shaped sake
William F. O’Connor polishes up our knowledge on the company that made wine-like sake possible.
What is the original alcoholic beverage of Japan? Is this a simple question that the vast majority of people are likely to answer correctly? Well, suspicious readers will have accurately guessed that the rhetorical question posed above suggests that the answer is not sake, or nihon-shu. It just has to...
Read More
“Wine lit something up inside of me that I have never been able to turn off.”
To access this post, you must purchase Premium Friend of the Circle (inc one-off joining fee) or 2026 Premium Friend of the Circle (current Friends renewal only/April), or log in.
Read More
Unapologetically British
Robin Goldsmith heads on down to Hattingley Valley, where he digs deep to uncover the past, present and future of this Hampshire diamond.
Peter Ustinov once famously described English wine as his "idea of hell". Yet, this once laughed-at industry is now the UK's fastest growing agricultural sector and wine tourism is gathering speed, too. Latest figures show that there are 1,104 vineyards in the ...
Read More
September’s contrasting Let’s talk about… sessions
Liz Sagues recaps the Let's talk about... sessions of September which looked at the ageability of wines with Kelli White, and a deep dive on the 2025 harvest with select producers from France.
The Circle’s two September Let’s talk about… webinars could hardly have been more different: one explored the science of how wine ages, the other examined current challenges — including the 2025 ...
Read More
Sicily: Beyond the Volcano
Robin Goldsmith explores the Grillo and Nero d'Avola wines of Sicily, beyond the famed volanic region of Etna, while visiting Sicilia En Primeur. A shorter version of this article was originally published by Académie du Vin and the full version is available on The Write Taste.
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean, covering over 25,000km2. Most of the island is hilly or mount...
Read More