Aile D’Argent La Magique

Beyond the wine: John Salvi MW recounts a moving experience with Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, involving a book of fairy tales written for her by her father Baron Philippe de Rothschild, in which the two feature. A number of years ago I was honoured to be invited to lunch at Château Mouton Rothschild by the Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, together with Clive Coates. For some reason she co...
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Virginia Gold: the nascent wines of Barboursville Vineyards

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An open letter: Lighter glass bottles campaign

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Let’s talk about Criolla, South America’s native grape varieties, with Amanda Barnes

Wink Lorch tastes and tours through the Criolla grape varieties and wine regions of South America during Amanda Barnes' Let's talk about Criolla webinar earlier this year.  There was something intoxicating about this hour, and it wasn’t only that I was one of the lucky ones to receive three wines to taste. “Crrree-oy-ya” intoned Amanda, a fluent South American Spanish speaker, who really knows h...
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The Canary wine challenge completed

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Re-romancing Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc
Friend of the Circle, Richard Lane rekindles an old flame in the form of the elusive, enigmatic and less widespread Cab, and may not be that much the wiser, but is more than happy to go back. It was around 15 years ago when I first fell in love with Cabernet Franc. All I recall is the name Chinon, and the wine’s haunting aromas of violets, pencil shavings and succulent red and black fruit, beaut...
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Felicity Carter tackles Clean Wine in the Circle’s “Let’s Talk About” webinar

Meg Houston Maker reports on the implications of this new commercial ‘cleaner than thou’ vinous phenomenon, as sketched out by the wine journalist and editor, who sees it as possibly being hugely harmful and offers a wake-up call for the wine industry. Felicity Carter’s been writing about wine for 20 years. “In all of that time,” she says, “I haven’t seen anything as potentially damaging and dan...
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The Canary wine challenge continued

Following on from his challenging quest to uncover the wines of Gran Canaria, Jochen Erler takes the ferry to over to El Hierro, hoping to unfurl the island’s fine wines. After an overnight stay on the island of Tenerife, near one of its two airports, I took the ferry to El Hierro. With the island’s map in hand, I planned to use the excellent public bus service as much as possible. My experience...
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