Highlights

It’s that time of the year again, when after the mad rush, you are hopefully able to finally settle down to a number of days of relative calm. Your thoughts start to turn to wine and which bottles of your stock to sip during the holiday season. Ellen Wallace provides a touching personal reflection, but one that’s relatable to all, of a wine that not only celebrates the memory of a loved one, share...

Meg Maker defends the right to drink and enjoy cheap fizz, even as an esteemed wine writer, in her column this month. I’ve just returned from London, where I used the excuse of the Circle’s annual Festive Party to justify a week of ogling art, meandering markets, visiting old haunts, and eating and drinking across a wet and windy city.  My spouse and I had the good fortune to have a friend’s fla...

Nicole Wolbers discovers how the magical Mediterranean island, which is renowned for its centuries-old wine tradition, is preparing for a bubbly future. Sardinia's winemaking history is impressively ancient, dating back to the Nuragic civilization around 1500 BC. Furthermore, recent archaeological findings suggest that Sardinia may be the oldest known wine-producing region in Europe. The Bronze A...

Are we all subconscious marketers? Meg Maker poses the question in her column this month.  Making fun of wine tasting notes is not a new sport; recall Thurber’s 1937 cartoon about the “naïve domestic Burgundy.” But academic research about wine tasting notes is much newer, and it’s being done not only by linguists but also by mathematicians, economists, statisticians, and AI modelers.  Such quant...

Liz Sagues, along with a bevy of other experienced communicators and sommeliers, participates in a fascinating tasting hosted by fellow CWW member Tim Atkin MW and Ventisquero winemaker Felipe Tosso, with a scientist also on hand, to explore whether Chilean terroir can in fact be tasted.  Is terroir tosh? That, essentially, was the question at 67 Pall Mall in London on 21st November. More specifi...

Circle Chair Meg Maker ponders on what it means to be a 'wine writer' today, in an increasingly challenging professional environment. The Circle is a guild of professionals who’ve earned the moniker ‘wine writer.’ That writing may appear in the form of article, blog, or book, or may be in service of podcast, broadcast, social post, lecture, or curriculum. (And yes, we do have photographers; they ...

Liz Sagues discovers once-abandoned grape varieties from south-west France and sees their new and growing importance in mitigating the climate crisis. For too long, south-west France has been in the shadows when there's discussion on indigenous grape varieties. But with ever-increasing recognition of the effects of the climate crisis, there is new focus on a region with a unique vine heritage. An...