Highlights

In this extract from Beverley Blanning MW’s Wines of the Loire Valley, published by The Classic Wine Library, Beverly intricately introduces the subtle and not so subtle differences between Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé. Sancerre: easy to say, easy to understand, easy to drink and, it seems, easy to sell. These crisp and vibrant white wines are the Loire’s most reliable calling card worldwide and by ...

Liz Sagues recaps a fascinating talk with Olivier Bourdet-Pees of Plaimont Producteurs — and the surprising turn the conversation took when bureaucracy entered the frame. What was already a fascinating and highly relevant session on ampelography on 18th March was suddenly galvanised, demonstrating just how effective the Circle’s Let’s Talk About… online discussions can be. Before the Q&A...

Circle Chair Meg Maker takes notes from a recent research paper and explores why narrative and imagery might make more of an impact in wine tasting than facts and figures. Wine enthusiasts who want to become better tasters should abandon their keyboards and pick up their crayons. That’s the conclusion of researchers Kathryn Latour and John Deighton in their 2018 Harvard Business School Working Pa...

Liz Sagues provides her takeaways from the 112th online Circle seminar, in which member Peter Richards MW honed in on what he refers to as the biggest, yet least talked about, wine fault, ending with a pressing call to action. “Light strike is a scandal and we all need to do something about it. It is the biggest wine fault, yet the least talked about.” With that forthright message, Peter Richards...

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...