As the entry process for the 2023 London Wine Competition gets underway we look back at the best performing wines from the 2022 awards by picking out the wines that scored the most points, and came top in the individual quality, value and packaging and design categories. The London Wine Competition prides itself on judging wines in the same way that consumer do – what they taste like, how much they cost and what they look like.
Sake is not just a drink, it’s a world all of its own. For wine and spirits lovers, especially in recent years as exports have increased, it is providing another frontier of production techniques, styles, history, and culture for us to all to “geek out on” whilst enjoying a truly iconic set of products. We sent sake newbie, Mike Turner, to a recent Gunma Sake event in London to find out for himself.
Has the wine industry ever had so many entrepreneurs come in from other sectors looking to find their niche and route to market that has not been done before? The team behind When in Rome is certainly trying to do that with a business model based first on only bag-in-box wines and now a breakthrough paper-based bottle that takes its sustainability credentials to another level. Rob Malin, one of When in Rome’s three co-founders, has given up a lucrative career trading currencies in the hope of making a market for sustainably packaged wines. He explains why to Richard Siddle.
Industry icon Tor Kenward has been making wine in Napa since the early days when the valley was filled with just cowboys, dreamers and a handful of vines. After 27 years working for Beringer, learning from some of the biggest names in wine and setting up TOR Wines, Kenward has opened up in his memoir Reflections of a Vintner. Victor Smart met him in Quo Vadis where he tasted the latest vintages of Tor’s boutique brand of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux blends and gassed about the effects of Parker, Bottle Shock and much more.
Magali Bernard talks to Libby Zietsman-Brodie about how Domaine du Clos du Roi benefits from the unique wine growing and climate conditions of Coulanges-la-Vineuse as part of our Hidden Gems series with the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) to look at the role its different AOCs play in producing a diverse range of wines from Bourgogne. She also explains how she works with old indigenous varietals such as César.
Sophia Longhi travels to Sopron, Hungary’s oldest wine region, a place that shares a border, language, culture and key grape variety with Austria – Blaufränkisch or Kékfrankos, which accounts for two thirds of Sopron’s plantings. The region used to be used exclusively for making white wines but now there is a growing tradition of sparkling, rosé and reds of which Kékfrankos is one of many. Longhi discovers how it is the sub-Alpine climate and unique schist-based soils that make the wines worth seeking out and gives pointers as which wineries you should start with.
Website:
http://www.groupegcf.com
Key people
Chris Davies
Sales director UK on-trade and independents
Email
chris.davies@lgcf.fr
“Crete has grape varieties that nowhere else on Earth has. It has altitude and it has great limestone soils. This is a fantastic combination that gives the island such unique characteristics.” That’s the view of Steve Daniel, head wine buyer at Hallgarten & Novum Wines, who has arguably been the UK’s biggest champion, supporter, buyer and importer of Greek, as well as Crete wines. Here Justin Keay gives his take on an island that is attracting serious wine buyers as well as thousands of tourists.
As our tagline says The Buyer is very much about “connecting the premium on-trade” and sharing stories and insights on how producers and buyers are working together to sell wines into busy sommeliers and wine merchants. Here we tell the story of how Richard Ellison, founder & managing director of Wanderlust Wine, was able to use a California Wine Institute buying trip to tie a new distribution partnership to bring in some of the late Jim Clendenen’s rarest wines from Santa Barbara into the UK.
Crowned Best Sommelier of the World, aged just 27, Marc Almert could easily have rested on his laurels. But his desire to learn and help others in the profession, plus the impact of Covid on both his job as chief sommelier at Zurich’s Baur au Lac and his tenure as world’s best, have seen his career take some unusual turns. Peter Dean caught up with him in Vienna to talk Austrian wine, life as the world’s best sommelier, the need to compete and how Covid has unexpectedly allowed him to be king for another year.
