Vin de Constance a hit with Napoleon and chef Michel Roux
Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux has written a cookery book with all the recipes designed to go with one single wine - Vin de Constance.
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Wine News Archive
Italians in a tizz over canned fizz
Paris Hilton was caught up in a row in Italy last week as she promoted Rich Prosecco, a canned version of the country’s traditional sparkling white wine.
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Ozzies discover ways to control grape ripening by using steriods.
Australian scientists have discovered that they can control grape ripening by using steroids. Australia’s national science agency, found that applying brassinosteroids to grape skins speeded up the ripening of the grapes.
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Banrock Station introduces a lower-alcohol red wine
Banrock Station has introduced a lower-alcohol red wine to the UK. Crimson Cabernet Sauvignon arrives here, following its successful launch in Australia, with only nine per cent alcohol by volume.
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Cabernet Sauvignon study into Alzheimers
Drinking moderate amounts of the red wine Cabernet Sauvignon may help reduce the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease.
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Screwcap taint very low but does exist
A survey by the world’s biggest wine competition has shown that screwcaps can taint wine.
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Aussie wine makeovers for Rosemount and Peter Lindemans
Two big Aussie brands are undergoing changes designed to broaden their appeal. Rosemount, the brand that four years ago was the biggest-selling wine in Australia, has seen sales drop globally by nearly a quarter
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White wine may be as good for you as red wine
A new study now suggests that white wine might be just as good. Previous research put the grapes’ heart-healthy benefits down to antioxidant compounds primarily found in their skins but not normally associated with white wines.
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Hot house grapes grown in cool Britiania
One English wine grower has found a way around the vagaries of our weather by putting his vines under glass.
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China starts to produce ice wine.
China, the 11th largest wine producer in the world, is to start making ice wine.
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Wine tasting robot
A robot that can ‘taste’ wine has been developed by researchers in Japan
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Threshers in education and sales drive
Threshers has launched a season of country festivals accompanied by leaflets to help consumers understand more about the wines they are buying.
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Last of the summer wine
If only the weather had been as dry for this year’s English Wine and Regional Food Festival as the winning wine of the show was!
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Last of the summer wine
If only the weather had been as dry for this year’s English Wine and Regional Food Festival as the winning wine of the show was!
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A cybernose for wine
Australian scientists are aiming to build an electronic nose that can objectively measure the aroma and flavour of grapes and wine.
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A good year for Russell Crowe?
Following the success of Sideways, comes a new movie with a wine theme – this time set in France. Directed by Ridley Scott, A Good Year stars Russell Crowe and Albert Finney.
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Mosel gets name change
The laborious Mosel-Saar-Ruwer is going to become simply ‘Mosel’ from the 2007 vintage. The change comes after years of lobbying by the region’s growers’ organisation.
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Lebanese harvest
Chateau Musar harvested a vineyard before the ceasefire in Lebanon. Local villagers helped rescue one of Musar’s trial vineyards in the Bekaa Valley.
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Tesco expand fine wine
Tesco intends to put more fine wine into more of its stores.
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Zin must win over Arnie
Zinfandel looks set to become California’s official state grape. A legislative bill proclaiming it as the sunshine state’s ‘historic wine’ and is now awaiting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature.
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Great value down under
Consumers can take advantage of some great-quality Australian wine at very reasonable prices right now as a result of companies being able to buy grapes cheaper than they could a couple of years ago.
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Everyday low pricing replaces promotions
Oddbins is abandoning all price promotions on single bottles of wine from this week, but is pricing down 350 of its wines instead.
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Wine and Food Fest
Do motor heads prefer wine or car oil?
Oz Clarke is taking a road trip through France’s vineyards with Top Gear’s James May for a new BBC series to be screened this autumn, called Oz and James’s Big Wine Adventure.
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Sherry and orange flavoured alcopop?
It’s now the turn of Sherry to get the fruity treatment. Harveys Orange, which hits the shops this month, is a blend of Bristol Cream infused with orange
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UK drinkers waste 87 Million bottles of wine a year!
In the UK we’re wasting the equivalent of 87 million bottles of wine every year just because we don’t store it properly. That means a whopping £3.5 billion of spoilt wine.
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North and South drinking divide
Drinkers who live in the North of England are more likely to binge on alcohol and die younger than their southern counterparts.
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French introduce 'revolutionary' wine brand
The French are finally taking on the New World with a range of simply-labelled, branded wines which are based on single grape varieties rather than locality.
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Lake District launches the first organic wine shop
Britain’s first all-organic wine shop Organico, is located in the Lake District, offering over 150 organic wines.
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Bombing in Lebanon puts harvest at risk
The war in Lebanon could have serious implications for the Lebanese wine industry. With vineyards in the fighting zone, harvest time looming and the problem of getting wine out to their important export markets.
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Big brand caught 'mystery shopping'
Constellation, one of the biggest wine companies in the world has allegedly been trying to boost sales figures by getting staff to buy bottles on expenses in a bid to secure a lucrative contract with the JD Wetherspoon pub chain.
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European wine review is backed by UK winemakers
UK wine producers have given their backing to the European Commission’s draft reforms for the European wine sector following a recent meeting in Brussels. Under the new proposals there would be no limit on planting, nor on the amount of wine we can produc
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Pricey Petrus
Chateau Petrus has broken the record price for not-yet-bottled Bordeaux as buyers are coughing up £20,000 to get hold of cases of the 2005.
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English fizz is top of the world
English sparkling wine scooped a sensational 10 awards at the International Wine & Spirit Competition.
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Heatwave promises another vintage year
The current heatwave may be too much of a good thing for some of us, but the sunshine is great news for our grape growing.
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Wine industry pick screw caps as the future
A recent report has found that, as drinkers, we want three things from our closures, the most important of which is that they’re easy to open.
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Too hot to harvest? Global warming threatens US wine makers
We all smell different
Wine aromas aren’t the same for everyone and are possibly as unique to each person as a fingerprint.
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Red wine makes you sleepy
Scientists in Italy say they’ve discovered that the grapes used for making some red wines contain high levels of the sleep hormone melatonin.
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What a racket!
It was game, set up and snatch during the Wimbledon tennis championships when 300 crates of Champagne Lanson worth more than £90,000 were stolen.
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UK top wine brands
In the battle of the brands, Hardys has beaten off competition from Blossom Hill to be the top take-home wine in the UK. E & J Gallo wasn’t too far behind, taking the third slot in our wine racks, according to the latest top 10 tables of the most popular
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Esk Valley red breaks new records for NZ wine
Esk Valley Estate The Terraces has been sold for what is possibly a record-breaking price for a bottle of New Zealand wine.
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Russian new licensing stamps a warning for the UK
Russian wine fans are having to forego their favourite foreign wine after a bureaucratic blunder has left restaurants and off-licences virtually empty of bottles. The problem arose after new excise stamps, which are compulsory on all alcohol imported into
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Bodeaux prices break records for 2005
Chateaux Margaux and Latour are clocking up the most expensive prices ever for Bordeaux wine sold en primeur at more than £4000 a case. As a result of the 2005 vintage being hailed as one of the greatest ever.
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English wine awards results in
Nyetimber has taken the top award for the fourth year running in The English and Welsh Wine of the Year Competition. While Chapel Down won Best Red Wine, Best Varietal Wine and Best Wine of Other Year’s Vintage, while its English Rose 2005 won Best Rosé a
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Drinking wine at home, now the big night in
More of us are opting to stay at home and enjoy a glass or two rather than go out to the pub, according to recent research. Sales of wine to be drunk on a night in now account for 64 per cent of the market.
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Port hit heavily by hail storms
This year’s port crop has been hit by a heavy hailstorm. Initially, it was thought that up to 80 per cent of the crop in the Douro’s vineyards had been decimated, but top port producers have said that losses are now less than predicted.
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RidgeView toasts the Queen's 80th
It was a right royal celebration for English wine company RidgeView last week when its sparkling wine was chosen to toast the Queen’s 80th birthday at a lunch at London’s Mansion House. The company’s Merret Grosvenor 2001, made from Chardonnay grapes, was
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Cliff Richard duped by F-Word Gordon Ramsey
Last week was no summer holiday for Sir Cliff Richard when celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey duped him into rubbishing his own wine.
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Aussies sell oodles to land of noodles
Australia's Sales to China have soared by 482 per cent in the past year, according to figures released by the Australian Wine & Brandy Corporation.
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