Wine News

Is the world moving back towards big red wines, or is it just a generational thing? Don and Olly represent both parties this week with a big Argentinian Malbec  from Bodegas Estancia and an unusual California blend from Extradimensional Wine Co. Yeah! showing either an age-gap or simply a difference in tastes.We also review the etiquette problem of a host holding on to a bottle to open for a guest while we take a dive into the top single malt Whisk(e)ys, including some special Indian examples. Don also runs through the impact the Indian users of Wine-Searcher have on statistics generated by our website. Bordeaux 2024 continues to capture the imagination, as does the top white Burgundies of 2026. There's also a showing for Léoville-Barton in our most-read stories or last week, as there is for the 2025 vintage, current on-show in the region.But it's rumors of Beyoncé and Jay-Z looking to buy a château in Bordeaux the tops the bill of our weekly wine news roundup this time, with the tenuous suggestion that it might even be Margaux Third-Growth Château Palmer. In other news, Champagne house Maison Pommery looks to extend terms on an overdue debt of €50 million while Cognac looks to begin a major vine-pull program, with Olly pointing out that not all sectors of the wine and spirits industry are against a situation of oversupply.There's more on the generation gap with Château Larrivet Haut-Brion launching a Gen-Z cuvée (with the input of local design students) while a new wine estate in Brittany uses empty local oyster shells in the construction of its wine tanks – although it's not quite the environmental story it should be, causing Olly to also ask why it is that concrete wine tanks cannot, it seems, be made locally.As we look forward to the week ahead, there's also news that right-wing parties in the USA are doing more to protect wine from the prohibitionist lobby than their counterparts from across the political aisle.Cheers

End-of-Month bumper issue! Don drinks a cyclone wine (Te Mata Awatea 2023) from Hawke's Bay's Cyclone Gabrielle vintage while Olly has a delicious Petit Chablis. We review the top stories of the week (our most-wanted Napa wines story blows them all out of the water and Olly wonders if the 2024 Bordeaux in-bottle retrospective is perhaps of more use to consumers than the current 2025 En Primeur coverage). In this episode, we also look back over the month, with top takes from the US tariff refunds and a showing from the most-wanted Tequilas. The news stories this week span Bernard Magrez 'announcing' his successor; a trial feeding farmed fish feed made from Albariño grape pomace (includes an aside about bacon production in Ireland); Natural Wines looking to clean up their reputation (includes an aside about craft beer and the 'charm' of the faulty); carbon dioxide and ferment aromas being put back into wine; and winemaking returning to the Eure department of France, 150 years since it crumbled thanks to the arrival of the steam train. We also look to an interview with the head of Château Léoville-Barton and talk about En Primeur as an invaluable PR exercise for the Bordeaux wine region.

Don opens rosé as a crowd pleaser to some dogged palates while Olly opens a De Moor Chablis for a mate. The most-wanted Tequilas tops our news stats this week while California hogs the rest of the limelight. Don looks at the latest out of Napa Valley where vineyards are getting tricky to shift and Cabernet Sauvignon may be on the way out. Talking of which, we look at a story covering the rise of white wine and ask if white varieties might be a good substitute? Also, Randall Grahm's state-of-the-nation piece continues to get eyeballs. As for the latest news, it's over to Bordeaux where a major local wine merchant has suggests the region "got lazy" while US wine critic Robert Parker was dominating the headlines and did not do enough to promote its wines independently of the Maryland-based guru; a bureaucratic hiccup stops non-alcoholic wine production in Italy; Castel launches its own Champagne brand with an interesting choice of name given the very public spat between the company's family heirs and the CEO; a former wine shop employee is charged with stealing €200,000 of wine; Madiran launches its new "Bleu Tannat" young, fresh, red wine brand; there's more woe for Dijon's Cité de la Gastronomie et du Vin wine center; and a new Papal cuvée is one for the émigrés...

Don drinks a delicious Gamay while Olly has a Sauvignon Blanc from Italy and a fantastic Saumur rouge which leads to a confession about Cabernet Franc. We kick off quite a long list of bad news with Napa Cabernet and a recent article claiming that the number of Napa wineries will need to shrink. We also wonder if Napa Cabernet has changed in style? Are they all the same/are they still the same? And just how hard it is to find out. Don also talks about a recent piece penned by the great Randall Grahm – also looking at the California wine industry. There's also a nice aside on furry friends in the vineyards. Olly looks at Familia Torres its debt restructure (as well as recent attempts by Bodegas Faustino and Cordoníu to change ownership); more on the frost in Champagne; Rémy Cointreau's proposed rejig; domestic consumption is still on the slide in Argentina; and more on the H&A barrel company in financial straits. Olly and Don daydream about an invite to the Saumur wine and book festival (Les Journées Nationales du Livre et du Vin) and how that might go down while we look forward to extended Bordeaux 2025 En Primeur coverage and Barolo 2022.

Don finds contentment in two very different places: Martinborough Pinot Noir and Jim Barry Cabernet Sauvignon (and Shiraz). Olly has a magnum of Côte du Puy and a Dauvissat Chablis. Against the backdrop of a bottle of 1945 Romanée-Conti going for over $800,000, the last week saw readers looking into the US study that high by-the-glass wine prices are pushing diners away from wine to cocktails and other beverages; the 50th anniversary of the Judgement of Paris sees US wines do well again; the most-wanted Tuscan wines is an all-red affair; and we look at the first in a series on South African wines. Olly has some news from Krug regarding last week's rumor that a third clos label is on the way, but the big news is the number of Russian oligarchs with vineyard holdings in Tuscany and wider north Italy. Champagne gets hit with frost and a French entrepreneur has a novel idea for a commercial blind wine tasting setup (including buying a bottle of wine partly covered by a box and using an app to run the tasting – which can be competitive). There's a podcast exclusive over the latest on Bordeaux barrel-hire firm H&A's financial woes (and the wider impact on the wine industry) and, still in Bordeaux, Don looks forward to our En Primeur barrel tasting coverage. Our Most Wanted series also starts to ramp-up.

Don has a weekend of barbeque wines while Olly asks low-end Pinot Noir winemakers to stop trying to make a wine that Pinot Noir isn't – and asks for recommendations for enjoyable, cheap, honest Pinot Noir outside of his usual region of Marlborough, New Zealand! We face the possibility that more than one person might be listening to us and Don runs down the top wine stories of the last seven days, including: the passing of global wine consultant Michel Rolland; Tanzania, the Codex Alimentarius, Russia and the continued workings of the neo-prohibitionist movement; the now-troubled legacy of Californian union boss César Chavez (and whether wine publications should stop lionizing people); and did it all start going downhill after David Bowie died? Olly looks at the Brown-Forman and Pernod merger talks, the 600 year-old Pinot Noir seed in a toilet; a third "Clos" label on the cards for Krug; France gets hit by frost; Catholic natural wine served at mass in Monaco; the Middle East conflict worries Mendoza winemakers; the 40th anniversary of the Godello revival; the Revue du Vin de France gives its verdict on the best 'universal' wine glass (and what is the word for being prejudiced against stemless wine glasses – please write in and let us know?); and the Bordeaux barrel hire firm going into administration. Olly gets pessimistic about the wine world but we have En Primeur coverage and a fantastic piece by Randall Grahm to look forward to in the near future.

The Hawke's Bay harvest is looking excellent (so far!), while Don is disappointed by a recent Mondavi Cabernet and Olly regrets a lager. The biggest story of the last seven days is that of California's much-reduced grape harvest while our Most Wanted Rieslings list also enjoyed the attention of our readers. Don waxes lyrical about Margaret Rand's piece on Pingus winemaker Peter Sisseck going into Sherry while the biggest news from the end of last week was clearly the passing of Bordeaux blending genius, Michel Rolland. Meanwhile, AP covers the shocking decline of Argentinian wine consumption and Château Pique-Caillou, with a new owner (a textile magnate who is also the director of the local rugby team) and plans for extensive renovation, is tipped to enter the positive babble among wine critics at Bordeaux's En Primeur within the next few years. We look at IGT Toscana allowing Méthode Traditionnelle and Charmat sparkling wines for the first time while grumblings around crisis distillation and grubbing-up continue in Bordeaux. Organic wine estates continue to fall in number in the Beaujolais; Le Figaro profiles two artists who paint with wine; and the ongoing debate over how to label wine made in Israeli settlements spillls over into Canada. Our listener gets in touch and Don is tantalisingly reticent about the wine stories on their way this week.

Don prepares for St Patrick's Day by limbering up with Guinness while Olly drinks a delicious 2020 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru from Etienne Sauzet. The Most Wanted  Chardonnays and the Most Wanted New Zealand wines top the reader statistics while Don's story on the rise of Bordeaux wine searches in the last 12 months has him asking if the wine industry isn't seeing some green shoots of recovery. Wine fraud in Italy also makes an appearance, but our Most Wanted Absinthes story draws an angry response from the Académie d'Absomphe, which decries some of our users' choices and has Don and Olly ask if the image of absinthe can be rehabilitated and if there are perhaps better ways of going about said revival. Olly talks Snoop Dogg and Tupac; the Iran conflict threatens to hit glass bottle prices in France; a Rioja winemaker (who has made wine for the Pope) lashes out at his governments' position against US intervention in the Middle East; a Spanish news outlet works out which wine bottle Leonardo DiCaprio's character in One Battle After Another is drinking from in the film's final scene; the EU approves changes to the Tokaji wine production code; and NTM rapper Joey Starr talks Rum. Don leaves with exhortations to try (Carlow Brewing Company's) O'Hara's Irish Stout and we consider a story on the California grape harvest being the lowest since 1994.

Don enjoys wine as beverage this weekend while Olly has a Langhe bianco that was delicious, but from an unusual combination of grapes. The Most-Wanted Chardonnays tops the readers' favourite articles this week with Don also enjoying a story about how wine is helping the US on the global diplomacy front. Olly talks about his article in which he asks if certain aspects of winemaking in the former USSR (and Warsaw Pact countries) was bad, are those same aspects of winemaking bad today? The weekly wine news rundown includes Henkell-Freixenet taking over Freixenet; labor exploitation ruling in Champagne; a huge fraud swoop in Italy which nabs 2.5 million liters of fraudulently labeled wine; French soccer star Kylian Mbappé is accused of having a glass of wine in Paris while his teammates lose at home in Madrid; the wines of the Cru Bourgeois get a new anti-fraud back-label and Zuccardi inaugurates a new natural wine winery. Don looks forward to a most-wanted article on Absinthe and (impatiently) waits for a new piece on winegrowing from the Rhône Ranger himself: Randall Grahm.

Don drinks a 100-point wine and we have a look at the implications therein, including asking if we will ever see the likes of Robert Parker's influence in the wine world again. The news that Piedmont is facing crisis dominates readership figures for the second week in a row, while US Editor Blake Gray's coverage of the Premiere Napa Valley auction (which Gray says "the downturn has come for Napa wines") also brings in the readers. Other stories covered this week include the continued saga of Trump administration wine tariffs (and an interesting aside from the makers of Cards Against Humanity), the possibility that the no-alcohol wine craze may be something of a bubble, and the continued popularity of a story on UK sparkling wine – particularly among our...UK readers. Olly looks at the EU announcing aid for France's crisis distillation project, the passing of NZ-based winemaker CP Lin, the proposal for a Languedoc Cité du Vin tourist wine venue in Carcassonne, Australian winemaker Jane Eyre takes the reins at Comte Armand in Pommard, Spain announces its fourth year of yield reduction, Slow Wine demands an end to labor exploitation in the vineyards, and positives and negatives for Rioja in export and domestic sales stats.

Unpretentious rosé and wines, nominally for aging, drunk too early. Don and Olly discuss the latest US Supreme Court ruling on tariffs (and what - if anything - this means for the wine trade). The Domaine de la Romanée-Conti tasting story keeps running while Don runs down some of the latest stories including the revival of the "new Old World" of Central Europe; how sommelliers' questions are changing; and the ever-growing critical appraisal surrounding UK sparkling wines. Olly looks at the news that Piedmont is hitting a crisis point; as is Swiss viticulture; and growers facing ever more difficult times in Cognac. We look at Chile's Concha Y Toro withdrawing wines from the Japanese market (over trace amounts of copper) and discuss Montpeyroux's accession to AOC status. There are more glassmaker closures in Europe. On a more positive note, Wine-Searcher PRO members have the chance to enter a giveaway for a special online wine course...

Don drinks a delicious McLaren Vale Shiraz while Olly has a lovely 'Carignane' from Lodi. Don talks Napa Merlot, RTDs taking over the drinks space, an oversupply of agave in Tequila and the latest from the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti tastings. Olly asks if there are positives to untended vineyards in wine regions (keeping bird pressure down?) and Don looks at Spanish wines – particularly whites – pushing into the USA. This week's wine news includes the revelation that Rhône wines are creating a pan-regional sparkling wine brand to produce bubbles under; there were a number of stories from the Wine Paris 2026 trade show, including cameos from former basketballer Tony Parker and singer Carla Bruni (leading Olly to question the value of celebrity wines/endorsements); wine/alcohol as a leading source of lead exposure in adult diets in France (after, it must be said, refined breads and alongside the likes of tapwater); China threatens France with trade tariffs on wine; Chilean wines experiencing growth in the Russian market; Chihuahua's bid for IGP/PGI status (and the state's signature drink, Sotol); and, finally, Bordeaux winemaker Olivier Bernard on his view that, in five years' time, wine will be in an undersupply situation...

Montepulciano and the wonder of southern Italian red wines. Calvados and the flavour (or otherwise) of fruits in spirits. This week, Don and Olly discuss the California wineries for sale (and why it appears no-one is buying them). RTDs surge in the US drinks market. Is wine's answer to RTDs Vermouth? Olly talks a bit about his story on West Bank wineries. Footballing great Sergio Ramos opens a number of top wines for dinner with friends (and lands in hot water for his choice of dish); Norton bankruptcy under way; and a Bordeaux vine nursery and vineyard branches out into asparagus and Kosher wine. We touch on the Four Roses sale and the sea of Bourbon about to wash over consumers (with some hopefully lower prices on the bottles!); Merlot – and Zinfandel – as unsung heroes of California wine; and small mention of English sparkling wine. 

Don waxes lyrical about the beauties of Chenin Blanc while Olly has a whiskey, distilled in Scotland and aged in Burgundy in Sherry barrels. Despite the 2024 Burgundy harvest report, this is a generally bad news week where we ask if we're maybe halfway there yet? Bad news for California and the US wine trade in particular. People are still asking if wine is for them while a story on storytelling is also catching some of our readers' attention. We also ask if you can get excited about Spanish sparkling wine? We mark the passing of Daniel Cathiard of Château Smith Haut Lafitte and James Healey of Cloudy Bay and Dog Point. Château de Beaucastel hosts the Drops of God television series once again. More Argentinian wineries are in trouble; Mâcon wines are banned from using "Vin de Bourgogne" on their labels; Italian wineries look to the Indian market for growth; French glass bottle producer mothballs another furnace. More wineries for sale in California (with a lack of interested buyers) rounds off the woe.

Don drinks a spectacular Champagne and Olly has a delicious Pinot Noir. This week's podcast covers the 2024 vintage in Burgundy and asks whether winemakers are especially honest about the weather and the struggles when their wines are good. They also ask whether most people actually like the taste of wine and other drinks, and whether or not wine really does need food. Can aged, average wine fool the pros? A big theme of this episode is protectionism: should nations uphold their own production against cheaper, imported goods? Or is free trade simply the exploitation of cheaper labor or lower production standards? Also up for discussion is the California grape shortage as well as the oversupply issues facing Bourbon – primarily in the export market. There is more anger and smashed bottles in the south of France. Cognac begins to wonder if French politicians really care about it anymore and the Jura's semi-annual wine fair launches an app – could this be a sign of things to come?

Don drinks an Elijah Craig Rye while Olly celebrates a birthday with grower Champagne. The suicide in Bordeaux and Silicon Valley Bank's bleak prognosis top the most-read wine news stories in what has been a relatively bleak week. Only Oregon Chardonnay looks to buck the trend, while both Don and Olly ask when, if ever, the time will come that Burgundy comparisons are not thrown at any Chardonnay or Pinot Noir made, globally – even in Burgundy, perhaps? Leonardo di Capro has a cameo in the vines of Champagne, promoting an organic push from Telmont but it's mostly bad news this week with US wine exports nosediving 30 percent, protestors baring their buttocks outside Rhône producer Chapoutier (Don also asks what is the correct past tense of the "ess haitch eye tee" word), the demise of another cooperative in southern France has Olly wondering if wine production wont take us back 150 years, and they ask who the current global wine scene is really helping. There's likely more bad news to come, but we'll find out if that's really the case next week.

To kick off 2026, Don rediscovers his love of Mosel Riesling and Olly loves a California Chardonnay that's not your regular California Chardonnay. Meanwhile, a look over the top stories of the festive season proves that the big-name wines aren't always what people want and that Irish whiskey is getting a lot of attention lately. Other big stories include Napa dropping prices on its cellar doors, US dietary guidelines sidestepping wine, the continued interest in the Chateau Ste Michelle handover, and the word 'bankruptcy' being touted around both Argentina's Bodega Norton and France's Bordeaux wine region. Olly reviews the main headlines of the last seven days, including Taylor's Swift's endorsement of a Sancerre, a third winegrower suicide in Bordeaux, Lionel Messi's favorite drink (wine and Sprite), a Florida priest's wine and life podcast, a Spanish university looking for people to drink red wine for four years (as part of a study) and a solar-powered vineyard shade. This week's up-and-coming stories include the possibility of a Supreme Court ruling on Trump's trade tariffs and a deeper dive into RFK's dietary guidelines from a wine perspective.

Don returns to an old favourite – oaked Chardonnay; the multi-faceted beauty of Albariño; and varietal labeling – are we past that stage yet? This week's big stories spanned an interview with Napa winemaking power couple Philippe and Cherie Melka as well as last week's wine news roundup headed by the news of the so-called "Grand Cru Gang" trial. Don has high hopes for his top ten Irish Whiskey story, which is already doing well, and fans of the spirit from across the world (including, apparently, Irish expats in the UAE). This week, we also look at the news that the Michelin guide is getting into wine; the benefits/pitfalls of individual ratings versus panel tastings and Wine-Searcher's own aggregated critic score. Antonio Banderas drinks 18th Century Sherry; Italy and France wine exports to the US struggling as 2025 draws to a close; Champagne sales hit the doldrums (despite a raft of good news coming out of the region); Chianti Classico "a reliably affordable luxury"; French Bloom non-alcoholic sparkling brand buys Limoux wine estate; the "Sud de France" moniker finally (and definitively) outlawed; more bad news for wine tourism in Burgundy and we look towards the world's best Spanish wines and – drum roll – the world's best Single Malts. [note: there was an issue with Olly's microphone that we didn't pick up during the podcast] 

Don drinks Rioja Gran Reserva and gin while Olly enjoys skin-fermented Semillion from Sonoma. We look over a stunning run of vintages in Barolo and talk about wine being aged (and made) in space. Don is slightly unimpressed with the ice and whiskey debate and wonders if writers shouldn't take more of a position on their subjects. We talk about the "Grand Cru Gang" theft trial in Bordeaux; look at murmurs in Burgundy (that things might not be so rosy and that wine tourism in the region might not be doing so well); the Georgian Prime Minister's gift of wine to the Pope (and we ask if the Swiss Guard is the most wine-savvy military force in the world); another wine destination in Pauillac; Spain exports on a slow downward trend; still more on Argentina's deregulation of the wine industry; and a politician caught drink-driving in Mendoza. We also touch on Chardonnay Rose being admitted into Champagne, Gaza being the centre of the ancient wine trade, uprooting in the Loire and the state of wine news in December.

Old (wine) favourites (Australian Shiraz joins California Chardonnay in Don's glass this weekend); why on earth should you/you should drink non-alcoholic beer; chucking it all in to make wine; US spirits hit doldrums overseas (is the current administration to blame?); the best Sauvignon Blancs of 2025 – and the small country with a surprising six entries in the top ten (and no, it's not France, New Zealand or the USA). Male wine critic has a go at superstar singer Rosalía's pronunciation of Sauvignon Blanc; fall vineyard land values in Bordeaux hit the big-name appellations; Abruzzo's Casauria is officially Italy's newest DOCG; Spain leads bulk wine market (with Italy and New Zealand vying for second place); and more on Argentina's push to deregulate their wine industry.

Don rediscovers an old friend; unmemorable wines; has wine reached rock-bottom; Elon Musk, trillionaires, and would the wine world be better with a more affluent middle class (is the wine market a reflection of a shrinking middle class?). Are South African wines overlooked? Is the wine industry itself the main consumer of its own news (and not the wine consumer)? Cognac producer billed for duty on Cognac stolen from its premises. Chapoutier planting agave in the Rhône (with a view to Tequila production). Argentina's slashing of red tape in wine production (off the back of Milei's neoliberal reforms). Alsace celebrates a great 2025 vintage. Ungrafted vines. The beauty and charms of Oporto.

Natural wine summed up by Konstantin Baum MW; is Natural Wine now just a facet of wine?; people really love Rum; the beauty of a Dark and Stormy cocktail; the Supreme Court's ongoing look at Trump's wine tariffs; is the concept of Old Vines overrated for the consumer?; what does sustainable mean?; Copper sprays banned in France, the impact on Organic Viticulture in the country; the Greeks as the true origin of wine in France; smoke taint in northwestern Spain; viticulturist electrocuted in the vineyard; more doom and gloom for the wine trade's economic outlooke; but....is Ireland our only hope?

Spring and frosts in the vineyard; Burgundy's 2025 vintage hints quality without quantity; Is everyone a secret Zinfandel lover?; the wider beauty and appeal of southern Italian red varieties; the utilitarian Sangiovese and whether or not Chianti Riserva stacks up against Chianti Classico; tasting 100 year-old Tuscan wine and vino-pomorphism – how often are wines described as people?; the appeal of Lake Garda wines; is everyone really a closet fan of Rum; how much did Covid-19 do for the spirits industry (at home, at least); Old vines; and, finally, Natural Wines and U2.

Martinborough Pinot Noir; the impact of Australian winemakers on New Zealand wine; Pinot Blanc vs. Pinot Gris; Calmére sale in Napa, Napa vineyard prices and the worrying drop in interest at recent California charity wine auction; Hungary's vineyards under threat from Flavescence Doré and the lack of coverage in wine news; non-alcoholic Sauternes; thieves don't steal wine from Bordeaux Second Growth Ducru-Beaucaillou; more direct action vandalism as intruders empty wine tanks in Bordeaux; former Yquem owner's wine collection up for auction; and we look at the coming stories of tasting a 100 year-old Tuscan wine and a 2025 Burgundy vintage roundup...

Remembering Nicolas Potel and the people behind the wine we drink; the best Bourbons of 2025; the US government shutdown and its effect on wines, wine labels and stopping new wine from hitting the shelves; irate feedback from readers and the issues around publishing reader comments, defamation and libel; cannabis smuggled in barrels discovered in Bordeaux; intern dies at Chapoutier; Burgundy winegrower spat with mayor; Cognac to start major vine-pull program; and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra pairs Schubert with Shiraz.