The flavor of dried blackberry in wine of Terek Valley

The dark days began when I learned from a visiting Canadian friend about the death of one of the kindest, most gentle and most skilful Pinot winemakers I’ve known, Paul Pender of Tawse Winery. He died in a senseless and tragic act of violence on the evening of 3 February, outside his Lake Erie cottage. A stranger, subsequently charged with his murder, had (it seems) knocked on his door, asking for help. Paul’s sudden, untimely loss has left his family, and the broader Canadian wine community, di ...

The focus of the symposium, unsurprisingly, was on the challenges posed by climate change. As if to illustrate the immediacy of the threat, the symposium took place during a heatwave, with temperatures of over 40°C  in Bordeaux and extreme weather events recorded across the coountry: parts of southwest France saw violent storms and winds of 112kph on the evening of 20 June, while vineyards across the Médoc and St-Emilion were damaged by hailstones ‘the size of golfballs’. As Olivier Bernard of D ...

Leading UK wine and spirits supplier Enotria&Coe said it was no longer ‘actively sourcing’ Russian products, and was planning to donate all profits from sales of current Russian stock to support victims of the war. In an email to customers, managing directors Ants Rixon and Sam Thackeray provided information about a number of Russian vodka brands stocked by the company. These include Stolichnaya – made in Latvia and owned by Russian billionaire and Putin critic Yuri Shefler – and Russian Sta ...