The flavor of salted butter in wine of Lower Volga

There’s a reason why heavily-applied perfume ranks highly on most wine lovers’ list of pet peeves. It overpowers your senses, conceals aromas and distorts your perception of a wine. In professional tastings and wine exams the wearing of perfume is banned, if not thoroughly frowned upon. You just don’t do it. What then, if we applied the same logic to music, controlling the sounds we hear, or don’t hear, while tasting wine? There’s no doubt that a chaotic environment can clog your synapses, makin ...

It was the 5th of March and the second week of Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine. That morning, Mykhailo and Georgiy Molchanov, the father and son team of the Slivino winery in the Mykolaiv Oblast in Southern Ukraine went out to prune their vineyard. Lodged in one row of the vines was an unexploded Russian missile from a ‘Grad’ launcher. Meaning ‘hail’ in Russian, the name refers to the BM-21 systems that indiscriminately launch up to 20 of these missiles at once, something that has become a ...

There are going to be some utterly splendid wines to taste at our New York Fine Wine Encounter – many of the world’s grandest winemakers have brought some of their very best bottles to our event, knowing their hard work and talent will be appreciated by a discerning audience.  My team of experts have picked out a great selection of their personal favourites from the wines on offer, and for their superbly detailed analysis and opinion, you should read the pieces and the picks from Georgie Hindle, ...