The flavor of stone in wine of Rioja

Lafite Rothschild 2021 was released at €470 per bottle ex-Bordeaux this morning (7 June) and was being offered en primeur by UK merchants at the equivalent of £5,808 per 12-bottle case in bond, said Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade. Decanter’s Georgie Hindle rated Lafite 2021 at 97 points, a strong performance in one of the more challenging Bordeaux vintages of recent years. ‘Surely a contender for wine of the vintage, certainly on the Left Bank. Vibrant and explosive,’ Hindle wrote. L ...

Brad Pitt and French music producer Damien Quintard have reopened the doors of Miraval Studios after major renovations to the space, which has an illustrious past but lay unused for nearly two decades. It lies on the Château Miraval wine estate in Provence, which Pitt still co-owns after having originally bought the property with ex-partner Angelina Jolie. Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of Stoli Group, announced in 2021 it had acquired a 50% stake in Miraval from Jolie. The Miraval swimming pool ...

I first contributed to Decanter back in November 1988; the hundreds of columns and articles I’ve written since constitute a journey of discovery. I squirm, though, if I’m described as a ‘wine expert’. Whatever wine knowledge we acquire quickly cools, congeals and crusts over, like custard or gravy, as the years pass. The wine world expands at a clip. Every vintage rewrites history. It’s the chance to share discoveries – not just about wines, but about people, places and the act of drinking itsel ...