Wines made from Cabernet-Cortis grapes

‘New’ is the second most popular word in any sales catalogue. (The first is ‘Free’.) We scribblers can’t resist it: it guarantees copy of one sort or another. Even in the slowly evolving world of wine, where the main ethos of the product is historical continuity, ‘new’ sells. To someone like me with a strong sense of history, not to mention conservative tastes, it can be a bit unsettling. It’s not really change that bothers me. There is always room for improvement. What can irritate me is change ...

Prices have been rising on California fine wines, and especially Screaming Eagle, said Liv-ex this week. Its California 50 index, which tracks the price performance of Screaming Eagle, Harlan Estate, Dominus, Opus One and Ridge Monte Bello, has increased by around 32% in the last year. ‘High quality and heightened demand have led to rising prices,’ said Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade. Its figures provide more evidence of a strong 12 months for the fine wine market in general, and fol ...

St Hilaire is the patron saint of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, the pretty Champagne village which is famous for scoring 99 on the Echelle des Crus. (This classification of Champagne vineyards was developed in the mid-20th century as a means of setting the price of grapes grown through the villages of the Champagne wine region.) Prime territory That the village missed out on grand cru status by one point is generally agreed to be an injustice – all the more so as it is home not only to the superlative Clos de ...