Wines made from Bobal grapes of Languedoc-Roussillon

‘Por fin se ha hecho justicia.’ (Finally, justice has been served) This strongly-worded statement was made by the Denomination of Origin Utiel-Requena in Spain’s Autonomous Region of Valencia as part of a press announcement in July. It refers to a Spanish Supreme Court ruling that was fully ratified at the end of September, closing a decade-long conflict between the region’s three DOs that pitted Valencia against Utiel-Requena and Alicante. The latter two had demanded that grapes fro ...

Shirakawa 1958 is the only official single malt bottling from the demolished distillery, and is also said to be the earliest single vintage Japanese whisky bottled to date, although part of its back story remains shrouded in mystery. The whisky was distilled at the Shirakawa distillery, located 200km north of Tokyo, in 1958, and survived an era when Shirakawa’s malt whisky was almost all used in owner Takara Shuzo’s flagship ‘King’ blend. Shirakawa was opened in Fukushima Prefecture by previous ...

The region’s trade share slumped to an historic low of 37.7% in 2021 after failing to keep pace with the broader market. It was the first time Bordeaux’s market share had ever fallen below 40%. At the time of writing, it has slipped to 32%, according to Liv-ex. The company divides its main index into a series of sub-indices. Over the past year, the Bordeaux sub-index increased by a modest 11.5%, compared to 43.8% for Burgundy and 51.2% for Champagne. The main challenger to Bordeaux’s throne is B ...