The best wines of Mali

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 ...

Growers in the village of Melambes in Crete saw devastating wildfires cause ‘complete damage to 300 acres (121.4 hectares) of old pre-phylloxera vines’ in July, according to an online crowdfunding page created to support viticulture in the area and help those affected. Although fire burned 90% of the vineyard, it’s hoped some damaged vines can be rescued, said winemaker Iliana Malihin, of her namesake winery and who has spearheaded a community project to revive the site in recent years. Ye ...

Export shipments were worth £4.51bn last year, up 19% on 2020, but 8% below the total of £4.91bn recorded in 2019, according to HMRC figures quoted by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA). However, export volumes rose 21% to nearly 1.4 billion bottles in 2021, some 73 million bottles above the figures recorded in pre-pandemic 2019. Scotch exports experienced an annus horribilis in 2020, falling to a 10-year low thanks to the combined effects of the pandemic and the imposition of punitive import t ...