The Winery Abteiweingut Toni Hambock of Unknow region

Having joined The Wine Society’s team in 1973 as promotions manager, Payne became the head buyer in 1985. He stepped down from this position in 2012, when Tim Sykes took over, but has remained on the buying team ever since. As part of his responsibilities, Payne has bought in every region throughout the years but, in recent years, focused mainly on Italy and Bordeaux. He was also instrumental in introducing wines from Eastern Europe and Greece to the portfolio. The Wine Society described Payne’s ...

Since February 24th 2022 the world has quickly learned a great deal more about Europe’s second-largest country, Ukraine. Most notably will be our profound admiration for the Ukrainians’ continued resistance to the invading Russian Army. This is but one item on a long list that includes such things as Ukraine being one of the world’s top exporters of wheat, barley and sunflower seeds. However, many people are also now learning that Ukraine not only has a thriving winemaking sect ...

It had been possible to produce sparkling wines in Rioja, certified as DO Cava, since the creation of Spain’s main sparkling wine entity. But this fact was often unknown to consumers given that 95% of Cava is produced in the Catalunya region. The area for production of Cava in Rioja is however limited to only 18 of the nearly 150 municipalities within the entire DO zone. In a bid to better show point of origin, the new subzone labelling of Cava that was approved in 2021 now refers to the p ...