The Bodegas La Divisa of Contraviesa-Alpujarra of Andalousie

‘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 ...

It’s expected the Burgundy 2022 harvest will be bigger than the region’s five-year average, France’s agriculture ministry said this month, also noting the healthy state of vineyards in the area. Final figures on yields are not yet available, but suggestions the 2022 harvest could represent a rebound from the historically low 2021 crop could be welcome among wine lovers and producers alike. This week, it was also announced that the 162nd Hospices de Beaune auction, co-hosted by ...

Acker announced in September that it had sold a six-litre bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s (DRC) ‘Romanée-Conti’ 2002 at a Hong Kong auction for nearly HK$3.1m (US$398,400). However, it’s understood that the sale of the bottle was subsequently cancelled. Doubts about the wine’s authenticity have been raised by lawyer and wine fraud expert Don Cornwell on the Wine Beserkers website. He also expressed concerns about another wine, a six-litre bottle of DRC Romanée-Conti 2000, which was origi ...