The Winery De Celles of Rutherford of California

Disconcerting: I couldn’t forget this bottle for days afterwards. Still can’t. Back in August, wine critic Lin Liu MW (together with her partner Philippe Lejeune of Château de Chambert in Cahors) came to dinner, en route to a short holiday in Provence. One of the bottles Lin brought for us to try together was the 2018 Les Rocheuses, Parcelles No 5 et 6, from Château Le Rey in Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux. It came in a slope-shouldered bottle, not a classic Bordeaux bottle. We tried it with some R ...

The largest-ever year for entries, an incredible 18,244 wines were judged at the 2022 Decanter World Wine Awards – with just 163 wines awarded a Platinum medal. ‘Winning a Platinum medal is something really exceptional’ said Decanter World Wine Awards Co-Chair Sarah Jane Evans MW. ‘Platinum is like the stratospheric level’ she commented, ‘so it’s really saying to the winemaker: this is a great wine.’ Making up just 0.87% of the total wines tasted at the 2022 c ...

Philippe Schaus, chairman and chief executive of the Moët Hennessy division of LVMH, called Joseph Phelps Vineyards ‘an iconic name and an iconic winery’. Joseph Phelps founded his eponymous winery on a 260ha former cattle ranch in Napa Valley in 1973. He turned it into one of California’s most prominent producers, famed for its flagship Insignia – a Bordeaux-style blend – and its pioneering use of Rhône varieties, which kick-started the ‘Rhône Rangers’ movement in the Golden State. The founder’ ...