Winery Grey SandsMalbec

Whisky is emphatically a product of place. The flavours in the glass conjure images of the spirit’s origin, from an Islay malt’s distinctive peat smoke to the exotic perfume of a Japanese blend. Traditionally, however, that local accent is lost when spirit is filled into cask. The vast majority of Scotch malts and blends, for example, are matured in oak sourced from thousands of miles away, and previously used to age bourbon or Sherry. Some whiskies might venture into more exotic territory. Thin ...

No yeast; no wine. Yeast is the only ‘wine maker’ in that sense. Imagine a world in which we had to content ourselves with tasting and drinking grape juice: sweet, with no ability to alter our mood, and largely undifferentiated in sensual terms. Our interest would evaporate. Mysteriously, only yeast can unlock personality and even origin in must. Unlock? Perhaps even that word is misconceived. Yeast is, with grape juice, the progenitor of wine. It is not neutral, abstract, a twinkly wand that tr ...

Strong demand for Château Lynch-Bages wines from collectors in Europe, US and Asia helped ensure all 342 lots in the London-based auction were sold, said Sotheby’s. Total sales at the 25 March event hit £877,826 ($1.16m), eclipsing a pre-sale high estimate of just under £700,000. It’s another sign of a strong auction market, and of Lynch-Bages’ popularity; this Pauillac-based Bordeaux estate owned by the Cazes family has long been known for punching above its fifth growth status in the 1855 Clas ...