The Winery Grofje Meranski of Štajerska of Podravje

Wine lovers with a valid passport can apply for the Majestic ‘vintern’ scheme, launched this week and dubbed by the retailer as ‘the best summer job ever’. A three-day placement will include a visit to Quinta da Boavista vineyards in Portugal’s picturesque Douro region. Majestic said the vintern will also taste wines from its Wine Club’s Spain & Portugal Summer Case ‘in situ’, before trying the same wines back at home for comparison. It is offering £600 remuneration for three days, which it ...

Low and no alcohol drinks are becoming increasingly popular in the UK, according to a new YouGov survey commissioned by The Portman Group, the industry self-regulatory body. Nearly one third of respondents said they chose low or no alcohol drinks on a ‘semi-regular’ basis, up from one in four in a similar survey a year earlier. Its results fit with analysis that consumer demand for ‘low and no’ drinks is growing strongly in several developed countries. Portman Group and YouGov define ...

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking up at some terraced vineyards in St-Joseph with an Australian friend. He remarked that he’d never seen a steep vineyard like this in his home country. Who could afford to rip out the trees, build the access roads, construct the terraces, and plant the vines, without being certain beforehand that the resulting wine could be sold at prices high enough to recoup the investment? It might not be the most romantic way of looking at it. But that’s the modern reality ...