The Winery Jean Claude Bares of South West

Old vines from Western Australia’s Swan Valley will be protected in the soon-to-be launched Swan Valley Old Vine Charter (OVC). More than 20 wineries from this historic region, a 30-minute drive from the state capital of Perth, are participating. The programme will see grapevines from 35 to 125 years of age registered and preserved. Participating wineries include Talijancich Wines, Nikola Estate, John Kosovich Wines, Mandoon Estate and Sandalford Wines. While the vines are predominantly Shiraz, ...

Wine trade veteran Cliff Roberson opened London Cru in 2013, offering visitors the chance to see the winemaking process in action. The urban winery – which is sandwiched between Earl’s Court and Stamford Bridge stadium in London’s Zone 1 – has previously bought all of its grapes from various growers. That is generally the case for urban wineries, which source grapes from across the country or around the world and produce wines on-site. However, London Cru will now be able to control the quality ...

The focus of the symposium, unsurprisingly, was on the challenges posed by climate change. As if to illustrate the immediacy of the threat, the symposium took place during a heatwave, with temperatures of over 40°C  in Bordeaux and extreme weather events recorded across the coountry: parts of southwest France saw violent storms and winds of 112kph on the evening of 20 June, while vineyards across the Médoc and St-Emilion were damaged by hailstones ‘the size of golfballs’. As Olivier Bernard of D ...