The Château Jean Fontenille of Loupiac of Bordeaux

When I first visited Bordeaux, the sleepy landscape of turreted stone châteaux and vineyards seemed timeless, with traditions so well established you felt they would go on forever. But new energy in this famous wine region is visible and audible: bees buzz and sheep graze in organic vineyards; brand-new cellars brim with sustainable features and wine fermenting in trendy amphorae; unusual grapes are gaining attention; and the number of women in key roles keeps growing. Yoga among the vines is s ...

I’d like to say we took advantage of the lockdown and its related commotion to do a stock-take, explore new avenues, turn over intriguing stones, widen and deepen our drinking, taking careful notes as we went. Sadly, no. I won’t say we got stuck in a rut, but we did tend to stick with comfort wines – and “comfort”, in our case, means familiar. Regular readers of this quarterly column can probably guess the labels on the resulting empties. We have a wider range of comfort foods, I’m afraid, than ...

The authorities have charged Casey Alexander, who lives in the UK, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He is accused of running three companies – Windsor Jones, Charles Winn and Vintage Whisky Casks – which obtained the phone numbers of elderly Americans and cold-called them. Investigators said the companies used ‘aggressive and deceptive tactics’ to convince people to wire them money, promising them huge returns. Windsor Jones’ website, which lists the company’s address as Wilmington, D ...