The Château Loustalet of Buzet of South West

It’s no easy task to establish a super-premium wine in an entirely new region, particularly when inviting potential retail partners or distributors to the vineyard involves journeying to a distant corner of the Himalayas in the outer reaches of the Yunnan province, southwestern China. For my journey, after four flights from Bordeaux to Shanghai, Chengdu then Shangri-La, it was a four-hour drive up through stunning mountain passes to the foothills (here, that means 2,200m above sea level) of the ...

Plans have been approved for what will become Islay’s 12th Scotch malt whisky distillery. Laggan Bay is set to be developed by whisky bottlers and brewers The Islay Boys, in association with Ian Macleod Distillers. Argyll and Bute Council has granted planning permission for the distillery, which The Islay Boys said will produce ‘a traditional, double-distillation Islay whisky’, at Glenegedale in Laggan Bay, close to the island’s airport. The new development, on a two-hectare site, will also incl ...

Do growers make wine – or do markets? Growers, of course. Yet markets define the scope of the grower’s creative efforts by what they reward or sanction. When markets are neglectful and unresponsive, there’s little the grower can do but conform. It’s a problem the world over. Here’s an example. The river Moselle/Mosel rises to the wet west of the Vosges mountains, then curves in a long green arc heading north through Epinal, Metz and (along the left bank) Luxembourg’s Grand Duchy, turning east at ...