The Winery OR of Victoria

A rare bottle of Gordon & MacPhail’s Glen Grant 72-year-old whisky has broken its own previous auction world record in a sale at Bonham’s Hong Kong on 20 May. The single bottle sold for HK$937,500 (US$120,000/£95,403) including buyer’s premium. This figure is more than double the price a bottle of the same whisky sold for at a Bonham’s Hong Kong sale in January 2021 (HK$421,600). Distilled by Speyside producer Glen Grant in 1948, the rare single malt was ​​created by independent Scotch bottl ...

Severe drought in northern Italy has led to the country’s government declaring a state of emergency in several regions, including Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto. Funds of €36.5m (£31m) would be made available to these regions for drought relief, the government said. Agriculture body Coldiretti said last week that the Po river, which flows across northern Italy to the Adriatic Sea, was almost unrecognisable. Drought in the Po Valley threatened around 30% of n ...

By 1965, the vineyards of Condrieu had largely been abandoned – phylloxera and two world wars had decimated the place and its people. There were just 8ha of vines remaining on these granite slopes. If it weren’t for the hard work of a few steadfast vignerons, the appellation might have disappeared entirely, reclaimed by the forest. Thankfully, Condrieu survived and has since flourished – but great appellations have been lost before. We know this because some have recently been rediscovered. In f ...