The Winery Unplugged of Hawke's Bay of North Island

There’s a reason why heavily-applied perfume ranks highly on most wine lovers’ list of pet peeves. It overpowers your senses, conceals aromas and distorts your perception of a wine. In professional tastings and wine exams the wearing of perfume is banned, if not thoroughly frowned upon. You just don’t do it. What then, if we applied the same logic to music, controlling the sounds we hear, or don’t hear, while tasting wine? There’s no doubt that a chaotic environment can clog your synapses, makin ...

The Sotheby’s New York sale of Bourbon and Rye Whiskey, held at the weekend, combined two significant collections of American whiskey, with almost 100% of lots sold and 75% of them selling for above their pre-sale high estimates. The top spot for the most expensive lot in the auction went to a bottle of LeNell’s Red Hook Rye 24 Year Old Barrell #4, which sold for $43,750, double its pre-sale high estimate and making it the joint most valuable bottle of rye whiskey ever sold at auction. The sum w ...

From the vineyards of Oregon on the west coast to those of New York’s Long Island in the east, the wine regions of the United States are vast and varied. And increasingly important to us here at Decanter – across not only the magazine and website, but our Decanter Premium channel online, the annual Decanter World Wine Awards and events such as our inaugural New York Decanter Fine Wine Encounter in June 2022. We strive to provide the best coverage for our international audience and so felt it was ...