Wine Blog

A vineyard doesn’t have to catch fire to lose its harvest. Sometimes, the greatest damage arrives on the wind. When we think of wildfires destroying vineyards, we imagine blackened grapevines, scorched earth and entire rows of plants reduced to ashes. But there is another, less visible danger. One that can affect vineyards many kilometres away […]

You are standing in the fruit aisle looking at a box of perfectly plump red grapes when the thought occurs: Could I actually turn these into wine? The short answer is yes. Supermarket grapes contain sugar, juice and naturally occurring acids — everything needed to provide the basic raw material for fermentation. Add the right […]

After the grapes have been picked and the vineyard begins to quieten for the year, something rather beautiful happens. The leaves that spent summer feeding and sheltering the grapes begin to change. Green turns to yellow, bronze, crimson and deep wine-red. We usually admire them, photograph them and then forget about them. But red vine […]

Napa Valley has a small problem. There are too many wineries. Not objectively, of course. From the point of view of civilisation, having hundreds of wineries to choose from is probably a rather pleasant problem to have. But for a first-time visitor, it can produce a particular kind of panic: How many can we fit […]

Gifting wine sounds easy until you’re standing in front of a wall of bottles, wondering whether your friend prefers bold or smooth, or whether $60 is too much or not enough. If the person you’re shopping for loves red wine, Napa Valley is one of the safest places to start. This guide covers why Napa […]

There is something about the beginning of autumn that brings truffles back into our imagination. In Piedmont, anticipation is already building for the prized white truffles hidden beneath the soil. The 2026 International Alba White Truffle Fair begins on 10 October and runs until 6 December, just as one of the world’s most celebrated truffle […]

Few ingredients are as closely tied to Piedmont as the truffle. In autumn, the region’s food and wine culture comes together particularly clearly: fresh truffles arrive in restaurants and markets just as visitors are exploring the vineyards and cellars of the Langhe, Roero and Monferrato. For wine lovers, truffle season creates an interesting pairing question. […]

A glass tips over. For about three seconds, everyone at the table stares at the spreading red patch in horror. Then the advice begins. “Salt!” “White wine!” “Club soda!” “Put it under the tap!” Suddenly, everyone is a stain-removal expert. But when red wine lands on your favourite shirt, dress or trousers, the first few […]

Order a Vinho Verde (Green Wine) in Portugal and you might reasonably expect something green to arrive in your glass. It won’t. It may be pale gold, almost colourless, pink, or even red — but green? Almost certainly not.(Curiously, genuinely blue wine is another matter entirely.) So why does Portugal call an entire family of […]

You are browsing Australian wines online when one bottle proudly announces: 95 Halliday points. Excellent. Presumably. But if you live outside Australia — or have simply managed to enjoy wine without first studying the international hierarchy of wine critics — you might reasonably have two questions: Who is Halliday? And what happened to the other […]