Journal
Wine Words: Whole Bunch Fermentation – Bunches, Clusters & Stems Explained
Bunches, Clusters & Stems: whole bunch fermentation in tasting notes
The point of these Wine W...
Platt Vineyard
In the early 2000s, wine-loving businessman Lewis Platt – former CEO of Hewlett Packard – planted ne...
Northern Portugal, the land of Vinho Verde – a hidden gem?
Warning: this is mainly a travel, not a wine, piece.
The area
For the third time in less than a ...
September Release Preview 2026: Opus One, Masseto, Solaia & More
The wine world wakes up from its traditional summer slumber in September with a flurry of big-name n...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report August 2026
Back to front
Last month, my editor commented that the report was fine, just fine mind, but started...
Opus One 2023: A Superb Vintage, An Exceptional Wine
Opus One is a name that needs little introduction to wine people. The joint venture between two lege...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report July 2026
June performance
June was an unremarkable month in the wine world. The loss of 0.7% of the Liv-ex ...
A Vertical Tasting of Kumeu River Chardonnay
And now for something completely different - A Vertical Tasting of Kumeu River Chardonnay
Mirrorin...
How to build a wine collection?
Three key tips that do not involve purchasing a single bottle
I have been delaying writing this si...
A Gastronomic Weekend In San Sebastian
San Sebastian has long been a mecca for food lovers, and rightly so. There are 19 Michelin stars acr...
M&M Show: 2022 Burgundy Whites
The 2022 growing season was one of the hottest Burgundy vintages on record. Under the compounding pr...
Châpeau à Lafleur (encore!)
Attention!! Heatwave in Pomerol (and everywhere else)
As the mercury spikes its way through forty...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report June 2026
May Performance
May proved to be the worst month for quite a while for the 50 and 100 indices, whil...
Burgfest 2022 Full Report
The Burgfest tasting of 2022 whites taught me that this is a great white Burgundy vintage that sits ...
Wine Words: Vintage – Decoding wine speak and tasting notes
If we talk about vintage fashion, vintage cars or even vintage watches, people have a pretty clear i...
Bordeaux 2025 – En Primeur So Far
With the Bordelais flocking to Vinexpo in Hong Kong this week, en primeur releases are taking a brea...
Burgfest 2022 First Impressions
Part way through our marathon tasting of white Burgundies from the 2022 vintage, someone asked:
“Is...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report May 2026
April Performance
April is always one of the quieter months in wine land. Easter and school holiday...
A New New Normal for Lafleur
As reported in 2025 Bordeaux at a Glance, one of the hot topics of gossip in Bordeaux this year cent...
The M&M Show: En Primeur Bordeaux 2025
Introducing the latest episode of The M&M Show – Matthew Hemming MW and Miles Davis turn their a...
2025 Bordeaux At A Glance
In two sentences, why should I pay attention to another Bordeaux vintage?
2025 is like a great ...
Bordeaux 2025 Vintage Report – by Matthew Hemming MW
2025 Bordeaux – just what the doctor ordered?
Seemingly against all expectations, Bordeaux’s 2025 v...
2025 Bordeaux En Primeur Preview
Once again, one of the biggest events in the annual fine wine calendar is upon us, Bordeaux En Prime...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report April 2026
March performance
The major indices in the wine market came off a tiny bit in March but are still m...
Sauternes – The Enigma!
Recent Releases
Given our relative success selling the latest 2023 vintage releases from Chateau d’...
Save the Date: Bordeaux 2025 En Primeur Coming Soon
Next month, the fine wine world will turn its gaze toward the Gironde for the 2025 Bordeaux En Prime...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report March 2026
February Performance
It feels weird, bordering on wrong, to be writing this given the latest ...
Philip Togni
The story of Philip Togni Vineyard (https://www.philiptognivineyard.com/) is one of pioneership and ...
2016 Bordeaux – Re-visited at 10 Years Old
After immersing myself in 150ish examples of the best of Bordeaux 2016 earlier this month, I’m convi...
Wine Words: Balance – Decoding Wine Speak And Tasting Notes
Wine tasting students are taught to assess quality in terms of BLIC, that is Balance, Length, Intens...
Coming Soon: The 100 Point 2019 Chateau Latour
Tuesday 17th March sees one of the big fine wine releases of the year, a new vintage of Chateau Lato...
2016: The Greatest Fine Wine Vintage Ever?
I’m often asked by my non-wine trade friends if I have any inside tips in terms of what they should ...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report February 2026
January – oh, what a month!
What an extraordinary start to the year. We had the Venezuela int...
Southwold-on-Thames – Bordeaux 2022 Gets The Treatment
After a marathon blind tasting of some 250 of Bordeaux’s finest 2022s, a few things are clear:
...
2023 Napa Valley Vintage: A New Superstar?
The 2023 vintage in Napa Valley is quickly earning a reputation for serious quality. We’ll be seeing...
Chinese New Year – 2026, The Year Of The Horse
The zodiac symbol of the horse is associated with momentum, confidence, and unstoppable forward ener...
Sassicaia 2023: The Latest Release Of A Tuscan Icon
"Like the legendary 1985, 2023 was a difficult and stressful vintage shaped by a cold winter, yet it...
Solaia Dinner and Tasting (London)
This week we hosted a client dinner to demonstrate the virtues of family Marchesi Antinori’s Super T...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report January 2026
A brief recap of 2025 and what to expect in 2026.
Firstly, the fine wine market December performanc...
Drinking in Christmas
A Grinch’s guide on what and how to drink at Christmas!
Obviously, not everyone enjoys Christmas, ...
2024 Burgundy – Heartbreaking, Tiny, Complicated And Rewarding
2024 is the most complicated vintage I have ever tasted in Burgundy. The wines defy pithy summaries ...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report December 2025
Wine market November performance
Holy Moly – three in a row! Positive months, that is. People...
Wine Words: Brett – Decoding Wine Speak And Tasting Notes
Brett is an abbreviation of Brettanomyces and a word that has been increasingly creeping into tastin...
Wine Words: Energy – Decoding Wine Speak And Tasting Notes
At a recent Wanderthirst event – don’t know? Ask us! – in Singapore one of my table mates asked me t...
Champagne Billecart-Salmon’s Garden Vineyard – A Very Special Vertical Of Clos St. Hilaire
About 1805h I disembarked my flight in Changi airport. Come 1930, I was finding my place at the Summ...
The 2025 Wine Hit Parade
It is that time of year when the Top 100 lists appear in the wine world. James Suckling, The Wine Sp...
Wine Words: Minerality – Decoding Wine Speak And Tasting Notes
This is a controversial one. Minerality is a term steeped in more self-regarding, pretentious pseudo...
Montrachet & Musigny – Lunch With Joseph Drouhin
Joseph Drouhin Lunch @ Caratere
In November this year, I was invited to attend a spectacular ...
Wine Words: Intensity vs Concentration – Decoding Wine Speak And Tasting Notes
Decoding wine speak and tasting notes
OK, so maybe not the most obvious choice for kicking off wi...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report November 2025
Wine market performance
Another positive month – woo hoo! Also, another month where the bid t...
Bollinger Champagne & Pinot Noir: The Perfect Match
On a grey Monday afternoon in October the year I was fortunate to be invited by Bollinger to attend ...
When One Egg Is Un Oeuf – And When It Is Not!
Just in case you haven’t heard the old classic joke: why do the French only have one egg for breakfa...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report October 2025
Positive moves on the indices
Hooray! This is my tenth market report for Vinum and the first ...
2021 Red Burgfest – Cosmic Balance Is Restored
At the beginning of last month the Burgfest group blind-tasted our way through about 250 samples of ...
The M’M Show: Burgfest 2021 Reds Interviews
Introducing The M&M Show: four swift episodes with Matthew Hemming MW and Miles Davis on all thi...
Spottswoode, “The Chateau Margaux of Napa” – Robert Parker
One of the things that made Robert Parker such a great wine critic was his ability to make, what had...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report September 2025
August was very much a month of two halves for Vinum Fine Wines. The first half was purely about wat...
Platt Vineyard, West Sonoma Coast
100/100 debut for our newest agency partner!
Established vineyard of Grand Cru calibre.
Spec...
Chapeau à Château Lafleur!
In a surprise announcement earlier this week Château Lafleur, very politely and respectfully, declar...
Missing the point with scores
There seems to be no argument that not all wines are created equal, so how come the increasing deman...
Beyond Bordeaux: September Releases Preview
The fine wine trade springs back to life in September after the traditionally sleepy summer months. ...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report August 2025
I’m going to keep this brief. It is August, it’s boiling hot outside, most people are away (if they ...
The Wines We Drink!!
One of the internal chat groups at Vinum Fine Wines goes by the name of ‘The Wines We Drink’.There m...
Vinum On Tour With Pol Roger Portfolio
Pol Roger Portfolio 35th year anniversary Trip
Edinburgh based Fiona Spawforth really too...
Champagne Vintages That Matter (And What the Critics Say About Them)
The key years to drink, hunt down, or cellar
Champagne will always be the exuberant bottle of choic...
Les Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) Come to Town (London)
It is not everyday that the noble house of Les Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite Baron de Rothsch...
Vinum Fine Wine Market Report July 2025
Market performanceAnother down month on the indices I’m afraid, despite improved business levels. Al...
Redefining the Fine Wine Experience: Wanderthirst, Dujac Paulée & La Gaffelière Dinners
If there’s one thing I’ve been thinking about lately, it’s how much the fine wine world still leans ...
State by State: The Australian Chardonnay Renaissance
In June this year, I had the pleasure of attending the “State By State” Australian Chardonnay tastin...
The Villages of the Côte de Nuits: Icons of Burgundy Pinot Noir
The villages of the Côte de Nuits are synonymous with some of the world’s most revered Pinot Noirs. ...
White Burgundy on a Knife Edge – 2021s at Burgfest
After an extensive blind tasting of the top 2021 white Burgundies, if I was shopping for these wines...
2021 Burgundy From the Archives Report
I’ve just returned from the Burgfest tasting of 2021 whites and am about to write up my notes. Befor...
Cos d’Estournel Tasting, June 2025
In June this year, the UK team in London was treated to a back-vintage tasting courtesy of famed St ...
Vinum Fine Wine Market Report June 2025
The wine market
The bad news for May is that the market is down again. The good news is that it was...
Tim Atkin’s ‘The Best of South Africa’ – a quick summary of this emerging (?) wine land.
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a terrific tasting of ’The Best of South Africa’, organised by jou...
Tuscan Thoroughbreds – by Matthew Hemming MW
A recent collectors’ lunch provided a refresher in some of the greats from Tuscany, with vintages re...
A Week in Napa & Sonoma: Wine, Burgers, and Bloody Marys
Let’s be honest, starting a wine country tour with an In-N-Out burger at 10 a.m. might raise a few e...
Kinsman Eades – A Napa Valley Wine Cult Collectable
Kinsman Eades is one of the best Napa Valley wineries you’ve (probably) never heard of. Made by one ...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report May 2025
I am pleased to report that April is over and we’re moving on, fast. Recent weeks in the wine world ...
Where We Eat In Bordeaux
Far from an exhaustive list of Bordeaux restaurants – I’m not sure I have sufficient appetite to und...
Bordeaux En Primeur 2024 Diary: Day 2 & 3
Day 2
Today we really got into the meat and potatoes of Pomerol, taking a deep dive into some of th...
Bordeaux 2024 En Primeur – Day 1
No one tasting in Bordeaux this week can be unaware of the jungle drums’ beat on this vintage. Every...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report April 2025
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Welcome to the April 2025 Fine Wine Market Report. Strict...
Standout Wines From A Few Days in Bordeaux
In March I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Bordeaux with a friend from Singapore. Our trip ...
A Journey Into Wine Collecting (and Google Maps)
It started with a simple Muscadet... how I became a wine collector
I am sometimes asked how I start...
2015 Bordeaux: Ten Years On Tasting
Tasting 2015 Bordeaux Ten Years From The Vintage
Amongst the upper echelons, there are outstanding ...
Current State and Future of the Chinese Wine Market
Vino Joy News www.vino-joy.com
I recently met with Natalie Wang, Founder of Vino Joy News, a Hong K...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report March 2025
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February performance:
Another month has passed, and the le...
Wine Auction News – Some Positive Results
Recent wine auctions have shown some very interesting results
If you are looking for some positive ...
Two Way Traffic: Buying… And Selling Fine wine
If you have well-cared-for wines to sell, especially if originally purchased from Vinum, we would lo...
2016 Chateau Latour, Previewing The Highly Anticipated New Release
Has there been a stronger trio of Latour releases since the wine came off the En Primeur system back...
When to pull that cork? The shfting sands of time.
"Just curious....is anyone using the same cell phone as they were 20 years ago?"
Antonio Galloni po...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report February 2025 by Miles Davis
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January performance:
Although there are some reasons to...
Is 2021 Barolo The Next Big Thing? We Look At What The Critics Think.
2021 Barolo: As the wines from this eagerly anticipated vintage hit the market, we round up the view...
100 Points – What does it mean in today’s fine wine market?
History
Back in the day, the magic number wouldn’t just sell the wine, it would move the market, a ...
Tasting Note Tips
Putting pen to paper at a wine tasting can be a source of anxiety akin to hanging a target on your b...
A Fresh Look At 2017 Burgundy & Bordeaux
It is perhaps no secret that the 2017 vintage in Burgundy is offering a great deal of drinking pleas...
2022 Sassicaia – A Sneak Peek At The Upcoming New Release
Ahead of the official release on the 14th of February, we profile the iconic Super-Tuscan, Sassicaia...
Vinum Fine Wines Market Report January 2025 by Miles Davis
A commentary on the fine wine market in 2024 and what we can look forward to in 2025.
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