by Robert Joseph

There was once a New Yorker magazine cartoon in which a man having breakfast in an featureless hotel ‘buttery’ turns to a diner at another table to enquire "Excuse me, could you settle a bet: is this the Athens Hilton or the Vienna Hilton?". I must confess that I almost had a similar moment of dislocation at the end of May. Was I in the Hong Kong Convention Centre or the Excel Exhibition Centre in London?

by Andreas Larrson

I enjoy restaurants that have a concept: design, menu, glassware and staff clothing. Similarly, I like to see a wine list that is intelligently constructed. It needn’t be a Bible with verticals of first growths: 50 wines from various origins, highlighting a selection of grape varieties, can often be more than enough.

by Robert Joseph

Everyone reading this will, I imagine, have their own views on the reaction of the Chinese authorities to the current protests in Tibet -and indeed to the manifestation of most other forms of dissent. They may also have formed a few personal impressions on...

by Michel Bettane

France is walking on its head. On one hand, president Nicolas Sarkozy suggests that Unesco put French gastronomy on its world heritage list, without necessarily understanding that one of our kitchen’s fundamentals is its association with wine; on the other are the anti-alcohol lobbies who don’t miss a chance to blindly apply the most absurd letter of the 1991 Evin Law.

by Michael Fridjhon

Rain towards the end of the 2008 harvest marred what might otherwise have been the crowning moment to a 12 month turnaround in the South African wine industry. With exports trending at 116% and the South African Rand some 30% weaker than a year ago, the crisis which pummelled producers in 2006 seems distant history.

by Jeannie Cho Lee

There are three myths about wine drinking in China and other emerging Asian wine consuming countries, which still circulate among wine circles in Europe and North America: (1) Asians don’t know much about wine, (2) Asian consumers often mix wine with Coke, and (3) Asian fine wine consumers are label drinkers.

by Robert Joseph

In our last issue, Dan Jago, wine supremo of the British giant Tesco asked his suppliers to give his customers three reasons to spend more money on a bottle of wine. That call, from the largest wine retailer in the world, reminded me of a couple of...

by Robert Joseph

“Wine is part of civilization”. “Wine offers an unequalled link with a specific piece of soil or region”. “Wine is a necessary accompaniment to food…” Such comments are almost guaranteed to get a small nod of appreciation...

by Luis Antunes

In times of crisis some people rise to their best, turning dire straits into great opportunities. The Portuguese wine industry seems to be at such a moment. Paulo Amorim, president of the G7, the association of the seven largest domestic wine...

by Robert Joseph

Although there was little cause for celebration among Old World vineyards, the Fourth of July 2007 was an undeniably memorable day for European wine. On the one hand, there was the revelation of the long-awaited reform plan by...