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Riesling is, arguably, the world’s greatest white wine, prized for reflecting site and vintage with fascinating nuance, offering unrivalled longevity.

While young Riesling can be very seductive, there is no question that Riesling comes into its own with age.

When it comes to Riesling, Germany’s regions and rivers are inseparable.

German Riesling covers the full spectrum of white wine styles – from bone-dry to lusciously sweet and everything in between.

Almost a decade ago we published this guide to the Auslese Goldkapsule designation, as sent to us by Dr. Katharina Prüm.

In this explorative series, whisky advocate Ethan Youel delves into the traditions, people, folklore, myths and legends that make famous whisky towns magical.

This town was built on whisky and is home to some of the most adored and loved whisky brands around.

Inchgower was at one point purchased by Buckie Council making it the only council in Scotland to have ever owned a distillery.

When you are in this area its extremely easy to visualise the historic illicit still trade.

Despite being a relative heavyweight in the distillery world, Elgin seems to get slightly less credit for its impressive amount of distilleries than little brother Dufftown.

It was a year in which “surprise” was a word on everyone’s lips. Surprise at the freshness in the wines, surprise at the moderate alcohols, surprise at the transparency and aromatic register that characterises the wines of 2022.

Anyone who’s had the Bordeaux marketing experience will know that chateaux have a slight obsession with numbers. It’s a statistician’s dream: IPTs, pHs, assemblages, percentage of new oak, hours of sunshine, temperature charts, rainfall.

Piedmont 2019 promises a raft of vertical, nuanced Barolos and Barbarescos that will thrill Nebbiolo lovers from the first encounter. Initiating a trio of potentially outstanding vintages, 2019 has a toned, energetic character with a gravitas and vitality to the fruit that in our view most closely resembles the exceptional 2013 vintage at the same stage.

A vintage full of jewel-like wines that have emerged from a growing season that was never plain sailing. After a devastating early spring frost, growers had to work harder than ever, all the while bringing in some of their smallest crops on record.

For the charm, balance and youthful beauty of its wines, 2020 is an unmissable vintage. Overall, it was a sunny year characterised by drought and a good-sized crop (for the majority of producers), with less extreme heat and higher yields than its predecessor, 2019.

After a succession of warmer vintages, 2021 serves as a welcome return to classicism; a year which has produced crisply etched, enlivening Rieslings with a fine mineral-soaked elegance.

Continuing our series of ten years on reports from Piedmont, on our last trip we took the opportunity to taste many 2015s alongside the new release 2021s. Clearly, two contrasting years, the 2015s impressed from the first release for their overall depth and richness.

Freshly returned from the first of our two annual tours around Piedmont to assess the 2019 Barolo and Barbaresco vintages, we decided to make a concerted effort to also taste an array of 2013s at ten years old.

Unlike the Donald Fagen song, I found myself on very much the same wavelength as these 19s. This was the best Southwold tasting I’ve been involved with, even trumping the outstanding 2009s and 2016s.

A September check-in on the 2018 red Burgundies proved a fascinating, and at times, thrilling five days of tasting. I had not tasted the vintage so extensively since the Autumn of 2019 and so I was delighted to find as many good wines as I did then, from barrel; if anything I came away even more enthused than my initial impressions allowed me.

The burgfest team convened earlier in the summer to assess the 2018 White Burgundy vintage in bottle. Burgfest is a crack team of 10 Burgundy specialists, a mixture of wine merchant buyers and journalists, gathered in the peaceful setting of the wonderful Hameau de Barboron just outside of Savigny Les Beaune.

All in the name of progress – Calon Segur vertical A providentially timed email resulted in an invitation we couldn’t refuse – a vertical tasting with Vincent Millet, followed by lunch in the recently refurbished chateau.