The Week in Wine

Send us Fan Mail Don is nonplussed by a "smug" New Zealand Pinot Noir [name withheld] while Olly enjoys a Saumur blanc (L'Insolite) from Loire guru Thierry Germain. This week saw a lot of people reading the latest on grumblings against the Napa Valley Vintners organization – to which we asked how different this was from any gripes and grumbles against over-arching wine bodies global...

Send us Fan Mail Don has a bottle of 19 Crimes and talks about the appeal of fruity, red blends while Olly enjoys a bag-in-box 2024 Bourgogne Chardonnay from The Wine Society (as recommended by Julia Harding MW at the recent Aotearoa Chardonnay Symposium). This week, we kick-off by talking about two stories that haven't featured on the website: the recent AI wine writing storm kicked off by t...

Send us Fan Mail Don drinks a Taylors South Australian Merlot and Olly has a saline Aard Chardonnay. Michelin's Bordeaux ratings fail to cause a major stir while Napa's visitor tasting woes continue to dominate the stats. Our Most Expensive Champagne Top 10 is also a good performer but, we ask, is it the cost of living crisis that means our 'Best Value' series nowadays performs...

Send us Fan Mail Don gets a case of birthday wines, covering a range of top New Zealand Chardonnays while Olly enjoys a Saumur-Champigny from Thierry Germain. This week's top stories feature two (well, three if you count or Most Expensive Zinfandel Top 10!) Californians: the struggling category of sit-down Napa wine tastings and Gavin Newsom's Plumpjack winery being the only winery to ge...

Send us Fan Mail Don sips a triple-aged Jameson while Olly muses on hops and beer. This week we look over a number of early wine harvest stories from the month and Don asks whether or not life might be like toilet paper. There is also a musing on the apparently mediocre reception of Mosel Riesling. This week: Cava growers struggle to find good prices for their grapes; Sazerac faces a lawsuit in Fr...

Send us Fan Mail Don returns from the UK and Ireland where he wonders if pub-goers might not be better off going to a wine bar and sharing a bottle of wine, given the price of a beer in the capital. Notable mentions on Don's travels include The Winemakers' Club in London and Green Acres in Wexford, among others. A bottle of Nosiola, some great pints of Guinness and a Beaune Premier Cru w...

Send us Fan Mail A quart in a pint pot. Wine-Seacher's US Editor, W. Blake Grey joins Olly talk about everything happening in the North American wine scene right now. Blake talks about the two-tier US economy and how the stock market performance is helping a number of Americans feel bullish about wine. Will the AI boom help fuel this and, conversely, should the AI bubble burst, what will that...

Send us Fan Mail Olly has a wonderful Bitter liqueur from Japan to end a Friday evening meal which moves on to a potentially national stereotype discussion about the Japanese being good at certain crafts. Unfair stereotype, or is there a grain of truth? Let us know. This week, our US editor W. Blake Grey tops the readership with his story on wine and its beneficial effects on heart health. Burgund...

Send us Fan Mail Nat celebrates become a homeowner with a classic while Olly confirms that Don has seemingly sampled every Guinness available in Ireland. The story of Burgundy négoce houses Louis Jadot and Albert Bichot getting fined for "deceptive" labelling continues to be the top story, all while the wine world mourns the sudden passing of the much-loved UK-based wine writer and Austr...

Send us Fan Mail Deputy Editor of Wine-Searcher Nat Sellers joins Olly to talk about the wines they had at the weekend (both were from Central Otago, it turns out) while the big news of last week was predominantly the wild fires in both Bordeaux and central Spain. Nonetheless, Abruzzo superstar winemaker Emidio Pepe's passing was also covered, as was news that Cabernet Sauvignon might be a pr...

Send us Fan Mail Don opens a bottle of Champagne from Palmer as he prepares to head on holiday while Olly works through some highs and lows with Central Otago's Ayrburn wines. Falling Bordeaux vineyard prices dominate the headlines this week, as does Napa being told bulldoze their vineyards and Champagne yields being slashed for the 2026 harvest. There are some gems too, including an intervie...

Send us Fan Mail Don moves from a delightful Cuba Libre to a pensive sipping Rum, while Olly is sent a 6-bottle case of wines to review from Central Otago. The top story of the last 7 days is that which covers the "Napa needs to bulldoze vineyards" while Olly's very recent Sunday news roundup (covering falling Bordeaux vineyard land prices) is in second. Winemaker Chase Renton'...

Send us Fan Mail Don has a delicious Douro red from Niepoort to discuss before we talk about the top story this week: an impressive selection of best value California wines that cover a range of regions, varieties, styles and labels. We also discuss stories on Brittany's nascent wine industry, how weight-loss drugs (Ozempic, Wegovy, etc.) are affecting wine consumption, appreciation and sales...

Send us Fan Mail Pinot Blanc seems to be increasing its profile of late, with Don tasting a nice example from Alsace this weekend and Olly getting asked about the grape on the fencing piste! Olly enjoyed a Hawke's Bay Albariño over the weekend. This week, the recent 250th Champagne Roederer birthday bash gets the most eyeballs, while both the best-value Chardonnay and best-value Irish whiskey...

Send us Fan Mail Don drinks an Alsace blend from New Zealand producer Yealands while our end-of-month roundup is dominated by spirits headlines, with value Tequila and high-end Bourbon grabbing much of the attention in June. Bordeaux prices, the news that the worst is still to come for the French wine industry and a surprise show from Chile also add to the month's big stories. There's sp...

Send us Fan Mail Don has a Guinness with the rugby and Olly has a light red wine blend from a small producer in New Zealand (Halite). Don asks if winemaking nations correlate to soccer success and we look at some of the great, best-value Tequilas on the market at the moment. The news this week revolves around more trade tariffs although some of our stories span: investment interest in Napa; why UK...

Send us Fan Mail US soft diplomacy hits Don via a bottle of Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon while Olly is still enjoying the aftertaste of a Barolo from Rivetto. The best-value Tequilas tops our most-read stories of the week, closely followed by a fascinating story looking at why Chile isn't getting past the notion of good value. Other top stories include: Langhe's fight against climate...

Send us Fan Mail Star Wars, Soundgarden and My Chemical Romance? Wine-Searcher's US Editor W. Blake Gray talks to Don and Olly about the current state of wine in the United States. Blake looks at the state of the Californian wine industry (with a particular focus on Silicon Valley Bank's Direct to Consumer Wine Report which just came out); the state of Ohio's appeal to the US Suprem...

Send us Fan Mail "Two Englishmen talking about the weather..." Wine-Searcher's editor Don Kavanaugh bravely entertains David Allen MW and Olly Styles as the pair battle it out over the effects of the weather in the 2025 Bordeaux growing season. In the blue corner, David Allen MW defends Bordeaux estates from accusations that the weather patterns over the 2025 growing season (notewor...

Send us Fan Mail Don lauds a pair of 'workhorse' wines (a Côtes de Rhône and a Californian Zinfandel) while Olly enjoys a steely Riesling from the Saar. Two pieces this week tickle Don's fancy: wine's reluctance to engage in a class-based discussion (all while other aspects of DEI are frequently touched-on in wine marketing); and news that Ohio will send the interstate shipping...

Send us Fan Mail Our list of best-value Bourbon has readers arriving in droves, all while the main wine news continues to swirl around just how well (or not) the wine industry is doing, globally. Other stories in the last 7 days include a group of wine investors assiduously avoiding 100-point wines, while there is still interest in Bordeaux 2025, not least from the value end of the offerings as we...

Send us Fan Mail End of Month special! Too many wineries in California is the story that continues to dominate the headlines, alongside En Primeur coverage from Bordeaux. The best value Sauvignon Blancs of 2026 gets eyeballs while Mexico's push to shout down prohibitionists also makes one of the top stories of the week. The month of May was dominated by the stories coming out of the USA, with...

Send us Fan Mail The week is dominated by interest in the US wine market, with three W. Blake Grey stories driving readership. The stories span the current state of the market with recommendations that the number of wineries in the US drop to accommodate the size of the market; there is a glimmer of hope in the resolution of tariff disputes and the slowing of the decline (!) in the market; and the...

Send us Fan Mail When did supermarket wine labels start featuring their flavor profile prominently on their labels? Is the US three-tier wine distribution system unconstitutional? Recent rulings on Ohio may bring this question to the fore. Don't shoot the messenger? A piece on the right-wing press defending wine drinkers should not be dismissed because of the messenger. Meanwhile, our top 10...

Send us Fan Mail Is the world moving back towards big red wines, or is it just a generational thing? Don and Olly represent both parties this week with a big Argentinian Malbec  from Bodegas Estancia and an unusual California blend from Extradimensional Wine Co. Yeah! showing either an age-gap or simply a difference in tastes. We also review the etiquette problem of a host holding on to a bottle t...