All for one and one for all: inside the world of Union Champagne co-op
Champagne is not solely the reserve of the 24 Grands Marques. Of course, the likes of Laurent Perrier, Pol Roger et al are responsible for the majority of premium Champagnes and create a halo effect that the entire region benefits from, but a…
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Why new Madeiras from Henriques & Henriques play like an orchestra
Humberto Jardim, managing director of Henriques & Henriques was in London to show off the new releases of his exemplary Madeira wine, including one totally new to the market. Victor Smart hears why Jardim uses an orchestral analogy to work his way through his…
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Galoupet 2023 shows just how far premium rosé has come of age
Last September Château Galoupet invited The Buyer to Provence to witness first hand the changes made since LVMH acquired the property five years ago. Uppermost was its strategy to make sustainability synonymous with desirability – targeting its ultra-premium rosé at eco-savvy millennials. The…
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How Bottega proves quality Prosecco can stand test of time
Smart wine buyers know that you don’t always have to splash the cash to get great quality wine – one of the points that Bottega Prosecco attempted to prove with a 10-vintage vertical of its Il Vino dei Poeti Prosecco DOC cuvée in…
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Jean Leon – schmoozing Marilyn and Bordeaux wines in Penedès
Few wine estates are like Jean Leon that can boast a founder who was a Hollywood actor, then a restaurateur who schmoozed Marilyn and James Dean, and then returned home to Penedès and uprooted Spanish varieties in order to plant Bordeaux vines. Victor…
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First taste: Armand de Brignac Blanc de Noirs Assemblage Number Four
No Champagne brand has courted such controversy as Armand de Brignac. What’s changed, though, is that lux giant LVMH has bought a 50% stake. Picking up the story is The Buyer’s Victor Smart who hooked up with the team and tasted through the…
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How Whispering Angel’s Château d’Esclans hopes to own premium
There have been many estates in recent years that have tried to push rosé into the premium category, but few have been as successful as Château D’Esclans, Sacha Lichine’s Provence estate that is in the final throes of a takeover by LVMH. To…
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Can LVMH make sustainability a lure in selling Galoupet rose?
‘The new luxury’ is the tack being taken by LVMH to make sustainability synonymous with desirability – ensuring that its luxury goods will be lapped up by eco-savvy millennials. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the thinking behind Galoupet, the ultra-premium Provence…
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Robert Dougan – making fine wines at Languedoc’s La Pèira
What do you do when you’ve made a mint from the soundtrack of The Matrix and are unsure about what to do in the future? Why, buy a run-down winery in the Languedoc and bring it back to one of the hottest properties…
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How Hemera 2008 Champagne shows off Henriot’s new vibrancy
Returning to Champagne Henriot, to sample the new Hemera 2008, five years since his last visit, Victor Smart finds that a lot of change has taken place. Dynamic chef de cave Alice Tétienne is attempting to get sustainability, science and fine winemaking working…
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Pairing wines of Château Haut Gléon with 3-star Michelin cuisine
In order to prove the food-matching potential of its wines, Languedoc estate Château Haut Gléon took the brave decision to set up a wine-pairing dinner of its range with 3-Michelin starred food. The cuisine of Gilles Goujon at Auberge du Vieux Puits is…
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How Provence’s Sainte Roseline is an estate moving with the times
Victor Smart tastes through the new whites, rosés and reds of Provence estate Château Sainte Roseline with owner Aurélie Bertin at Petersham Nurseries’ La Goccia restaurant in London. The challenge, Smart argues, is for this producer (who also owns and manages Château des Demoiselles)…
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Why Ca’ del Bosco Franciacorta is holding its own with Champagne
Alain Ducasse’s three Michelin star restaurant at the Dorchester was the setting for the launch of Ca’ del Bosco Edizione 45 and a full range tasting of Maurizio Zanella’s other Franciacortas from this prestigious North Italian estate. Dodging the blue lobster risotto, ceviche,…
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Tasting Susana Balbo wines with viticulturist Edy Del Popolo
Whether it is through the wide range of wines from Susana Balbo, where he is viticulturist and general manager, or through his personal PerSe project, Edy Del Popolo is at the forefront of viticultural change in Argentina. In town to host a lunch…
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Tasting the new Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Brunellos
To launch the sublime new Brunellos of Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona, what better venue in London than Café Murano, where Angela Hartnett’s classic Italian food pairing lunch involved not one, not two, but three meat courses. Adjusting his belt was Victor Smart who tasted…
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Vincent Chaperon & the “sheer simplicity” of Dom Pérignon 2013
The new Dom Pérignon 2013 is being described in some circles as ‘the last pre-climate change’ vintage. Vincent Chaperon, DP cellar master, was in London to launch the new cuvée, talk about its sheer simplicity, how he harnessed its energy and power and…
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Victor Smart on tasting Yealands’ premium on-trade wines
Like most Marlborough-based wineries, the majority of Yealands’ output is Sauvignon Blanc destined for the off-trade. But in chief winemaker Natalie Christensen the winery has a talent that is willing to experiment with the on-trade in mind. At a lunch in London’s Apricity…
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How Frerejean Frères is taking a fresh perspective on Champagne
Created in 2005 and now led by 36-year old CEO Rodolphe Frerejean Taittinger, Frerejean Frères is one of the youngest houses in Champagne – allowing it to break free from convention. The company ethos sits somewhere between that of a typical maison and…
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Napa’s Tor Kenward on Bottle Shock, Parker points & perfection
Industry icon Tor Kenward has been making wine in Napa since the early days when the valley was filled with just cowboys, dreamers and a handful of vines. After 27 years working for Beringer, learning from some of the biggest names in wine…
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Riccardo Pasqua: the man shaking up the Italian wine trade
Riccardo Pasqua, the third generation head of Veronese estate Pasqua Vigneti e Cantine, chose his latest vintages to be tasted at an upmarket London arts destination accompanied by a poetry recital from Arch Hades. But then Pasqua has already got a reputation for…
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On the road: how China is stepping up the quality of its wines
Nobody could accuse the Chinese of being unambitious. Since they have made their taste for wine felt across the globe the Chinese have started a major programme of cultivating vineyards in their own country, re-orientating middle class drinking habits and putting in place…
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Tasting the new Champagne Palmer Grands Terroirs 2015
Champagne Palmer Grands Terroirs 2015 and the Grands Terroirs 2012 in magnum were launched by Champagne Palmer & Co last Wednesday at Skye Gyngell’s Spring restaurant. CEO Rémi Vervier, who is also one of this cooperative’s five oenologists, hosted the dinner in which…
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Romain Ott: the alchemy behind his new Léoube at Langhan’s
Ever since Romain Ott has been the winemaker at Château Léoube, a property that is adjacent to his family’s estate, he has been pushing the envelope of the premium rosé category. At an exclusive lunch in the just-reopened Langan’s Brasserie Ott talks to…
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Quinta da Pedra Alta feeds into the buzz for Douro table wines
Victor Smart May 13, 2022 for the buyer.net. Publication here. Although it makes ports – both red and white – the winemaking team at Quinta da Pedra Alta in the Douro Valley is saving its greatest enthusiasm for the new table wines it’s producing. Its philosophy…
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Tasting wines & flower arranging with California’s Robert Sinskey
Victor Smart May 17, 2022 for the buyer.net. Publication here. One of Robert Sinskey’s wines, an orange wine called Orgia, has a label design based on LSD blotters given out at Grateful Dead concerts. The wine was intended as a middle finger to…
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First taste of Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle Itération No 25
To launch the new Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle Itération No 25, the Champagne house’s Lucie Pereyre de Nonancourt chose London’s Elystan Street restaurant where Michelin-starred chef Philip Howard and David Hesketh MW presented the new multi-vintage cuvée alongside a paired tasting menu and earlier…
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Victor Smart 