Verdicchio is one of the world's great white wines and one of its least known, despite being one of its oldest known varieties with history of winemaking dating back to the 14th century. It is also our wine of the week, so we thought it timely to dive down into the origins of this great white. The Verdicchio grape comes from Italy and its name comes from the Latin word viridis, which means green and refers to the green skins of the Verdicchio grape. Its home is the Marche region in Central Italy where there are currently about 2,000 hectares of Verdicchio...

It takes courage to make sparkling wine in a new winemaking country and especially if your role model is Bollinger Special Cuvee, which is one of the world's greatest sparkling wines and is a grand marque champagne. In other words, one of the wines at the top of the Champagne region's sparkling wine tree. So, what exactly goes into modelling a sparkling wine after Bollinger? Well, patience is the primary key. All champagnes and sparkling wines made in their mould are aged on their yeast lees (the decomposing yeast cells) in the same bottle we consume them from for a minimum...

The 1980s was a heady decade; from big hair to hip hop and new wave to punk - a lot of interesting stuff was taking shape. It was also an exciting era for US craft beer, and although the majority of sales were hogged by behemoth commercial brands such as Bud, Miller and Coors, the craft scene was starting to gather pace. Over the course of this decade, more than 100 microbreweries appeared, and one such brewery was today’s.Deshutes was started in 1988 in Bend, Oregon and sold a decent 310 barrels of beer in its first year - which...

Antinori Tignanello has been a trend setter from its inception in 1975 when Piero Antinori launched the first vintage of this off beat blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. It has long been regarded as the first contemporary red from Chianti Classico that was aged in barriques (rather than large Eastern European oak vessels) and that didn’t use white grape varieties. The latest vintage of Tignanello is a blend  of Sangiovese (68%) with the balance being Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc - and we have one bottle for one fortunate customer with a serious wine cellar. This wine does...

If Alsace Pinot Noir has not yet featured on your wine drinking radar, try this newcomer in store at Regional Wines from Domaine Rene Mure, an outstanding wine producer situated in Alsace.  The Alsace region is driest and most northern wine region in eastern France - and once, incidentally, part of Germany, until the First World War. This is why the Alsace region is dedicated to aromatic German white grape varieties, such as Riesling and Gewurztraminer and Sylvaner, among many others. On the red front, there is this wine. A powerful, pretty, silky and succulent expression of Pinot Noir from...