Bottles found in the shipwreck. Divers find 19th century shipwreck with Champagne and mineral water... The post Shipwreck full of Champagne found in Baltic Sea appeared first on Decanter ..read more

François Desirè Bazie. Approximately 1,500 vines have already been planted... The post The first vines taking root in Burkina Faso appeared first on Decanter ..read more

Taiwanese media outlet Business Today received a tip-off claiming that the country’s elites have been caught up in a series of fake wine transactions. They allegedly spent more than NT$1bn (£23.6m) on high-end Burgundy at two merchants – Top 100 Wine and UMC. These wines are now suspected to be fake. Huang Huihong, who runs Top 100 Wine, has reportedly agreed to accept returns and reimburse his clients. He allegedly revealed that the batch of suspect wines came from Wood Chen, the billionaire former chairman of electronics giant Yageo Corporation. Wood Chen’s brother, entrepreneur Pierre Chen ..read more

An old vine, with the Canigou mountain in the Pyrenées in the distance. According to Antoine Lespès, research and development manager at Domaine Lafage just outside Perpignan, the average rainfall at this Roussillon estate between 2010 and 2023 was just 550mm per year. These last few years have been particularly dry: in 2021 and 2022 there was 340mm. In 2023, just 240mm – ‘like Marrakesh,’ says Lespès. Thankfully, Roussillon has a natural defence against drought: 50% of the region’s vines are over 50 years old. Old vines with deep, well-established root systems pump water from below the ground ..read more

The Kent-based producer continues to rack up major accolades, as Chapel Down Rosé landed a prestigious ‘Best in Show’ award at the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) this year. Chapel Down Kit’s Coty Coeur de Cuvée 2016 was the big winner at the WineGB Awards, held at Drapers Hall in London on Friday evening. It was named Top Sparkling Wine and Best Prestige Cuvée, before clinching the Supreme Champion award. Meanwhile, Chapel Down Kit’s Coty Chardonnay 2021 was named Best Chardonnay and Best Sustainable Wine. It also shared the award for Top Still Wine with Vagabond Wines Solena NV. Finally ..read more

A view across the pool... California wine country may be on the doorstep, but this luxury property on the edge of Sonoma also comes with its own 1.6 hectares (four acres) of Chardonnay vines. Photo credit: Jack Hecker for Sotheby’s International Realty. That could be tempting for anyone wanting to get hands-on with this famous white grape variety, although the newly listed estate is also very much at the higher end of the market.  It has an asking price of $15m (£11.56m), according to the listing by Holly Barker Lee, of Sotheby’s International Realty’s ‘Wine Country’ Sonoma Brokerage. A ..read more

The Hospices de Beaune. Griveau remains upbeat about the organic conversion despite the seldom-seen pressure from downy mildew during the growing season of 2024. She notes that the organic methods are not a new initiative but the culmination of many years of work. Her predecessor, Roland Masse, held the first organic trials in 2010-2011, and the approach has been fully in place since 2017, the year in which Griveau stopped using all synthetic preparations in the vineyard. To carry out this type of work, it was necessary to replace the tractors and spraying equipment and to retrain the staff, a ..read more

Composition's Katrina Rank and Bertrand de Villaine ‘It all started in a class I was taking in Burgundy in 2016,’ says winemaker Katrina Rank about her winemaking partnership with de Villaine: Composition. On that day in Burgundy, Rank had asked Bertrand de Villaine if he’d ever considered making wine from Oregon’s Willamette Valley, a proven sweet spot for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. As it turned out, de Villaine, part of the family that owns and runs the most famous domaine in Burgundy – Domaine de la Romanée-Conti – had first fallen in love with wine not in Burgundy as one might expect ..read more

The 27-litre bottle of Bibi Graetz Colore recently sold by ARVI. A new record was announced by Switzerland-based merchant ARVI after it sold the 27-litre bottle of Bibi Graetz Colore 2016 for 100,000 Swiss francs (£87,104).  It’s the most expensive bottle of Italian wine ever sold, said the retailer on its Instagram account. No details were given about the buyer of the wine, which contains the equivalent of 36 standard 75cl bottles. Bibi Graetz founded his eponymous winery in 2000, in Fiesole near to Florence in Tuscany, and has since risen to become one of Italy’s most celebrated cult pr ..read more

Compass Box core range Artisan Scotch whisky blender Compass Box is revamping its core range. It is adding two new whiskies and axing existing expressions The Spice Tree and The Story of the Spaniard. The changes, which aim to make the company’s core whisky offer clearer and more distinct, are being introduced on 29 July. They include the launch of Nectarosity, an American oak-forward blend; and Crimson Casks, a blended malt that plays on the influence of ex-Sherry casks. The new range – which also includes existing blended malts The Peat Monster and Orchard House – is being introduced followi ..read more