Simon MW

1 week ago | worldoffinewine.com | Simon MW

Simon Field MW reviews Taylor’s Victory 80-Year-Old Tawny and 1975 Single Harvest Port. Founded in 1692, conspicuously anglophone, and led by Adrian Bridge with engaging vigor, Taylor’s has long been active in fostering the luxury end of the market for its finest Ports. Scarcity of the Vintage category has led to renewed focus on the Tawny colheita style, the newly released single-harvest bottling from 1975 being the eighth in the series; 1964 was the first.

2 weeks ago | worldoffinewine.com | Simon MW

Simon Field MW joins chef de cave Elysé Brigandat to taste the latest single-site releases from Olivier Leflaive’s Champagne project, Valentin Leflaive. Elysé Brigandat, chef de cave at Champagne Valentin Leflaive, is a Champenois through and through. Or is he? Born in the Aube Champagne village of Channes, which is located a mere 20 miles (32km) from Chablis, complete with its Kimmeridgian clay, he has always been fascinated by the great wines of Burgundy.

3 weeks ago | worldoffinewine.com | Simon MW

Simon Field MW assesses what the 2024 Bordeaux en primeur campaign means for the future of the region’s business model. Singing in the Rain is the title of Haut-Bailly’s 2024 Bordeaux en primeur catalogue, with self-evident intimations of Gene Kelly optimism in the face of adversity, silk purses, sows’ ears, and the like. The booklet is punctuated, in the manner of Spielberg or Powell and Pressburger, by images of red umbrellas, symbols of stoicism, resilience and, ultimately, a positive outlook.

1 month ago | the-buyer.net | Simon MW

Of the few places that can stake a claim to be the centre of the British wine establishment, the boardroom at The Worshipful Company of Vintners must rank pretty highly, an oak-panelled bastion of tradition and continuity. A good place, then, for Laurent-Perrier to introduce us to their new chef de cave and to reassure us, should we have really needed reassurance, that one really does not need to change all that much in order to stay the same.

1 month ago | worldoffinewine.com | Simon MW

With its wines made from Cabernet Franc in Saumur-Champigny and from Chenin Blanc in Anjou, Clos Rougeard represents “all that is good about the Loire,” says Simon Field MW. It was from Chinon rather than the marshes of Aquitaine that Henry II of England, in 1150, made a valiant attempt to carve up western France and to salvage, at the very least, the legal gift of his marriage to Eleanor.