Yes I know, I wasn’t going to comment on the latest burgundy arrival because the word on the grapevine, wine merchant hyperbole apart, wasn’t sufficiently enthusiastic to justify it. That was before tasting the wines, mind, and while I still don’t believe 2007 is a vintage in which to sink your or anyone else’s life’s savings, it merits attention for unexpected reasons. A great burgundy vintage is usually thought of as red, as in 1999, 2002 and 2005, and red wines and laying down are synonymous. 2007 is about the whites.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics? Look away now if you don't want to know about how the wine world will shape up in 2012. The Bordeaux Wine Trade Fair – Vinexpo – has had a survey of past results and future trends carried out for it by the International Wine and Spirit Record (IWSR). The forecasts in the IWSR's previous survey in 2006 proved to be only marginally out, so it's fair to say that a sparkling and rosé future awaits producers everywhere.

Whither...?

As I was crystal ball gazing into the new year, I mentioned that Argentina’s malbec grape was well placed to take a starring role in 2009 and nothing I have tasted before or since has changed that view. The improvements in winemaking since the great 2002 vintage have helped to make succulent, vibrant reds thanks also to warm, dry summers and perfectly controlled ripening conditions. That’s just one reason why Argentinian malbecs and blends are poised to do well this year and here are a few more.

Malbec

On the Murray River - still afloat?

Who’ll give me £600m for a nice little property going in Pauillac? It has earnings potential of circa £10 million a year and the three basic features required of a top wine property: prestige, great wine and location. Since François H.

Until the 1960s, the coastal area of Bolgheri was typical southern Tuscan farming country, its thick undergrowth and marshland a haven for wild boar and partridge. Thanks to an aristocratic outsider from Italy's north, Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, this improbable terrain has shown a remarkable propensity for producing wines equal in class and quality to cru classé Bordeaux and top Californian cabernet. It started in 1944 when the Marquis della Rochetta decided to try to recreate the taste of his beloved claret and harness the special luminosity and maritime climate of the region.

I wasn't going to comment on the latest burgundy arrival because the word on the grapevine wasn't sufficiently enthusiastic to justify it. That was before tasting the wines, and while I still don't believe 2007 is a vintage in which to sink your life savings, it merits attention for unexpected reasons. A great burgundy vintage is usually thought of as red, as in 1999, 2002 and 2005, and red wines and laying down are synonymous. 2007 is about the whites.

Time for a Change

Another year, another wine quiz; and what better way to while away the post-prandial hours than by testing your knowledge of all the important – and not-so-important – wine events of the past year? Our prizes should be enough to tempt you into having a go. First prize is a magnificent six-bottle case of James Bond's champagne of choice, Bollinger Special Cuvée, and the runner-up will receive a superb bottle of Hidalgo's rare Palo Cortado Viejo VORS (delivery to UK mainland addresses only).

‘Malt whisky is blossoming as never before: new distilleries, new styles, new stars’. Thus wrote the late Michael Jackson, a prolific whisky writer who contributed hugely to our understanding of whisky and a vocabulary often used to describe it so arcane that it can make the language of wine look child’s play. From the time he was first introduced to malt whisky in his late teens in Edinburgh, Michael Jackson made it his life’s work to pursue the influences on whisky’s aromas and flavours: ‘the spirit of earth, wind and fire’ reaching the glass.