Wine

Wine

Forget the stopwatch and the stress. Thanksgiving is a long, delicious stretch, more like a slow dance than a sprint. With the right bottles on hand, you can glide from appetizers to the aftermath with a glass that keeps every moment bright and buoyant. By the time guests start rolling in, the kitchen crew is deep in the trenches still. For a crowd-pleasing welcome without any fuss, reach for a palate priming sparkler - think Cava, Prosecco, Lambrusco and beyond.

The fine wine and spirits industry gathered for its most prestigious celebration as the 2025 Golden Vines® Awards were presented during an unforgettable ceremony at Miami's iconic Faena Forum on November 8, 2025. Often referred to as "the Oscars of fine wine," this year's event marked a significant evolution in how excellence is recognized within the global wine and spirits community.

Best Wine Advent Calendar Wine lovers, rejoice. Enjoy 24 days of wine from all over the world. An array of wines from France, Chile, Argentina, Australia, and California await, spanning whites, reds, and roses. A glass of wine a day seems like a pretty good way to kick off the holidays.

Now is the best time to buy premium wines in the past 25 years, says Will Harlen, managing director of Harlen Estates, a prestigious Napa Valley winery where the allocation list runs years deep. The quality of wine has improved drastically, and there's a pandemic price correction where producers are lowering their prices. But for newcomers staring at triple-digit prices, the wine world can feel impossibly daunting. Wine has more SKUs than any other product made on Earth.

Travel and wine lovers now have a new reason to stop into any of Bluestone Lane's 25 locations across the U.S. this November. The Australian-inspired café has launched a special "Sip Here, Fly There" promotion that invites guests to enjoy a taste of South Australia while entering for a chance to win a round-trip flight from San Francisco to Adelaide on United Airlines.

Saicho sparkling teas are what I serve friends at home who aren't drinking - no other brand does a better job of translating the taste of the leaf. "We believe that tea is to be revered and celebrated as a cornerstone of culture and tradition," says Natalie Winkworth-Smith, who founded the company with her husband Charlie after growing frustrated by the non-alc options in fine-dining restaurants.

With six restaurants, three books, two kids, one husband and a James Beard Award to boot Shelley Lindgren isn't resting on her laurels. Born in San Francisco and raised in West Marin, Lindgren is best known for A16, the award-winning restaurant she co-founded in San Francisco's Marina District in 2004. Now, there are four locations of the modern Southern Italian eatery, including a new Napa outpost that launched this spring.

But what if I told you the same can be true for wait for it bold, warmer whites? Common knowledge dictates that we serve all white wine from an ice bucket, chilled to within an inch of its life it's just what we do but in reality that can kill a wine, particularly if it's a powerful and/or aromatic example.

It's not news that many of the alcohol industry's brand managers seek to bring their products to cities where they themselves don't actually live. These people often live in cities like New York and Los Angeles and commute to smaller cities across the country in an attempt to integrate their brands. But while doing so, they often market through the lens of what's working in their home cities, not necessarily through the lens of what people in their target markets are actually doing.

The Willamette Valley had vineyards in the 1800s, but Prohibition and market forces kept it from becoming a true winemaking region until the 1960s, when rows of cool-climate grapes like pinot noir and chardonnay began to crawl across the Dundee and Tualatin Hills. A few wineries grew to more than 700 today, making the Willamette Valley a global wine sensation. Along the way, a handful of bottles helped define the valley's distinctive character.

Phil Coturri, a pioneer of organic winegrowing in the United States, is stepping down as chief executive officer of Enterprise Vineyards, the Sonoma-based vineyard management company he founded in 1979. Long before "organic" became a marketing buzzword, Coturri was eschewing synthetic herbicides and fertilizers in favor of soil health, inspiring generations of winegrowers to follow suit. Now, he's handing over daily operations at Enterprise Vineyards, which manages over 700 certified-organic acres across Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties.

My grandfather Peter Hall, who has died aged 82, was one of England's best known winegrowers. The writer Andrew Jefford described him as the father of the contemporary English wine scene a significant feat for anyone, let alone a man who taught himself winemaking from a paperback, and whose self-planted vineyard totalled six acres. Breaky Bottom Vineyard, near Lewes, in East Sussex, was Peter's passion. For five decades he worked meticulously on it: tending the vines by hand, labelling each bottle.

Most wine produced in the world is derived from a shared grape species, Vitis vinifera. Consisting of thousands of varieties, vinifera spans broad geographical regions from western Europe to southwest Asia, from the Middle East across to North Africa. When you enjoy wines like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling, or Merlot, you're enjoying vinifera. But wine is a mutable force. It's always changing to reflect its present circumstances, and the story of vinifera is evolving.

A former project manager for Francis Ford Coppola's Inglenook Winery in Rutherford is now facing criminal charges accusing him of taking $1.2 million from the sale of wine tanks and using the money for home improvements without the owner's permission. George Giles Beeker III was charged Oct. 2 with grand theft and embezzlement, according to the Napa County District Attorney's Office. The case builds on accusations first raised in a lawsuit Inglenook's owner, Niebaum-Coppola Estate Winery, filed in July 2024.

Murakami's collaboration with Dom Pérignon extends beyond decoration - it's a conversation rooted in nature. For Dom Pérignon, nature is where it begins, as well as the medium itself - the grapes, unpredictable climate, and human touch - are all encapsulated within the confines of the glass. Murakami also interprets nature through transformation - his surreal, smiling flowers and dreamlike characters capture both the natural and artificial worlds, between nature's evolution and the artist's reimagining of it.

The concept of terroir has been essential to the history of Burgundy since (at least) the Middle Ages when the Cistercian monks started documenting vineyard sites across the region. Each plot was meticulously mapped out and categorized based on where the vines were most successful and what the resulting wines tasted like. Many of the areas that were selected as the cream of the crop back then are still highly regarded to this day.

There was much to celebrate at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair's 50th anniversary gala on Saturday, when more than 1,300 attendees many donned in their sparkliest cocktail attire gathered to sample award-winning wines and food from some of the region's top producers. The highlight of the event, which took place at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, was the announcement of the top three sweepstakes wines in the professional wine competition.

To collect wine, or any alcohol, is to curate not only bottles but stories, memories, and aspirations. A cellar becomes a gallery of taste and time: a 1990 Bordeaux resting beside a Sonoma Pinot Noir, each label recalling moments of celebration, of refinement, even of restraint. Collectors often speak of wine as a living art, something to be admired and shared, not merely consumed. But as new research from Stanford University reveals, the science of alcohol consumption is increasingly at odds with the romance

We like the way short, stubby wine glasses add a note of nonchalance to a dinner party. The squat stem glass is more casual and understated than their elongated, more fragile counterparts. Case in point: At a recent dinner party, I served drinks in low-to-the-table glasses. I noticed that guests seemed unusually at ease. Maybe it was the glass, or maybe it was the wine, but I'm convinced that shorter is better.

The wind whips the grapevines, turning my meditative picking stance into a full-body workout. I firmly plant my legs, stabilising a thrashing branch with my left hand as my right snips off a bunch of grapes. Local people claim the roaring mistral wind makes you crazy, which I can appreciate as each arid gust chaps my lips and desiccates my eyes. I'm at Domaine Rouge-Bleu, an organic vineyard in the Cotes du Rhone wine region in southern France.

As someone who prefers lighter styles of red wines, the creeping chill of autumn is the perfect nudge I need to make room for more robust options, too. Cabernet sauvignon is a classic choice when it comes to bolder red wines, and there are countless regions around the world that have perfected its iconic characteristics. Depending on its environment, it can have a strong, rugged character or display a riper, sometimes jammy palate.

Asimont, who produces about 800 cases of wine each year under the Dot Wine label, was chosen as Winemaker of the Year because of her impressive showing in April at the North Coast Wine Challenge, presented by The Press Democrat. The competition is exclusively for wines produced with grapes grown in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Marin, Lake and Solano counties. This year, it received a record-setting 1,147 wine entries from 223 wineries. Four of those entries were from Dot Wine.

Soon the crypt at St Mary-le-Bow will also be one of them as Humble Grape is opening a bar there this November. The church, home to the Bow Bells, was founded around 1080 (having been rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London) and you can see some of that rich history in the crypt, which has original Norman arches and a groined vault.

Sicily has been making wine for thousands of years, but only recently has it begun to present a united voice to the world. That voice is Sicilia DOC, a quality designation created in 2011 that represents the entire island of Sicily. In Italy, DOC stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata. It is more than a technical label. It is a guarantee of authenticity, a safeguard of origin, and a statement of identity.

That's not the way it works at Saint Urban. At this restaurant which opened in May and was named for the patron saint of winemakers, each month choices from the restaurant's 3,000 wines collected over a span of six years and representing a different wine region and dishes reflecting that region are featured. The match is so evocative it will make diners feel that they're actually there.

When your plane lands in Japan, one of the first things a foodie must do is visit the historic Fushimi district for a taste of sake. Depending on the bottle you buy and the exact distilling technique, you'll experience a diverse range of flavors, from sweet to earthy or even sharp tasting. Of course, before you crack open all the bottles you buy, you probably want to know which sake lasts the longest.

Seabird, meanwhile, is one of Time Out's best rooftop restaurants in London. The residency will see Seabird feature a select list of natural wines direct from Bar Brutal's own bodega-turned-wine-bar to pair alongside seasonal Spanish plates. Inspired by Brutal's origins, the seasonal menu will feature The Cellar Pardas - Rupestris 2023 (white), Terroir al Límit - Historic 2022 (red) and an Escoda Sanuhuja - Bassotets 2022 (orange) from their five-starred Can Cisa cellar in Barcelona's El Born.

Last week, I ended my book tour with an event at Elliott's in Edinburgh for the city's book festival. These tastings usually take place on a week night, so I tend to opt for three easy-drinking favourites. A kabinett riesling? Check. A fruity cotes du Rhone? Check. Then I spied a lambrusco. I love starting the evening with a joyous glass of something fizzy but, to my surprise, many members of the audience remarked how they didn't have the best memories of lambrusco.

Donning their best Stetson hats and cowboy boots, wine industry insiders and supporters gathered for the annual Harvest STOMP auction, raising more than $2.7 million to benefit the Napa Valley Grapegrowers and the Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation. Executive Director Caleb Mosley called the fundraiser "an incredible event that brings together supporters, wine lovers, industry folks, everyone that really cares about this valley." He said the proceeds fuel education and advocacy for grape growers and farmworkers,

We do not define ourselves solely by our past but are consistently developing ProWein Düsseldorf to be the leading trade fair. Staying innovative and agile is essential, especially in a challenging market situation such as the one we are currently experiencing. The timing couldn't be more crucial. As the wine and spirits industry grapples with evolving consumer preferences, supply chain challenges, and changing market dynamics, ProWein Düsseldorf is stepping up to provide concrete solutions and fresh perspectives.

Some wine labels are way more accessible than others, but these demarcations essentially trace the wine's lifecycle from the vineyard to the winery and onto the cellar. Effectively serving as an archive of all the factors, conceptual and concrete, that have influenced the wine's character, with over 10,000 types of grape varietals in existence - and several hundred's worth commonly produced - there really is a major benefit to the imposition of clear-cut categories.