Allegra Antinori, co-owner and vice president of Marchesi Antinori in Italy, reveals her favourite place for red Burgundy by the glass and why she believes “the British are some of the most sophisticated people when it comes to wine”. 1. What is your favourite restaurant in London? Macellaio in South Kensington – a fantastic place for meat, plus I like the concept and the atmosphere very much. 2. Where is your favourite wine offering in London and what would be your go-to first glass of wine when you get there? Hedonism has an incredible selection on the shelves but, by the glass, the choice...

Nearly half of the retail stores operated by Oddbins’ parent company European Food Brokers Retail Ltd were unprofitable and have already been shut db has learnt, as reports circulate that the company may be rescued out of administration by its former owners. As the news broke this morning that the administrators of UK wine merchant Oddbins are in advanced  talks’ with Walsall-based European Food Broker Ltd’s (EFBL) owner Rajinder Chatha to acquire some of the businesses retail outlets, documents filed at companies house indicated that store closures were higher than previously thought,...

Auberon Waugh’s famous anthology on wine, with instructions for humiliating stingy hosts and matching German Riesling with pot, is to be republished for the first time in many years. Featuring ‘Bron’ Waugh’s intermittent and frequently humorous writings on wine that featured in publications such as Tatler, The Spectator and Harper’s and Queen, the wit and wisdom of the writing is now considered a classic text (if no longer entirely very current when it comes to styles and regions). Among Waugh’s various witticisms is the advice that, “…hosts that skimp on their wine should be exposed,...

Bonhams’ next fine wine sale in London next month will be headlined by wines from one of Burgundy’s most high-profile labels – Henri Jayer. Six magnums of the late winemaker’s 1996 Vosne-Romanée Cros Parantoux, valued at £85,000 – £100,000, will be offered in London on 4 July. Bonhams global director of Fine Wine, Richard Harvey MW, said: “This is one of the most iconic and sought-after wines of Burgundy, from a vineyard replanted by Henry Jayer after World War II.  Jayer retired in 1995 but retained a barrel of the wine, bottled under his label, until 2001, which makes this case of magnums...

The Connaught Hotel’s two Michelin-starred restaurant is to close for two months from this July for an extensive refurbishment. The venue, helmed by Hélène Darroze will serve its final guests on Sunday 14 July before closing for “full refurbishment and modernisation”. The restaurant, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, is having its main dining room redesigned but will also add a new chef’s table and a dedicated Armagnac room for pre and post-dinner drinks and private events. Led by French design house Pierre Yovanovitch Architecture d’Intérieur, the restaurant will reopen...

Australia’s entire vineyard area has been comprehensively mapped in the country’s first ‘National Vineyard Scan’ and was found to be 8% bigger than previously thought. Funded by Wine Australia and conducted by Consilium Technology, the programme used both artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to record every scrap of land planted with vines. The new data will replace the old Australian Bureau of Statistics sector survey which was last issued in 2015. That paper had recorded Australia’s national vineyard at 135,133 hectares but the new scan has shown it to be 146,128ha, 8% bigger. Region’s...

A study of a Celtic site in modern Burgundy has examined the extent to which Greek culture influenced local wine drinking and feasting rituals. Vix, Mont Lassois A new study by a Franco-German team has examined 99 pieces of both imported Greek (‘Attic’) and locally made pottery from the 7th to 5th centuries BC at the site of Vix-Mont Lassois near Châtillon-sur-Seine in northern Burgundy; specifically from the plateau of the hill where the upper classes of the local Celtic culture lived and feasted but also areas where craftspeople lived and worked. Trace chemical analysis revealed the presence...

Sotheby’s wine auctions have reached US$65 million in the first half of 2019, a rise of 23% over the same period in 2018 and the highest spring total since the wine auctions began in 1970. The results were boosted enormously, effectively single-handedly, by a four-day auction in Hong Kong which made HK$273.1m (US$34.8m) in total, a new world record for a series of wine sales and which included the ‘Tran-scend-ent’ single owner collection which made US$30m alone. The 75 cases of Mouton Rothschild wines sold to benefit the Palace of Versailles and Notre-Dame Cathedral added a further $2.7m. Meanwhile,...

Asda has rolled out three glittery, colour-changing gins inspired by classic old-fashioned sweet flavours, as well as a range of mixers. The new gins, which are branded under the Extra Special own label, comprise a Lemon Sherbet Gin, Pear Drop Gin and Parma Violet Gin, and will retail for £18. Ed Sowerby, Asda spirits product manager, said novelty, quality gins had become a summer must-have for customers looking to entertain with flair and flavour. “Working closely with our suppliers, we’ve created a range of gins which are both glitzy and gorgeous to look at, but also deliver popular flavours...

As a group of wine trade cyclists gear up for this year’s fund-raising challenge for The Benevolent, we look back at the Lycra-clad participants from charity rides of the past. As previously reported by the drinks business, Mentzendorff managing director Andrew Hawes has orchestrated a 350km bicycling challenge in aid of The Benevolent, and the riders will set off next week. Among them will be me, as I swap the sodden streets of London for the sun-baked terrain of Tuscany – the ride takes us from the Maremma to Sienna, and has been dubbed the Giro di Toscana. However, this is far from the first...