Battered by COVID and targeted by the government, the South African wine industry is resolute in its determination to ride out the crisis

The winners of the 2020 IWSC spirits trophies are announced today, following weeks of rigorous tastings, and there's a few surprises... German single malt, anyone?

It’s become a hot – and often misunderstood – topic, with conflicting reports about what goes into most wines, why, and what is actually permitted. Simon J Woolf explains all…

With her husband Jacques Thienpont, Fiona Morrison MW oversees one of Bordeaux’s most prestigious wines, Le Pin. As the couple – and their counterparts across the region – begin this year’s black grape harvest, she recalls the drama of the first day of the 2019 season

The history of wine is a long and convoluted one, and it takes a writer of rare skill to bring it to life. In a typically sparkling excerpt from his re-issued The Story of Wine, the veteran journalist looks at how Christian Spain built its wine industry on Moorish foundations

Most of us will have rejected a wine because it was corked. But have you ever sent a bottle back because it tastes of light? Essi Avellan MW explains the increasingly topical issue of lightstrike

Every year the giant distiller Diageo dips into its stocks of maturing Scotch to curate a limited-edition collection of one-off whiskies. Becky Paskin casts her eye over this year's selection

Henry Jeffreys' The Cocktail Dictionary is an A-Z guide of every cocktail recipe you need to know, from the Old Fashioned and the Martini to the Margarita and Daiquiri. Here he picks three simple cocktails to try at home

What makes a great vintage? As the 2020 harvest begins across Europe, Jane Anson takes a look at the five criteria that Bordeaux vignerons use to determine just how good a vintage is going to be

In the second part of our wine-reading round-up we navigate fortified wines and strong opinions, via Burgundy, Germany and New York