Supporting local businesses hardest hit by this crisis is top of mind for us all right now. Lockdowns are not only smashing restaurants and cellar doors, but also have dire flow-on effects for their suppliers. I am very proud to announce three new opportunities for you to enjoy my favourite products for enhancing your champagne […]

Dear friends, The uncertainty surrounding the duration of lockdowns, travel bans and events has led us to make the difficult and regretful decision to cancel the judging of The Great Australian Red 2020. Our competition has established a vital role in raising the profile of Australia’s definitive blend, and we deeply regret our first cancellation in […]

The Champagne Guide Master Edition 2011-2021 is more than just an exhaustive alphabetical reference to every cuvée in all six editions of The Champagne Guide to date, it’s the ultimate blueprint for navigating your champagne journey! Featuring: 3251 cuvées from 214 houses My score, price code, base vintage, disgorgement date, year of tasting and page […]

To all my friends in Champagne and bunkered down across the champagne world, these words are for you. I first wrote them in the introductions to The Champagne Guide 2018-2019 and 2020-2021, and I have resisted the urge to update or embellish. They seem all the more appropriate today than ever. Here’s to the resilient […]

Champagne is home to some of my favourite restaurants in the world, from intimate, homely dining to Michelin-starred decadence of the highest order. I’ve been a regular diner over the past decade and I’m constantly asked for my recommendations, so it’s high time I published my little black book for the very first time! Here’s […]

By popular demand, here’s my Top Ten Wines of 2019 under $20! There’s something here for everyone… Deep Woods Estate Ivory Margaret River Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2019 Leaping from the glass with exuberant, flamboyant freshness, this is a SSB that leads with the pure lemon and cut grass of semillon and supports it seamlessly with […]

My Top Ten Australian Wines of 2019 is purposely not a curated list, but simply the pinnacle of my top-scoring wines of the year. The final line up provides a fascinating insight into Australia’s benchmark styles on the world stage right now: two South Australian cabernet shiraz blends, straight cabernets from Margaret River and Clare, […]

It’s my great pleasure to announce my top ten champagnes of 2019! For full details and reviews, see The Champagne Guide 2020-2021. Louis Roederer Cristal Rosé 2008 In any pursuit, it is only the most daring and courageous who succeed at the very highest level, only the trailblazers who risk everything and take the biggest […]

No French wine region has been revolutionised over the past two decades as dramatically as Champagne. And no appellation has needed it more desperately. For decades, Champagne has been the laughing stock of responsible growers everywhere, notoriously piling on herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, fertilisers and even Parisian rubbish to shamelessly bolster its poor vines to ludicrous […]

Is this the beginning of the end of the grower producer? Forces are at play that threaten the survival of Champagne’s grower producers. Global economies, erratic harvests, incentives from négociants and even the French taxation system itself are driving growers to sell all their fruit, some to relinquish their status and become négociants, and others […]