Malta’s wine heritage stretches back more than 2,500 years. Near Mġarr ix-Xini on Gozo, an ancient rock-cut wine press—thought to date to around 500 BCE—offers evidence that grapes were once grown and wine produced on a substantial scale. Trade in wine may go back even further: vessels bearing traces of wine have been recovered from… Read More »

A small family farm in the southern part of Vinho Verde, Quinta da Pegadinha sits on the Cávado River, about 15 kilometres from the ocean. Its six hectares of vineyards share the farm with six hectares of pasture for cows and sheep. The family also makes cheese. Winemaker Felipe Lemos describes the farm’s approach as… Read More »

Unlike Japan, a major market for Laurent-Perrier’s Grand Siècle, China is not an important market for the Champagne house. “The Chinese don’t like fizz, they don’t like cold, and they don’t like acidity,” said Lucie Pereyre de Nonancourt, Grand Siècle ambassador and a member of the family that owns the company. She made the observation… Read More »

Taela, 23, lives in Fremantle, Western Australia, where she works as a bartender at craft brewery Little Creatures. She spends much of her time recommending beer, but is keen to learn more about wine and what makes certain styles appeal to her. Her usual choice is a fresh, crisp white—often New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. For… Read More »

Filipa Pato began making wine in Bairrada in 2001, aged 25. Her early wines made an impression, and over the years she has built the project with her husband, Belgian restaurateur and sommelier William Wouters. William joined in 2006; Filipa remains responsible for the winemaking. A distinctive region and its old vineyards Bairrada’s reputation is… Read More »

Nearly ten years after visiting Constance Hotels & Resorts in Mauritius, I returned to explore two of the group’s Maldivian resorts: Constance Moofushi and Constance Halaveli. Both are celebrated for their wine lists, and the visit offered a chance to see not only what guests experience, but also the work behind the scenes. After a… Read More »

Filipa Pato started making wine in 2001, working with three rented vineyard plots. Since then, she and her husband, William Wouters, have steadily acquired vineyards in Portugal’s Bairrada region, including some more than a century old. Most of the vineyards are planted with Baga, the region’s distinctive red grape. Pato now farms 20 hectares across… Read More »

A three-day celebration in Logroño and Briones brought Rioja’s centenary year to a close, gathering more than 70 international delegates alongside guests from across Spain. Winery visits, extensive tastings and a grand dinner at the Vivanco Museum of Wine Culture showcased a region whose wines now span a striking range of styles and origins. The… Read More »

Kathleen Burk’s Wine: A Global History (Profile Books, October 2026) is an ambitious, 600-plus-page account tracing wine’s story across eight millennia. Burk, a professor emerita of modern and contemporary history at University College London, brings both academic experience and a longstanding interest in wine to the project. The book opens chronologically, then moves into regional… Read More »

Virginia was home to John June Lewis (1894–1974), the first African American in the United States to make wine commercially. His story began at Woburn Plantation in Mecklenburg County, where he grew up in the Burwell household. Lewis’s father taught him about growing vines and making wine. During World War I, Lewis served in Europe.… Read More »