Another UK fine wine company has disappeared from the radar leaving orders unfulfilled – while its director sets up a similar company under another name.   Beaumont Vintners Ltd, a wine investment company set up in June 2010 and registered in Fulham, London, sold a client – who wishes to remain nameless –...

The UK's fine dining restaurants are rapidly turning their wine lists electronic, with the Vineyard at Stockcross the latest to embrace the iPad.   The trend that started at the beginning of the century with Aureole in Las Vegas, the contents of whose four-storey, stainless-steel-and-glass wine tower that diners...

The Quarterly Review of Wines has ceased publication after 35 years – because, its publisher said, there is no longer any romance in wine.   There were many reasons for closing Quarterly Review of Wines, Richard L Elia said on QRW.com, but chief among them was that ‘passion is spent’.In a 1200-word obituary...

Renowned Rhone producer Michel Chapoutier has added to the natural wine debate by denouncing natural winemakers as out-of-touch hippies making defective wines.   Interviewed in the current issue of Decanter, Chapoutier tells John Livingstone-Learmonth the practice of natural winemaking – that is, using no...

Wine Australia has axed its controversial export approval panel with immediate effect, replacing it with a permanent company audit regime.   The changes are the result of a consultation by Wine Australia (formerly the Australian Wine & Brandy Corporation), the Government statutory authority responsible for wine...

Bordeaux was 'arrogant' in its pricing last year, the managing director of Chateau Lafite has told Decanter.com as merchants call on Bordeaux to come down in price on the 2011s.   After two acclaimed vintages, it is generally accepted 2011 is going to be fine but not stellar – and merchants in Europe and the...

The surge in foreign imports to Australia should be welcomed not feared, Australian wine professionals say.   A combination of a strong Australian dollar and aggressive discounting by Australian supermarkets has led to a drop in the price of European wines, and a surge in imports.Since 2007 wine import volumes...

François Chidaine, a leading figure in Loire viticulture, has resigned from InterLoire’s executive claiming the organisation is incompetent and bureaucratic.   Chidaine cited fundamental disagreements with InterLoire, which promotes the wines of the Pays Nantais, Anjou-Saumur and Touraine.‘InterLoire’s...