Do you secretly dread that little piece of ‘theatre’ at the start of a meal when the sommelier asks you to taste the wine? Jamie Goode author of Flawless. Understanding Faults in Wine runs through the most common wine faults and how to recognise them. But also makes the point that some so-called faults, can also be part of a wines character.

Jamie Goode looks at neighbouring regions, and new fine wine hotspots, Burgenland in Austria and Sopron in Hungary. Once joined under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today they share common grapes, terroir, and sometimes winemakers.

Just as it’s often assumed that wine gets better with age – it doesn’t always - the words vieilles vignes are seen as a stamp of quality.  Jamie Goode digs a little deeper.

The mantra of place over process is finding a voice via quality-focused winemakers Willy Pérez and Ramiro Ibáñez. Alvaro Ribalta, who spent two weeks of harvest with them, discusses why a blank-canvas mentality is needed when approaching Jerez from a terroir perspective.

Paz Levinson reflects on her discovery, whilst a trainee sommelier, of grower Champagne. Some of the changes that she has seen in this venerable region over the last 20 years, and why good things come from small (vineyard) parcels!

How did Priorat, a remote mountainous region southwest of Barcelona where cooperatives were making dense wines in a style that had barely changed since the 12th century, become one of the top regions in Spain?