Guides
Independent guides to understand and buy wine, champagne and spirits.
Wine guides
Château Rieussec: how a pricing mistake almost derailed a Sauternes first growth
In 2019, Rieussec was released at €133 a bottle with a new flask design. The market didn’t follow. Since then, the estate has lowered the price with every vintage. The 2024, at €81.60, is back to early-2000s levels. A look at a strategic mistake, its correction, and why this first growth remains one of Sauternes’ best values.
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Bordeaux 2025 en primeur: why this is the buy of the decade
Exceptional quality, the smallest harvest since 1991, and prices held back by years of difficult sales: Bordeaux 2025 en primeur aligns three fundamentals that rarely converge. Here is why it belongs in your cellar.
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Minuty M: the rosé that gets a new skin every year
Every vintage, a different label, a different artist, the same rosé. The Minuty M series is one of the rare annual art commissions in the wine world. Five editions reviewed.
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Bordeaux en primeur: every vintage from 2009 to 2025 reviewed
From how the en primeur system works to a detailed review of every vintage from 2025 to 2009: style, quality, drinking window and a buying verdict for each year.
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Wine vintages: does the year on the label really change the price?
The same wine, the same producer, two different years, with a price gap that can reach 50% or more. Here is what drives vintage differences and how to use them to buy smarter.
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How to read a Bordeaux wine label
Château, appellation, vintage, classification, bottling: decode every line of a Bordeaux label so you know exactly what is in the bottle before you pay for it.
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Champagne Barons de Rothschild: twenty years to prove a name doesn’t make the wine
In 2005, the three branches of the Rothschild family joined forces to make their own champagne. The trade saw a marketing play. Twenty years on, the range tells a different story: Côte des Blancs, low dosage, single-plot cuvées and perpetual reserve.
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Louis Roederer Cristal 2018: a sun-drenched vintage that kept its edge
The house marks 250 years of history and 150 years of Cristal. But the anniversary is not the point. What the 2018 actually contains, what structurally sets Cristal apart from other prestige cuvées, and what the vintage changes in the glass.
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Moët & Chandon Ice Impérial x Pharrell Williams: when champagne becomes a collector’s object
Pharrell Williams reimagines the Ice Impérial bottle for Moët & Chandon. Beyond the limited edition, this collaboration says something precise about where champagne is heading and who it is for.
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Brut, Extra Brut, Demi-Sec: understanding champagne dosage
The dosage, the small addition of sugar that finishes every bottle of champagne, is the least visible and most misunderstood factor in the price. Here is how to read it and use it to buy smarter.
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