As far as I’m aware, there was no “Oi! Get off of my land!” when English farmers learned the Taittinger family had snapped up nearly 70ha for their English fizz project in Kent. Rather, everyone I spoke to saw it as a good thing, confirmation from the French masters of sparkling wine that the south of England is world-class terroir. But then that seems to be…

THE STORY OF CHAMPAGNE Jayne v the Comité Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne (CIVC) has all the makings of a film. Sadly, it wouldn’t be a fun frothy comedy like Champagne Charlie, that British wartime comedy that was named after the song inspired by the dandified founder of Charles Heidsieck. More likely it would be something along the lines of Russell Crowe’s tobacco…

To judge from the tone of the winemakers and journalists I spoke to back then in Düsseldorf, the stripped-back bargain supermarkets were the bogeymen of the German wine business. The emphasis always seemed to be on that sibilant first syllable, almost a hiss – ‘dissss-counters’. They were a curse on all who dealt with them, responsible for depressing prices with depressing wine. Both…

In this case, the whimsical story concerns Ardbeg, LVMH’s Islay single-malt distillery, and news of the results of its latest bizarre, but evidently successful (it made the national news after all) publicity stunt: a space-aged whisky. That the newsreader finds the story’s merit to be somewhat questionable is detectable in the slightest change in his tone as he explains how Ardbeg had dispatched…