750 Wines founders David and Monica Stevens have launched successful and sought-after wines from Napa Valley over the years through their deep relationships within the sector. “David and Monica’s commitment to curating first class selections and creating a one-of-a-kind tasting experience that’s revered by the industry’s most sophisticated palates is something we’re excited to bring on under the Wine Access umbrella,”…

According to the organisers, London Wine Fair 2021 will be the most advanced digital show of its kind and will take place 14 months since the last live trade tasting of any scale in the UK. Head of London Wine Fair, Hannah Tovey, said: “Since we already had to postpone the 2020 show, we have had contingency plans in place…

Ergo, we poll bars on the subject and have been for the best part of a decade. This year, 90% of bars said they stocked one brand, two-thirds had two, while more than half had three or more at their disposal. Not bad for a sub-category of sparkling. The league has seen a duopoly since its debut – Moët Hennessy’s Moët & Chandon…

As a result of global lockdowns caused by Covid-19, international exports from the UK were halted from March through to July, and again in November. Nyetimber expects to produce around 1m bottles of sparkling wine in 2020 with approximately 10% of stock to be exported. In 2020, exports to Scandinavia grew 141% and Nyetimber has now entered the…

It is the second time that Legaris has won Best Spanish Red having taken the same award with its Alcubilla de Avellaneda 2015. Both red wines are part of the Vinos de Pueblo collection from the Valladolid-based Legaris winery – currently comprised of three single varietal wines from the Ribera del Duero. They are all made from Tinto Fino grapes but…

Symington was born in Porto, Portugal in 1934. His grandfather, Andrew James Symington, first came to Portugal in 1882 and married Beatrice Leitão de Carvalhosa Atkinson, whose own family had long established roots in the port trade. Their son, Ron, (James’ father) was a famed port blender and worked with his brothers in the family port company.  James Symington was first educated at the Oporto British School. With the outbreak of war in 1939, however, life in neutral Portugal became increasingly complicated. By 1941, The British Embassy had advised all its citizens to leave the country. Together with his mother and siblings, Symington travelled from Lisbon to Canada via New York on the Pan Am Clipper flying boat service aged six.  After two years in Canada, the family returned to Portugal in July 1943. Symington attended St Julian’s school in Lisbon until 1946 when he went to Ampleforth in England. In 1952, he was awarded a place at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford but was unable to accept due to financial limitations following a difficult few years for the port trade during and after the war. In 1954, he was commissioned in the British Army and served as a Second Lieutenant in the King’s African Rifles in Kenya for nearly two years. He became fluent in Swahili and developed a close friendship with the African askaris. In his retirement, Symington often returned to Kenya and met up with the old soldiers he had served. Throughout his life, he supported social and wildlife projects in Kenya to help the communities he had grown to know so well. Following a long depression in port sales from the early thirties onwards, 1960 brought the first signs of a revival. It was in this year that Symington married his wife Penny and joined his father and cousins in the family company. He began working as a blender and was responsible for making Dow’s and Warre’s 1966 and 1970 vintage ports as well as Graham’s 1970. These are some of the most highly regarded wines from the twentieth century and have aged magnificently. After handing over his tasting and blending responsibilities to his cousin Peter in 1973, Symington began working on the commercial side, developing new markets in the US, Canada and Scandinavia. Together with his cousins Michael and Ian, they formed a strong partnership that steered the family business through several turbulent decades, when many of the historic family port companies were sold or  closed. In 1985, he founded Premium Port Wines in San Francisco, the first wine distribution company established in the US by any port company. Today, the business is responsible for a significant proportion of all US port sales. With constant good humour and an indefatigable optimism, Symington built many close relationships throughout the world of wine. It was his friendship with Miguel Torres, Piero Antinori and Robert Drouhin that led to the Symington family becoming one of the founding members of the Primum Familiae Vini in 1992. The PFV has since developed into a strong association of 12 wine-producing families committed to championing the…

The South African wine trade has been left reeling by the severity of the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic this year. Domestic sales were prohibited for several months, and wineries were preventing from exporting for a worrying five-week period.  The industry, which employs around 290,000 people, has been brought to its knees by the lockdowns and sales bans. Drinks International caught up with Bruce Jack…