The Week in Wine

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Get all the latest wine news stories in time for your Monday morning commute. A weekly run-down on the latest news in wine and spirits, covering top stories and breaking news from the team at Wine-Searcher.com. Hosted by editor Don Kavanaugh and wine writer and winemaker Oliver Styles

  1. 1d ago

    Does Jack Daniels taste of bananas? [Special Episode]

    Send us Fan Mail Does Jack Daniels taste of bananas? Don and Olly answer the question in this Week in Wine Bourbon special.  The tasting spans a range of topics from Isoamyl Acetate (the banana aroma compound often encountered in Tennessee whiskey); the esters in Paulaner and Augustiner-Bräu Munich wheat beers; Don's whisky tasting glasses (gifted, he says, from top Scotch Highland distillery Edradour); Enid Blyton (the working title for the podcast was "Two go bananas for Jack Daniels"); and conspiracy theories involving the actual use of bananas in Jack Daniels production. ABOUT THE WEEK IN WINE The Week in Wine goes out every Monday morning so that you can turn up to work with great talking points from the latest news across the world of wine. Hosted by wine-searcher editor Don Kavanagh with wine writer Olly Styles – who also produces the podcast – nearly all of the stories we discuss can be found on https://www.wine-searcher.com/magazine You can get in touch with us at editor@wine-searcher.com

  2. 4d ago

    The Week in Wine Episode 63

    Send us Fan Mail Don's weekend was marked by a 2020 Château Fleur Cardinale St-Emilion (along with some Bourbon and a nod to Fred Noe of Jack Daniels) while Olly had a fresh Greystone Pét-Nat (2025) and a wonderful Château Fieuzal blanc (2022). The week saw a slew of Best-Of wine lists top readership interest with the world's best Chardonnays getting the most views. There was a very strong showing from Sonoma, it has to be said (particularly Aubert, with a Kistler and a Morlet in the mix), against stiff, and pricey, competition from Burgundy (think Romanée-Conti and Coche-Dury)! The world's best Vodkas provided some counterpoint where pricing was concerned while the world's best Irish whiskeys continues to attract readers. Marvin Shanken's passing, Vega-Sicilia's white wine release and Crémant d'Alsace stories also did well. The latter had Don wonder (with some sadness) why Cava never quite manages to slip onto the sparkling bandwagon. There was also brief speculation on the prospect of tariffs following the Midterm elections. This week, though, the big wine news was that of LeBron James drinking while on court. In other news, a French mayor unearthed a trove of 1200 bottles of (mainly) Bordeaux that is now going for auction; a well-known Rioja winery owner has written an open letter to The Wine Advocate with a number of gripes related to the publication's previous tasters; an ancient Roman wine press is now believed to have produced wine at commercial (or military) levels; Languedoc wine producer Gérard Bertrand has copped the ire of anti-alcoholism campaigners for his company's high level of social media presence following a survey of alcohol-related social media posts on Meta (BrewDog and Jagermeister also figured); France has revised the predicted volumes of the 2026 harvest upwards; a protein associated with Sherry-style wine production has been found inside one of the oldest wines ever discovered, leading scientists to speculate that some Roman wine might have been made like Sherry; and to round off, there's a discussion about European wine labelling law as it pertains to Vermentino... We also look forward to this week's wine stories and the possibility of an extra, in-person podcast later this week! ABOUT THE WEEK IN WINE The Week in Wine goes out every Monday morning so that you can turn up to work with great talking points from the latest news across the world of wine. Hosted by wine-searcher editor Don Kavanagh with wine writer Olly Styles – who also produces the podcast – nearly all of the stories we discuss can be found on https://www.wine-searcher.com/magazine You can get in touch with us at editor@wine-searcher.com

  3. Nov 1

    The Week in Wine Episode 62

    Send us Fan Mail Don's weekend involves a surprising País (followed by a Zinfandel) at a local restaurant while Olly was gratified to see that his Riesling had a back label.. To mark the start of the new month, we look over last month's top stories, which were dominated by the World's Best Sauvignon Blancs. The World's Best Irish Whiskys also makes a valiant showing, as does Bourbon and coverage of the major Australian vine-pull scheme. Other highlights included the World's Best Merlots and the seemingly endless US Supreme Court non-rulings on interstate alcohol shipping. In the last seven days, however, the big news was the passing of Wine Spectator publisher Marvin Shanken. There were whispers of a recovery under way in Champagne and Olly's interview with French meteorological agronomist Serge Zaka had caught the attention of many. The week's other headlines, though, included: Vega Sicilia's white wine Rias Baixas project, Deiva, is finally seeing its first commercial release; Bordeaux's Bernard Magrez has launched a range of one-off cuvées spanning a number of his properties (prompting a completely unrelated discussion over clowns, mimes and the circus arts); Bordeaux anti-pesticide campaigner Valérie Murat is set to have her case heard by the regional appeals court this week; Crémant de Bourgogne wines can now have single-vineyard names (or lieux-dits) on the label; a new season for the global bulk wine market has ups and downs; and the vineyards of Txacoli get a commemorative stamp. There's more on Crémant paving the way for the future of Alsace and a discussion as to whether or not Vodka can have flavor and interest on its own... ABOUT THE WEEK IN WINE The Week in Wine goes out every Monday morning so that you can turn up to work with great talking points from the latest news across the world of wine. Hosted by wine-searcher editor Don Kavanagh with wine writer Olly Styles – who also produces the podcast – nearly all of the stories we discuss can be found on https://www.wine-searcher.com/magazine You can get in touch with us at editor@wine-searcher.com

  4. Oct 27

    The Week in Wine Episode 61

    Send us Fan Mail Don enjoys a Yarra Valley Pinot Noir while Olly has a delicious unoaked Pinot from Central Otago.  The week's big news story was the major, government-subsidized vine-pull in Australia, with winegrowers moving into other crops or even just selling vineyard land for development. The story received a lot of interest, particularly from the US. Our roundup of the Best Spanish wines of 2026 contained a lot of familiar labels, although we learned that Vega-Sicilia (surely, a shoe-in?) only missed out on inclusion by the narrowest of margins. Fair call or egregious error? Other top reads included a piece on selling wine to Gen Z, although both Olly and Don bemoaned the trend among marketing bods to reduce sales to these lumpen cohorts. The news that Rafael Nadal was launching his own label also kept readers' interest over the week, although Don's personal favorite was the revelation that Champagne had definitively shelved its vineyard expansion plans (on the table since the late 1990s). The top news roundup of stories missed last week included: the sale of Château Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarosse going back into the courts with incredible tales of insider gossip, political maneuvering, back-stabbing and internecine rivalries; there was also the tale of a Burgundian domaine adopting an AI wine batch-monitoring system (which prompted a number of questions, including whether the "vigneron" image of Burgundy was best-served by adopting AI technology to make wine); the Hospices de Beaune announced its 166th auction of 2026 wines would be significantly impacted, volume-wise, by the hot growing season; Vinho Verde had developed an AI wine label-checker to speed up response times for label approval; and the news that Rioja was set to produce 30 million liters of surplus wine this year. ABOUT THE WEEK IN WINE The Week in Wine goes out every Monday morning so that you can turn up to work with great talking points from the latest news across the world of wine. Hosted by wine-searcher editor Don Kavanagh with wine writer Olly Styles – who also produces the podcast – nearly all of the stories we discuss can be found on https://www.wine-searcher.com/magazine You can get in touch with us at editor@wine-searcher.com

  5. Oct 19

    The Week in Wine Episode 60

    Send us Fan Mail Don has an Impressionist approach to his wines over the weekend but asks if Syrah/Shiraz is the GOAT (Greatest of all Time) grape variety. This week, we look at Australia's best wines and ask if Rutherglen Muscat should be on the shortlist. The US Supreme Court declines to rule on the Ohio interstate shipping case (so it's situation normal for the three-tier system there). The World's Best Sauvignon Blancs are still attraction attention, as is a piece on Generation Z being the best people to sell wines to...Generation Z. Olly also asks if Gewurztraminer is getting fair representation, generally, and Don wonders if there isn't a little snobbery when it comes to sweet wines. We also look at Wine-Searcher teaming up with beer/drinks app Untappd. This week, though, the big news in Spain was the El Tenista cuvée by sports star Rafael Nadal in conjunction with Bodegas Juan Gil; Steve Smith MW's series of tastings in which New Zealand Chardonnays proved they can mix it with Burgundy's best; nearly €2 million in assets are seized as part of an investigation into 68,000 liters of Languedoc red being passed off as Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines; a disgraced Romanian prince gets critical approval for he and his partner's red wine; the Mendoza stock exchange hosts its annual design-a-wine-label competition; a major Cognac house goes into a form of administration while it seeks to reorganise debts of €60 million; and China hosts the "UN of wine", the OIV. ABOUT THE WEEK IN WINE The Week in Wine goes out every Monday morning so that you can turn up to work with great talking points from the latest news across the world of wine. Hosted by wine-searcher editor Don Kavanagh with wine writer Olly Styles – who also produces the podcast – nearly all of the stories we discuss can be found on https://www.wine-searcher.com/magazine You can get in touch with us at editor@wine-searcher.com

  6. Oct 12

    The Week in Wine Episode 59

    Send us Fan Mail Don buys a case of Teluri Saperavi off the back of a bottle enjoyed over the weekend while Olly lauds a delicious bottle of Les Cocalières blanc from Montpeyroux's Domaine d'Aupilhac (although Don does question the sanctity of Vermentino as a great white grape variety). There's also a discussion as to whether you can really turn around on your appreciation of the likes of reductive Chardonnay. The big news (late) last week was the €5 million heist of Solaia, Guado al Tasso and Tignanello from the Antiori cellars in Cortona. As we discuss, this is almost the identical modus operandi of two previous thefts (from the Conterno Fantino winery in Monforte d'Alba in Barolo, as covered last month, and another break-in at the Banfi winery in Strevi back in June. But our top headline last week was the World's Best Sauvignon Blancs which, alongside a few familiar names (think Dagueneau and Château Margaux's Pavillon Blanc), saw Austria place across half of the list. Olly asks if New Zealand missed a trick by not pushing top cuvées and more expensive labels harder? Other stories covered include the Best Bourbons of 2026 and the sad battle in Australia as growers contemplate moving away from the vine. There's also news that a small harvest in California will be well received in many quarters. This week also saw a misleading headline about Adele refashioning a livestock truck and turning it into a mobile wine shop – it turns out it was the wrong Adele – while the major headline was that roughly 80 predominantly undocumented workers in Burgundy had been left unpaid after a falling out between viticultural contractors. Slovenia tops a European wine holiday destination list (Don also remains determined to visit a prior winner – Plovdiv in Bulgaria – if only for the raptures the country's Cabernet Sauvignon provoked in him some time ago). There's Polar Chablis up for auction and a Moet-Hennessy/UC Davis collaboration in Champagne looking at detecting wine faults using unique technology that might just be a game changer (it's current focus is Fresh Mushroom Aroma, but it could well be rolled out to other wine faults). Also, cork-maker Amorim has developed a means to print the Marianne (the French tax duty stamp) directly on a cork and Argentina's exports surge...  ABOUT THE WEEK IN WINE The Week in Wine goes out every Monday morning so that you can turn up to work with great talking points from the latest news across the world of wine. Hosted by wine-searcher editor Don Kavanagh with wine writer Olly Styles – who also produces the podcast – nearly all of the stories we discuss can be found on https://www.wine-searcher.com/magazine You can get in touch with us at editor@wine-searcher.com

  7. Oct 5

    The Week in Wine Episode 58

    Send us Fan Mail Don enjoys an attractively priced and very drinkable Vin de France Gamay while Olly enthuses about a similarly-priced Frusinate IGT (Lazio) biodynamic red called Volumnia. As it's the start of the month, we look over September's stories and find a big showing from Napa and wider California, from wine industry fears, grumbles, good news and bad – it's all been covered by our US editor W. Blake Grey, with Olly pointing out that Blake is one of the few very regular wine writers covering the California (even US) beat with any great regularity. We also take a moment to look at the way wine writing is going, from influencers and Instagram to wine journalism. Can we get mad at so-called "influencers" when much of wine writing is pay-for-play by another name? Last week's big stories included the world's best Bourbons (which hit a number of classic names) as well as a deep-dive on the pricing effects seen by Pomerol's Château Lafleur after it left the appellation to become a Vin de France. There was also a scientific deep-dive into the latest research combatting smoke taint in wines and research from Australia hinting that one of the smoke compounds could be ingested by a particular bacteria.  This week, though, it was the news that the red wines of Burgundy had finally been pulled into the wake of the global red wine downturn with additional suggestions that the Premier and Grand Cru wines are also feeling the pain. Still in France and bigwigs in Bordeaux have re-ignited the irrigation debate while news from Sauternes indicates the 2026 harvest is not looking good. In Spain, there was news that global superstar Shakira drank a 200 year-old wine by pipette at a flamenco restaurant and bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey opened a 2015 Vega Sicilia Valbuena 5 with his folks, all in Spanish capital Madrid. In central Spain, bitter winery rivals García-Carrión and Félix Sólis were in court with the former emerging victorious in a spat over who produced the most-loved Valdepeñas Reserva... Finally, we looked at a €3 million AI advertising campaign unveiled by a major Champagne producers' group.   ABOUT THE WEEK IN WINE The Week in Wine goes out every Monday morning so that you can turn up to work with great talking points from the latest news across the world of wine. Hosted by wine-searcher editor Don Kavanagh with wine writer Olly Styles – who also produces the podcast – nearly all of the stories we discuss can be found on https://www.wine-searcher.com/magazine You can get in touch with us at editor@wine-searcher.com

  8. Sep 28

    The Week in Wine Episode 57

    Send us Fan Mail Don is nonplussed by a "smug" New Zealand Pinot Noir [name withheld] while Olly enjoys a Saumur blanc (L'Insolite) from Loire guru Thierry Germain. This week saw a lot of people reading the latest on grumblings against the Napa Valley Vintners organization – to which we asked how different this was from any gripes and grumbles against over-arching wine bodies globally. Other popular headlines included the news that the historic Gundlach Bundschu winery had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. But we asked if it really was all bad news here (not least with the acquisition of Artesa winery by the irrepressible Jean-Charles Boisset) and also took a moment to admire just how sanguine Rob McMillan, from Silicon Valley Bank, is when talking about the wine industry. The Most Expensive Italian wines was also headliner that impressed, not least due to the fact that it appears top Italian wines keep going up in price. But the unsung news this week was that acclaimed Technical Death Metal band Gojira was launching its own range of wines and there was a 3000-bottle heist in the heart of Barolo that had Don and Olly wondering just how much Barolo you might drink at an organized crime Christmas gathering. Segonzac's Cognac subsidiary has been ordered to honor its grape contracts; Rémy Cointreau is hosting a year-long Robert Doisneau exhibition of unseen photographs of Cognac in the 1960s; the Valle del Guadalupe wine region brings in a billion dollars for the Mexican economy while Mexican wine struggles against European imports; and finally, there's a to-do in the Canary Islands about a Rioja wine labeled "guachinche" causing a stir. We round off with a look at forthcoming stories on smoke taint, Château Lafleur's pricing issues outside of the Pomerol appellation, the future of Australia and the most expensive wines of the year. Lastly, Olly and Don wonder if we're not going to see a flurry of special cuvées from top estates coming out of Bordeaux in the 2026 vintage... ABOUT THE WEEK IN WINE The Week in Wine goes out every Monday morning so that you can turn up to work with great talking points from the latest news across the world of wine. Hosted by wine-searcher editor Don Kavanagh with wine writer Olly Styles – who also produces the podcast – nearly all of the stories we discuss can be found on https://www.wine-searcher.com/magazine You can get in touch with us at editor@wine-searcher.com

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About

Get all the latest wine news stories in time for your Monday morning commute. A weekly run-down on the latest news in wine and spirits, covering top stories and breaking news from the team at Wine-Searcher.com. Hosted by editor Don Kavanaugh and wine writer and winemaker Oliver Styles

Information

  • Creator
    wine-searcher.com
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    56
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Week in Wine
  • Show Website
    The Week in Wine

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