Instagram is great and all that, and why wouldn’t you want to help our friend Mark harvest your data for free, train our robot overlords and generate the funds to fuel an AI apocalypse, but it would mean a lot to me if you took up a free subscription at jasondrinks.com.
We all want the likes and shares here but Substack, where jasondrinks.com is hosted, offers the chance for long reads, honest opinions and interesting things that don’t get commissioned elsewhere.
I can’t guarantee that Substack won’t go the same way, but for now it offers me a much better platform as a writer to engage with readers and say what I want to say.
It’s best to close Instagram and type in the URL yourself as Instagram really doesn’t want you to leave its platform or interrupt your doomscrolling. Hopefully you’ll find it worth it and I’ll see you at jasondrinks.com.
(photo by the formidably talented @libbybrodie , photobomb by the always-delightful @rosamundhall_ )
If you fancy a more secular story of rebirth going into Easter, my rather personal feature on the resurgence of southern Italy and its wines is out now in the latest issue of Decanter.
Italy’s south has always resisted mastery and is increasingly learning to value its wines beyond comparisons with the country’s north. This is precisely what makes it so much fun to explore, drink and write about. It’s not about finding Barolo flavours at half the price through Nerello Mascalese, but about realising that the south has wines that are every bit as distinctive as Barolo — just entirely on their own terms.
The piece ranges across the mezzogiorno, and I highlight a small number of the (many) producers who are making the renaissance happen with hard work and commitment: COS, Ciro & Stef Biondi, Arianna Occhipinti, Vini di Luca, I Pentri, Feudi di San Gregorio, Basilisco, Cataldo Calabretta, Mertzeoro, Esole, Giovanni Aiello and Fatalone.
A big thank you to James Button and Amy Wislocki for letting me loose with the copy and tasting notes. It was such an enjoyable piece to plan, write and taste for, and I’m very much looking forward to my upcoming visits in the south over the next two months.
I do hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think below.
Great to taste the new Ornellaia 2023 yesterday in Vienna. It is polished and exceptionally charming in a tricky vintage for the Bolgheri region. The team have given it the moniker ‘La Vitalità’ which seems appropriate. It’s a particularly supple Ornellaia and the second vintage under winemaker Marco Balsimelli.
Over lunch at the precise and minimalist @konstantinfilippou in Vienna I also had the chance to try a selection of older vintages which gave a great insight into the evolution of this famous wine.
Bordeaux blends might not be the most fashionable wines in South Africa but the quality is better than ever and they are, as Mike Ratcliffe of Vilafonté points out, ‘the beating heart’ of the industry.
If you’re a bit jaded with Bordeaux and looking to branch out, the Bordeaux-style wines of the Cape are hugely improved on 15 years ago, well-priced compared to the global competition and absolutely worth revisiting.
My piece in the April issue of Decanter highlights the wineries leading the renaissance in Stellenbosch, Constantia and beyond, as well as looking at what has driven such a big change in a relatively short time.
Link in bio.
Delighted to be wrapping up my first year as Regional Chair for Southern Italy @decanterawards .
I had some exceptionally strong wines this year, judged by people who know the regions, understand the local grapes and who can recognise both excellence and value in the glass.
Thanks to all the judges on the panels this week, new and old, including
@andrea_in_italia@eugenio.egorov@toneveseth@yannickbenjamin@giusy_andreacchio@cristinamercuri_wine@marco.somm.life@jamesbuttonwine@exquisitevines@batandbottle
Blind tasting is not easy and to do it well you need both expertise and willingness to discuss, defend and promote the wines you believe in.
Thanks also to @shivanitomar and the team for their hard work behind the scenes. And thanks @giusy_andreacchio for snapping a mid-flight photo!
Results come out on 17 June. 🤞
Gin has spent the last decade being poured over too little ice, mixed with too much tonic and contaminated with flavours that have no business being near it. The boom is over — and as a loyal gin lover I’m actually grateful.
My latest for Drinks Retailing.
Wrapping up five days in beautiful Verona. Possibly my best Vinitaly yet. Great conversations, nowhere near enough sleep, and the energy that only the Italians can bring. ❤️🇮🇹🍷
A fine wine flex like no other, Opera Wine 2026 was an joyous reminder of how good the best Italian wines are. Each invited winery gets to show one wine only, which is a great lens through which to understand their work. Here’s a small selection of the highlights, but it was basically a room full of highlights.
The event also shows just how valuable it is that the winemakers and owners to turn up to pull the corks and pour the bottles. Extra kudos to Priscilla Incisa della Roccheta who continued to pour her blindingly good Sassicaia 1996 despite someone upending their spittoon on her leg. That’s called showing up and doing the work, even when you probably don’t have to. Also to the couple (not pictured) posing with a glass of something else in front of a row of empty Biondi Santi bottles. Not all slop is AI generated.
The two Italians comparing Rolexes at the end was chef’s kiss. It is so great to be back Italy and Verona, even on three hours sleep. Roll on Vinitaly…
Great tasting and lunch today to preview The Wine Society’s upcoming fine wine Spotlight on Italy.
Launching in April there are lots of really great wines in the pipeline for members. Outgoing buyer Sebastian Payne went long on the 2016s before handing over to Sarah Knowles, who has been adding some very cool new wines to the range such as Dringenberg Dolceaqua, Gianluca Colombo Pelaverga and single vineyard Arpepe.
I’m probably biased but I think this could be the most impressive fine wine offering yet. Definitely one to watch out for.
Writeup and highlights to come at jasondrinks.com
Some highlights from the 4th edition of Nebbiolo Day, a tasting that makes you fall in love with Nebbiolo all over again — and in all its many forms.
Organised by Walter Speller, the event showed off the diversity and dynamism surrounding this remarkable grape. Masterclasses by Speller and Alessandro Masnaghetti of Enogea360.it were full of insight, and the trusty Lindley Hall hosted an astonishing range of flavour and nuance.
Speller, editor for Italy at jancisrobinson.com, also understands what a taster (and journalist) needs: natural light, space to move around, plenty of spittoons, a tasting booklet with room for notes, full contact details for every producer and paper that actually takes (real) ink.
Even better, the page numbers matched the table numbers — a small stroke of genius, on a par with the invention of the zipper.
I’ll be writing up some thoughts on a new generation of producers in Roero, and the continued momentum behind Alto Piemonte, for The Buyer in due course.
@walter.speller@map_man_masna@langhevini@altopiemonte@consorziotutelaroero@thebuyer11
Two intensive days of tasting Chianti Classico and catching up with recent vintages.
I focussed on Gran Selezione on day one, increasingly impressive wines from the contrasting 2021 and 2022 harvests. Day two was a chance to look at the up-and-coming 2024 annata/Classico, and some recently released 2023s.
It’s a really diverse run of vintages, but the 2024s might be the most unique yet. Most are not yet bottled, let alone on sale, but what was shown suggested we could be looking at a very early-drinking, low alcohol vintage of categorically ‘light reds’ that won’t reward cellaring in most cases but which will likely get demolished in wine bars — is the price is right. The wines are generally delicate with featherweight tannins, snappy acids and nostalgic ABVs that hover around 12.5-13.5%.
It is set to be a divisive vintage. It’s made for sommeliers and wine bars that want a classic appellation with contemporary drinkability. But for collectors and the critics who score for that market, it is likely to be one to skip with a few exceptions.
For my first column of the year at Drinks Retailing, I have avoided the usual predictions and instead focused on a more uncomfortable question: how much wine costs today.
Pricing will define how consumers interact with wine in 2026, just as it did in 2025 and every year before that. This is not an abstract debate. For those working in the trade, it is about release prices, the interest rate on loans for new wineries, positioning against neighbours, shipping costs, and the margin expectations of restaurants, among many other interconnected pressures.
Since filing the column, new research from MMR has reinforced the point. It found that 39% of consumers are limiting their alcohol intake because of affordability, compared with 22% who cite health and fitness goals and 14% who say they want to be more mindful.
Wine has handled these price pressures far more poorly than beer or spirits, and in some cases appears to have ignored them altogether. Before Christmas, I sat in a busy Franco Manca with around 50 other diners. My husband and I were the only people drinking wine, aside from one table sharing a bottle of Prosecco. This was despite the house red being a wild-fermented Nero d’Avola at around £24, an implausibly good wine at the price.
The issue is not whether good value or affordable wine exists. It is whether wine, as a category, feels accessible to a generation that is significantly less wealthy than its parents. This is a value and perception problem, one I have been highlighting consistently for the past three years, often in the face of shallow scapegoating narratives that prefer to blame Gen Z and health trends.
Many pressures on the category are external, but pricing is not one of them. It remains firmly within the industry’s control, and it matters far more to the majority of wine drinkers than we often care to admit.
Wine doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It isn’t an exception among alcohols. In 2026 it needs to listen and learn.
