Wine Knowledge

We embarked on our annual Autumn trip to the Rhône in good cheer, swapping English wind and rain for the promise of glorious clear blue skies and an ambitious itinerary. It was a great opportunity to catch up with many friends in our wonderful stable of domaines across the region, as well as learning about […]

"Savvy Rhône fans whose tendency is to drink reds on the young side will find plenty to like in 2014, a vintage that bears comparison, stylistically, to 2012 and 2006 in the opinion of many of the producers that I visited." Josh Raynolds - vinous.com 2017 was the smallest harvest in France since 1945. Hail, […]

I recently joined Yapp after a number of years servicing the good and great of London's restaurants for rival merchants. What first attracted me to this company was the vibrant list, a reputation for great service and of course the unparalleled selection of wines from the South of France, the Loire and the Rhône Valley, […]

Just had a wonderful tasting Chez Yapp from our new Australian winemaker Guy Lyons at Forest Hill Vineyards, who came over especially as he happened to be passing nearby. Well, he's spent last month learning about the Riesling harvest and vinification in Germany, which, in Australian terms of scale, is pretty 'nearby'!     I […]

Field work is invaluable. A two-day visit to the Rhône valley last week reminded me of this fact. Sure, we knew that the 2016 vintage had been excellent in the Southern Rhône, potentially surpassing the ubiquitously good 2015, but what about in the North and the 2017 vintage for that matter?     Our first […]

The UK's annual wine equivalent of the BAFTAs took place on a sweltering evening last Thursday (6th July). With the temperature more suited to flip flops and shorts than black tie, a thousand or so wine industry brethren and sistren congregated at Park Lane's Hilton hotel to find out if they had picked up a […]

Here at Yapp Brothers we believe there is a strong affinity between art and wine and we have a long and proud history of commissioning original artwork to illustrate our annual list. This year our friend the artist David Chandler has excelled himself with a collection of images that really evoke our peregrinations across la […]

I don't think my farming friends quite believe me when I say that agricultural land in France can change hands for £2m per acre, but it is certainly now the case. Champagne and Bordeaux are well used to wine estates under the ownership of large corporations but, in recent years, several transactions in the more […]

The final leg of our Rhône 2015 trip featured the South. The degrees always seem to climb and the sunglasses come out once one passes Valence and a flatter, warmer landscape takes shape.     First stop Vacqueyras, where Yves Cheron and right-hand man Jerome Cartier took us through their reliable range of domaine and […]

Our tasting tour continued in style on our second day with a coveted appointment at Domaine Jean-Louis Chave where the eponymous patron gave us a warm welcome in the autumn sunshine before we descended to his subterranean cellars.     Jean-Louis was pretty stoic about losing a significant percentage of the potential 2016 harvest to […]