Loire Cabernet Franc can be elegant, well-priced and food-friendly. Clinton Cawood calls together an Imbibe panel to see whether the grape can stand on its own two feet and achieve the same success as its big brother cabernet Sauvignon

Rosso di Montalcino sticks to tradition

Lebanon’s mountainous Bhamdoun region has all you need to make great wine. Henrietta Clancy accompanies three top sommeliers as they visit the area, and ParticIPATE IN the creation of a new vintage at Chateau Belle-Vue’

CYNICS MIGHT POINT OUT THAT 2010 IS BORDEAUX’S SEVENTH ‘VINTAGE OF THE CENTURY’

This year’s Imbibe Live event at Earls Court saw over two dozen sommeliers tasting some of the top wines from this year’s Sommelier Wine Awards competition to find out which bottles received the ultimate accolade. Chris Losh recorded the results

Wines of Navarra recently asked you, the country’s top wine professionals, to make a case for some free wine, and maybe win a trip to the region. Here are the top 10 entries

Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Priorat all make much of their aristocratic roots. Clinton Cawood joins a team of tannin-hardened sommeliers to put their top wines to the test and find out which region has the strongest claim to the Spanish throne

Aussie Shiraz is rarely cheap now, but a growing elegance saw a big rise in medals this year – and a lot of happy tasters

After a shocking first year in the SWAs, Carmenère found its feet with some style this year, delivering some great wines

In the past, a By The Glass award has gone to wines that match specific dishes – the theory being that they could be served by the glass as ready matches with a meal.

With screwcaps to the fore, the quality of the whites (particularly) and the reds here was amazing for the price. Rosé was another matter entirely

Plenty of entries, and plenty of ambition, too, for this hot, new category. Just not quite enough balance in the wines

Huge wines and huge prices, this was a category that seemed to be more about ego than elegance

With a general lack of great available vintages to call on, this was a category that polarised the opinions of the tasters

Too few entries. The Lebanese producer Ksara performed well but where were the Greeks and Eastern Europeans?