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

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

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’

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

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

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

An interesting and diverse category, Tuscany seemed to have everything from ‘affordable and local’ to ‘blinged up and international’

The Sommelier Wine Awards doesn’t give out trophies per category because we’re worried that tasters will feel under pressure to dispense extra awards in categories where they may not believe the wines are up to it. Instead, in keeping with the whole ethos of the competition, we leave the judgement up to the sommeliers…

Over 1,500 wines can be boiled down to this: the hallowed Sommelier Wine Awards Gold List for 2011...

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

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

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

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

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.