My Review of the Year is really my time for a little self-indulgence. My Wines of the Year come later, maybe next year, making sure I don’t drink a killer wine after I’ve put finger to keypad and pressed the go button. Here, I get a chance to tell you what the most popular articles were (in case you didn’t read them), mention a few wine events and travels, try to come up with a Wine Book of the Year, and that kind of thing. Then I go off-piste.

First, some dull statistics. They may be dull but to be fair it’s the only time I get to blow my own trumpet (I do actually own a trumpet, which preceded the drum kit, but that’s another story from my past). As I write, in the week before Christmas, Wideworldofwine.co has had almost 62,000 views. That is 10,000 more than last year. However, China accounts for 13,000 views, and China only began looking at my site in earnest in late summer.

I’d love to know what this all means. Some recent fans? AI mining? I only seem unsure because some of those fellow wine bloggers I talk to mention the same thing. An enormous rise in hits from China. If anyone knows what it all means, fame and fortune or the end of the world, please enlighten me.

Only four Countries accounted for more than 5,000 views each so far in 2025. Those are, in descending order, UK, China, USA and Germany. France, Australia, and Nepal come next, not quite hitting the 5k, followed by India, Canada, Switzerland and The Netherlands. Then, deep down at the other end of the list, twenty-five countries which had just one view each, including Somalia, Papua New Guinea, Faroe Islands, Aruba, Palestinian Territories and a few of the ‘stans.

Whilst the biggest single number of views are of whatever is on my Home Page at the time (around 15,000 views), my most searched for pieces were (again in descending order):

1. Tourist Jura -A Brief Guide…
2. Tongba, A Study of Emptiness
3. Extreme Viticulture in Nepal
4. The New Viticulture by Jamie Goode (book)
5. Pergola Taught
6. Taste the Limestone…by Alex Maltman (book)
7. Vin Jaune
8. Manang Valley/Apple Wine
9. One Thousand Vines by Pascaline Lepeltier (book)
10. Timberyard Spring Tasting 2025
11. Peter Hall – Breaky Bottom (eulogy)
12. Jura Wine Ten Years on by Wink Lorch (book)

Peter Hall RIP (photographed on a social visit with Henry and Cassie of Butlers Wine Cellar)

You’ll notice quite a few book reviews, though all featured above were published before 2025, with the exception of Alex Maltman’s easy to read geology lesson.

So far this year I was almost shocked to see that I have so far published 67 articles. I think last year I managed 52 and I don’t promise to commit a similar number to the ether in 2026. But of those 67 articles, nine of them were book reviews.

Wine Book of the Year

As always, it isn’t easy to choose, but the abovementioned Taste the Limestone, Smell the Slate by Alex Maltman (Academie du Vin Library) is pretty much essential reading for serious wine lovers. It is easy to read and digest. It shatters many myths in some respects, but the poet and romantic in me still argues for subjectivity and imagination alongside the science.

The Academie du Vin Library, under the leadership of Hermione Ireland, does seem to be rejuvenating wine publishing (although it was nice to see good old Mitchell Beazley in the game with Rose Murray Brown’s well-conceived A Taste for Wine – if you want a really good “wine course” this is the one I’d recommend). The Academie du Vin has taken over the old Infinite Ideas list, and most recently released Nat Hughes’s wonderful book on Beaujolais, which fits into that series (among many other wine books in a significant year for them).

But the Innovation of the Year is surely their pocket-sized The Smart Traveller’s Wine Guide series. I read four of them in 2025, guides to The Rhône, Rioja, Bordeaux and Switzerland. I’m yet to read Tuscany and Napa, but those I have read I can highly recommend if you are heading off in one of those directions, or even if you just want a nice and light (in weight) holiday read. They are great for taking on the road, a mix of background info, wines to look for, and detailed wine routes alongside restaurants, wine bars, wine shops and more.

If I had any requests to Hermione and the team, it would be to commission guides to Austria, Piemonte, Alsace, Jura and the wider Mosel (-Saar-Ruwer), and not to try to do Australia in just one book. Whatever actually does come next will be eagerly awaited by me.

I’m also very much looking forward to reading Jamie Goode’s new edition of his Regenerative Viticulture book in January, which I believe is a substantial re-write, possibly based around his regenerative toolkit. With regenerative viticulture being pretty much the topic of the moment in professional wine circles I can’t wait to see what he says.

Tastings and Travel

The year is always peppered with tastings, too many to mention. I really should give a round of applause to those small importers who can be bothered to come up to Scotland, and a raised eyebrow to those who don’t. Special mention for regular effort to Newcomer Wines, Modal Wines and Basket Press Wines, plus all those who support the Cork & Cask events (covered in articles on the site).

I was pleased to get to Timberyard’s tasting (one of Edinburgh’s Michelin Stars but also the venue for the Wild Wine Fair usually every second year). The trade tasting in March featured a number of importers/agents (Carte Blanche, Passione Vino and Element), but I was most thrilled to get to taste the Welsh wines of David Morris (Mountain People). Although there is no “rising stars” feature this year, David would certainly warrant inclusion. Not least for a fine Welsh Chardonnay which could have been straight out of Arbois.

David Morris (Mountain People) up from Wales for Timberyard’s Spring Tasting

Cork & Cask continue to somehow find the energy to put on two wine fairs a year, summer and winter, winter having the greater wine content/focus. The Winter Wine Fair this year (November) was the best yet. The format… a load of importers come over from London, Glasgow and locally, all pouring ten or twelve wines each. If these fairs are a success, it is both down to the great team at C&C, driven by India Parry Williams and Jamie Dawson, and by the great wines they manage to put on the shelves, which in turn are tasted on the day. This is the event where I seem to make the most “new discoveries”. Both 2025 Fairs are on the blog, three articles alone covering the Winter edition.

Jamie Dawson is also one of the men behind Leith’s new indie whisky bottler, Blind Summit. I’ve really fallen for these beautifully packaged and more affordable (on account of bottling in 50cl) one-off gems, but package and branding aside, the whisky has to speak for itself, and it does, eloquently.

James Zorab, one half of Blind Summit, at the Cork & Cask Winter Fair in November

On the subject of Wine Shops, I have to mention Communiqué Wines in Stockbridge. For those who don’t know, Stockbridge is quite posh. You need to be somewhere like that if you want to stock the kind of wines Ali does. I see no compromise here. I love retail shopping for the things I love (wine, book and record stores for me make for an exciting day out). Just a couple of weeks ago I wandered in after a longer than usual absence and immediately found a Stéphane Tissot Patchwork Chardonnay and a J-P Rietsch Pinot Noir. It felt like I didn’t need any Christmas presents after that.

Edinburgh has plenty of great wine shops, too many for my meagre budget these days, but if you do come here as a tourist (and you really should), make sure to visit those mentioned above, plus Spry Wines (natural wine heaven from the shelf at a highly-recommended small restaurant), Smith & Gertrude (two great Edinburgh locations), Raeburn Fine Wines (an eclectic selection of stuff you rarely see), and Winekraft (hint hint: one of two locations is near the back of the free Botanical Gardens). For an amazing restaurant wine list, if you like natural wine, I have to add Montrose, a sister restaurant of Timberyard, but less Michelin. Montrose host many trade tastings and Milan Nestarec visiting with Peter Honneger from Newcomer Wines was a 2025 classic.

There’s no room for restaurant reviews, but two meals stood out in 2025 for different reasons. I dined solo at 40 Maltby Street, home of Gergovie Wines, back in January. I’d forgotten how their food truly warms the soul. More recently, last month, we dined at Kipferl in Islington. I felt as close as I could be to Vienna without getting on a plane. I definitely recommend Nekter Deli, a short walk from Liverpool Street Station (see article of 21 Oct), not least for the North American wines. Many are from what Jon Bonné recently called the 7%, ie the Cali wines made from varieties other than CCSPN.

All the above can be read about on the blog. Mountain Momo in Edinburgh (off Leith Walk) put into my mouth the finest food I tasted outside of my son-in-law’s cooking in 2025, but there’s no wine there, so no article.

The most innovative wine event of 2025 has to be the Clay Wine Fair. The brainchild of Isobel Salamon, who is probably Edinburgh’s supreme wine workaholic, this was a wonderful study in wines made in all forms of amphorae, terracotta eggs, jarres and tinajas etc. It took place at Sotto, a popular Italian restaurant in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, in February, and was very well attended by importers and public alike. In fact, it was so popular the venue probably proved a bit on the small side in the end. I could imagine this being a cracking success down in London.

If Wine Travel is to be included, I have to say that October saw my best wine trip to Switzerland yet. As well as some spectacular Alpine walking, we got to Auvernier/Neuchâtel, the Vaud’s Lavaux and the village of Dardagny on Geneva’s Rive Droite. Not a lot gets written about Swiss wine, a subject most UK wine drinkers are relatively ignorant of. My articles (four of them, published late October and early November) attempted to give a different focus to the excellent Smart Traveller’s Wine Guide to Switzerland published by the Academie du Vin Library, and which I road-tested on the trip. A beautiful country with some fantastic wines, not all of which are as expensive as we are led to believe.

Lavaux, Vaud

Now the indulgent bit, a plug for my other interests, in this case music and books (believe it or not, wine books only take up a part of my annual reading). The logic here is that if you like the same wines I like, then my taste in books and music might just interest you too.

Books of the Year

For my work of non-fiction, I have to choose what may well be the best music book I have ever read. And the Roots of Rhythm Remain by Joe Boyd (Faber, 2024, a whopping 929 pages) takes us through much of the world, exploring almost everything from almost every continent that has contributed to the music many of us listen to today under that wide heading “the Western tradition” (my words, intended to encompass classical, through jazz to rock (“n” roll)). Breathtaking scholarship, easy to read and digest, from a man who has seen more music created than most. A book you don’t want to finish.

As a work of fiction, I will choose The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami (Vintage, 2025, 449pp). I have been a fan of Murakami for much of his career, so there’s a degree of fandom, but I think this is one of his best. The narrative is great, though you need to seep yourself into the story. I was surprised how it began using quite simple language, almost clumsy (of course, I read it in translation, but Philip Gabriel is an old hand at Murakami), but then the main protagonist/voice is a teenager at the start of the book, and in his forties when it ends. This is also a book, like Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait, that ends leaving some big questions, yet where as a reader you find that satisfactory, not disappointing. Leaving something to the imagination is very Murakami. He expects you to have one…an imagination.

Records of the Year

I need to select two records here. It would be unfair to do otherwise. My son always buys me the best records that I know nothing about. For my Birthday this year it was the self-titled debut by Nusantara Beat (Glitter Beat GBLP180). A sticker says “The Amsterdam-based six piece…has delivered…a rich weave of Indonesian folk traditions, psychedelic rock, and vintage Indo-pop reimagined…”. Mostly quite laid-back grooves with rocky edges, sung mostly in Bahasa Indonesia, some songs sung in Sudanese, I think.

A complete change for my second choice, The Overview by Steven Wilson (Fiction/Virgin Records). Just two tracks (one per side), pensive, relaxing, spacey, it captures something, but you need to listen to see what you feel that is. Kind of Prog, but not in the sense some would use that term. That said, if Dark Side of the Moon had never been made, people might be talking more about this album.

The other two sleeve pictures below are albums discovered as a result of reading that Joe Boyd book. Tropicalia from Brazil had almost passed me by, aside from Astrid and Gil. There’s always, and I mean always, something new out there to be discovered. I live for such discovery.

Gig of the Year

I think a few of you know I like opera. As well as a few big nights in large houses, we went to the tiny Lammermuir Festival production Scottish Opera laid on, a double-bill of Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnol, unusually paired with Walton’s The Bear (never ‘eard of it). Front row at a very good production, and an intimacy you can’t get at Glyndebourne or the Staatsoper. We saw a wonderful concert of the Tango of Carlos Gardel at this festival last year. There’s always something spectacular.

However, I did say “gig”, and that was the wonderful Ezra Collective, playing in the big top at North Berwick’s Fringe by the Sea. God didn’t actually give me “…feet for dancing”, and there certainly was not “no-one” watching, but nevertheless I danced all night. It might not have been pretty but it felt so good.

Well, I hope I have entertained a little, both here and through 2025’s sixty-odd articles. I hope I have given some pointers to things you may not have read on the blog, given Edinburgh a wine tourism plug (I do not have room here to tell you about more of its amazing restaurants, apart from that plug for Montrose, I wish I did), and opened my soul on a couple of my other passions. The fourth passion, after Wine, reading and music, is travel, and I could regale you with tales of my journeys in this wonderful country of Scotland, but again, it’s not wine (it often is whisky, of course) so maybe I should curb my enthusiasm right here.

Mull is a magical place

What will 2026 hold? Well, health willing, there will be tastings (Greek Wines in February just dropped), wine travel (even further away than Switzerland), doubtless some more excellent wine books alongside Dr Goode’s which I already mentioned, and the cellar currently looks good for a few more years of “Recent Wines”, if luck holds. Keep your fingers crossed, as I will mine.

I wish everyone a Very Happy Christmas or a fun festive season, and a genuine hope that we shall all find good things, happiness and even a little prosperity in 2026. Certainly prosperity is something the wine trade and hospitality industry could do with.