Located in the Eastern section of the Loire Valley, the Sancerre Wine Region is dominated by plantings of Sauvignon Blanc. The white wines of the region tend to be sleekly structured with acidity and citrus, mineral and herb aromatics. While the white wines are renown, the Sancerre AOP also produces light Pinot Noir-based reds and rosés; these, however, are more rare than the whites. With Sancerre’s three distinct soil types—Terres Blanches, Caillottes, and Silex—a multitude of wine styles exist. Wines hailing from the calcareous-clay based Terres Blanche soils create powerful, full-bodied wines; the limestone Caillottes soils produce wines that are elegantly balanced; while the wines fashioned from the flint-rich Silex soils are often the longest-lived with a distinct gunflint quality. While styles differ, the majority of these Sauvignon Blancs are matured in stainless steel tanks or used-barrels as a means to retain varietal character. These bright whites are well-suited for seafood, white meats, goat cheese and, due to the varietal’s herbal characteristics, pair well with asparagus and artichokes.

For more information and a full list of ratings, be sure to check out the Sancerre Wine Guide.The top two wine brands by value in the UK have both managed to hold onto the top spots despite seeing a dip in value sales compared to the previous year.buy wine on sunday in dcAccording to the latest figures, Hardys has retained pole position, with a total of £315.7m in value sales for the 52 weeks to July 2016, despite a 3% dip on the previous year (£325.8m).best wines in mdBlossom Hill also held onto its number two spot, although it slid by 15% from £243.2m in 2014/2015 to £207.9m in 2015/2016.The brand sports the lowest average bottle price on the list at £4.93 per bottle.best bottle of wine for 50The data, from IRI Reports, shows the top 10 wine brands in the UK by value in the year to July 2016.In third place, Echo Falls was up 3% from £188.5m to £194.1m, while Concha y Toro brand Casillero del Diablo, leaped from eighth to fourth place with a highest average bottle price in the top ten.best alcohol free wine 2015

In 2015/2016, Casillero del Diablo saw their second highest value growth year-on-year, up 34% from last year, thanks in part to its partnership with Sky Cinema, which was extended in March 2016 for a further 12 months.“The brand’s continued outstanding performance is driven by strong relationships with our retail customers and with consumers, via a mix of price promotions and brand building activity, leveraging our Sky Cinema partnership on-pack, in-store, and above the line,” Concha y Toro marketing manager Laura Thomas said.“best white wine for gift givingWe have just launched a new national on pack campaign on over four million Casillero del Diablo bottles, giving consumers a chance to win a Sky TV package every month and the Ultimate Home Cinema package.“best of musical and wine 2015We are hugely ambitious for the brand, and expect it to continue to add value to the wine category and make further advances in the next few years.

“Australian winery Mcguigan held onto its fifth spot, with growth up 9.64% to £119.9m.But the brand which saw the most growth was California’s Barefoot, with value sales rising an impressive 37.45% to £107.3m.Barefoot jumped from tenth place on last’s year’s list to sixth.There was slowing growth for Gallo, Isla Negra and Jacobs Creek, which made up the second half of the list.Chilean wine brand Casillero del Diablo took Gallo’s previous spot in fourth place, while Gallo slipped to seventh place this year.Joining the list at number ten is Yellow Tail, which enjoyed an impressive 33% growth spurt to £85.8m in values sales.Yellow Tail joins as Kumala is edged out of the top ten, after occupying the number nine spot for the 2014/2015 year.*IRI Reports, Total Off Trade, 52 weeks ending July 16, 2016.The bootlegger, known to a select circle as the "wine wallah", unzips a dusty duffel bag and removes bottles wrapped in newspaper pages. "This is totally illegal," he admits, unveiling a low-end Chilean red wine, an Australian white and a French chardonnay.

Import duties on foreign wines and spirits are a minimum of 152% in India, so to avoid paying £10 a bottle for plonk, drinkers turn to the bootlegger. He procures wines from embassies that don't consume their duty-free quota, passing the bottles and savings on. "The Somalis, the Saudis, mostly they don't drink wine," he explains, offering a bottle of diplomatic quota Jacob's Creek white for a still steep £6, rather than the £9 charged in government licensed outlets. Yet even the wine wallah may soon find it hard to procure fresh supplies if a dispute between India's food safety authority and alcohol importers is not resolved. Up to half a million bottles of wine and spirits are stuck in Indian customs, according to importers, because labels are not printed in English or because many drinks, including Scotch whisky, do not list their ingredients. Importers have been forced to cancel orders and are struggling to interpret the government's labelling regulations, which were passed in 2011 but only enforced since March.

"It's been a very difficult two months," said Craig Wedge of Mumbai-based FineWinesnMore India, whose global imports have halted. "I'm meant to be getting shipments from Argentina, Chile and Germany but I've had to put everything on hold because there's ambiguity and confusion." The newly enforced rules require manufacturers to produce labels in English or Hindi that list all ingredients. Shipments have been rejected for saying "Prodotto di Italia" instead of "Product of Italy". And Scotch whisky bottles were stopped for not listing malted grain, water and yeast as ingredients. "These regulations are in line with international norms," said S Dave of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. "Only if it's a single ingredient product, like water, then you don't have to list ingredients." Aashish Kasbekar, who specialises in clearing alcohol consignments through Indian customs, said most spirits fall foul of the requirement. "Only 5% to 10% of alcoholic products like vodka are single ingredient," he said.

"If you're talking about liqueurs, blended scotch, rum or Kahlua, these products will not be cleared." Rosemary Gallagher, of the Scotch Whisky Association, said that scotch is recognised as a "single ingredient product" in many markets. "Given that the term 'Scotch Whisky' must appear on every bottle sold, there is no risk of consumer confusion as to what is being bought and there should be no need to list any other 'ingredient'," she said. Magandeep Singh, India's only French-certified sommelier, points out that ingredient-labelling for alcohol is an international issue, not just an Indian one. "Egg whites and fish guts are used to clarify a wine when it's cloudy, but they're not listed on the bottle as ingredients. That's a big issue for some people," he said. But Singh said India's national and state laws regulating alcohol were tedious and costly. "Delhi treats wine from other states like foreign imports and taxes it. A new vintage of the same wine is treated like a new product and has to be re-registered at a cost of about one lakh rupees [£1,000]."

Singh said excise agents insist on testing two bottles in each shipment of foreign booze, which is time-consuming and prohibitively expensive for small consignments of premium alcohol. "I cancelled a wine exhibition because of the new labelling requirements," he said. "Instead we held it in Hong Kong and managed to get a nice surge of Indian visitors." Kasbekar said customs inspectors caused problems by their lack of knowledge, too. "Most of the lower-level inspectors do not understand wines and they'll go by the book," he said. "Like if a bottle says 'shiraz' or 'cabernet sauvignon', they'll ask: 'Is this wine?'" "At one point the word 'burgundy' was creating problems because they wanted to know what that was," said Wedge. The dispute has led British and European diplomats to raise the issue with the Indian government. Dave acknowledged that some of the regulations are intricate. "But we have suspended the requirement for having a sticker indicating 'veg' or 'non-veg' on alcohol," he said.