Caroline Lin - PalateJournal

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Caroline Lin - PalateJournal

🍷 Wine & Food Writer | Publisher
✍️ EN–ZH Editor 🇬🇧🇨🇳
🍾 Champagne Specialist & Tea Champion
📩 Read the latest issue:👇palatejournal.substack.com

LadyCarolineWine

13/05/2026

🍷 Calling all international wine producers — the clock is ticking for the 2026 USA Wine Ratings ✨

Success in the off-trade isn’t just about what’s in the glass. One of my quiet pleasures is wandering my local Waitrose, studying what truly earns its place on shelf — the interplay of quality, value, and presentation.

This is precisely the lens USA Wine Ratings applies — quality, value, and packaging judged together, the drivers of retail success.

Today’s basket gives a snapshot of what that looks like:

🇬🇧 Nyetimber Classic Cuvée — English sparkling with precision, poise, and genuine traditional-method credentials.

🇳🇿 Craggy Range Sauvignon Blanc — Martinborough texture, mineral drive, and confidently varietal.

🇫🇷 Château Cantin, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru — Right Bank pedigree, retail-ready polish.

🇪🇸 Viña Alberdi Reserva — a benchmark of Rioja for elegance, integration, and consistency.

🇺🇸 Brazin Old Vine Zinfandel — bold, ripe, and unmistakably Lodi.

🗓️ International registration closes May 22.

For producers looking to grow in the US retail market — this is your final call. 🚀
💡 10% off entry with code CAROLINE10 — link in bio.

📖 Full analysis on Palate Journal.

Which wine region currently delivers the strongest quality-to-value ratio for US consumers?

Cheers 🍷

✨

11/05/2026

A masterclass with MW, hosted by and paired with an exceptional cheese board from , Provence revealed itself not as a pale-pink category, but as a region of site, structure, and longevity.

Drawing from Provence’s three principal AOPs—Côtes de Provence, Coteaux Varois en Provence, and Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence—Ray explained the region’s history, ecosystems, and the evolving identity of Côtes de Provence’s five DGCs, showing why Provence continues to set the benchmark for rosé.

Château de Pampelonne opened with coastal salinity and citrus tension, beautifully lifted by Yoredale’s lemony, lactic brightness.

Château des Annibals brought garrigue, limestone, and Varois energy, finding a natural echo in St Ella’s goat’s cheese from the New Forest.

Château Roubine showed why Tibouren matters — 15% in the blend lending that unmistakably wild floral signature, a quiet partner for the vegetal whisper of Cornish Yarg.

Domaine des Peirecèdes and Domaine Tour Campanets made the gastronomic case alongside the creamy depth of Brie de Dongé.

And Domaine Gueissard closed with a Mourvèdre-led blend, returning to St Ella to reveal entirely different dimensions from the same pairing.

With Sainte-Victoire’s 2025 elevation to Cru, the continued evolution of the DGC framework, and renewed confidence in rosés built not just for immediacy, but for ageing—and for the world’s finest tables—Provence is asking to be read in the language of terroir.

As Ray put it perfectly: “A diversity of expressions.”

🔗✍🏼 Full article now live on Palate Journal — link in bio.

30/04/2026

Malbec World Day at the Argentine Ambassador’s Residence in London began with eleven Malbecs exploring different altitudes in a masterclass led by award-winning sommelier , followed by a walk-around tasting where the more interesting story was being poured. Wines of Argentina✨

The historical anchor was Luigi Bosca, whose 1991 Malbec became the first wine certified under DOC Luján de Cuyo — Latin America’s first denomination of origin — putting Argentine Malbec on the global map.

White Malbec, made by pressing the red grape with minimal skin contact, strips the profile back to citrus pith, orchard fruit and a faint savoury echo of its red sibling. Land of Malbec’s 2025, a Fecovita project positioned at the everyday tier, is a serious provocation in the glass.

Further north, Bodega El Bayeh’s Trópico Sur Sauvignon Blanc 2023 from Huacalera in Jujuy (2,700m), straw hues, white grapefruit and crushed herbs with bright acidity and a subtle saline edge. Long, stony and distinctive.
Viña Artesano’s Vera Prima Organic Pinot Gris from Mendoza brought much-needed texture and bite to a varietal too often left neutral.

If Mendoza built its global reputation on the depth of its reds, the whites are where the innovation is happening now. Malbec opened the door; the whites are walking through it.

Cheers to Argentina’s innovation and evolving wine revolution!🍷🇦🇷

Embassy of Argentina in the United Kingdom

28/04/2026

Domaine Bousquet—Argentina’s largest organic wine exporter—unveiled its “Greenprint” at El Salón 9 in London ahead of Earth Day. South Place Hotel

A full estate snapshot: organic Brut and Brut Rosé, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir Rosé, Cabernet Franc, through to the Ameri icon tier—each wine with its bottle weight printed in grammes on the tasting sheet.

Ameri Parcel 9 Sauvignon Blanc 2024 — textured, poised, altitude-shaped.
Ameri Single Vineyard Malbec 2023 — precise, floral, with concentrated black fruit, fine-grained tannins, and bright acidity. Malbec written in pencil, not ink.

Curated canapé pairings ran throughout the flight. Intriguing native wines also appeared—ones to watch.

The “Greenprint” rewards a closer read: bottle weight, sustainability, and the practical trade-offs behind the optics.

Full piece on Palate Journal — link in bio 🔗✍🏼

20/04/2026

Inside Krug, Champagne is not described — it is constructed. ✨🍾

From oak fermentation to stainless steel preservation, from blind daily tastings at 11 AM sharp to the Wall of 400 Wines in Reims, everything here is built on a single principle: one plot, one wine — individually preserved, evaluated, and assembled into Grande Cuvée.

Across Ambonnay and Reims, guided by Cellar Master Julie Cavil and the tasting team, four wines brought this philosophy into focus: the 2011 and 2013 Vintages, and Grande Cuvée 169ème and 174ème Éditions. The Vintages speak in the unfiltered voice of a single harvest — one generous and open, the other taut and linear. The Grande Cuvées transform those same raw materials into something only time and memory can build.

Two ways of interpreting truth in Champagne. Both exacting. Both Krug.

Heartfelt thanks to , , and the for the extraordinary opportunity to deepen my understanding of Champagne from the inside — and to write about it.✨🥂

If the technical side interests you — oak vs steel, reserve wines, the architecture of the blend — the full long-form is live on Palate Journal. Link in bio 🔗✍🏼

16/04/2026

Walking through Krug’s tiny 0.68-hectare walled Grand Cru Clos d’Ambonnay in spring budburst, glass in hand, tasting the 2008 within the very vineyard from which it was born, was to experience Champagne at its most intimate and precise. From chalky vineyard lanes to the Joseph winery — every detail reflected Krug’s devotion to patience, purity, and place.

There is no classroom quite like this. Led by Cheffe de Cave Julie Cavil — tasted at the source — this was Champagne education at its purest.

Clos d’Ambonnay 2008, the seventh-ever edition of Clos d’Ambonnay spent 17 years evolving before release:
✨ Only 4,725 individually numbered bottles produced
✨ Fermented in 205-litre seasoned oak casks, averaging 25 years in age
✨ One of Champagne’s rarest single-vineyard Blanc de Noirs

“The first thing you learn at Krug is patience.” — Julie Cavil

📖 Full story on Palate Journal — link in bio 🔗

Cheers 🥂

Krug, Krug Olivier
Spritz Marketing & PR Ltd

13/04/2026

✨Krug produces no entry-level wine. That becomes clear before anyone pours the first glass.🥂🍾

The dinner wasn’t held in a restaurant or a hospitality suite. It was held in Maison de Famille — the house where Olivier Krug actually grew up. Restored, intimate, and entirely unlisted. The kind of place you only ever see as a guest of the House itself.

Olivier welcomed us himself. The menu was conceived by Arnaud Lallement of L’Assiette Champenoise***, executed in Krug’s own kitchen. Four courses. Four cuvées: Grande Cuvée 173ème, the 2006 Magnum, Rosé 29ème — and a Collection 1996 that silenced the table.

At Krug, patience is not a virtue. It is the method.

The full story is on Palate Journal — link in bio.
🔗✍🏼 The House That Joseph Built

More to come.

With thanks to Krug, Krug Olivier and Spritz Marketing & PR Ltd for an unforgettable evening.

05/04/2026

Blanc de Blancs and caviar for Easter. Some traditions are worth keeping✨🍾

Wishing you a joyful, sparkling celebration. Cheers 🥂🐣

30/03/2026

Some vintages arrive with fanfare. The 2020 Brunello di Montalcino had to earn it — and it did.

Val di Suga — one of Montalcino’s most storied estates, crafting three distinct single-vineyard Brunellos across three separate terroirs — has always let the land speak. This 2020 — a blend of all three — is no different. 💫

It opens with dried rose, morello cherry and a quiet thread of iron-tinged minerality. The palate has weight without austerity — fine-grained tannins, acidity that anchors rather than cuts, dried herbs and a subtle note of blood orange running beneath the fruit. The finish lingers, unhurried, trailing dark cherry and a touch of cocoa.

Paired with tagliatelle and slow-cooked beef ragù. The right decision. ✨🍷

The full story on the vintage, the estate, and why 2020 is a year worth understanding — on Palate Journal 🔗 link in bio ✍🏼

23/03/2026

A lighter glass, a deeper thought.✨

A 6% Merlot–Cabernet Sauvignon from Bordeaux — fully fermented, gently dealcoholised through vacuum distillation, then blended back with full-strength wine for flavour and structure. Red berries, black cherry, subtle mocha, soft tannins, smoky finish. Light in weight, yet composed.🍷

The 2024 vintage. More assured, more refined - a clear step forward.

Founded by Russell and Gabriella Lamb alongside Jason Sennitt — three years in development, one clear conviction: that 6% could be genuinely good, not just light.

Since its launch, a Silver at the IWSC and a Gold at the Global Low & No Alcohol Wine Masters. The culture is catching up. .wine 💫

🔗 Full story on PalateJournal — link in bio ✍🏼

P.S. pic 1. from last May at its launch event. 📸

16/03/2026

L’Âme de Deyrem 2022 from Château Deyrem Valentin offers a fascinating perspective on the gravel soils of Margaux — Cabernet Sauvignon speaking on its own rather than through the traditional Bordeaux blend.✨

Deep ruby with a youthful purple hue. Aromas of cassis and dark cherry lead, followed by cedar, graphite and a gentle touch of cocoa. On the palate, finely textured tannins frame a core of dark fruit, lifted by freshness and finishing with a subtle savoury mineral edge. A compelling expression of Cabernet Sauvignon from Margaux.🍷

Paired with slow-cooked short rib of beef and roasted vegetables, the wine came beautifully alive. The richness of the beef mirrored the wine’s depth, while its fine-grained tannins gently framed the tender texture — an outstanding match.😋

I first encountered the estate last November while tasting the elegant yet classic 2021 Château Deyrem Valentin. This new cuvée reveals another dimension of the vineyard’s voice.💫

📖 The full story is on Palate Journal — link in bio 🔗

Have you tried a 100% Cabernet from Margaux?

Cheers. ✨🍷

Château Deyrem-Valentin ✨

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