Left: the jury’s out on Amazon Alexa’s new wine & food pairing app

■ A new Welsh and English whisky trail has been launched by the Wine & Spirit Trade Association ( WSTA), which has mapped 19 distillers across the two British nations. A continuing craft spirits boom means there are now 315 distilleries in the UK – more than double the number recorded five years ago, according to WSTA chief executive Miles Beale.

■ Hedonism Wines in Mayfair has sold a rare imperial three-quarter gallon bottle of Massougnes 1805 Cognac for more than £ 200,000. It was originally acquired 20 years ago from Marie-Antoinette des Allées, Comtesse de la Bourdelière, whose family owned the former Cognac-producing estate.

■ English wine producer Chapel Down has announced plans to create the UK’s ‘largest vineyard’ in an effort to satisfy anticipated demand over the next 25 years. The company will lease 157ha of land in Boxley on the North Downs in Kent.

■ A recently launched app seeks to increase the wine and food pairing ability of Alexa, Amazon’s voicecontrolled virtual personal assistant service. Wine Finder claims to offer 500 food and wine pairing ideas, offering basic advice such as ‘ Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon go well with steak’. At this stage, none of the pairings mentions brands and they are non-specific about food preparation methods or sauces.

■ Château Masburel, a pre-French Revolution Bergerac estate that has ties to the court of Louis XV, has been sold to a British buyer. The 33.4ha estate in Fougueyrolles produces Montravel appellation wines, as well as AP Bergerac.

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