Decanter.com

Decanter is the UK's leading wine magazine and their online presence, Decanter.com, has much to offer both the wine professional as well as the enthusiast. Labelled as 'the route to all good wine', the website certainly lives up to its reputation. Decanter is an authoritative voice in the wine world and the website offers snappy editorial, combined with useful tools for tracking wine, finding wines and a whole host of other interesting features.

Breaking news is one of the most popular parts of the site, with stories listed daily on the homepage as they come in. The articles are kept pleasingly short, with the option to give your views on the stories listed. To keep apace with this, sign up for daily news alerts. The fortnightly email offers a fuller newsletter.

Decanter World Wine Awards is the international competition that celebrates diversity of wine by focusing on regional styles and influence of terroir. This year's results have just been posted up online and you can search the list of all the winners in a number of ways.

Decanter also hosts consumer events. Decanter Fine Wine Encounter takes place in London on 26th - 27th November with 100 of the world's best producers showcasing their wine. Tickets can be bought online. They also run Masterclasses, tutored wine tasting that take place at the Landmark Hotel, London NW1 on Saturday mornings.

For those happy to learn from the comfort of their own home, follow the Learning Route. This takes you through all the basics from tasting to choosing the right glass and a resume of grape varieties in The Great Grape Guide. You can then link up with a wine club or society where you can share your enthusiasm with like minded souls.

Use the Wine Finder to find that elusive bottle amongst the 20,000 or so wines listed, with new wines and regions being added regularly. Vintage Guides is a quickly accessible section where you can assess whether your bottles are ready for drinking or should be kept for a while longer. Fine Wine Tracker keeps track of changing auction values of 2,500 of the world's best wines, dating back to 1978 in the UK and 1996 in the US. To use this free service, you need to register first.

You can of course subscribe to the magazine online and read about the next issue. That is if you have time, as Decanter.com will keep you busy and we didn't even get round to mentioning the competitions.