Wijnnieuws

What's special about the Willamette Valley's seminal sub-AVA? See also The Eyrie longevity revelation republished today in our Throwback Thursday series. I recently wrote an article (What’s in an AVA?) which looked at how helpful AVAs are for a consumer in determining typicality or quality. My conclusion was that the majority of the 261 AVAs in

19 May 2022 We're republishing this article that gives so much background on Dundee Hills in Oregon to complement Sam's tasting article published today. 10 March 2015 On 22 February 2015 the Lett family celebrated the precise 50th anniversary of the day on which the late David Lett planted the first Pinot Noir vine in Oregon’s Willamette Valley

A language lesson for orange-wine advocates and a whole new (to us) source of them. The late Mike Weersing, founder with his wife Claudia of New Zealand’s Pyramid Valley Wines, asked a question during a masterclass at an early edition of RAW WINE fair in London which went something like this: Why would you discard the skins of white grapes

A Napa Valley leader makes quite a radical adjustment. In spring of 2021 I met with winemaker Cory Empting at Harlan Estate to taste their 2020s from barrel. The wines had just finished malolactic conversion and because of the pandemic no one from outside the winery team had tasted them. The final bottling had not yet been blended so we sampled

Our Spanish specialist, seen above in a Jumilla vineyard, introduces us to the wonders of the Mediterranean coast's Monastrell triangle and its regions. See also details of Ferran's tastings and his tasting notes. One of the great professors of viticulture in Spain is Dr Fernando Martínez de Toda at the University of La Rioja, although he is

In All about Monastrell, also published today, our Spanish specialist introduces us to this powerful Spanish answer to Mourvèdre/Mataro. Here he tastes 72 examples from the grape's Spanish heartland. The conclusion of this tasting is clear: the stylistic revolution towards wines of terroir and elegance is confirmed, but the majority of

Above, James Lawther MW is pointed in the right direction at Ch Troplong Mondot. See also Bordeaux 2021 – a guide. James writes Clearly the right bank, with Merlot the base of everything, had a harder time than the left bank in 2021. Frost, downy mildew and coulure reduced yields considerably and had an impact on quality. But there was some

The winemaking technique no one wants to talk about. A slowly growing number of American winemakers are relying on the winemaking equivalent of a secret weapon. It doesn’t feature prominently in most winery tours as it doesn’t exactly fit in with the romance of oak barrels and sweeping vineyard vistas. In fact, it usually requires its own

How vital is the clear-glass bottle? And what are its implications? A shorter version of this article is published by the Financial Times. The luxury-goods empire LVMH, most frequently associated by wine drinkers with the likes of Krug, Dom Pérignon and first growth bordeaux, has just launched a wine in a plastic bottle. Galoupet Nomade is a

Thinking of opening a restaurant? Read on. In the make-up of restaurants across the UK, Europe, the US, the Middle East and Asia, restaurant agents play a vital role. Yet it is one that receives very little publicity. They earn their income working on behalf of landlords and developers on the one hand and restaurateurs on the other. And if

The real-time screen above reminded us tasters why we need to seek alternatives to the glass bottle. On 11 November last year I was walking along the south bank of the Thames, returning from the noisiest wine tasting I have ever attended, one devoted to wine in packages other than glass bottles. And who should I see walking towards me on his way

An enthusiastic recommendation from our eminent Australian columnist of a wine made by a British Master of Wine. From AU$38, HK$230, £26, $34.98 Find this wine When Tim Wildman MW found out last month that The Wine Society were going to start selling his South Australian pet-nat Astro Bunny in the UK, he was tickled pink. ‘I’m going to

The Xinomavro vines of the Hedgehog Vineyard (pictured) at Alpha Estate in Amyndeon, north-west Greece, continue to produce wines that impress Julia. See our other 2022 spring collections on Spain and Portugal, France, California, Germany and Austria, Italy and the southern hemisphere. What a range of grapes, places and styles here! Tam and

Why the new Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC) may be the gold standard of sustainable certifications. Troon in Oregon, above, is one of the first wine producers to qualify. See also Tam on the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation launch and rationale. I devote most of my waking hours to researching wine. I look at soil maps; I call

Directions to the new cellar at Ch d'Armailhac (Ch Mouton Rothschild in the background). See also Bordeaux 2021 – a guide. James writes Following the hot, ‘solar’ years of the last decade, it’s back to bordeaux of a more classic breed in 2021. The battle for ripeness raged throughout the year, the growers confronted by frost, downy mildew, a

Time to give up the alcohol-free wine… New actors on the stage of no- and low-alcohol drinks continue to pop out from the wings, brandishing promises of health and wellness, flavour and lifestyle transformation. It's definitely in vogue, a movement gathering steam and, it would seem, the lower the alcohol, the higher the moral high ground. While

Image of dogs and Merlot vines at Ch Bauduc courtesy of Gavin Quinney. We have tasted virtually all the wines likely to be of importance in this year's bordeaux en primeur campaign. Those interested in the prices and the value they represent should follow comment in this thread on our Members' forum, not least the charts kindly assembled by Nick

The US is not burdened with Europe's prejudice against non-vinifera vines. Earlier this year I grew curious about the state of wines made from hybrids in North America. So I reached out to two wine writer colleagues, Todd Tzrakos in Vermont and Lenn Thompson in New York, to ask for their help in contacting producers for a tasting at home in

The downs and ups of this popular central Loire appellation. In the 1980s I was based in Paris and Saumur-Champigny, northern heartland of the Saumur appellation, was all the rage. There wasn’t a bistro or brasserie where it didn’t figure prominently on the wine list. Simple and easy drinking, it went down unassumingly with most dishes and wasn

Does the wine industry need to re-think its relationship with soil? The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation suggests that it does.  We tend to think about soil as an inert, static substance, a never-ending abiotic resource at our disposal, to build on, drive on, cover up with paving or tarmac, extract from, exploit and profit from. We’ve mined