Is Soave’s garganega gauche or great?
The mainstay of Soave is garganega and the purpose of the tasting was to look at this grape variety to judge whether it deserves the bad press, or if it’s an interesting or even more than interesting grape variety.
Douro grapes – lessons for climate change?
Portugal’s Douro valley is a complex, extreme, mountainous vineyard region; and it’s hot. Given the region’s long viticultural history, the vines tend to be well adapted to the extreme conditions. Vines are planted at river level, from around 100m above sea level, to above 500m up the slopes. Vineyard aspects cover the full 360°. In wine terms, these guys are at the vanguard of how to deal with a warming world.
Languedoc Grands Crus – in the making
A hierarchy of appellations is evolving in the Languedoc. Some of the top ones are reviewed here.
Douro unterraced
While researching a feature on hot climate viticulture in the Douro, I got fascinatingly sidetracked by the complexities of terracing systems in the valley of which there are five different models.
The other Bordeaux
Without the luxury brand power that goes with top classed growth and astronomic A-list status, other Bordeaux producers must put in the hard graft to get their wines noticed.
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
The Fortezza di Montepulciano opened its doors in February 2011, after a long restoration, to host the new release tastings of the new vintage releases – 2008 for Nobile and 2007 for Riserva.
Bordeaux 2010 snapshot
While everyone’s been busy with the en primeurs in Bordeaux, here’s a snapshot from three producers who came to London in March 2010 with a sneak preview of their wines. What these three said is being repeated by the specialist Bordeaux writers after their week of tasting and interviewing – 2010 is looking classically classy.
The coolness of Australian wine
No-one seriously disputes that Tasmania is properly cool climate, but a slightly more confusing picture is emerging on the mainland. And with ‘cool climate’ wines being cool, trendy and of different flavour profile than ‘warm climate’, it’s too easy to let the moniker roll off the tongue without paying due regard to proper climatic data.
IX Selezione dei Vini di Toscana, tasting seminar
Every two years the Tuscans get together for a big wine competition. For this, the ninth Selezione dei Vini di Toscana, judged in November 2010, Jane Hunt MW and oenologist Barbara Tamburini put together ten medal-winning wines for a seminar to highlight what’s happening in Tuscany at the moment.
A sextet of historic Rheingau rieslings
The Rheingau VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter) rocked into London in early March to promote riesling in their small Rheingau region of Germany, and brought along an historic sextet of riesling to illustrate the point.
