Napa Valley traces its wine-growing roots to the 19th century and is today home to some of California’s most celebrated producers, not to mention great restaurants and picturesque vineyard landscapes.

Cabernet Sauvignon is a benchmark variety of the modern era, as reiterated in Decanter correspondent Jonathan Cristaldi's recent review of Napa's star-studded 2023 vintage.

Cabernet displays different sides to its character across the region, which includes 17 sub-appellations – American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) – nested within the wider Napa Valley AVA.

And this isn't the whole story, of course. Both red and white wines thrive across the region, which has more than 34 different grape varieties planted, according to trade body Napa Valley Vintners.

Take our 12-question quiz below to test your knowledge of Napa Valley's vineyards, history and wineries.

Take our Napa Valley wine quiz

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The Luberon is a little-known gem hiding in plain sight.

Rising to more than 1,200m from the lowlands of Provence, the Luberon massif is a huge lump of rock that has been split down the middle by the Aiguebrun river.

Here, narrow, winding roads – bordered on one side by craggy limestone cliffs and on the other by groves of cherry trees laden with plump, scarlet fruit, gnarled olive trees, rows of unruly grape vines and fields of lavender – lead to some of the prettiest (officially) medieval hilltop and hillside villages in France.

Over the years, the region has drawn creative minds ranging from existentialist writer Albert Camus to film director Sir Ridley Scott; Peter Mayle wrote A Year in Provence about his time in the village of Lourmarin.

Nestled within Luberon Regional Nature Park, the region boasts colourful, fragrant markets, rugged gorges, Roman bridges, technicolour ochre deposits, peaceful forests and wonderfully fresh, characterful wines.

Here are six suggestions for making the most of your time there.

Walk around a winery

Vines have been grown in the Luberon since Roman times and today there are some 3,500ha of vineyards, located on both sides of the Luberon massif at an altitude of 200m-450m.

While it sits between Provence (AP Côteaux d’Aix-en-Provence) and the Rhône (AP Ventoux), the Luberon’s wines are distinctly different to those of both, the cooler climate, and particularly the broader spread of temperatures between night and day, imbuing the wines with remarkable freshness.

The obvious must-visit is Mas des Infermières, which is owned by Sir Ridley Scott.

The purpose-built winery features a shop where you can buy wine and a range of local products and view a ‘permanent exhibition’ of props and other memorabilia from Scott’s films, including space suits from Alien, Prometheus and The Martian.

Also worth checking out are: Château de Mille in Apt, the region’s oldest winery, dating back to the 13th century, and once used as the summer residence of the popes; Château la Canorgue in Bonnieux, another vineyard with a Ridley Scott connection – it was the location for his movie A Good Year.

Domaine de la Citadelle, just outside the village of Ménerbes, boasts a corkscrew museum exhibiting more than 1,200 devices dating back to the 1600s; and Châteaux Fontvert and Constantin in Lourmarin.

There are also several good cooperatives, which showcase numerous local wineries’ output in one place. Cave de Sylla in Apt and Cave de Bonnieux in Bonnieux are two of the oldest, both dating back more than a century and offering hundreds of local wines.

Visit a village (or five)

The Luberon boasts five villages officially designated as Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (the Prettiest Villages of France) – Ansouis, Gordes, Lourmarin, Ménerbes and Roussillon – and all are worth a visit, but a place in the pantheon of pretty villages pretty much guarantees popularity with tourists, so take some time to go beyond this ‘famous five’ and explore some of the smaller, lesser-known villages.

Perhaps Goult, home to the Moulin de Jérusalem, a beautifully restored 1750 windmill situated at the village’s peak and offering stunning views of the valley.

Or wander around the remarkably well-preserved Lacoste, once home to the Marquis de Sade, whose castle was restored by fashion designer Pierre Cardin in the early 2000s.

If it’s views you’re after, another option is Saignon, which was born as a lookout post for the town of Apt, thanks to its peerless vantage point down the Luberon valley to the west, as far as the Rhône valley.

If, like me, you have a thing for old doorways, then St-Saturnin-lès-Apt is for you – three of the doorways in the central Rue de la Republique are so special that they’ve been listed as historical monuments.

And finally, for something a bit different, check out the Village des Bories, an open-air museum of 20 or so dry stone huts located a few minutes from Gordes.

Make your way to a market

One of the best times to visit the Luberon’s villages is on market day, when traders come from far and wide to sell their wares and the streets and squares buzz and bustle with shoppers and browsers.

And regardless of the day of the week, there will be more than one village market taking place somewhere in the Luberon.

The largest, with up to 300 stalls – and a history that dates back nine centuries – is held on Saturday mornings in Apt.

The markets in Lourmarin, Gordes and Roussillon are also popular or, for a more relaxed experience, try Cucuron’s very authentic village market, situated under the shade of towering plane trees.

While all of these markets will feature a mixture of food, flowers, homewares and clothing, some have a particular point of difference.

Coustellet’s is a dedicated farmers’ market (marché paysan), where vendors sell only what they grow or produce themselves.

The Sunday market in L’Islesur-la-Sorgue – known as the Venice of Provence for its network of canals and other waterways – is known for antiques and its annual floating market.

On the first Sunday of August, traders in traditional flat-bottomed boats (négos-chins) adorned with fresh flowers slip from bank to bank of the Sorgue river to serve customers.

As the market draws to a close, the négos-chins line up in the river and sing the Coupo Santo – the official regional anthem of Provence.

Rock out

The Luberon is home to several geological marvels, the most spectacular of which is the world’s largest ochre deposit, which stretches 25km from west to east between the villages of Goult and Gignac.

The ochre, a mix of sand and clay naturally pigmented by iron oxides, comes in a remarkable array of hues, and has been mined since the late 18th century.

It has been sculpted by water, wind and people into a range of fascinating forms, from towering technicolour pillars to deep canyons.

There are a number of ways to experience it: the Sentier des Ocres, a pair of short loop trails that set out from Roussillon village (where the ochre has been used to colour the facades of many of the houses); the Colorado Provençal near Rustrel, an expansive former open-cast mine; and Bruoux Mines in Gargas, which features more than 40km of hand-carved, cathedral-like underground galleries.

Roussillon is also home to Okhra, an ochre museum housed in a former ochre factory.

Indulge in a long lunch

Unsurprisingly, the Luberon is blessed with a plethora of excellent dining options, from simple rustic cafes to Michelin-starred gastronomic temples, but to really soak up the Luberon vibe, stop for lunch on a terrace – preferably with a view.

The terrace at Café de France (+33 [0]4 90 75 82 25) in Lacoste enjoys a remarkable view of the valley and the picturesque village of Bonnieux on the opposite hillside.

You can look back the other way from Michelin one-star La Bastide de Capelongue in Bonnieux.

La Bastide de Marie in Ménerbes offers tranquil dining on a terrace set amid beautiful gardens and vineyards, with views of the surrounding landscape.

If you’ve had your fill of views, Insitio in the charming village of Vaugines (where Peter Mayle spent his final years), has a terrace in the main square beside a pretty ‘living’ fountain.

And finally there’s Le Fournil (@lefournil_ bonnieux_) in Bonnieux, which is set in a former bakery in a natural cave in the hillside but also boasts an intimate outdoor terrace on the shaded Place Carnot.

Look for some lavender

The Luberon has long been a centre for lavender growing and each year from mid-June to mid-July, when the harvest typically starts, large parts of the region turn purple.

One of the most picturesque sites is the 12th-century (but still inhabited) Notre-Dame de Sénanque Abbey, set in a secluded valley near Gordes.

The lavender grown by the monks is harvested by a local distiller, who transforms it into essential oil and handmade products sold at the abbey.

Or head to the Claparèdes plateau, between Bonnieux and Saignon, where an 8km loop trail weaves among landscapes in which rows of lavender stretch as far as the eye can see.

Many of the region’s lavender farms welcome visitors, as do the distilleries that transform the flowers into lavender oil.

The Aroma’Plantes distillery in Sault offers tours and workshops, and has a shop with more than 600 farm products.

There’s even a lavender museum in Coustellet with a collection of copper stills, some of which date back to the 16th century.

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The path of documenting London’s top wine lists is well-trodden but here my recommendations focus on value, the food offerings alongside, a few regional specialities and a wholly positive and personal attitude to wine selection and service.

There are, of course, treasures to be found amongst 200-page tomes in Michelin starred dining rooms, but you will not find them documented here, instead lists compiled, and often served, by the restaurant owners themselves.

Best London restaurant wine lists

Blandford Comptoir

Part of a larger restaurant group owned by two Master Sommeliers, Gearoid Devaney and Xavier Rousset, Blandford Comptoir was chosen above the others for its particular focus on the Rhône Valley. A quick glance through the list would lead you to believe this is the finest Rhône list in London, and you wouldn’t be wrong. A whole page devoted each to Côte Rotie, Hermitage, Cornas and Châteauneuf-du-Pape with references over forty years of age, even in Crozes-Hermitage. With more Condrieu and Saint-Péray than you could drink in a year, there is something for every Rhône lover to accompany the short but perfectly formed food menu. An absolute treasure trove.

Cloth

New to the scene in 2024, Cloth is a restaurant by wine lovers, for wine lovers. The food here is classic and exceptional, but the wine list is the real point of difference. It is incredibly rare for such a young restaurant to have such an extensive, broad and mature wine offering. Each subsection of the list has not only value picks but something to offer the drinker craving serious bottle age and the prices are more than fair.

Dorian

The myth and legend that surrounds ‘local bistro’ Dorian in Notting Hill is palpable. It goes without saying that not only is this the hottest ticket in town, but chef Max Coen is turning out some of the finest dishes in London. In addition to that, owner Chris D’Sylva is making more than a concerted effort across the whole group to make the wine offering as good as anywhere in the capital. For those looking for the upper echelons of classic fine wine you can find them here with cash margins applied, but it will also more than quench the thirst of those seeking anything from entry level wines from the coolest Burgundy growers to the uber trendy La Bota Florpower.

Don’t miss the ultimate wine experience – book your tickets now for the Decanter Fine Wine Encounter London 2026

High Timber

High Timber is unquestionably one of the finest places to drink South African wine outside the Cape. Owned by Gary and Kathy Jordan of Jordan Wine Estate alongside the wonderful Neleen Strauss, there is a limited wine offering on the surface. That is, I have come to believe, only because there is too much to catalogue including gems that, truthfully, Neleen would rather not sell. A dive down through the two private dining rooms to the cellar will reveal hundreds of Cape Winemakers Guild Auction bottlings, mature vintages and some of the rarest wines South Africa has produced. You will find old world classics at great prices here too, but it’s not the primary focus for most of the clientele. If you are looking for an extensive steak offering with mature examples of Sadie, Alheit and dozens more then this is for you.

Hunan

Opened in 1982 on the Pimlico Road by ‘Mr Peng’, Hunan has been one of London’s finest Chinese restaurants for over four decades. Now run by his son, Michael, this iconic establishment has one of the very best wine lists in the capital. If you think the food only pairs well with off-dry whites then think again, there is as much fine Burgundy imbibed here than as anywhere else. Michael’s cataloguing is occasional haphazard which only adds to the charm. A scrap of paper with new arrivals yet to hit the list often circulates and before the ink dries there is occasionally a deal to be done. This is truly one of London’s great wine hotspots.

Noble Rot

It would be impossible to compile a list of this nature without the inclusion of Noble Rot which, started by Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew, has become a global icon for wine. The food is overseen by Stephen Harris of The Sportsman in Kent, which is reason enough to go, but the wine lists at all three venues are legendary. For the purposes of nostalgia, I would recommend the original Lambs Conduit Street site, but you will not be disappointed by Mayfair or Soho either. The list here caters for all tastes and all budgets and is surely the most iconic restaurant in the capital for wine lovers.

Quality Wines

Under the guise of the Woodhead Group, Will Lander has furnished the capital with five phenomenal restaurants all worthy of this list. However, given that only one could make the cut, it must be Quality Wines in uber trendy Farringdon. The food is more simple than Michelin star Portland or 64 Goodge Street, but the wine list is as eclectic as it is deep, with mature by-the-glass offerings changing daily. There are big names at fair prices alongside undiscovered gems from the Loire to Lebanon and everything in between.

The Arches

Once a regular wine trade haunt, owned by the late, great Harry Gill, the reputation of Arches was legendary in the pre-social media and influencer era. Harry built one of the finest wine collections in the UK and would be regularly found walking the dining room sharing anonymous bottles with his regulars, taking huge pleasure in realising they had, once again, misidentified Henri Jayer for something far less impressive.

The restaurant is adorned with thousands of trophies in the form of bottles long since departed and every inch of the walls is dedicated to the good life. Now run by his partner, Ivana, this vinous treasure flies under the radar and has more than a few classics at astonishing prices to pair with your perfectly cooked sirloin.

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Now in its 12th edition, the Salon of Decanter medal winners took place last week at the Brdo Congress Centre in Slovenia. The one-day event brought together more than 45 producers from Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy and France to show off their medal-winning wines from Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) 2026.

Trade and consumers could taste lesser-known indigenous varieties alongside distinctive takes on international grapes and explore the regions' terroirs.

DWWA Co-Chair Andrew Jefford and Dr Caroline Gilby MW, Regional Chair for the Balkans, Central & Eastern Europe and Croatia & Slovenia, were guests of honour.

Jefford called the competition 'a super pillar in my working life', and said he looks forward to judging each year because he gets to 'taste wines from regions which are moving really fast in the wine world'.

Gilby highlighted that the standard in this year's judging was especially encouraging.

Slovenia's year

Slovenia had lots to celebrate in 2026. The country received 202 medals in total, including two Platinum medals. One of those went to the Puklavec Family Wines Welschriesling from 1993, a reminder that the country can make sweet wines that age gracefully.

The DWWA 2026 Platinum and Gold medal winners from Slovenia available to try were:

• Steras, Refošk, Primorska 2024 (Platinum, 97 points)
• Puklavec Family Wines, Jeruzalem Ormož Spätlese Edition 2 Welschriesling, Štajerska Slovenija, Podravje 1993 (Platinum, 97 points)
• Kristancic, Artwork Red, Goriška Brda, Primorska 2021 (Gold, 96 points)
• Puklavec Family Wines, Seven Numbers Brut, Štajerska Slovenija, Podravje 2019 (Gold, 96 points)
• Radgonske Gorice, Zlata Radgonska Penina Brut Nature, Štajerska Slovenija, Podravje 2021 (Gold, 96 points)
• Bagueri, Superior Rebula, Goriška Brda, Primorska 2021 (Gold, 95 points)
• Bizjak, Rebula, Goriška Brda, Primorska 2025 (Gold, 95 points)
• Bjana, Blanc De Noirs Brut Nature, Goriška Brda, Primorska 2022 (Gold, 95 points)
• Bjana, Brut Zero, Goriška Brda, Primorska 2021 (Gold, 95 points)
• Guerila, Pinela, Vipavska Dolina, Primorska 2024 (Gold, 95 points)
• Guštin, Classic Malvazija, Vipavska Dolina, Primorska 2022 (Gold, 95 points)
• Nebo, Brda Selection Merlot, Goriška Brda, Primorska 2021 (Gold, 95 points)
• Ptujska Klet, Maximus Cuvée 777, Štajerska Slovenija, Podravje NV (Gold, 95 points)
• Zaro, Eazy Refošk, Slovenska Istra, Primorska 2023 (Gold, 95 points)

More Silver and Bronze medals were also on pour.

Beyond Slovenia

The wider Balkans had a strong year too. Croatia won 40 top-tier medals, among them its first Best in Show for a Plavac Mali. Serbia collected three Platinum and seven Gold medals while Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina secured Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.

Success for native grapes is a big part of the story. 'I've long been a champion of them because they are so connected to place,' said Gilby.

Special thanks to Robert Gorjak and Belvin Wine School. Visit Belvin for more information.

Search all DWWA 2026 award-winning wines

Launched in March 2025, Zacal Mezcal brands itself as ‘the spirit for wine lovers’.

Co-founder Andrew Maidment claims: ‘Like with wine, a mezcal’s identity is shaped by soil, altitude and climate... and it has remarkably nuanced varietal expression.’ But which is more important for this agave spirit – varietal or terroir?

Esteban Morales is known as the terroir expert, with each of his Derrumbes mezcals produced in a different Mexican state, but he first champions the plant.

‘Agave is a genus, not a species like Vitis vinifera, under which you get [virtually] all the grape varieties we know. There are more than 200 species of agave and then, beneath those, are the varieties – as many as 80 each. Imagine the scope.’

In practice, mezcaleros use a small proportion of those varieties, with espadín (Agave angustifolia) the most widely cultivated for mezcal production. But, as interest in mezcal increases, there’s a demand for the less obvious.

Tom Bartram from Speciality Brands, the UK importer of Derrumbes, explains: ‘In Oaxaca, the espadín variety dominates, but there are unusual varieties such as Agave karwinskii, which has green grass notes and a touch of bark bitterness. Or tepeztate [A. marmorata], which can be quite floral, but with funky notes.

'Derrumbes Durango [Alc 45%, £48.95-£49.95/70cl Master of Malt, Nickolls & Perks, Vine & Bine] is made from Agave durangensis – it’s citrus-led but with a creamy texture, like nectarine Petits Filous!’

The case for mezcal terroir

Meanwhile, Mezcal Júrame is made from wild Agave salmiana, but founder Elia Viramontes is in no doubt about the priority. ‘Terroir is most important. You could plant salmiana somewhere else but it would grow in a different shape and have a completely different flavour.

'The salmiana provides the pepper character, but the herbal notes come from the soil, from the cactus and bushes it grows alongside.’

Morales agrees. ‘Each plant spends eight, 12 years in the ground in interaction with the soil, the environment, the microclimate. It’s like planting a vine – you don’t harvest for years, until that plant really expresses the terroir.’

Often, the terroir dictates the varietal. Zacal produces a 100% manso de Sahuayo (A. americana var. sahuayensis; Alc 45%, £62.95-£67.67 Master of Malt, Tesco), a localised variety. As Maidment says: ‘The town is Sahuayo, the land is Sahuayo, the agave is Sahuayo – they’re indistinguishable.’

One to try

Júrame Joven

£61.95/70cl Master of Malt

Júrame has an excellent reposado, but mezcal’s varietal and terroir character is best tasted unaged. This has a real bite of jalapeño and lime, but with added complexity of garrigue aromas. Alcohol 40%

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Reach age 35 and you’re out. Time to quit. You’re past it; too old. This is Germany’s Generation Riesling – a group for young growers, founded in 2006 (initially to challenge outdated perceptions of Germany in the UK market).

In early summer 2026, I visited six Generation Riesling domains. Young, I discovered, is simultaneously old: the newest domain was run by the third generation of the same family, the oldest by the 13th generation. Not only that, but a toddler was on hand to lend anarchic fun to the welcome at four of the wineries, and at least one of the winemakers was visibly pregnant (with her second child) – the following generation is on the way. It all felt very fecund – and consequently joyful.

By self-selection, of course: any domain with no new faces at the helm wouldn’t qualify. Germany has succession issues, too. The nation lost 1,300ha of vines in 2025, and wine sales in supermarkets (where Germans buy most of their wines) dropped by 7% during the same 12 months.

The price of bulk Rheinhessen Riesling, said Pauline Baumberger of the eponymous Nahe domain (which only sells bottled wine, all natural, under the Glow Glow label) was 80 cents/litre, well below cost price. ‘It’s really tough. For many older farmers, vines were supposed to provide their retirement income.’

In Mandel, the Baumbergers’ village, they say there were once 500ha of vines; only 110ha remain.

What struck me was the creativity of Germany’s younger winemakers. While it’s true that most of the country’s finest wines are still made with Riesling, this is more often Generation Try Anything: 15 different varieties are grown at Bastianshauser Hof in the Rheinhessen; 18 at Victoria Bretz’s winery in the same region; while Laura Weber in the Nahe grows 17.

Every winery I visited offered sparkling wine, whites, reds (blends included) and pink wines; many had natural wines, orange wines and wines made from new disease-resistant (Piwi) varieties, too.

The creativity went into overdrive for the non-alcoholic alternatives: in the Nahe, Forster produces a grape-based kombucha with carrot, tea and lemon mint, while the Baumberger family makes a blend of grape juice and verjus with lemon-balm and wormwood tea and lacto-fermented raspberry juice. (Crafted originals of this sort don’t suffer from the ‘hollow middle’ that makes so many dealcoholised wines a disappointment.)

I’d expected diversity in the Rheinhessen, Germany’s largest wine region, where rolling hills, low-stress loess and clay soils and mixed agriculture predispose growers to ingenuity; it was, though, a surprise in the Nahe, where the slopes are steeper, yields are lower and the climate is still cool.

A talented newcomer such as Laura Weber produces polished classics (notably Rieslings from the Monziger Halenberg and Frühlingplätzchen vineyards), but her 44-strong list also includes Sauvignon Gris, Bacchus and a ‘Surprise’ blend of Sauvignon and Scheurebe (see below), as well as Dornfelder, Frühburgunder and Spätburgunder (the estate’s oldest vines are now Pinot Noir). Not everything the youngsters attempt is successful, but you’ll never be bored in the New Germany.

It’s hard not to draw comparisons with France. Germany may have lost 1,300ha in 2025, but France has almost 28,000ha earmarked for grubbing up this year.

Yes, you can be creative with grape varieties, blends and wine styles in France – but only at the expense of losing your right to appellation status, and often with it origin and identity. Creativity means ‘demotion’ to IGP or Vin de France status.

I don’t know a single Languedoc domain with 86 different wines on offer, as the Bretz family in Rheinhessen’s Bechtolsheim has – nor one that could manage to make quite such a good living from wines which sell at less than €10 a bottle.

The Generation Riesling lessons: don’t throttle your youngsters with rules, or poison them with tradition. Imagination tastes good, too.

In my glass this month

I loved Laura Weber’s Nahe Riesling classics, but since we’re saluting imagination let me describe her Duo Surprise No1 Trocken 2025.

There’s no point in making a blend unless each variety plays a role and the result is unique. Here, Scheurebe brings haunting grapefruit and rose aromas; Sauvignon Blanc then brings its lively vegetal wealth to a poised 12.5% palate, which is in turn lifted further by the Scheurebe perfumes. Perfect late-summer drinking.

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Austria’s prowess in delivering complex, terroir-driven white wines from key grape varieties in several regions was on full display at Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) 2026. Geological diversity and winemaking skill make Austria a superb source of high-quality, site-specific white wines, such as iterations of Grüner Veltliner and Riesling across neighbouring Kamptal, Kremstal and Wachau, northwest of Vienna in Niederösterreich.

Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc) is another variety to watch in Wachau, despite constituting just 1.5% of planted vineyards, according to the Austrian Wine Marketing Board. To the south and southeast of Vienna, Burgenland’s relatively warm climate also offers complex white wines alongside its superb reds. All feature among the top medals at DWWA 2026, following a rigorous judging process with leading experts.

Master Sommelier Stefan Neumann, DWWA Regional Chair for Austria (and Switzerland) highlighted ‘simply stunning’ Kamptal wines, in particular, praising ‘the ultimate balance of power, elegance and sheer joy in the glass, regardless of grape, vintage or site’.

Overall, Neumann said, ‘many wines beautifully showed a strong sense of place – a magical triangle: grape, vintage and winemaker in perfect harmony.’

Top awarded Austrian white wines at DWWA 2026

Best in Show

Birgit Eichinger, Grüner Veltliner Ried Lamm 1ÖTW, Kamptal 2024

Best in Show, 97 points
£38 Justerini &Brooks
This is the first-ever Best in Show appearance by a wine from Austria’s Kamptal, and the judges who had a chance to assess this wine were impressed by its texture, layering, complexity and what one judge called its ‘strength of fruit’. Grüner Veltliner is never a forceful or focused aromatic variety, but the soft melding of apple, yellow plum, wild meadow flowers and gentle crème anglaise notes (all hints, nothing spelt out) makes for a winning aromatic profile. On the palate, the wine is richly textured and powerful, tumbling and unfolding over the tongue; it retains an orchard fruit focus while at the same time hinting at something a little more exotic and high-summery. The acidity is soft, tender and drips with fruit intensity. Magnificently limpid winemaking with raw materials that must surely come from a fine site or combination of sites. Alcohol 13%

Domäne Roland Chan, Wösendorf Alte Reben Weissburgunder Smaragd, Wachau 2023

Best in Show, 97 points
domaene-rolandchan.at
This is the second appearance of a Wachau wine in our Best in Show selection, and the first for an Austrian Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc) wine from any region. It’s bright gold, with rich, warm aromas in which the fruit notes (apple, pear, melon and peach) are sketched out with the discretion and restraint typical for this variety. On the palate, though, the wine is more Wachau than Weissburgunder, and crafted in ripe, Smaragd style. This word literally means ‘emerald’ and refers to the green lizards that frequent the Wachau terrace walls in summer; it’s used for wines made from the ripest musts, generally given some bottle age. You’ll find all of that in the plush palate profile, with its ample textures and long, clean, comforting finish. For all that, it’s a Smaragd of some delicacy, and amenable to a wide range of food partnerships. Alc 14%

Burgenland

Gesellmann, Chardonnay Ried Steinriegel 2023

Gold, 96 points
gesellmann.at
Complex notes of crunchy yellow apple, toasted almond and wet stone minerals with expertly handled citrus acidity and a topping of summer blossom to end. Alc 13.5%

Salzl Seewinkelhof, Grüner Veltliner 2025

Value Gold, 95 points
salzl.at
Passion fruit, white apple puree and creamed peach entwine with orange sherbet acidity and a wonderful waxy texture. Delicate peppery spice drives a long finish. Alc 13%

Niederösterreich

Birgit Eichinger, Riesling Ried Heiligenstein 1ÖTW, Kamptal 2024

Platinum, 97 points
£46 Justerini & Brooks
Citrus blossom, peach, apricot and dried mango peel on the nose and mineral palate, buffered by searing lime acidity. Tense and focused; one for the long haul. Alc 13%

Gritsch, Grüner Veltliner Ried Singerriedel, Wachau 2024

Platinum, 97 points
gritsch.at
Pear, mango, cantaloupe melon and honeyed nectarine on both the nose and palate, with lime blossom and fresh grapefruit. Creamy and full, exhibiting the ripeness and power of Wachau. Alc 13.5%

Weingut Müller, Grüner Veltliner Ried Gottschelle, Kremstal 2024

Platinum, 97 points
weingutmueller.at
Grilled green asparagus and fresh garrigue herb aromas lead into white peach and apricot. Chalky texture brings backbone and precision, while superb grapefruit acidity gives benchmark vitality. Alc 13%

Domäne Wachau, Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Ried Achleiten, Wachau 2024

Gold, 95 points
domaene-wachau.at
Intense ripe stone fruit, camomile tea and cashew nut aromas. White grapefruit acidity and a delectable saline grip give tension. Wine with attitude. Alc 13.5%

Laurenz V, Friendly Grüner Veltliner, Kamptal 2024

Top Value Gold, 95 points
laurenzfive.com
Graceful linden flower, sweet pea and camomile tea merge into peachy, orchard-fruit opulence along with zesty acidity and a white pepper finish. Alc 13.5%

Rabl, Rote Erde Riesling Ried Steinhaus, Kamptal 2024

Gold, 95 points
weingut-rabl.at
Delicious sweet nectarine, salted lemon and floral perfumes mingle with the smoky, mineral structure and appetisingly bright acidity. Expressive and inviting. Alc 13.5%

Sax, Grüner Veltliner Alte Reben Reserve, Kamptal 2024

Gold, 95 points
winzersax.at
Full of rich apricot, peach and honeyed melon characters with plenty of zesty citrus backbone. Lively, waxy and lustrous with a tea-infused finish. Alc 13.5%

Steiermark

Krispel, Weissburgunder Ried Neusetzberg, Vulkanland 2023

Gold, 95 points
krispel.at
Lively citrus, plump yellow apple and fleshy white peach notes bustle over a strong mineral core with chiselled acidity and a chalky texture. Lengthy and floral. Alc 13%

Discover full results at awards.decanter.com

A collective ‘oooh’ rippled as the plates were brought out: gleaming nuggets of gold batter with precisely piped globules of sauce (ketchup, sweet chilli and an oniony mayonnaise flavoured like Monster Munch crisps).

Next came wine glasses wafting floral and mandarin notes. The collective silence that followed was applause enough.

Chicken nuggets had met their soulmate, and it wasn’t a syrupy pop, or soda, from a machine, but an elegant Slovenian orange wine.

More unorthodox pairings ensued (including a McDonald’s burger with a spicy Bulgarian red blend, and gloriously crispy fish and chips with Danbury Ridge’s English fizz from Essex) but none could top this.

From bubblegum-pink jumpsuits to Y2K denim waistcoats, the clientele looked more like they were heading to a Dua Lipa concert than a wine tasting.

But this was no ordinary wine tasting: it was Crystal Palace Wine Club’s sell-out junk food and wine pairing night, which, since it was founded in 2022, has become a major hit with London’s cool young epicures.

‘We have tote bags saying, “Wine without the bullsh*t”,’ says Tom Grater, the bar’s owner. ‘People often feel intimidated going to a wine bar. We want to democratise that experience. That dovetailed really nicely with the junk food pairings. After all, it’s just a bit silly, isn’t it?’

Industry reports seem to take perverse delight in proclaiming that young people aren’t drinking, heralding the death of wine as we know it.

However, the booming popularity of new, more irreverent event formats – from wine raves to Taylor Swift-themed tastings – would suggest otherwise.

Wine to a new beat

One example is Bêvèrãgęš (@nybeverages). Launched by DJ and creative director Jake O’Donnell and his friends five years ago, it’s described as Brooklyn’s rowdiest natural wine party.

The wine rave pops up at different venues across New York throughout the summer and regularly attracts more than 1,000 people with its combination of ‘natty’ wines and dance music.

‘There were too many stuffy, sit-down, quiet, boring wine bars. We knew the city needed something different,’ O’Donnell explains. ‘Our parties start at around 3-4pm. By 8 or 9pm, it’s ripping. Then we finish about midnight. It’s usually a nice mix of wine nerds and party people.’

London is in on the trend, too. Jake Norman and Joshua Bratt, general managers at two of London’s trendiest restaurants (Trullo and Carousel, respectively) started their own wine rave, Close Ties, as a roving party for their hospitality trade mates on rare days off. However, it has evolved into one of the hottest tickets around for young gourmands.

‘We try to curate , taking over spaces and bringing together best-in-class food, drink and DJs,’ Bratt says.

‘We tend to stick to lesser-known regions to try to offer quality wines we’re excited about and that people are on board with price-wise. This has led to a big focus on Central and Eastern Europe throughout the years. It’s a great thing to see people who aren’t into wine getting excited about a glass of Blaufränkisch or Furmint.’

Norman adds: ‘It’s definitely a young crowd with people who are into wine to some degree, but who might not know about the producers that people in the trade are excited about. Close Ties events are a space for anyone who likes tasty things and a good time to get together and let loose.’

Creative approach

If one evening of raving isn’t enough, whole festivals are emerging dedicated to pairing good wine with modern music. Electronic Wine in Koblenz, Germany, is for die-hard club music fans (especially those who also enjoy a good Riesling – the city sits at the confluence of the Mosel and Rhine rivers).

It attracts around 14,000 people, most under the age of 40. Meanwhile, in northern Spain, MUWI La Rioja Music Fest blends performances by indie, pop and electronic artists with guided tastings and visits to local wineries in Rioja’s main city of Logroño.

Unconventional food and wine pairings are going viral on social media and translating to real-life footfall – whether that’s hot dog and wine matching nights at Le Vignoble, a wine bar in central Bristol, in England’s southwest; or the queues of TikTokers lining up for the hit ice cream and wine bar experience at Folderol in Paris and The Dreamery in north London.

Even more traditional wine companies are getting in on the action. In the UK, members’ club retailer The Wine Society has been piloting fresh event formats aimed at attracting a younger crowd.

‘Themed evenings such as our Fried Chicken & Champagne night proved that wine exploration can be fun, social and joyful,’ says Tim Schwilk, the Society’s head of tastings and events.

The Wine Society has also experimented with DJs and self-pour ‘discovery stations’, which some drinkers might find less intimidating than the traditional pouring station with a staff member standing behind it.

‘People say Gen Z doesn’t drink, but I haven’t seen those people. Everyone I know drinks just as much as older generations,’ says Thomas Wright, a 26-year-old wine lover from London. ‘It was the cost-of-living crisis that meant we’ve maybe been drinking a bit less.’

Even so, he believes it would help if wine was promoted as something to enjoy while watching sport or during live music.

‘Get wine associated with things young people actually do: beer companies have been so successful with that. Doing events that are more fun and funky makes a difference, too. You realise you don’t just have to have wine with cheese.’

Thirst for knowledge

Yet anything that veers into ‘patronising gimmick’ territory risks having the opposite effect and it’s impossible to paint a whole generation with the same brush.

‘I personally am only interested in super-serious wine events,’ says Cokie Ponikvar, a 25-year-old sommelier and wine influencer based in Canada. Young people want to be taken seriously, and when there’s a wine event that does that, they really appreciate it.’

Ponikvar’s Instagram account (@cokiesworldofwine) has about 500,000 followers. Her videos, where she documents her journey studying for both the Master Sommelier and Master of Wine exams simultaneously, regularly get 10 million views or more – with around 90% of those from people under the age of 35.

‘What people get wrong is thinking that young people are different from anyone else,’ she adds. ‘If you just make something that’s easy to understand, everyone will like it. It just so happens that more young people are on social media.’

Unfortunately, Ponikvar has faced poor behaviour from others in the wine world because of her age.

‘People just don’t take you seriously as a young person. I’ve left crying from wine experiences three times because the people were so inhospitable. One incident happened at an incredibly well-regarded winery, another at a top restaurant. Someone once yelled at me – even though my behaviour was completely appropriate and polite. It makes wine uncomfortable, it’s rude and it’s mean.’

Luckily such examples are also notable for their rarity and most wine companies are acutely aware of the need to welcome in the next generation.

For someone in their 20s who’s interested in but a bit intimidated by wine, Ponikvar suggests getting a copy of Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine by Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack (Avery, 2015: £23 winefolly.com), a book aimed at beginners with funky infographics and colourful explainers.

‘Also get certified and take some exams: knowledge is power in wine,’ she adds.

Overall, then, the picture is positive. Wine isn’t losing a generation, it’s being reimagined by one, in louder rooms, with odder pairings and fewer rules.

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With over 10,000 different grape varieties grown worldwide, Vranec/Vranac might be one you’ve not yet heard of, but this red grape variety is one that has started to gain international recognition beyond its native borders.

Vranec finds its roots in the Balkan Peninsula, primarily in Montenegro where it accounts for more than half of all vineyard plantings, as well as parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Croatia and Serbia. The name ‘Vranec’ roughly translates to ‘strong black’, a fitting tribute to its darkly-coloured grapes and powerful wine character.

Typically produced varietally, Vranec wines are deep red in colour, full in body and rich taste, ranging in flavours from cherry and blackcurrant to herbs and oak-derived chocolatey notes.

Due to the berries’ high sugar content, Vranec wines are typically high in alcohol, adding to the wines’ body, and balanced by high tannins and pleasant acidity. These structural qualities make it ideal for oak and bottle ageing.

Scroll down to discover 10 award-winning Vranec dominant wines from DWWA 2026

At Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) 2026, one Vranec-dominant wine from Montenegro was awarded a Gold medal and 95 points. Plantaže, Cuvée Terroir Stari Podrum 2020 was highly awarded by the judges for its intrepid blackberry, plum, sweet spicy aromas and meaty texture. Montenegro received four more Silver medals, while Croatia surprised with two Silver medals.

From North Macedonia two varietal wines received a Silver medal with Wine Cellar Popovi, Dark Horse Vranec, Tikvesh, Povardarje 2022 scoring 92 points and recognised by the judges for its expressive and perfumed violets scents and ripe silky tannins.

To familiarise yourself with benchmark examples of Vranec, below discover a selection of awarded Vranec dominant blends from DWWA 2026. Search more results at awards.decanter.com

World Vranec Day: DWWA-winning wines to try

Croatia

Divina, Vranac, Primorska Hrvatska, Coastal 2022
Silver, 92 points
Some minty character with aromas of ripe blackberries, loganberry, sweet spices and tobacco touches. Full body, with lots of grainy tannins. Alcohol 15%

Grabovac, Riserva Vranac, Dalmatinska Zagora, Coastal 2020
Silver, 90 points
Very powerful style, with aromas of dark chocolate, graphite, black cherries and cedar. Spicy on the palate, with angular tannins. Alc 15%

Montenegro

Plantaže, Cuvée Terroir Stari Podrum 2020
Gold, 95 points
Intrepid blackberry, cherry, plum and sweet spice aromas fold into the fulsome palate, furnished with meaty texture, graphite tannins and racy acidity. Long and rounded. Alc 15%

Plantaže, Barrique Vranac 2021
Silver, 92 points
Expressive nose, showing aromas of oregano, blackcurrant jam, Ribena and roasted coffee. Well structured on the palate, juicy and vibrant. Alc 14.5 %

Plantaže, Réserve Vranac 2018
Silver, 91 points
Attractive nose of blackberries, dark cherry, prunes, and intensive but integrated oak. Juicy and vibrant on the palate, lightly savoury. Alc 14.5%

Plantaže, Stari Podrum Vranac 2018
Silver, 90 points
Developing nose with savoury forest floor and dark cherry aromas. Juicy and bold, with a vibrant crisp acidity, seductive and appealing. Alc 14.5%

Vida, Cuvée 2023
Silver, 90 points
Elegant and pure on the nose, vibrant aromas of blue fruits, sweet spices, tobacco and smoky undertones. Elegant and rounded finish. Alc 13.16%

North Macedonia

Wine Cellar Popovi, Dark Horse Vranec, Tikvesh, Povardarje 2022
Silver, 92 points
Expressive and perfumed, displaying violet scents with prominent moka and oak spices, notes of aronia. Ripe and silky tannins. Alc 14.5%

Tikves, Bela Voda, Tikvesh, Povardarje 2022
Silver, 90 points
Deep blackberry and blueberry nose with savoury undertones of meat and bacon. Powerful, with a tightly wound structure of tannins. Alc 15.96%

Serbia

Vinarija Unikat, Vranac, Mlava, Šumadija-Great Morava 2019
Silver, 90 points
Expressive aromas of cherry liqueur, blackberries, pomegranate, vanilla, liquorice and chocolate. Solid freshness, well shaped and juicy. Long finish. Alc 14%

Search all DWWA 2026 results

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The long days in Biarritz followed the same perfect rhythm: a morning surf, lunch and a siesta, then an evening surf followed by dinner.

Salty and sunkissed, we would slide into the local bars for pintxos and the catch of the day. Surfing leaves one hollowed out in a good way, and nothing filled that hollow like the local fare paired with the local white wines – sharp, saline, electric things that tasted like a perfect synthesis between the Atlantic out front and the Pyrenees behind.

These wines of Earthsea, I learned, were from Irouléguy, a hidden appellation east of Biarritz. With mysterious names, grapes and scripts, they open yet another dimension of French wine.

Irouléguy is the only AP within the Pays Basque – the French Basque Country, in that vast, undifferentiated region known as Southwest France.

A sliver of vines covering just 270ha or so, scattered across 15 villages in the foothills of the western Pyrenees, around St-Etienne-de-Baïgorry and St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the latter a storied pilgrim town that marks the start of the Camino Francés, the most popular route of the Camino de Santiago.

It’s French on the map and not far from Spain, but it’s Basque through and through: the bottles carry wording in Euskara, the Basque language, the villages are whitewashed and red-shuttered, the people, wine and cuisine speak their own vernacular.

Decline & rebirth

Vines have grown here since monks from the Abbey of Roncesvalles, on the Spanish side, planted them to refresh pilgrims on the route to Santiago de Compostela around the 11th century.

When the Treaty of the Pyrenees redrew the border in 1659, the vineyards ended up on the French side and passed to local farmers. Yet phylloxera and two world wars reduced the already small appellation to a mere 30ha of vines by 1950.

Almost forgotten, a handful of growers rallied to found a cooperative in 1952 and an AOC (now AP) was granted in 1970.

Independent domaines have since multiplied – from a dozen a decade ago to more than 20 today – in one of the more striking grassroots revivals in contemporary French wine.

The renowned geologist Yves Hérody, who spent seven years mapping Irouléguy’s soils, refers to the Basque Country as ‘a giant accordion that has been playing music for nearly a billion years’.

Red sandstone dominates, with pockets of ophite, a dark volcanic rock, and schist and limestone.

Most of the vines cling to hand-carved terraces on slopes that can almost be called cliffs. This is heroic viticulture in the most literal sense, every harvest done on foot, by hand, often on a rope.

Eight in 10 vignerons farm these bright green hills organically, a remarkable commitment given the relentless rain.

The Atlantic sends about 1,500mm of rain a year on average, far more than Bordeaux (roughly 900mm), yet the Pyrenees send back a warm, drying autumn wind known as the haize hegoa (‘south wind’).

Elemental wines

That elemental balance is palpable in these wines, shaped equally by mountain and sea. Rustic yet increasingly refined reds built mostly on Tannat and Cabernet Franc – dark, structured, slow to soften – account for the majority of production.

But it’s the electric white blends of Gros Manseng, Petit Manseng and Petit Courbu that have driven the appellation’s resurgence over the past decade.

Domaine Arretxea, organic since the early 1990s, when the banks and local restaurants alike doubted them, remains one of Irouléguy’s key reference points, along with a new generation of proudly Basque producers – Bordaxuria, Goienetxea, Apelxenia, Etxondoa – who are finding their way into top restaurants across France and beyond.

But perhaps the best place to taste them is in a small restaurant in Biarritz, with some pintxos and calamari, saltwater drying on your skin.

Mountain-born, ocean-rinsed, these are elemental wines in every sense.

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From 'mini aperitivo' to a small nightcap

Tapping into the trend for tiny tipples, Turkish glassware brand Nude has launched a set of four 70ml Welcome Drink glasses (£28 Nude).

Part of the Bar/Giani range created by Giorgio Bargiani, assistant director of mixology at the Connaught Bar in London (left), the glasses are made from lead-free crystal.

‘Consumers are drinking more intentionally, choosing quality over quantity. Smaller serves make premium cocktails more accessible without compromising on the experience,' said Bargiani.

[They] are also a great way to introduce guests to new flavours, giving them the chance to experiment and discover something new.'

Bargiani added that the glasses have a wide range of uses, ‘from creating a memorable first impression with a mini aperitivo before the main cocktail to serving a small nightcap or digestive, or even offering your guests multiple tastings’.

Cocktail hour: Bitter Nights Dream

Introducing the Bitter Nights Dream

Vivien, Edinburgh, UK

Speakeasy-style bar Vivien has a short menu of creative cocktails, including this rye whisky mix.

‘I’m often drawn to the depth and structure of a classic rye-based serve, but I wanted to explore how far you can push that richness while softening its edges and adding layers of complexity,’ says bar manager Rebekah George.

‘The brown butter fat-wash brings a round, silky feel that makes the drink more approachable, while the cocoa nibs add a chocolate note that plays against the spice of the rye and the bitterness of the amaro and vermouth.’

For an at-home alternative to the butter-washing, she suggests using two drops of Foodie Flavours Butter Natural Flavouring (£5.99/15ml Foodie Flavours), while the homemade plum syrup can be swapped for a ready-made version such as 1883 Maison Routin Premium Umé Syrup (£8.98/1L The Syrup Shop).

How to make a Bitter Nights Dream

Ingredients

• Glass Nick & Nora
• Garnish Lemon peel
• 30ml cocoa nib and brown butter-washed rye whisky*
• 15ml Punt e Mes
• 5ml dry vermouth
• 15ml house plum syrup**

Method

• Add all of the ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir gently to mix.
• Strain into a chilled glass.

*To make cocoa nib and brown butter-washed rye

• Brown 175g butter lightly on the hob
• Combine with 700ml rye whisky and leave to infuse at room temperature for a couple of hours.
• Freeze until the butter solidifies then strain with a coffee filter.
• Add 7g cocoa nibs and infuse overnight before fine straining.

**To make plum syrup:

• Combine 500g white caster sugar, 500g plums and 5g citric acid in a Kilner jar
• Leave for 24 hours or until the sugar has dissolved then fine strain

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Introducing the Decanter Rising Star 2026 award winners

Decanter's Rising Star Award for 2026 goes to Jerez mavericks Ramiro Ibáñez and Willy Pérez, whose scholarly exploration of the region’s history and identity has turned them into the charismatic faces of a quiet revolution that serves as a blueprint for winemakers the world over.

Along with the Decanter Hall of Fame celebration of a lifetime’s achievements, our Rising Star award recognises talents whose impact on the wine world is in full bloom.

In Sanlúcar de Barrameda in southern Spain, Ramiro Ibáñez tells me, the best growers are known as aficionados, a word usually used to refer to a subject’s fervent lovers. ‘The geniuses, the gifted ones that come once in a generation, are called buen aficionados.’

He offers the explanation to outline how viticultural expertise in the Marco de Jerez (the demarcated area within which Jerez Sherry and brandy are produced) is so inextricably linked to emotions and identity.

It’s the same afición with which Ibáñez and his friend and business partner Luis ‘Willy’ Pérez are invested in their shared quest, made material in the maverick rebirth of the De la Riva brand.

The pair are arguably the buen aficionados of their own generation, having – through painstaking research work, relentless digging into archives and informed dissent – inspired a new generation of producers and opened a discussion about Jerez’s history, identity and future.

Ibáñez and Pérez’s work is fuelled by equal amounts of passion and intellectual inquisitiveness; according to both, one is inseparable from the other.

Rebels with a cause

Pérez (born 1982) and Ibáñez (born 1980) grew up in relative proximity, in Jerez de La Frontera and Sanlúcar de Barrameda respectively, but their paths didn’t cross until they both went to the same university in the 2000s, part of a small group of oenology students.

‘It was a time when there was this fascination with international varieties, intensity, wood... Jerez was not really on trend,’ says Ibáñez.

Perhaps that played a part in fostering their deep interest in their own region, ‘especially for its historical weight,’ says Ibáñez.

Having finished their studies, Pérez returned to the family winery (Bodegas Luis Pérez) and Ibáñez started working at a local cooperative before starting his own project, Cota 45.

Meanwhile, the pair embarked on a shared journey of research and exploration. ‘We had many questions that the modern version of the Marco de Jerez didn’t provide answers to,’ says Pérez.

‘We started studying – history, soils, wines, people – seeking an old knowledge that predated a modern understanding of the wines [from Jerez] exclusively from the point of view of the winery.’

The pair systematically tasted, visited vineyards, engaged with producers and growers, went through historical archives and rummaged through old cellars. ‘At some point we felt the need to put all this knowledge into practice.’ In 2015, De la Riva was thus born.

‘We were very clear that we wanted to work with a historical brand,’ Pérez explains.

M Ant de la Riva (Manuel Antonio de la Riva) had been owned by historic Jerez wine and brandy house Pedro Domecq – for whom Pérez’s father, the renowned enologist and professor Luis Pérez, worked before starting his eponymous winery in 2002.

As part of the dismemberment of Domecq in 2005, the brand was acquired by multinational Beam Global and left dormant.

Luis had judiciously kept De la Riva’s records, saving them from ending up in a skip, giving Pérez and Ibáñez a remarkable source of practical, first-hand knowledge.

‘Recovering a historical, once highly regarded brand was in itself a declaration of intent,’ Pérez continues, pulling one of the historical ledgers, from the mid-19th century, from the shelf and opening it to reveal daily field and winery annotations.

‘This is just an example of the information we’ve been lucky enough to have access to. We’ve gone through the archives of so many wineries. It’s pure gold.’

Nuance as a manifesto

Beyond the stricter parameters they’re bound by in their ‘day jobs’, De la Riva has given Ibáñez and Pérez liberty to explore different vineyards, styles and techniques – a laboratory of their ongoing scholarly quest.

‘It’s a universe where we have fun and don’t set ourselves any limits,’ says Ibáñez. ‘And it allows us to interpret all the historical data.’

Their philosophy, they say, primarily involves the refusal of a winemaking of ‘immediacy and obviousness’ in favour of one of ‘nuance, understood through the lives and knowledge of those that touched the parcels before us’, as Pérez explains. ‘The real work is to produce a historical, cultural web of the Marco de Jerez.’

This means pursuing wines led by the history and profile of the vineyard rather than a particular style or ageing category. Chief among their explorations has been the rebirth of the unfortified wines known as vinos de pasto.

Their efforts started against a backdrop of crisis, in Jerez as elsewhere, as the world economy contracted, demand for fortified wines declined and production costs increased significantly.

‘For the last 20 to 30 years, the vineyard didn’t seem to matter and the answer [to increased pressure] seemed to be formulaic work in the winery,’ Ibáñez says.

‘We had to go back to the books, the elderly growers and the old bottles to find what we were looking for – those nuances of the wines [that were] made in the vineyard.’

In the records from the past they’ve found ‘echoes, clues and lessons from other crises – recurring problems and recurring solutions,’ Ibáñez says.

Pérez continues the thought: ‘Different causes, different protagonists, but always the same consequence – usually the creation of a different style that can easily become obsolete, disconnected from the reality and problems it was meant to address.

‘Now we’re living in a great moment for white [unfortified] wines, but these new wines need to be connected to all the work and wines – sweet, oxidative, biologically aged – that came before. All of it is Jerez. If they are not connected to tradition, these white wines [vinos de pasto] will not succeed,’ Pérez concludes.

Past, present & future

Having found themselves in a period of deep change, Ibáñez and Pérez felt the need to put it into context, acknowledging the cyclical nature of history.

‘Understanding why certain wines were produced at a given time – be it because of technical limitations, different interpretations of terroir or the sensibility of winemakers – and identifying their fundamental elements is what really allows us to capture the essence of a given place,’ Pérez explains.

In practical terms, this informs their decisions about which styles to produce from a given site.

‘Even if we produce [an unfortified] white from El Corregidor, for example, we’ll always be influenced by Sandeman’s Oloroso 7a Criadera from 1940 – it’s the ultimate expression of that plot,’ he continues.

By exploring what they call the ‘liquid and human history’ of Jerez’s vineyards, they’re building a canon of sites and wines that transcends styles and trends – perhaps even time.

‘We always interpret the past through the perspective of the present,’ Pérez concludes. ‘We can always find the answers we want to find.’

Put simply, their work aspires to create a vision of the future through the lens of the past, liberated from the prejudices dictated by the present.

Faces of a movement

Willingly or not, the pair have become the face of a quiet revolution – a blueprint for how producers, in Jerez and beyond, can leverage legacy while remaining true to themselves, evolve without compromising identity, experiment with style without losing the essence of the vineyard.

It’s impossible to think of the renewed energy found in Jerez today without acknowledging the role played by Ibáñez and Pérez.

While they’re not in it for myth-making, their charisma has been a big part of their effectiveness. Pérez’s polished eloquence and striking, leading-man looks; Ibáñez’s earnest directness and rugged erudition – it’s an ideal, complementary casting for a headline duo.

Managing the spotlight hasn’t always been easy. ‘We need to be mindful of what we say,’ explains Ibáñez.

‘We try to focus on what we do rather than criticising others. We may not agree with certain sensibilities and ways of doing things, but we try to understand the motivations behind them. A bit like when we try to understand how things were done in past generations.’

‘If we’re sitting here today it’s also because of those with whom we don’t agree,’ Pérez continues. ‘There’s definitely a responsibility not to make statements that shed a negative light on others. We’ve lived through 15 years of so many challenges and changes; it’s important to contribute with a positive outlook.’

Their authority has been hard won, through plenty of legwork, scholarly precision and the softening of some of the harder edges of youth. It’s also imbued with a palpable sense of wonder, pleasure and fun.

‘It’s been a blessing to be able to taste wines made 90, 100 years ago from parcels we’re producing wines from now,’ Ibáñez concludes. ‘It’s an incredible source of information but also of motivation. It’s not history for its own sake.’

In the future, there will be a chapter in the history of the Marco de Jerez dedicated to the changes catalysed by the nerdy, restless, determined rummagings of these two university friends. Many will also find in it clues on how to live a good life.

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Left Bank Bordeaux: When it comes to discussions about changing styles in the region, St-Emilion’s modern evolution is referenced a lot. Less discussed are the changes that have happened on the Left Bank.

Panos Kakaviatos highlights several leading estates that have transformed their approach to oak and alcohol levels.

Visiting Napa: Our Napa correspondent Joanthan Cristaldi kicks off a new series on how to experience this emblematic Californian region at different stages of your life.

From lodging, tasting opportunities and activities, to dining and late night entertainment (and what it will cost you), we begin with how 20-somethings might approach a first expedition.

Oregon: In a double-header, Pete Holland looks at the southern half of the Willamette Valley, home to some of its less-celebrated but no-less intriguing AVAs and producers.

Meanwhile, Jesse Fukumoto looks at the key wineries producing Oregon’s ‘other’ Burgundy variety – Aligoté.

South Africa: As climates shift, more producers are casting their eyes upwards in the Cape.

Malu Lambert takes us for a hike in its high altitude vineyards to explore the wines being produced in the lofty terroirs of Citrusdal, the Cederberg, Sutherland and more.

Canadian Cab Franc: Around the Great Lakes of Canada, we often hear about their prowess for Riesling, Chardonnay and even a dash of Pinot Noir.

Magdalena Kaiser lets us in on a little secret – it’s also an emerging spot for great Cabernet Franc. She tracks the best bottles to be found across the lakes.

PLUS: We'll have articles from our regular columnists; Matt Walls on the Rhône, Tom Hewson on Champagne and Richard Baudains on Italy.

Furthermore, Chris Howard visits the Burgundian appellation of Maranges, Caro Maurer MW tastes the new crop of Grosses Gewächs from Germany's best producers, and Jillian Dara looks at some exciting white wines emerging across various US regions.

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If you’ve ever shaken, stirred – or in any other way served up – a cocktail, you probably have a grasp on the key formats. There’s the Golden Ratio in drinks like the Margarita: two parts spirit, one part sweet and one part sour. Then there’s highball classics like the Moscow Mule, with roughly two parts spirit to five parts mixer. And among a slew of other options there’s the iconic Negroni, Corpse Reviver No2 or Blood & Sand – all made of precisely equivalent measures.

Successful cocktails made of equal parts – whether 1:1, 1:1:1, or 1:1:1:1 – are few and far between, but when they work, they really work. What exactly makes them so special, and how can you create your own at home? I spoke to leading bartenders to find out…

Equal Parts, a cocktail icon

There’s clearly a certain magic to an equal parts cocktail. ‘It’s the idea of someone discovering how beautiful supporting ingredients work together,’ says Erik Lorincz, co-owner of Kwãnt Mayfair in London.

‘When I first read about the Negroni I didn’t want to try it – it just sounded like a lot of booze. But when I tasted it there was something more behind it; the balance between the sweet vermouth, bittersweet Campari and gin.’ In short, these are cocktails that are definitely more than the sum of their parts.

Carina Soto, bar director of the aptly named Equal Parts bar in London’s Hackney, says the appeal lies not only in how the elements work together, but the fact that no single one of them is dominant. This is a relatively rare thing given that we speak about most cocktails being ‘based’ in one kind of alcohol or another. ‘It’s the different layers of flavour. It is not about one specific ingredient or profile but about the result of all these layers.’

Marc Sarton du Jonchay, co-founder of another Hackney bar, Circle13, has a more practical take on the popularity. ‘People remember cocktails that they cannot mess up. Equal parts cocktails are the prime template for that, as all you have to do is remember the ingredients. You don’t even need a jigger to make it, just a utensil to measure equal parts.’

Breaking down the equal parts components

Of course the template behind every equal parts cocktail is the same – but the variations are infinite. The Paper Plane, for example, is bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino Quintessentia and lemon. The Last Word features gin, Green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lime. Getting the combination right isn’t simple – but what are some of the rules for success?

Soto points out that as well as the obvious balance between sweet, bitter and dry elements the overall drink abv is a driver. ‘The Negroni is generally between 21-25% abv dependent on the ingredients you choose to prepare it,’ she explains. Lorincz agrees that you need to think about overall abv but notes it’s also important to pay attention to specific flavour elements, as it can lead to some unexpectedly delicious combinations.

‘When I was at the Savoy I made an equal parts cocktail which used mezcal and Cognac. They were both high abv but with very different flavour profiles, and actually the smoke and peatiness supported each other,’ he says.

Lorincz finds that equal parts cocktails are often most successful in the dark spirits category. Sarton du Jonchay thinks sours tend to work best, as they include a big acid component to stand up to the equally large measure of booze.

Making your own equal parts creation

It’s not easy to create a new equal parts drink masterpiece – life-long bartenders are still working on crafting such perfection. Sarton du Jonchay puts his hand up as someone who is still chasing ‘the dream’ of nailing his own equal parts serve, and not through lack of trying.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t explore and see what you discover. The more you get to know the bottles you’re working with, the more you’ll understand the harmony that exists between different ingredients and feel confident experimenting.

‘I always tell people to start with the existing recipes and identify what they like about them,’ says Soto. ‘Play slowly, replacing one or two ingredients.’ She recommends not using more than four individual elements to achieve balance and says not to forget you need to consider the impact of ice dilution.

Balancing the building blocks

Sarton du Jonchay suggests thinking about the elements in terms of blocks. ‘It’s all about balance between the blocks: sour, sweetener and spirit.’ The blocks have a minimum of one ingredient, but can be composed of several. ‘When we look at all the equal parts sours,’ he says, ‘the sweetener block is almost always two ingredients.’

He also points out that cocktail definitions vary, and ultimately you should drink what you like. ‘Even though the Negroni’s original recipe is equal parts, it doesn’t have to be. Technically the cocktail belongs in the Martini family – a cocktail balancing aromatised wine and spirit – and in this family there are no real rules about ratios,’ he explains.

‘As a matter of fact, there is a strong debate within the bartending community around whether the traditional Negroni is balanced or not. Many bars around the world change the spec for their house Negronis, cutting down the Campari or upping the vermouth to reach what they consider a more balanced cocktail.’

In short, the classic equal parts cocktails may be icons – but that doesn’t make them immovable. It just means you’ve all the more reason to find a way to make them your own.

Equal Parts recipes to try at home

Norman Conquest

Created by Erik Lorincz

Ingredients: 25ml Calvados, 25ml bourbon or Scotch, 25ml sweet vermouth

Glass: Rocks

Garnish: Orange slice

Method: Stir all ingredients with ice and serve in a rocks glass filled with ice.

Naked and Famous

Created by Joaquín Simó at Death & Co, recommended by Carina Soto

Ingredients: 25ml mezcal, 25ml Yellow Chartreuse, 25ml Aperol, 25ml fresh lime juice

Glass: Coupe

Garnish: Lime slice

Method: Shake with ice and double-strain into a coupe.

Equal Parts Martini

Recommended by Marc Sarton du Jonchay

Ingredients: 50ml gin or vodka, 50ml dry vermouth

Glass: Martini

Garnish: Lemon twist or olives

Method: Stir with ice and strain into a Martini glass.

The Final Ward

Recommended by Marc Sarton du Jonchay

Ingredients: 25ml rye, 25ml Green Chartreuse, 25ml maraschino liqueur, 25ml lemon juice

Glass: Coupe

Garnish: Lemon twist

Method: Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

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Fine wine prices have been pretty flat in 2026, although some top names are up slightly over 12 months after a gentle rally in late 2025, said Geraint Carter of international merchant Bordeaux Index and the LiveTrade online trading platform.

Data on prestige Champagne, one of the better-performing market segments, illustrates the point (see table, below). Miles Davis of Vinum Fine Wines offered a similar sentiment: ‘I think overall prices are stable, but it’s still a buyer’s market,’ he said.

‘You can still get deals.’ Vinum saw a notable uptick in Champagne sales in July, Davis said, led by Salon; other top sellers included Cristal Rosé, Krug and Jacques Selosse.

At Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, the multi-region Liv-ex 1000 index was up 1.2% in 12 months to 30 July. Its Champagne 50 sub-index outperformed, rising 0.9% in July and 2.6% in a year.

It was also up 8.7% in five years, although it hasn’t been a straight road.

For example, Liv-ex analysed Salon and said the 2012 vintage was ‘trading actively’ at £7,000 to £8,000 (12x75cl, in bond), noting it was released in 2021 at £5,800 and swiftly climbed to £13,300 before a subsequent market downturn.

Carter said top-tier Champagne has ‘taken its pain’, adding: ‘It’s a great time to be a Champagne buyer with such quality out there.’

Yet, he doesn’t expect prices to surge in the near-term, citing ongoing available stock levels. One general area to watch this autumn is the US auction scene.

Charles Antin, global head of auctions at Zachys, told Decanter that recent sales have been exceptionally strong.

‘We are having to revise our estimates upwards to keep up with a buoyant market, which is a strong sign for sellers.’

Zachys’ mid-year review reported a surge in demand for ‘super second’ Bordeaux this year, including Château Montrose, and stronger collector thirst for leading California wines.

The Bordeaux Index view

Fine wine & spirits specialist Bordeaux Index kindly sponsors this section of Decanter, and provides its view on the market here every issue. It can be found at bordeauxindex.com

Champagne conundrum

The Champagne market finds itself in an awkward, if familiar, position. After the manic exuberance of 2020-2022 and the swingeing correction that followed, prestige Champagne prices have settled into what has the makings of a prolonged rut.

At the mass-market end, things are arguably even less comfortable, with consumption and shipments continuing to decline.

The priority, more than ever, is getting consumers drinking again. In this context, price hikes ought to be off the table. This is not an easy message for the Champenois.

Costs have risen substantially over the past decade, while the increasingly extreme weather of recent years is a clear warning that, over the longer term, Champagne will need higher prices simply to compensate for the volatility of a more challenging production environment.

But that’s longer-term. For now, the stellar vintages of 2018, 2019 and 2020 are working through the system and will add considerable supply at the prestige end.

Total volumes may be falling, but that doesn’t automatically create pricing power when demand is, at best, flat and existing stocks remain plentiful.

The finer end cannot indefinitely act as a cash cow for shortcomings in the broader market.

Champagne rarely volunteers restraint; more often, the market imposes it. For now, keeping a lid on prices and getting corks popping ought to be the overwhelming priority.

Higher prices may be inevitable, but not yet.

Auction record for Judgement of Paris wine

A new world record auction price for a California wine that shot to fame in the 1976 Judgement of Paris tasting 50 years ago has been announced by Christie’s.

A bottle of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ Stag’s Leap Vineyard (SLV) Cabernet Sauvignon 1973 sold for $22,500 (£16,657), including buyer’s premium, at a Christie’s online auction of wines sourced directly from the Napa Valley producer’s cellars.

That’s a record auction price for the wine, which eclipsed a pre-sale high estimate of $6,000 in the Los Angelesbased sale, Christie’s said.

The 1973 vintage is famous for having outshone top Bordeaux reds in the Judgement of Paris blind tasting organised by Steven Spurrier and Patricia Gallagher in the French capital in 1976.

Half a century later, supplies are relatively scarce. A Christie’s spokesperson told Decanter that, after this year’s 50th anniversary celebrations, there will be 19 bottles of the SLV Cabernet Sauvignon 1973 left at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars.

Another lies alongside a Californian white wine star of the same tasting, Chateau Montelena 1973, in the Smithsonian collection of American historical artefacts.

Juan Muñoz-Oca, estates director at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, said the recent Christie’s auction result is ‘a powerful testament to the enduring legacy of the 1973 SLV Cabernet Sauvignon and the vision of our founder Warren Winiarski’.

In 2022, Heritage Auctions sold a bottle of the wine for $12,300, a record auction price at the time.

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In Nova Scotia’s rolling Annapolis Valley, a gentle breeze riffles the vines. A consequence of the world’s most dramatic tidal swings in the nearby Bay of Fundy, this near-constant airflow prevents diseases and insulates this cool-climate appellation when winter temperatures drop below freezing.

Running through western Nova Scotia and demarcated by the pragmatically named North and South Mountains, the Annapolis Valley is a tight-knit community of family-owned farms.

Around a dozen wineries, most practising regenerative viticulture, cluster around the small towns of Grand Pré and Wolfville.

The valley is rich in tourist stops. There’s the UNESCO-inscribed Landscape of Grand Pré, the Bay of Fundy, and the heritage-rich Evangeline Trail driving route, dotted with lobster shacks and historic forts. Even in high summer, however, it can feel wonderfully undiscovered.

Tradition and innovation

Its wine scene has overcome past missteps by leaning into its strengths: vibrant, high-acid whites and world-class traditional method sparkling wines. Three to four years on the lees is the average for the region's sparkling output, even for non-vintage bottles.

In 2012, its regional appellation wine, Tidal Bay, was created to showcase the bracing acidity and minerality that typifies the region’s output.

All expressions of Tidal Bay, which make up about half of Annapolis Valley’s total production, have the low alcohol (around 11%) typical of Nova Scotian wines.

With a warming climate and sparkling output, the Annapolis Valley draws comparisons to southern England.

But whereas English wine makes use of its geological kinship to Champagne, many Nova Scotian winemakers, growing in predominantly sandy loam soil, hold true to their iconic hybrid variety, L’Acadie Blanc.

There are acres of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir here as well, planted alongside hardy, quick-ripening varieties like Lucie Kuhlmann and Ortega.

This mix has led to a region full of delicious surprises for wine lovers.

My perfect day in Annapolis Valley

Morning

If it’s the weekend, begin with a lobster roll and a chilled Domaine de Grand Pré Tidal Bay at Longfellow Restaurant in Grand Pré. As you wait for the vineyards to open (from 10am), explore Wolfville’s pretty waterfront trails with a free bike or e-bike from Wolfville Recreation Centre.

Lunch and Afternoon

Either hire the knowledgeable Stephanie Duchon of Wine & Vine Tours for a private, tailored itinerary; hop-on-and-off the Magic Winery Bus, or go it alone.

A lunchtime flight of wines at Lightfoot & Wolfville Vineyards is a must, paired with salt-sharp East Coast oysters and indulgent bacon and bay scallops.

Drive to L'Acadie Vineyards in the Gaspereau Valley for the region’s finest sparkling expressions of L’Acadie Blanc.

Alternatively, return to Grand Pré for afternoon High Tea (book ahead) in the tranquil gardens concealed behind Tangled Garden’s preserves and liqueur shop.

Evening

Return to Grand Pré for your reservation at the stand-out Le Caveau. Plump for the four-course tasting menu, with dishes like Parisian Tartare paired with the creamy red fruit of the winery’s luscious Brut Rosé.

Your Annapolis Valley address book

Accommodation

The Inn at Grand Pré Winery

Located in a historic UNESCO-designated district, this six-room inn set on a vineyard offers modern comforts, warm apple scones for breakfast, and a bed in walking distance of the valley’s most sophisticated restaurant.

Queen Anne Inn

At the western end of the valley in historic Annapolis Royal, check in to the Queen Anne Inn – a handsome mansion attired in period gilt and lace. Highlights include a three-course breakfast, four-poster beds, and outstanding water pressure.

Restaurants

Le Caveau

Acclaimed winery restaurant at Domaine de Grand Pré ideal for elegant terrace lunches or wine-paired dinners.

The regional fine-dining menu highlights seasonal Nova Scotian seafood and farm-to-table produce, with a wine list offering local as well as global coverage.

Hall's Harbour Lobster Pound

Several storeys of lobster-eating goodness set above a pebble beach rich in driftwood.

Grab a famed lobster roll or choose a small-to-jumbo lobster from the tanks. If you’ve arrived at low tide, marvel at the harbour filling rapidly with the incoming Bay of Fundy tide.

Shopping

Stop by Fox Hill Cheese House for artisanal maritime cheeses and washed-rind local heroes like Valley Gold.

If flying out of Halifax, look for Liquid Assets post-security; this shop offers a good selection of Annapolis Valley wines to carry onto your flight.

Pair it with a live carry-on lobster available from the airport’s Clearwater Seafoods.

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Didier Mariotti is the custodian of a 250-year-old Champagne house, overseeing a team of 40 and making decisions that shape millions of bottles each year, but if six-year-old Didier had had his way, he would be a fighter pilot.

‘It was my childhood dream,’ he says. ‘I was always interested in planes and reading comics about fighter pilots. Unfortunately my eyes weren’t good enough to pursue it.’

‘A moment for myself’

Mariotti’s family was involved in wine, so he followed in their footsteps instead. He always intended to learn to fly, but a busy career and raising a family got in the way.

‘When I turned 40, I thought, “This is the time for me to have my moment for myself,”’ he says. ‘I got my private pilot licence, then my night-flying and flight-instructor qualifications. Now I am treasurer of the flying club here in Champagne and help train the new pilots.’

He compares the joy of teaching people to fly to the joy of opening a bottle of wine: ‘When you open a bottle, it’s always about sharing something with someone else. It’s the same when teaching: you’re sharing your passion with other people.’

The skills required to fly a plane and lead a major Champagne brand are similar, too, he believes.

‘You need to be able to learn every year,’ he says. ‘With wine, every vintage is different. When you’re flying, the weather conditions will be different, the airport will be different.

'What I like with both is that you have to trust yourself – that you have the knowledge and you’ll be able to find a solution. But at the same time, you have to be humble: the weather is always stronger than you are. That’s a difficult combination.’

Where they differ is how they treat mistakes – and Mariotti firmly believes that what he has learned in the cockpit has made him a better boss.

‘The culture of flying is very different to wine and industry in general,’ he says.

‘In companies and in wine, most people try to hide or avoid their mistakes – or try to blame someone else. With flying it’s the opposite. We share our mistakes straight away to make sure they aren’t made again. I’m teaching my team [at Veuve Clicquot] not to be scared of their mistakes.’

Peace and freedom

Of course, neither job is without stress. ‘For me, the most pressure in flight is when you have to land without visibility. You go through the clouds and can only see the ground about 200m before landing. You have to trust your instruments,’ Mariotti says.

‘You have to be very methodical. We have checks at all times. I apply that to my work [in wine] – you have to double-check, triple-check everything.’

The feeling of being in the air, however, is priceless. ‘You have this freedom – you’re like a bird. I love flying above the clouds. It’s like soft cotton that you can almost touch with your hand. It feels like you’re surfing the clouds.

'I enjoy it most when the weather is bad on the ground. You take off, go above the clouds, and it’s beautiful, sunny. The sun is my energy – both in the plane and in my work.’

Part of the reason Mariotti wanted his licence was to be able to fly his family around Champagne. ‘We can see the vineyards from the air, the hills, the valleys,’ he says. ‘I love to fly over it [Champagne] in autumn, when all the vineyards are orange and red.’

He finds these moments very peaceful. ‘You’re not connected to the rest of the world,’ he says. ‘Your phone isn’t working and you can’t look at your emails. You just have to enjoy it.

'It’s the same when I go down into the cellar – it’s 20m underground, so my phone doesn’t work there either. The world is moving so fast; it’s good to disconnect sometimes.’

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We’ve been living in the era of single malt Scotch for some time now, celebrating the barley-based creations of one distillery after another, each with its unique sense of place and individual character.

Blended Scotch – made by combining multiple single malts with grain whisky – has been ignored, at least in terms of cool factor. But now, this underappreciated whisky style is enjoying a renaissance.

Of course, blended Scotch never went away, continuing to account for the vast majority of Scotland’s whisky output, with quality stalwarts including Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal.

But a style that generally became perceived as uninteresting is increasingly being acknowledged as a showcase for the artistry of the blend, able to offer something greater than the sum of its parts.

Among the style’s champions is Compass Box, which produces a number of compelling, modern blends by drawing on single malts from more than 40 distilleries.

‘We’re able to combine the DNA of multiple distilleries, bringing them together in creative and often unexpected ways to create flavour profiles no single distillery can deliver on its own,’ says the company’s whiskymaker Michael Stephenson.

‘We’re uniquely able to overdeliver on flavour, bringing elements together in harmony.’

Another to watch is Woven, whose blended Scotch, Homemade, challenges the conventional proportions of grain and malt. Woven goes beyond traditional styles, too, with expressions such as Superblend combining Scotch with whiskies from further afield.

Granular focus

The grain whisky component of blended Scotch, arguably the unspoken hero of Scottish whisky, is gaining some appreciation in its own right, too.

‘Grain can create space for the malt to open up and speak clearly in the blend so we can dial in focus, texture and intensity of flavour delivery,’ says Stephenson.

These are generally lighter than single malt, column distilled as opposed to pot distilled, and use other grains in addition to malted barley, such as corn.

They clearly play a crucial role in the blend, but can shine without single malt, too, as blended grain whiskies.

‘Great-quality blended grain allows us to present a very elegant side of whisky. With good casks and enough time, it becomes wonderfully refined,’ Stephenson adds.

But it’s not about one style being better than another. As Stephenson puts it: ‘We look to various styles to best interpret the flavour and experience that we want to deliver to whisky lovers.’

One to try

Compass Box Nectarosity Blended Scotch, Scotland

£51.90-£55.95/70cl Master of Malt, Spirited, The Whisky Exchange, The Whisky World, Waitrose

Juicy red apple, apricot and vibrant lime, building to sweet toffee and a silky feel, with some baking spice joining in. Great on its own, but with plenty of character to stand up to some soda water in a Highball.

Alcohol 46%

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Despite its association with trendy natural wine bars, orange wine – essentially skin-contact white wine – is not new, but represents one of the world's oldest winemaking traditions.

Originating thousands of years ago in Georgia, this style has staged a dramatic global comeback – and it’s a category worth exploring, spanning a spectrum of styles, from delicate and floral to grippy, tannic and deeply savoury.

So, pour a glass of amber nectar, take our 12-question challenge, and find out how skin-contact savvy you are…

Take the orange wine quiz

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Some places don’t just have history, they treasure it and put it on show, ensuring it lives on.

At Lanzerac, the past lingers in the lines of its distinct gables, in the thickness of old, white-washed walls, and in centuries-old oak trees.

The famous wine estate has 334 years of heritage to show off, and wears it well. Its history is full of character, reinvention and a pivotal moment that shaped South Africa’s wine culture.

Lanzerac: About the estate

Set in the Jonkershoek Valley, a mountain-backed patchwork landscape stitched together with grape vines, Lanzerac traces its origins back to 1692, making it one of South Africa’s oldest wine estates.

The estate began as a farm, transformed in 1959 into a French-style country house and wine estate. In the same year, Lanzerac released South Africa’s first commercially bottled Pinotage.

After extensions, many facelifts and an entire restoration thanks to a tragic fire in 2017, the estate now unfolds like a small village, with the elegant lines and symmetry of Cape Dutch architecture softened by pretty garden beds, neat hedges, fountains and enormous oak trees and connected with winding pathways that invite slow wandering.

There are at least seven pools, some servicing courtyard collections of rooms, others, hot tubs in exclusive suites, plus the main pool for guests who want to mingle.

Staying at Lanzerac

There are 54 rooms and suites, blending history with contemporary comfort.

Room 505, one of the original farm buildings, is just one example of the luxurious time warp on offer. Its history is proudly on show in period details and exposed brick walls.

Some of those bricks date back to the 1500s - a time when nothing was wasted and older settlements were dismantled and transported here to create the estate. There’s a huge bed, fine linen, plump pillows and six lounge chairs, each one offering a different spot to relax.

A double French armoire and deep tub take pride of place in the enormous bathroom, another nod to the past and another invitation to unwind.

Dining at Lanzerac

Three restaurants cater to any style of dining you might prefer. Manor Kitchen delivers a refined take on seasonal, locally inspired cuisine.

The Deli has a more relaxed approach with casual bites on sunlit terraces, or there’s Taphuis for a pub-style meal.

Experiences

Beyond the rooms and restaurants, the estate’s facilities invite guests to slow down.

Guided cellar tours and tailored tastings are included with a stay, often hosted on terraces overlooking the valley or, on special occasions, at a scenic lookout where the mountains seem almost within reach.

Lanzerac Spa is a cocoon of calm, with a heated indoor pool, steam room, sauna and shaded lounge beds facing straight into mesmerising rows of grapevines.

Antioxidant-rich Vinotherapy treatments tap into the estate’s winemaking roots.

There’s also a special water tasting to try. Yes, it’s a thing. Lanzerac has a water sommelier – an expert in the characteristics of different water types and how to match them with particular food and wine. (It’s all in the TDS … total dissolvable solvents.)

Exploring the area

Stellenbosch is minutes away from Lanzerac, its oak-lined streets, galleries, boutiques and cafés worth exploring.

Further afield, the Franschhoek Wine Tram offers a fun way to hop between neighbouring estates or private tours can be arranged for a more tailored itinerary.

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Not far from the St Paul de Mausole asylum in St-Rémy-de-Provence, the olive groves look much as they did when Vincent van Gogh painted them during his convalescence there in 1889-1890.

His physician, Dr Théophile Peyron, allowed his patient to paint freely beyond the asylum grounds – a rare humane gesture in 19th-century psychiatry – and Van Gogh produced more than 140 paintings in and around what is today Les Baux-de-Provence, France’s first 100% organic appellation.

Walking the vineyards, olive groves and orchards today is like stepping into one of these swirling canvases, as an art student does in Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams.

One of this tiny appellation’s 12 estates, Domaine de Métifiot, is justified in putting Van Gogh’s Olive Trees (1889) on its label – the estate is rumoured to be home to the groves it immortalises.

Les Baux-de-Provence may be one of France’s most visited villages, yet its wines are almost unknown beyond the region, with more than half sold at cellar doors and local restaurants.

The appellation has just 243ha under vine, situated within the Parc Naturel Régional des Alpilles.

Les Baux sits at a crossroads – closer to the Côtes du Rhône than to the Côte d’Azur in distance and wine styles. I arrived directly from Hermitage in the northern Rhône and found a kindred spirit in the elegant Syrahs.

This isn’t the Provence of platinum poolside rosé – indeed, the appellation eschews these associations.

Instead, the focus is on reds, which make up 52% of production, followed by 36% of rosé. Although only 12% currently, white production is on the rise, and these are the wines that surprised me most: crisp and vivacious, despite the southern heat.

The reds are Grenache- and Syrah-dominant, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Mourvèdre adding backbone.

The whites, assembled from Rolle (elsewhere known as Vermentino), Grenache Blanc, Clairette and Roussanne, tend towards the gastronomic and ageworthy in the better examples, with layered fruit and mineral tension.

Organic pioneer

The pristine environment lends itself to the appellation’s most significant achievement.

In 2023, Les Baux became the first appellation in France to achieve 100% organic certification, a move made voluntarily by all 12 estates – motivated not by regulatory compliance but ethics and ‘eco-logic’.

The relentless Mistral wind blows fungal threats and other pests away. The small vineyards, many old and gnarled, sit within a rich ecosystem, home to Bonelli’s eagles, Egyptian vultures and 19 species of bat, all actively encouraged by the vignerons as natural allies.

Vines and olive trees share the same limestone terraces, alongside apricot orchards, wild garrigue and pine forests: agroecology practised not as policy or trend, but as the touchstone of a place that has made wine since before the Romans arrived.

All of the wine estates also grow olives and the oil has its own appellation and ranks among France’s finest. Like the wine, it’s 100% organic and has been for 30 years.

The bottle of Château d’Estoublon olive oil I returned home with confirmed the quality – as did the wine.

This restored château, dating back to 1489, with stunning gardens that supply its acclaimed restaurant, is a destination in itself.

A dancing star

From the hilltop village of Les Baux, the surrounding patchwork is Van Gogh’s brush strokes made agricultural – violet shadow, burnt-orange earth, silver leaf, cobalt sky.

Even the immaculate golf course below, I learn, is tended organically. The same light that fuelled Van Gogh’s ecstasy in the final year of his life flows through the wines of Les Baux.

As he painted with visionary abandon around St-Rémy in 1888-89, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, also drawn to the south, blazing like a supernova before descending into madness, wrote: ‘One must have chaos within oneself to give birth to a dancing star.’

It’s that same chaos the painter channelled onto his canvases that the vignerons of Les Baux channel through their wines, in a landscape he described as ‘too beautiful to dare paint’.

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Great wine starts in the vineyard, or so the saying goes. Although undoubtedly true, what it fails to acknowledge is that people are equally vital to greatness. Can any wine truly be considered great if the people who help produce it aren’t taken care of first?

Wine businesses large and small shape the communities around them. Economic instability has a direct impact on those businesses, and therefore on the workers and families who depend on them.

In South America this rings especially true. Last December, Bodega Norton – one of Argentina’s oldest and largest wineries, founded in 1895 – went into administration, weighed down by more than US$40 million of debt after years of Argentine inflation and falling wine sales.

It’s a reminder that a winery’s workers and the communities built around it are exposed to instability just as much as vines are to climate hazards, and that the social side of sustainability isn’t only about what a company chooses to give to its employees, but what happens to people at every stage of the company’s lifespan.

Treating the wellbeing of workers and their communities as more than a corporate add-on has never been more crucial. And some producers are putting them front and centre.

Julia Zuccardi of Bodega Santa Julia in Mendoza says her grandmother, who founded the business, always believed that ‘to make a good wine, you need good people’.

‘My grandparents always understood that our activity was about land and people,’ she says.

Many of the estate’s vineyards are in remote areas with little access to education or healthcare, so the family built their own on-site schools for workers’ children, as well as adult-education centres, where qualifications lead to wage increases.

The provision of nurseries and daycare was non-negotiable, too: ‘My grandmother knew we needed to make it easier for women to balance professional life and family life,’ Zuccardi says. ‘They haven’t had to choose between motherhood and work – they get both at the company.’

It benefits the business as much as its people, she adds: ‘At the end of the day, it’s also us who wins, because we’ve been able to keep very talented women working at the company.’

There’s a preconception that large companies can’t be truly sustainable. Santa Julia and Zuccardi Valle de Uco, the family’s other winery, together employ almost 1,200 people. The scale is enormous: total production is about 25 million litres per year. Arguably it’s this scale that has allowed such meaningful investment in people.

Yet Zuccardi makes a pertinent point: ‘We can do sustainability at this scale because we started when we were very small, so it became cultural; it’s part of the company’s culture.’

The idea that a workforce is stronger when women aren’t forced to choose between family and career also shows up in Chile’s Maule region at the female-founded Caupolicán cooperative.

Here, Fairtrade premiums have funded a primary school library and university bursaries for local families to take advantage of.

At Chile’s Viña Undurraga, social sustainability puts people alongside land and heritage. For its Terroir Hunter Araucania Pinot Noir, the winery buys grapes from indigenous Mapuche families who planted vines in Malleco, paying a fair price, helping to manage the vineyards and returning a share of the bottles for the families to sell under their own name. It recognises who the land belongs to.

There’s no single template for protecting the people and communities a winery touches, but identifying the impact – be it positive or negative, social or environmental – on the local community is the responsibility of wine businesses of all sizes.

That responsibility should also be shared along the supply chain, to distributors and retailers, who can ask producers the right questions, and in turn share the answers with consumers, so we can make informed decisions about what ends up in our wine rack.

Sip to make a difference

Bodega Santa Julia, Family Reserve Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina 2024

A full-bodied red perfect for pairing with simple midweek dishes, Bodega Santa Julia, Family Reserve Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina 2024 (£11 Waitrose) is plump and juicy, layering blueberry fruit onto plum, vanilla and spice, all tied together by a soft and silky finish.

As well as coming from a winery that is a role model in how it looks after its employees, this was one of only 35 wines to be named a Value Gold in the 2026 Decanter World Wine Awards.

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Washington is the second-largest wine-producing state in the US, with more than 35,000 acres (14,160 hectares) of grapes, nearly 1,000 wineries and 300 growers farming around 80 grape varieties within 21 American Viticultural Areas (AVAs).

It makes some of the finest wines in the country, as well as some of the best values.

But how well do you know the state’s geography, appellations, key grape varieties and prominent wineries?

There’s a lot of ground to cover (literally) in Washington wine so we picked 12 questions for a quick snapshot. Challenge yourself with our latest quiz.

Take Decanter's Washington wine quiz

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If you didn’t know there’s such a thing as a Port Wine Day, you do now. It’s a handy date that serves as a reminder of this year's spectacular Vintage 2024 declaration, with many of the wines either just or about to be widely released. But it’s also a moment to celebrate the simpler pleasures of this historical wine.

Even though there’s an increasing appetite for premium Port, its fresher, more affordable iterations deliver such overlooked, everyday pleasures.

To celebrate this year’s Port Wine Day, we’re looking at different ways to enjoy it in a relaxed, joyous manner. The world is a tough place these days; why complicate it? Small indulgences go a long way.

First step: get those bottles out of the drink cabinet and stick them in the fridge. It doesn't matter whether they're red or white. One of the most common – and more harmful – mistakes of Port wine lovers is drinking them too warm...

Get creative with Port & Tonic

If you’re familiar with Port and/or have recently been to Portugal you’ll no doubt have been introduced to that delicious, uplifting aperitif that blends a fruity White Port with Tonic (P&T). It’s a masterclass in simplicity and immediate satisfaction.

My father used to make what is, for me, the perfect P&T (see below) and I’m partial to its straightforward, no-nonsense zesty twist.

But you should definitely get creative. Bartenders often garnish their P&Ts with mint leaves or a sprig of rosemary. I prefer to leave the Port’s aromatics undisturbed by herbs but each to their own.

There are obviously multiple, creative takes on P&T. I can recommend the Grapefizz, touted by Kopke following the release of its cocktail-perfect Kopke on Ice.

Mixing it up with Ruby and Tawny

Now, the art of mixing is not just the remit of White Port. The fruit intensity of a Ruby and the layered, smoky depth of a Tawny also lend themselves to delectable concoctions.

Here are three of my favourites (click left/right).

Move things around

Port should not be synonymous with desert and cheese platters. Cocktails, as mentioned above, are a great way to introduce Port as an aperitif, but there are other delicious ways to enjoy it before and during your meals.

There are, of course, the classical pairings – think Tawny with foie gras or aged White Port with cheese soufflé – but it’s worth thinking outside the box.

A few suggestions worth trying:

• Dry White Port with oysters
• Aged White Port with Mussels in creamy garlic sauce
• Vintage Port and seared or confit duck
• Tawny Port with lamb leg
• Tawny port with steak tartare

Elevate your cooking

Port is also a fantastic resource in the kitchen.

Few things are more naughtily delicious – and deceivingly, tangentially ‘healthy’ – than fresh berries and crunchy nectarines macerated in Tawny Port. Purists will be rolling their eyes but who cares.

Keep some raising in a jar with Port and use them for baking. Or reduce some Port for delicious salad dressings or meat sauces. Add some Port to your meat marinades. The options are endless – get creative.

Book yourself a harvest experience

There’s nothing quite like visiting the Douro with harvest underway and seeing, first hand, all the work and dedication needed to produce these incredible wines. Harvesting the fruit from the Douro’s steep banks – which stubbornly resist mechanisation – is truly backbreaking work. The fact that is still done today – the age of digital nomads, drones and AI – is testament to the perseverance and dedication of producers.

Many producers organise visits throughout the year and have special tours during harvest allowing visitors to have a full understanding of the process, from grape to barrel, by way of traditional granite lagares.

If you’re lucky, you might even have the opportunity to stomp some grapes. Having done it myself (more than once and more than 10 minutes) I’ll tell you that it’s both fun and eye-opening. The communal experience leaves your spirits lifted, your skin extremely exfoliated and your muscles aching.

And hey, you’ll get bragging rights on social media! So there’s a lot going for it.

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The job of winemaking is a fairly simple concept: vinify a harvest.

For Champagne houses, though, being in charge of winemaking means much more than simply taking in the year’s grapes and guiding them to bottle, especially when it comes to the non-vintage wines which make up over 90% of the region’s production.

In Champagne, complexity begins in the vineyard.

The houses themselves own only 10% of the land, and the rest is divided between more than 16,000 individual growers, from which the houses buy grapes and wines.

The assembling of hundreds of these wines, coupled with the use and maintenance of multiple reserve wines from previous harvests, makes this one of the most demanding jobs in the field.

But what exactly does a cellar master – known in French as chef de caves – do?

Steering the ship

‘My goal is to stay true to the house style,’ says Séverine Frerson, cellar master at Perrier-Jouët.

As she illustrates, their first responsibility is to the wines themselves.

While they may not to get too heavily involved in the daily tasks of basic cellar management, they are the masterminds behind the all-important blending sessions once the base wines have fallen still after fermentation.

They work with a winemaking team to present blends composed of hundreds of individual wines to a committee, who vote on whether these fit the style and quality goals of the house.

In family-run houses such as Billecart-Salmon, cellar master Florent Nys presents potential blends to a committee that includes other winemakers and family members.

Elsewhere, in more corporate structures, the cellar master is more like a chief executive, having the last word on decision making: ‘I come with the blends 97% complete, and the remaining 3% we discuss as a committee,’ says Krug’s Julie Cavil.

‘In 20 years it has never happened that we are not unanimous.'

And when it comes to the final all-clear?

At Krug, it’s Cavil who has the casting vote: ‘I say OK!’ she laughs.

The committee is often called back for another job, too: deciding the dosage before release.

‘There’s always a tasting committee for the dosage,’ says Nys, who has built a mini-winery of 51 different dosage liqueurs based on different grape varieties, vinifications and ageing profiles.

The minutely calculated additions of these liqueurs is the final flourish from the hand of the winemaking team before the Champagne is shipped.

Masters of the reserves

Beyond the complexity of blending the year’s harvest lies a very Champagne-specific skillset.

Tank-by-tank knowledge of the reserves, the library of wines kept back from previous harvests for blending.

This is a house’s secret store cupboard. Its most prized wines which, depending on the way they are kept and the way they age, bring huge amounts of character to the final blends.

‘Knowledge of the reserves is critical to the job,’ says Laurent-Perrier cellar master Olivier Vigneron, who keeps 300 individual tanks from previous harvests.

Depending on the house’s approach, some reserves might be kept in smaller oak (faster maturing but full of character); some may be kept in large stainless steel, developing slowly for a decade or more; or some may even be part of a complex perpetual reserve system incorporating multiple harvests.

Consistency is key for Moët et Chandon’s Benoît Gouez, where the reserves, kept relatively young, are used more to ‘reinforce the potential of the wine’ than add noticeable aged characters into the wines, says Gouez.

Production size means that pre-blends (wines blended from multiple villages) are made before the final blends that make up wines such as Moët et Chandon’s Brut Imperial.

‘When you have a good year, I prefer to keep a lot of pre-blends in reserve,’ he says, confident that wines can be combined without any problematic ingredients tiring too early.

A weaker year, for example following a troublesome growing season, means more care is needed, and the reserves have to be specifically put together so as to be sure not to include wines which might not age well.

It’s a perfect example of the sort of crystal ball a cellar master holds, judging how these embryonic wines will behave after the lengthy, multi-stage process involved in turning them into Champagne.

In front of the cameras

The idea of a 19th-century cellar master being asked to sail the seas, meet clients, develop business and present their wines to markets would have been preposterous to the cellar-dwellers of the time.

Today, though, the role is increasingly ambassadorial.

‘I like to say it has made me a collector of shoes,’ Krug’s Cavil says, ‘one moment I need my boots to visit the growers. The next I am in heels to talk to journalists, and then I’m in flat shoes to go to Paris and discuss the budget!’

Some, such as Louis Roederer’s Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, are equally at home in front of a masterclass or press tasting as they are in their own cellars.

Other houses such as Laurent-Perrier, Pol Roger, Taittinger, Billecart-Salmon or Deutz, maintain a more traditional role, with cellar masters rarely seen in front of the camera.

The demands placed upon cellar masters to emulate the likes of Lécaillon – boundlessly travelling the world representing both technical and communication prowess – aren’t suited to everyone.

Although it’s normal for cellar masters to play ‘musical chairs’ – moving between different houses through the course of their career – some cellar masters in the prime of their working lives (at houses such as Bollinger and Charles Heidsieck) have quit the game entirely over the last two years.

A team sport

What’s clear is that, despite being thrust into the limelight as individual geniuses, winemaking itself is a team sport at this scale.

At Ruinart, the winemaking team even has its own Instagram account, where they discuss the more technical aspects of the job.

Ruinart's cellar master Caroline Fiot, previously a member of the wider winemaking team, says that technicality rests at the heart of the role.

‘I need to keep feeding my skills, to be innovative,’ she says, ‘I’ve worked on everything from microbiology, strains of yeast and massal selection, to singularisation of the vineyards and microvinifications’.

Even for a born technician, though, it’s hard to complain when days in the laboratory are broken up with a good deal of the glitz and glam of a Grande Marque like Ruinart: ‘It’s 360 degrees, and there’s no routine,’ says Fiot.

‘But I love this job!’

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Château la Commaraine: Stay in the heart of a top Burgundy vineyard

Few hotel openings in Burgundy have generated as much excitement as Château la Commaraine in Pommard.

Five years in the making, this ambitious restoration has been as eagerly anticipated by wine lovers as the annual en primeur tastings.

Set in the heart of one of the Côte de Beaune's most celebrated villages, it offers something many oenophiles have long dreamed about: the chance to stay not simply near a great vineyard, but at the heart of one.

Standing behind historic stone walls in the centre of Pommard, the château is surrounded by the vines of Clos de la Commaraine, a premier cru vineyard whose history stretches back centuries.

The estate itself dates from the 12th century, but following an extensive renovation by Champagne Hospitality, the group behind Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa, it has re-emerged as Burgundy's first luxury five-star hotel fully integrated with a working winery and premier cru vineyard.

The appeal begins with the location. Pommard remains one of Burgundy's most recognisable names, synonymous with structured, age-worthy Pinot Noir. Yet despite its reputation, the village retains a refreshingly understated charm.

Guests can stroll directly from the château into the surrounding vineyards, wander quiet streets lined with family-owned domaines, or reach Beaune's celebrated restaurants and wine bars within minutes by car.

Don't miss Beaune's lively Saturday morning market, where around 180 traders sell everything from seasonal produce and artisan breads to Burgundian cheeses, charcuterie and regional delicacies.

Burgundy heritage with modern luxury

Inside, the property strikes an elegant balance between heritage and contemporary comfort. Original architectural details have been carefully preserved, creating spaces that feel rooted in Burgundy's history while offering every modern luxury.

The 37 rooms and suites are individually designed, many overlooking the surrounding vines.

Natural materials, soft tones and thoughtful detailing create a sense of understated sophistication, while heated bathroom floors, Diptyque amenities and fluffy bathrobes add an extra layer of indulgence.

'Wine sits firmly at the centre of the guest experience'

The vineyards surrounding Château la Commaraine are as carefully nurtured as the hotel itself.

The estate has farmed its historic Clos de la Commaraine premier cru vineyard organically for several years, with biodynamic practices now guiding much of the vineyard work.

It's an approach that reflects a broader movement among Burgundy's leading producers to preserve the health of the land while expressing terroir with greater precision.

Wine sits firmly at the centre of the guest experience. Bespoke tastings and guided vineyard walks allow visitors to explore the nuances of the local terroir, while a new on-site winery will soon offer an even deeper understanding of the journey from vine to bottle.

For those keen to immerse themselves in Burgundy's culture, the château provides a compelling introduction to the region's intricate patchwork of vineyards and classifications.

Fine dining at Château la Commaraine

Gastronomy naturally plays a central role. Under the leadership of Meilleur Ouvrier de France chef Christophe Raoux and chef Jérôme Rioux, Burgundy's culinary traditions are given a contemporary interpretation.

At Le Clos, the relaxed bistro overlooking the winery, seasonal regional ingredients take centre stage, while the wine and cocktail bar, housed in a beautifully restored 14th-century tower, provides an atmospheric setting for an aperitif.

The terrace is the perfect place to watch the sun set as the swallows swoop and dip in the swimming pool nestled amongst the vines.

The culinary offering expanded further this summer with the opening of Le VIII, the château's fine dining restaurant. Located within the estate's ancient, vaulted cellar, it promises an ambitious gastronomic experience rooted in Burgundian flavours and ingredients.

The wine list, naturally, leans heavily into the strengths of the Côte d'Or, allowing guests to explore both established names and rising stars without leaving the property.

Beyond the wine, guests will find a spa and well-equipped wellness facilities. Yet what makes Château la Commaraine truly special is the sense of immersion it offers. This is not simply a luxury hotel in a wine region; it is an invitation to experience Burgundy from the inside.

For anyone whose ideal escape involves exceptional food, fine wine and waking up among premier cru vineyards, Château la Commaraine comes remarkably close to perfection.

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A mouthwatering trail of top medals at the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) 2026 offers wine lovers an island-hopping adventure through the Mediterranean and beyond, spanning prominent grape varieties and lesser-known heroes.

Expert judges at the latest edition of the world’s biggest wine competition gave coveted accolades to a wide range of island gems.

Dry whites included a Best in Show medal for Assyrtiko in its Santorini heartland, alongside Gold for Arinto from the Azores – Portugal’s mid-Atlantic outpost. Among the exciting reds were wines that featured Mallorcan Callet and Corsican Nielluccio. In the southern hemisphere, meanwhile, Pinot Noir in cool-climate Tasmania is clearly going from strength to strength.

Back in Europe, Sicily and Sardinia are must-visit destinations.

Curate an island wine tour for your table with these top medal winners, all backed by DWWA’s rigorous judging process.

Top awarded island wines at DWWA 2026

Best in Show

Santo Wines, Kontarades, Santorini, Greece 2024

Best in Show, 97 points
£60 Maltby & Greek
Our DWWA judges love the white, Assyrtiko-based wines of Santorini. This year’s Best in Show-winning dry wine is from the windy, drought-striken 2024 vintage. The resilience of Santorini vines(and growers) under these circumstances is remarkable. This is a warmer-than-usual example, and you might find candied lemon skin and Mirabelle plum notes alongside the usual aromatic hints of earth and stone. It is – of course! – salty and full on the palate, amply structured, broad and rewarding, with more glycerol and slightly lower acidity than in other vintages. As always, though, the balance comes from deep-rooted vines searching the volcanic ash and tephra soils and seeming to convey their print in flavour, giving this singular wine unique authority and conviction. One sip shows you that this is a world original. Alcohol 14%

Tenute Nicosia, Hýbla Biologico, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, Sicily, Italy 2023

Best in Show, 97 points
POA £ Vinexus
As things stand (though wine evolution never ends) this is a wine from Sicily’s only existing DOCG zone: a zone in the southeast of the island, circling inland from the town of Vittoria. It’s a blend of Nero d’Avola with the indigenous Frappato, and is crafted in a light, thirst-slaking style, with a backbone of pretty cherry fruit. It sees eight months in larger oak, just to calm the Nero d’Avolaa little but without losing the joy of the Frappato. It’s a translucent red in colour, and the DWWA judges loved its aromatic blend of strawberry and cherry fruits with herbs, pepper and something a little more savoury and salami-like. On the palate it’s bright, fresh and dancing ,with brisk acidity but not devoid of tannin either: the finishing grip partners well with the wine’s acidity and brings a little closing seriousness. Alc 13.5%

Azores

Tarelo, Monumental Arinto dos Açores, Pico, Portugal 2018

Gold, 95 points
£80 Tan&Ns Wine Importers
A deep dive into dried mango, honeyed ginger and multitudes of nuts. Bold and smoky, with garrigue freshness to the acidity and a smooth finish. Alc 12%

Corsica

Domaine Orenga de Gaffory, Alzetana, Patrimonio, France 2023

Platinum, 97 points
orengadegaffory.com
90% Nielluccio and 10% Grenache. Beaming with energy and guile; an elaborate tapestry of cherries, raspberries, violets and roses weaves it's way in to the elegant structure and sets the juicy, fragrant tone. Bright and shapely with a rewarding length. Alc 13.5%

Domaine Orenga de Gaffory, Cuvée des Gouverneurs, Patrimonio, France 2023

Gold, 96 points
orengadegaffory.com
100% old-vine Nielluccio. Glimmering aromas of violet, lavender and tarragon show grace and finesse and glide over the sumptuous palate amid a wealth of red cherries. Long and aromatic. Alc 13.5%

Mallorca

Santa Catarina, Sta Callet, Spain 2023

Gold, 96 points
bodegasantacatarina.com
100% Callet. A lip-smacking style, pulsating with ruby red grapefruit, blood orange, raspberry and watermelon juice wrapped in a mineral frame. Garrigue and Alpine herbs line the length. Alc 12.5%

Son Antem, S’Era, Spain 2024

Gold, 95 points
sonantemalaro.es
100% Callet. A fruity infusion of raspberry, cranberry, red cherry and pomegranate with an alluring hibiscus fragrance. Very crunchy and refreshing with a gorgeous underlying savoury prowess. Alc 12.5%

Santorini

Santo Wines, Nykteri, Greece 2024

Gold, 96 points
£45-£46 Epinoia, Maltby & Greek
A generous style blending Assyrtiko, Athiri and Aidani. Mango, acacia honey and Mirabelle plum complement the lush texture and succulent
acidity. Complex and lengthy. Alc 14.5%

Sardinia

Cantina Mesa, Opale Vermentino di Sardegna, Italy 2024

Gold, 95 points
£24 Bibendum Wine, Wanderlust Wine
Very pure and varietally classical, channelling lemon curd, sage and fennel. Thriving acidity brightens the oily texture. Finishes witha lick of salinity. Alc 14%

VikeVike, Ghirada Fittiloghe, Barbagia, Italy 2022

Gold, 96 points
£64 Carruthers & Kent, Passione Vino
100% Cannonau. Distinctly Mediterranean, exuding waves of rosemary, thyme, juicy berries and savoury spice. Mouthwatering acidity and granitic tannins. Alc 13%

Sicily

Barone di Villagrande, Etna Bianco Superiore, Italy 2024

Gold, 96 points
£24.50-£30 Jascots, The Good Wine Shop, The Salusbury Winestore, Wine Tasting Adventures
Yellow apple, apricot and honeyed saffron on a broad, textured palate. Cleansing citrus acidity. Alc 13.5%

Mandrarossa, Terre del Sommacco Nero d’Avola, Menfi, Italy 2022

Gold, 96 points
£35-£37 Carruthers & Kent, Hattersley Wines, NY Wines, The Secret Cellar

A beautifully pure style of Nero d’Avola: fresh cherry, raspberry and plum, delicate violet florals, relaxed tannins and crisp acidity. Alc 13.5%

Tasmania

Dawson James, Pinot Noir, Australia 2024

Platinum, 97 points
POA £ Highbury Vintners
An alchemy of cranberry, goji berry and sweet cherry fruit with a touch of liquorice. Gossamer texture and tactile tannins shape the palate, with delightfully energising pomegranate acidity. Superb, vibrant finish. Alc 13.5%

Eddystone Point, Pinot Noir, Australia 2024

Gold, 95 points
eddystonepoint.com.au
Flamboyant ripe fruit intermingled with charcuterie, smoked meats and herbal detail. Fleshy and full, with mouthwatering acidity, savoury tannins and a liquorice-infused finish. Alc 13.5%

Search all winners from DWWA 2026

Just before dawn, the hills of Piedmont look half‑formed, as if the fog is still deciding what to reveal. We pull up at the edge of a small wood, and Macchia (‘Spot’) the dog hops out of her pillowed nest in the back seat of a mud‑spattered Fiat Panda 4x4.

Michele – one of Alba’s most respected trifulau – leads us into the quiet trees. Macchia, a cheerful dog with quick paws, trots ahead, nose low, tail slicing the mist like a metronome.

The ground is soft underfoot, a quilt of wet leaves; the forest air is cool and heavy, rich with the soft musk of wild mushrooms, rain‑darkened foliage, moss, damp bark, and a faint thread of distant woodsmoke.

‘Macchia always knows before I do. The forest smells different when a truffle is close,’ Michele whispers, as if loud words might unsettle any treasures buried beneath our feet.

We’re searching for Tuber magnatum Picco, the white truffle of Alba – ‘white gold’, as the locals call it.

What I learn over the next few days, as I follow Michele and Macchia through the waking woods, is that beyond their earthly allure, truffles awaken something in us, activating neural pathways in ways science is only just beginning to understand.

Hijacking the dog's brain

In a way, dogs like Macchia are the truffles’ first victims. The fungus hijacks their brains long before it hijacks ours.

As we walk deeper into the woods, Michele tells me that training begins when dogs are mere pups, still nursing.

‘When the puppies are newborn, we scent the mother’s teats very lightly with truffle oil,’ Michele explains. ‘Just enough so that the first smell they associate with comfort and feeding is the smell of truffle.’

The olfactory bulb in dogs is proportionally 40-times larger than in humans, and their scent memory is astonishingly durable. What humans experience as a fleeting perfume, dogs experience as a map, a story.

The first whiffs of truffle a newborn puppy perceives become associated with nourishment, warmth and safety, forming lasting pathways in its neural circuitry.

‘When they smell truffles later, even years later, it wakes up something from when they were tiny. It’s the memory of their mother. They can’t ignore it,’ says Michele.

Once the puppies are weaned, the training becomes more deliberate. Michele hides small pieces of truffle in cloth pouches and buries them shallowly in the soil.

The dogs learn to dig gently, using only their paws, never their teeth. They’re taught patience, restraint, and the subtle art of the hunt.

‘For the dog, the joy is in the digging. The truffle is the prize, yes, but the hunt – that’s what they love,’ Michele says, watching Macchia zigzag through the underbrush.

Macchia is a Lagotto Romagnolo, the curly‑coated breed famous for its truffle‑hunting prowess. But Michele is quick to point out that the breed alone doesn’t make a hunter.

‘Lagotti are wonderful dogs,’ he says. ‘But when it comes to finding truffles together, what matters is the bond. Your dog is your partner. The dog has to want to work with you, not for you.’

When Macchia catches a trace of truffle, her entire posture changes. Her tail stiffens, her breathing shifts, her gait becomes laser‑focused.

This is dopamine at work – the neurotransmitter of anticipation; the same reward circuitry that fires in humans when we smell truffles also fires in dogs when they search for it.

‘Watch her paws’, says Michele.

Macchia begins to dig with a practiced, almost delicate rhythm. Each stroke is measured carefully, as if she understands the value of what lies beneath.

The earth loosens, dark and fragrant, releasing a faint, humid warmth. Michele kneels and places a hand gently on the dog’s flank.

‘She knows when to stop. That’s the difference between a good dog and a great one,’ he says.

And then, there it is: a pale, knobbly orb no larger than a walnut, streaked with the faint marks of the forest.

When Macchia steps back, Michele takes over, brushing away the last layer of soil with his fingers. Up close, it looks less like a fungus and more like a tiny buried relic.

‘Every truffle is a little treasure’, he says. ‘Its whole life is written on the surface: snail trails, a gentle scratch from a dog’s paw, tiny fissures from the earth pressing and releasing, even the imprint of the roots it grew against.’

Why we can't resist truffles

In 2025, a Hong Kong bidder paid €110,000 for a 1.009‑kilogram Alba truffle at the World Truffle Auction, hosted in the elegant castle of Grinzane Cavour.

To understand why people pay thousands – or tens of thousands – for these subterranean wonders, you have to understand how scent works.

‘Unlike sight or sound, smell bypasses the brain’s usual filters,’ says Paul J. Zak, founding director at the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, Claremont Graduate University.

‘Odour molecules travel straight from the olfactory bulb to the amygdala, hippocampus, and orbitofrontal cortex, the regions responsible for emotion, memory and reward respectively.

‘Scent is the only sense that is not gated through processing pathways: the olfaction response communicates directly to areas in the brain that process emotions.’

Paolo Montanaro, CEO of Tartuflanghe is one of the premier exporters of white truffles in Alba. After pursuing a degree in chemistry at the University of Turin, he joined his father’s company.

‘From a chemical standpoint, the intense and “intoxicating” aroma of white truffle comes from an extremely complex mixture of volatile compounds – over 100 different molecules – that readily evaporate and reach our olfactory system,’ he explains.

‘Sulphur-containing compounds are the primary drivers: they contribute earthy, cabbage-like, garlicky, and aged cheese notes, and are highly potent even in trace amounts.

Among them, 2,4-dithiapentane is considered the signature molecule of white truffle, responsible for its most characteristic, penetrating, sulphurous aroma.

‘Truffles also contain compounds such as androstenone and androstenol, which are structurally similar to mammalian pheromones.

’These molecules have musky, animal-like notes and contribute to the seductive and persistent quality of the aroma.

'They also explain why animals such as pigs and dogs are naturally drawn to truffles, as they are particularly sensitive to these compounds.’

Truffle paradox

There’s a paradox at the heart of truffle lust: these aromas – musk, damp earth, decay – should repel, yet they signal luxury.

At restaurants across Alba, white truffles are shaved over agnolotti del plin, melted into silky fonduta, and even curled into thin petals atop creamy gelato.

‘Rare or unusual scents are more sought after because new things enable humans to acquire new information that could help them survive or reproduce,’ notes Zak.

‘The brain always puts higher value on the “new, new thing”. It’s plausible that attraction to earthy, musky, and sulphurous compounds helped early humans identify food sources, assess food safety, and interpret environmental signals. Today, this same sensitivity contributes to the appeal of truffles.’

Novelty, rarity, and complexity become intertwined with prestige. Over centuries, cultures have elevate these once‑strange aromas into symbols of sophistication.

Wine and truffles: A fascinating combination

‘Wine and truffles speak the same aromatic language’, says Montanaro.

‘Aged Nebbiolo develops mushroom, underbrush, and dried rose notes, mirroring truffle aromatics: a perfect example of “aroma bridging”.

'At the same time, the wine’s acidity increases the volatility of truffle compounds and cleanses the palate of fats, so the aroma becomes even more vivid.’

Scientific research shows that soil microbial communities directly influence truffle aroma.

Truffles are mycorrhizal fungi, living in symbiosis with tree roots (oak, hazel, poplar, linden). These roots release nutrients that sustain a microbiome of bacteria, yeasts, and fungi.

‘As in wine, there is a concept of microbial terroir, where differences in soil microbiota influence aroma intensity and complexity,’ Montanaro explains.

‘The final scent is not produced by the fungus alone, but by a complex ecosystem of microorganisms.

‘An experienced nose can identify nuances such as hazelnut notes, honeyed tones from linden trees, the sharper intensity of truffles associated with oak, or more garlicky profiles from specific hills.

'Soil composition, such as calcareous or clay-rich areas, also contributes to subtle differences in aroma.’

One enduring mystery

The science lingers in my mind, but here, among the roots and leaf litter, it becomes something tangible.

Macchia’s nose twitches; Michele’s eyes scan the ground with the intuition he’s earned from truffle hunting for over 40 years.

When Macchia pauses again, Michele kneels beside her. The two share a look, a tiny exchange of trust, and then he begins to dig with practiced care.

A few moments later, he lifts a truffle from the soil as gently as if it were a living thing. Macchia proudly wags her tail, and Michele’s loving pats and scratches are the payment she expects and so obviously adores.

But for all we’ve learned, truffles remain stubbornly mysterious.

‘We still do not fully understand why, within the same forest or truffle ground, under identical environmental conditions, only certain tree roots develop the symbiotic relationship that produces truffles,’ says Montanaro.

‘It remains, in part, a fascinating mystery’.

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On 15 July 2026, a single bottle of 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon sold at Christie’s for $22,500 (£16,724) – nearly four times its $6,000 high estimate.

Six weeks earlier, I drank another bottle from the winery’s dwindling library reserves.

It’s one thing to know the story of a wine that changed the course of its region’s history; it’s quite another – and deeply humbling – to taste it.

On 4 June at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars with owner Marchese Piero Antinori, Antinori CEO Renzo Cotarella, Stag’s Leap winemaker Marcus Notaro and two other prominent wine journalists, I was granted the opportunity to drink a couple of glasses of the 1973 Cabernet that is preserved in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History – a bottle that was named among the ‘101 Objects that Made America’.

At the time of our tasting, only 19 bottles reportedly remained at the winery.

Opening a wine time capsule

The wine earned its place in history on 24 May 1976, in a blind tasting of French and California wines organized in Paris by Steven Spurrier and Patricia Gallagher.

With mostly French experts judging, the 1973 S.L.V. finished first among 10 Cabernets from California and Bordeaux.

Notaro took on the task of opening the wine and, with the help of a Durand wine opener and a steady hand, extracted a beautifully intact cork.

Decanting the rare wine was just as nerve-racking, but everyone’s shoulders relaxed at the first sight of the still-dark robes of ruby red wine cascading down the glass, with only subtle bricking in the colour – the first hint that it was in impeccable condition.

Notaro also passed around an original copy of the Time magazine issue in which George Taber’s 'Judgment of Paris' piece appears.

I was shocked to see how short it was: just one column, four paragraphs, nearly run off the page and into the spine by a giant Armstrong Tires advertisement.

‘California defeated all Gaul’, declared the copy, yet astonishingly, in the fourth paragraph, Taber incorrectly identified the winning Stag’s Leap vintage as ‘1972’ instead of 1973!

What of it, I marvelled. A mere footnote, lost to the history of whatever the print circulation was for that one issue.

The full story of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars began when founder Warren Winiarski tasted Nathan Fay’s homemade 1968 Cabernet Sauvignon from the vineyard next door.

In that sample, he found the proof he needed that this corner of Napa could produce Cabernet worthy of fine wine.

Winiarski bought an adjoining prune orchard in 1970 and planted what became Stag’s Leap Vineyard, or S.L.V.

What did the 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet taste like?

As we sipped the ’73, each marvelling over it in our own way, Cotarella explained that the Judgment of Paris–winning wine had come from the third crop of grapes off the new vineyard.

'Young vines can produce extraordinary fruit at that stage, when yields remain naturally low and balanced, before their fourth-leaf ambitions outrun their still-developing roots,' he said.

As for the wine itself, extraordinary scarcely describes what wafted out of my glass. The 1973 offered up rich tobacco, charcuterie and black truffle notes, with sumptuous loamy earth, currant fruit and white pepper.

Yet its defining quality was freshness: a saline acid tension that made the wine feel not merely alive but positively energised.

Drunk with plates of shaved fennel, Hokkaido sea scallops with tarragon beurre blanc, and hanger steak with espresso jus, it kept gathering energy rather than surrendering it.

An accompanying bottle of 1987 S.L.V. was softer, warmer and fleshier, with resolved tannins, incense and currants.

The 1999 S.L.V. offered minty freshness, black fruit and rich tobacco, its beautiful density carried by featherweight tannins.

Together they made a persuasive case that Napa Cabernet’s reputation for longevity should not rest on one miraculous bottle.

Antinori acquired a 15% stake in Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in 2007 and became its sole owner in 2023.

During the luncheon, we also drank the 98-point 2023, the first vintage produced under full Antinori ownership; the wine struck Notaro as distinctly ‘Margaux-like’ with its perfumed violets.

Cotarella, reflecting on the reference to Bordeaux, said simply: ‘We are farmers. We have to control our vineyards to control our quality and style.’

If you could save time in a bottle …

I wish so many of you could have the opportunity to drink something as beautiful as the ’73 S.L.V. And, truthfully – you can.

Find a red wine that you love and store as many bottles as you can, in a cool, darkened place, for as long as you can stand it, if for no other reason than to share a glass with your grandchildren when they come of legal drinking age.

From Napa’s recent decades of wine, I would keep drinking and cellaring 2013 and 2021 for their profound structure and concentration; 2016 and 2019 for their black fruit and loamy earth richness; and 2018 and 2023 for their marriage of concentration and freshness.

As for the 1973 S.L.V., if allowed one final wine before shuffling off this mortal coil, I might choose it.

It was that good.

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Ask someone their favourite type of martini, sour or highball and you might get a quick answer. But ask their favourite daisy, and you’ll more likely get a blank stare.

Despite the unfamiliar name, the daisy category contains some of the most popular cocktails out there. The Sidecar. The Cosmopolitan. The Last Word, White Lady and Between the Sheets. And of course, the ultra-trendy Margarita – which, by the way, means ‘daisy’ in Spanish.

What is a daisy?

But what actually is a daisy cocktail? Simply put, it’s a sour – which is classified as containing a base spirit, citrus and sugar syrup – where part or all of the sweetness comes from the addition of a liqueur.

For example, take that classic Margarita: an easy trio of tequila, lime and orange liqueur.

The earliest written recipe for a daisy stretches back to the 1876 book by Jerry Thomas: Bar-Tender’s Guide. Early versions featured gin, whiskey and brandy with orange liqueur or cordial, plus a dash of soda water.

Today, the soda water has left the equation and not all daisies include orange liqueur. Though many do.

For example, the Sidecar, one of the earliest daisies – said to have been created by an American army captain in Paris during WWI – pairs it with Cognac and lemon juice.

How do daisies taste?

If simple sours are all about bright acidity, citrus freshness and a star base spirit, daisies are their slightly more complex cousins.

‘A classic sour is more refreshing because there are no other ingredients to cloud the citrus,’ says Dan Ghazal, head of drinks development at The Umbrella Project, which includes London bar Discount Suit Company.

‘It’s simple and tart, and thirst-quenching. But adding liqueur changes it.’

While all cocktails should be more than the sum of their parts, that’s even more so the case for daisies.

The liqueur is not only adding sweetness, but also abv, tannin and, of course, distinct flavour that interacts with the base spirit and citrus.

When done right, elements come together in beautiful harmony, and the drink changes and evolves in the glass.

Finding perfect balance

Such complexity makes daisies a joy to drink but it can also mean that they’re trickier to make.

The particularities of individual brands and bottles become crucial as the drink becomes about finding the perfect marriage between multiple different components. Substitutions are less easily made.

For example, a Margarita recipe that tastes perfectly balanced with one tequila and triple sec might just as easily feel incredibly out of whack if you change up just one element.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for experimentation. You just need a handle on how to go about it.

Three is the magic number

‘One of the things I love about daisies is their simplicity; many of them include just three ingredients,’ says Oisin Kelly, bar manager at the appropriately named The Sidecar bar in The Westbury Hotel, Dublin.

He notes that while there are many other more complex variations to try, three-ingredient daisies are a great place to start when you’re getting to grips with the category.

Again, think Margarita or Sidecar.

Ghazal agrees: ‘When you’re only using three ingredients it’s easy to get creative. You can swap an elderflower or peach liqueur for orange, say, and see what happens.’

How to make daisies at home

Whenever you make a daisy recipe for the first time – or any time you’re experimenting with new brands or bottles – Ghazal also recommends that you stick to a tried-and-tested 2:1:1 ratio.

Once you see where the flavour profile lands for your palate, you can then think about how to tweak it.

‘Start with two parts spirit, one citrus and one liqueur. Taste it and then you can adjust. Maybe, in the case of a Sidecar, it needs a bit more sweetness, so you move up the liqueur amount by 5ml. Or maybe that Margarita needs more acidity, so you up the lime.’

Getting to know your individual ingredients is crucial. ‘I always encourage team members to really try the liqueurs and let them sit on the palate,’ says Kelly.

‘Feel the level of sweetness hitting the sides of your cheek, so you can understand what you’re actually mixing. Same with spirits; taste everything.’

While some cocktails are easier to tinker with on the fly, daisies can benefit from a bit of pre-planning too.

‘We have more than 120 recipes off our menu and through trial and error we know they work,’ notes Kelly. ‘So if you’re having friends over, make the drink well in advance. Ensure the balance is just right before trying to replicate it.’

Four daisy cocktails to try

Cosmopolitan

Recipe from Death & Co, New York

The team at Death & Co bar use Cointreau orange liqueur for its relative dryness and neutral spirit base.

Ingredients: 60ml citrus vodka, 22.5ml orange liqueur, 15ml unsweetened cranberry juice, 15ml simple syrup

Glass: Coupe

Garnish: Lime wheel

Method: Shake the ingredients with ice before double-straining into a chilled glass.

White Lady

Recipe from Harry’s New York Bar, Paris – 1929 version

Oisin Kelly suggests using Plymouth Gin in a White Lady for its softer profile and restrained juniper notes.

Ingredients: 60ml gin, 15ml orange liqueur or triple sec, 30ml lemon juice, 1 egg white

Glass: Martini

Garnish: Lemon twist

Method: Add all ingredients to a shaker and dry shake (without ice) until frothy. Fill the shaker with ice and shake again until well-chilled. Strain into chilled glass.

Page Turner

Recipe from The Sidecar, Dublin

This equal parts version of The Sidecar can be batched ahead of time and served ice-cold from the freezer. Oisin Kelly recommends using Hennessy VS for its classic balanced Cognac profile and Giffard Abricot Apricot Brandy Liqueur.

Ingredients: 30ml Cognac, 30ml apricot brandy, 30ml Cocchi Enhanced*, Grand Marnier for rinse

Glass: Nick & Nora

Garnish: Orange peel

Method: Put the Cognac, brandy and Cocci Enhanced in a mixing glass with ice and stir to mix. Strain into a glass rinsed with Grand Marnier.

*For the Cocchi Enhanced: Make the Cocchi Enhanced the day before by combining peeled zests of 6 lemons and 2 oranges (white pith removed) with 750ml Cocchi Americano. Stir and refrigerate overnight, then strain. This will will keep for up to two weeks in the fridge.

Tijuana Panther

Recipe from The Discount Suit Company, London

This is a take on modern classic daisy The Infante, which blends tequila, lime and orgeat. Dan Ghazal recommends using Ocho Plata Tequila for its clean, fresh profile and Cocchi Vermouth di Torino Extra Dry.

Ingredients: 35ml tequila, 15ml dry vermouth, 25ml lime juice, 25ml pistachio and curry leaf syrup*

Glass: Coupette

Garnish: Curry leaf

Method: Shake all of the ingredients with ice, then double strain into a chilled glass.

*For the pistachio and curry leaf syrup: To make the pistachio and curry leaf syrup, combine 200g shelled pistachios and 20g fresh curry leaves with 1 litre boiling water. Blend, cool and strain through fine mesh to make a pistachio-curry leaf ‘milk’. Combine one part milk to one part caster sugar, and shake to mix. This will keep in the fridge for one month.

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London’s wine bar scene shows no sign of slowing down. From sake and skin-contact wines to Champagne, natural wines and classic bottles, a new generation of bars is making wine drinking feel more adventurous, sociable and, above all, fun.

We’ve rounded up some of the latest openings across the capital – places where the wine is as much a reason to visit as the food, atmosphere and company.

Whether you’re after a glass of fizz from an offbeat region, a glass of vermouth with a selection of pintxos, or simply a new neighbourhood favourite, there’s plenty here to tempt you out.

Reviews by Amy Wislocki unless stated otherwise.

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This summer marks 40 years since M&S launched the first canned cocktails on the British high street. In May 1986 a tinned G&T, Rum & Cola and Whisky & American Dry appeared on M&S M&S shelves – and there’s been a steady rise in our love of tinnies since then.

In the UK canned cocktails have grown by around 8% annually since 2019, according to market research firm IWSR. The total global canned RTD (Ready To Drink) cocktail market has an estimated worth of $3.3bn and is projected to reach $5.9bn by 2030 according to Grand View Research.

Today our supermarket shelves have a dazzling choice of cocktails in cans – and they’re enticing drinkers old and new. According to IWSR, 43% of Gen Z respondents had drunk an RTD in the past six months.

Why are we crazy for cans?

There are several reasons why canned cocktails are so popular. First is their convenience. RTDs are easy to enjoy at home or serve at parties without needing bartending skills or any specialist bar equipment.

Linked to this is portability. If you’re out and about, a can is light, small and easy to carry, making it the perfect serve for any alfresco events from a picnic in the park to outdoor festivals. If you’re travelling, grabbing a can of ‘journey juice’ requires no prep, no glassware, no fuss.

There’s also been a shift towards more premium drinking. Why settle for an average drink when you could choose a classic cocktail made with respected spirits brands and other high-quality ingredients?

Finally, the move towards premium drinking is linked with wellness trends. Some of us are choosing to drink less, but drink better. While others are looking for healthier options – and many RTD brands offer lower-calorie, lower-sugar and lower-alcohol choices.

Which canned cocktail to choose?

With an ever-expanding range of RTDs, finding your favourite can be tricky. But there are a few easy points to consider.

First: what would you usually order at a bar? If you have a favourite spirits brand or style of cocktail, look for that on the supermarket shelves, since you’ll have the reassurance of knowing how it tastes.

Second: think about the occasion. If you’re planning to spend a whole afternoon sipping from a can at a party or in the park, then a lighter, lower-abv drink (think 5-6% abv) will be more sessionable.

But if you want to kick-start your night out or reward yourself at the end of a hard day, a higher-strength serve like a Whitebox Martini (22-32% abv) could be a good choice.

The good news is that cans are much cheaper than buying a whole bottle of spirits, so even if you don’t like the drink you’ve chosen, you won't have made a costly mistake.

To get you started here are a few of my favourites…

Six great canned cocktails to try

El Rayo Tequila Lime & Soda

Best for: the purists

Launched in 2019 El Rayo Plata is a lighter style of tequila, that was specifically created to pair with mixers in a long drink. The brand has two RTD serves: El Rayo Tequila Tonic & Grapefruit and this new Lime & Soda expression that pairs tequila with sparkling artisanal soda and a refreshing hit of Mexican lime. The tasty agave and citrus combo will appeal to anyone looking for a lighter and more sessionable take on a Margarita. Alc 6%

Libertine Blends Cucumber Mule

Best for: long hot summers

Launched in the UK in June, the six Libertine Blends in chic colour-coded cans were created by sisters Sofía Miró-Sans Gabarró and Ines Miró-Sans, following 18 months of testing at their award-winning Barcelona hotel bar Libertine. The collection includes non-alcoholic, low-abv and full-strength drinks. If you’re taking a break from booze, the 0% Pear & Cardamom and Hibiscus Spritz are sophisticated alternatives to your usual soft drinks. Otherwise the cool Cucumber Mule is a light, crisp vodka-based pour, with a juicy kick of lime and ginger, that’s perfect refreshment for sunny days. Serve it in a highball glass packed with ice cubes and garnish with a slice of cucumber. Alc 10%

M&S St Michael Limited Edition Gin & Tonic

Best for: classic taste

It’s 40 years since M&S launched the first canned G&T to the thirsty British public, kick-starting the tinnie trend. Today the M&S range includes Mojitos, Cosmopolitans, Whisky Sours and a great selection of spritzes. Look out for the ‘Marksologist’ range which features creative serves like a Smoked Pineapple Daiquiri and Blood Orange Negroni. Its latest launch is a limited-edition release of the classic G&T tinnie that started it all, in a smart anniversary can, with packaging inspired by the original archive design. Inside the tin you’ll find a double measure of London Dry gin for a clean, sharp taste with plenty of juniper punch. If you’re not drinking it on-the-go, serve it in a highball glass full of ice with a lemon slice. Alc 8%

Mezcal Reina Mezcalita

Best for: flavour explorers

Mezcal is having a moment in the UK, with more of us starting to appreciate the smoky character and diverse personalities of tequila’s agave cousin. Mezcal Reina was founded in 2017 by friends Susana Franyutti and Monica Torroella to showcase traditionally produced mezcals from Oaxaca. Their Espadín expression forms the base of this well-crafted Mezcalita – think Margarita but made with mezcal rather than tequila for a spicier, more earthy version of the classic Mexican cocktail. Serve in a rocks glass over ice, garnished with a slice of lime. Alc 10%

MOTH Mango Margarita

Best for: fruity fans

Launched in 2021 by childhood friends Rob Wallis and Sam Hunt, MOTH is now the biggest player in the UK’s canned cocktail market, with 41% of sales in the off-trade. So you’ve probably seen their black cans in your local supermarket. Standing for Mix Of Total Happiness the 12-strong MOTH range runs from Palomas and Piña Coladas to Passionfruit Martinis. Their fruity Mango Margarita – made with award-winning Tequila Enemigo – launched this year, alongside a Strawberry Daiquiri. Serve it chilled over ice in a rocks glass and garnish with a lime wedge. Alc 14.9%

Whitebox Collina & Co Espresso Martini

Best for: kick-starting your night

Whitebox was founded by a team of bartenders and spirits pros, including Alex Lawrence of Mr Lyan Studio; Josh Rennie, co-founder of Porters Gin and Pietro Collina, former bar director of the NoMad Hotel Group. So it’s no surprise that these dinky little cans deliver punchy bar-strength drinks. I’ve got several favourites in this range, including the latest additions: Clover Club and Mai Tai. The Freezer Martini is a handy standby too. But the Collina & Co Espresso Martini makes it onto this list; a full-flavoured take on Dick Bradsell’s ultimate pick-me-up cocktail, created back in the 1980s. Shake the chilled can for at least 12 seconds to create foam, then serve in a coupe glass, garnished with two or three coffee beans. Alc 22%

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Sure, the United States hasn’t been making wine since ancient times from vineyards studiously plotted out over the centuries by monks. But the country has packed plenty of wine accomplishments into its 250 years of existence, thanks to all the European settlers who couldn’t tolerate life in the New World without a good drink.

From the earliest explorers to more recent immigrants, people have turned to both native grapes and imported European varieties to see which can make the best wines ‘from California to the New York island’.

While the most important events in the founding of our country were fuelled by imported wine, American winemakers and viticulturists have since proven sceptics wrong, shocked French wine judges, resurrected near-dead wineries and lured prestigious European wine companies into expanding to the States.

How much do you know about US wine history, from the colonial era up to the early 1990s? Find out with our 14-question challenge.

Take our US wine history quiz

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No stranger to sweltering New York summers, Sydney Fusto finds relief in zesty, high-acid wines. 'You want something that’s going to really wake up your palate and get your saliva moving, and the key is really fresh, zippy acidity,' she says.

With regards to seasonal food pairings, Fusto shares her love of Sauvignon Blanc, especially when sipped with citrus, cilantro, or anything with a hint of spice (think ceviche, crudo, and other raw bar favorites). If grilled meats and veggies are on the menu, she looks to darker-hued rosés and chillable reds, especially those made from Grenache, Gamay, and other high-acid varieties.

For crisp summer produce, crunchy pickled veggies, or when she’s really not sure what she’s in the mood for, Fusto usually lands on easy-drinking bubbles.

'When I don’t know what to drink, I reach for something sparkling,' she says, highlighting the versatile and spunky personality of Prosecco.

From budget-friendly bubbly to refreshing whites, rosés and chillable reds, Fusto’s following bottle recommendations promise to keep you satiated all summer long.

Fusto's five wines to sip this summer

Sommariva Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene Superiore Brut NV

'When it's 100+ F in New York and I'm sticking to my clothes, I am not looking to think too hard, ball out, or show off–I want bubbles that are easy-going, juicy and straightforward,' she says. The answer? An ice-cold bottle of high-quality Prosecco, particularly the Superiore Brut NV from Sommariva. 'It has the lip-smacking tart juiciness of a fresh Granny Smith apple, delicate white floral aromas and zingy acidity to keep everything playful and bright,' Fusto says. 'Think of it like the sparkling equivalent of a refreshing glass of lemonade. It’s so pleasurable, you could drink it all day long–no need to be super cerebral about this.'

Dog Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2024

In the words of Fusto, haters need not apply here. 'Sauvignon Blanc is "that girl" and always will be,' she says, citing the signature herbaceousness and distinct citrus notes synonymous with wines made from it. Additionally, Fusto notes that Sauvignon Blanc-based wines typically have high acidity, making them perfect for summer fare, as well as cracking open and sipping solo on a hot day. 'I’ve been drinking Dog Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc nonstop, and I even pour it by the glass at Manhatta – yes, I said New Zealand,' she says, highlighting the wine’s unique, savory curry leaf and Thai basil aromas, as well as its long, salty finish. 'It’s a showstopper,' she affirms.

Tiberio Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo 2023

Rosé and summer go hand in hand, and for Fusto, Tiberio Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo 2023 has become a go-to. Crafted entirely from the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo grape, this vibrantly colored wine oozes with flavors of pomegranate, sour cherry, blood orange, and Mediterranean herbs–though don’t let its dark hue fool you. Contrary to the numerous myths surrounding rosé, darker-hued bottles don’t mean sweet or heavy. 'The wine is lifted and drinkable like a white, but has more stuffing and concentration than a lighter, less extracted rosé style,' she says. 'I highly recommend it with barbecue.'

Domaine de Terrebrune Bandol 2024

During her time at Cote, Fusto discovered her passion for pairing rosé and grilled meats, especially less rich cuts. 'I used to be more or less indifferent to rosé, as I would typically reach for a chilled red if I wanted some substance; however, I’ve since come to enjoy the summer spoils of a juicy grilled skirt or hangar steak with a darker, more full-bodied rosé,' she says, emphasizing that textured, fuller-bodied expressions produced with a bit more extraction – like Domaine de Terrebrune Bandol 2024 – work best here. Crafted from a Mourvèdre-dominant blend, the wine’s structured body and complex notes of red fruits, juicy citrus, and salty sea air come to life when paired with equally savory summer meats.

Domaine Giacometti 'Sempre Cuntenu' 2024

Come warm weather months, Fusto reveals that Manhatta’s customers can’t get enough of chillable reds, though not all bottles are created equal. 'A chillable red wine should have a higher acidity-to-tannin profile (or softer tannins in general) and a fruit-forward, juicy flavor profile,' she says. While Beaujolais is a classic option, she’s been reaching for light Corsican reds made from the Sciacarello grape. 'This bottle offers a great bang for your buck and absolutely sings with a chill,' she says, stating that wine has become a non-negotiable fridge staple for her. 'It's great with food, it's great alone. Sempre Cuntenu literally translates to "happy wine" in the Corsican dialect, and I couldn't agree more.'

Summer is made for exploration

Above all, Fusto states that summer is one of the best times to experiment with regions and varieties, thanks to the season’s light-hearted, laid-back nature.

Currently, she’s diving deeper into the wine regions of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, as well as the appellations of coastal California. 'There are a ton of premium producers in these areas, and you’re also going to get a lot more value for your money,' she says. 'Trust me, there are so many bangers to be found at solid entry points.'

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Five years ago in an article for Decanter I made a claim that Cinsault was the most underrated red grape variety in the world. I’ve held this belief for some time, and I stand by it still.

In 2021, I organised a blind tasting of Cinsaults from all over the world and it revealed countless brilliant examples of this wonderful grape.

So, five years later, it was time to repeat the exercise to see how Cinsault has progressed.

I was joined by two top tasters – Natalie Earl, Decanter’s regional editor for France, and author and podcaster Henry Jeffreys – and together we worked our way through 52 examples of this unsung grape.

A stellar variety

It turns out there has been an important development in the world of Cinsault since the last tasting. A group of like-minded winemakers has formed a body to promote this under-appreciated grape, called Les Cinsónautes.

One of the founders is Guillaume Baron of Clos de la Barthassade in Aniane, Languedoc. ‘I’ve always loved Cinsault,’ he says, ‘its drinkability, lightness, suppleness and its ability to translate terroir.’ He describes it as a cross between Gamay, Pinot Noir and Grenache.

He’s also part of Les Aligoteurs, a group formed in 2018 to promote another underrated grape – Aligoté. ‘I realised that Cinsault shared the same poor treatment that Aligoté suffered from in the past,’ says Baron, and so he wanted to help reverse its fortunes.

For too long, Cinsault has been widely considered a second-class grape variety, cropped highly to bulk out blends, make cheap rosé or basic vin de soif.

In fact, some believe the grape’s name comes from cinq sauts, meaning five buckets: if you crop it highly enough, one vine will give you that many grapes.

But with lower yields, gentle handling and appropriate care, Cinsault can make beautiful wines. What’s more, it ripens at just 11.5%-13.5% abv.

The tasting

Five years ago, it was South Africa that dominated the leaderboard. Since then, France has improved dramatically.

The top 10 this year contained five wines from each of these countries – but France took the top three places.

‘One of Cinsault's real strengths is its beautiful soaring fragrance,’ says Earl, ‘and that was really on show in the French wines… Many examples felt extremely well handled and cared for.’

Some of the French bottlings felt clunky and over-extracted last time, but now the grape’s innate delicacy and tenderness is being embraced and celebrated.

‘The French are clearly doing something exciting, they’re rediscovering it,’ says Jeffreys.

South African examples don’t seem to have progressed quite so quickly, and are stylistically more varied.

‘The South Africans weren’t as strong as last time but there were some absolute stand-out wines, especially from Natte Valleij,’ says Jeffreys.

There were very good individual wines from Chile and the USA, too.

Brightest stars

We all picked our top seven from the tasting, and occasionally our favourites overlapped. Four wines were chosen by two tasters:

- Domaine Allegria, Spirale, Pays d’Hérault, Languedoc, France 2024

- Mas Cal Demoura, Belle Fiolle, Vin de France, Languedoc, France 2024 (grown near Terrasses du Larzac)

- Leeu Passant, Old Vines Basson Cinsault, Wellington, South Africa 2023

- Domaine Sainte Marie de Crozes, L'Escapade, Vin de France, Languedoc, France 2024 (grown near Corbières)

Two wines were unanimously selected as favourites by all three tasters:

- Alain Chabanon, Cinq Saut, St Guilhem le Désert, Languedoc, France 2023

- Domaine du Pas de l'Escalette, Ze Cinsault, Pays Hérault, Languedoc, France 2024 (grown near Terrasses du Larzair

There was one main criticism however: the grape is prone to reduction, which caused certain bottles to show rubbery aromas on opening.

But there were fewer instances this time round, and usually a brief decant helps reduce this.

Cinsault doesn’t produce blockbusters or icon wines. Rather than structure, power and complexity, what it offers is freshness, aromatic precision, lacy tannins and a sense of purity and levity.

And it’s delicious on its own, lightly chilled.

‘They were incredibly drinkable, concentrated but not cumbersome or heavy, with refreshing acidity. A wine for modern times,’ says Earl.

The stars have aligned, and it’s Cinsault’s time to shine.

Matt Walls 20 highest-scoring Cinsault

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Driving the highways just west of Washington, D.C., you’ll see monuments and museums on one side, corporate offices and government buildings on the other. But after a short while, the offices become trees, the monuments become cascading mountains. You end up on a dirt road, among vines, views and stillness.

A wine weekend in Northern Virginia is one where you can do it all. That sounds like a big statement, but Northern Virginia has a distinct advantage over many other U.S. wine regions: geographical convenience. Flying into Dulles International Airport places visitors within a 20- to 30-minute drive of premium wineries in Loudoun County and the Middleburg AVA. This makes the region one of the most accessible wine destinations in the country.

The proximity to D.C., brings with it a level of flexibility for itineraries, especially for groups who want to intersperse wine tasting with other activities. Visitors can spend the morning tasting distinctive wines, enjoy a museum or nature in the afternoon and experience fine dining in the evening. This seamless partnership between rural agribusiness and urban nightlife makes for a weekend worth a trip.

Virginia wine and fine dining are big draws

In 2024, Virginia attracted nearly 45 million visitors who spent more than $35bn across the state, putting it in the top 10 of U.S. tourism economies. Food and beverage made up nearly 30% – nearly $10 billion – of total spending that year. Northern Virginia accounted for close to half of both the food and beverage spending (around $4.2bn) and total spending (about $16bn).

“For the most part, a traveler wants to know, ‘Where can I go drink wine, enjoy beautiful scenic views, and find fun things to do nearby?’ For us, it's about selling the experience and why we're different,” said Juliana Thomas, director of communications for the Virginia Tourism Corporation. She and her team build itineraries that give travellers a way to experience all of the things the state has to offer, even when wine is the main focus of the trip.

‘There are some really unique spots that pair beautifully with a sophisticated wine audience,‘ Thomas noted about Northern Virginia. ‘I think of the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg, staying at the Goodstone Inn, or eating at the historic Red Fox Inn & Tavern or the nationally recognised Red Truck Bakery. There is so much to discover right next to the vineyards.‘

Wineries to suit many interests: from Bull Run to Stone Tower

Northern Virginia is now home to more than 110 wineries, accounting for more than a third of the state’s 300-plus wineries and encompassing some of its top names. The region spans the area from the Potomac River west to the Blue Ridge Mountains, including Loudoun and Fauquier Counties and beyond. The land is diverse, with elevations from 400 feet to 1,900 feet and soils ranging from greenstone and granite along the mountains to sand, silt and shale farther east.

Working together, winegrowers and producers have helped the area evolve. ‘Ten years ago, our focus was entirely on baseline quality, ensuring wines weren't flawed or structurally reduced. Today, the shift is phenomenal,’ says Aimee Henkle, owner of Lost Creek Winery and treasurer of the Loudoun Wineries & Winegrowers Association. As Loudoun County expands to 50 wineries, the organization is now focused on telling a more nuanced story – one focused on subregional identity and a sense of place.

Wineries in Northern Virginia are as diverse as they are accessible, serving a range of interests. For the wine lover who is passionate about history, the Winery at Bull Run is perfect, sitting between a battle post and wartime hospitals from the two major Battles of Bull Run during the Civil War. The winery offers a wide array of varietal wines and blends, including Cabernet Franc and Norton, a hybrid grape first grown in Virginia.

A visit to Stone Tower winery feels like leaving D.C. for Napa Valley. Its unobstructed views of the Blue Ridge Mountains allow the 400-acre property to dazzle visitors. The views are matched only by the impressive hospitality of the friendly, knowledgeable staff, who host ‘somminar’ wine education events in the evening. Stop in for a tasting or grab a glass of their estate sparkling wine, Chardonnay or Nebbiolo.

Northern Virginia’s fine-wine history: Linden Vineyards

After Prohibition, Virginia didn’t begin to rebuild its wine industry until the mid-1970s. Pioneers like Italy-born Gabriele Rausse, who planted vitis vinifera to help launch Barboursville Vineyards near Charlottesville, and Burgundy-trained winemaker and consultant Michael Shaps, who also opened the first contract winemaking facility in the state in 2007, paved the way for the modern era in Northern Virginia.

When Linden Vineyards opened in 1988 in the Blue Ridge Mountains, it helped define the state’s style and chart a path forward. Founder and winemaker Jim Law is known as the architect of modern Virginia wine. He pushed the state away from casual, tourism-focused operations towards the terroir-driven, scientific standards that drive the state’s winemaking today, introducing site-specific viticulture and single-vineyard wines.

Law also mentored notable Northern Virginia winemakers, including Rutger de Vink of the famed RdV Vineyards (now under French ownership and renamed Lost Mountain) and Jeff White of Glen Manor.

Today, Linden boasts 72 acres under vine, spread across three properties. The space continues to focus more on quiet, educational, immersive experiences rather than entertainment and events. Check out their Hardscrabble Chardonnay, Petit Manseng and Bordeaux blends. The Chardonnay vines sit on well-drained, volcanic-based greenstone, which gives the wine a distinct minerality and the complexity and structure to age for a decade or more.

A new generation of winemakers: Walsh Family

The contributions of Law, Rausse and Shaps ushered in a new wave of winemakers, including Matthieu Finot of King Family Vineyards and Maya Hood White of Early Mountain Vineyards in the Charlottesville area. In Northern Virginia, this second generation is well represented by Nate Walsh of Walsh Family Wines.

Walsh Family clearly takes inspiration from Linden, focusing on expressing the local terroir and bringing it into the tasting room with side-by-side comparisons that make it clear why site-specific viticulture matters to the end result. ‘For example, we bottle our Sauvignon Blanc from different vineyard sites. When guests taste the wines and experience those differences firsthand, it’s a light-bulb moment. Terroir shifts from being an abstract wine term to something tangible and easy to understand,’ says Walsh Family founder Sarah Bryant Walsh and Nate’s wife.

For an intriguing tasting experience, compare the following two pairs at Walsh. For whites, look for the Sauvignon Blancs from the Bethany Ridge and Twin Notch Farm vineyards. Bethany Ridge sits on shallow, stony soils and its wines tend to be ripe and more textured, while Twin Notch’s silty loam results in a leaner, crisp and aromatic profile. For reds, try the mineral-driven, structured Cabernet Franc from Dutchman’s Creek against the softer, more fruit-forward version from Twin Notch Farm.

Going high-end and more exclusive: Crimson Lane

As the D.C. metro area consistently ranks as one of the wealthiest regions in the country, that has created a demand for luxury experiences and elevated tasting spaces. Wineries like Crimson Lane are working to meet this demand.

This winery is uphill from Linden Vineyards, with 160 acres of forest and views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The tasting room is clean, sleek and modern, designed by Napa-based architects to distinguish itself from other wineries in the state.

Visiting Crimson Lane requires a reservation, with a maximum of six guests per reservation, ranging from $45 tastings to a $110 tasting of the full portfolio. The winery focuses on low-yield, high-elevation grape growing, only producing about 4,000 cases per year, which go to wine club members and special events. The winery is known for its rich, bold, red blends, Collina and Parral. Both boast concentrated dark fruit, with ripe tannins and acidity that provides a great balance.

Crimson Lane serves as a compelling example of the contrasts in Northern Virginia wine country, with its proximity to the big-city amenities of D.C. and the charms of small-town life near the Blue Ridge Mountains.

While wine lovers can spend hours exploring the area’s sense of place through the vineyards and in their glasses, they can also keep their whole family or group of friends happy enjoying Virginia hospitality, American historical and cultural sites, music, hiking and other nature activities. This combination turns a wine weekend into an unforgettable adventure for all.

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Are today’s collectors cellaring more white wine?

It’s hard to say for sure, but recent data points to a gradual, if limited, challenge to reds’ fine wine market hegemony. Chardonnay, and specifically white Burgundy, is the spearhead.

Geraint Carter, of Bordeaux Index and the LiveTrade online trading platform, said: ‘The white Burgundy share of our [total] trading over the last decade has gone from about 2% to about 5%, by value.’

Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, said trading by value on still white wine rose 650% from 2010 to 2025, when it reached 10.5% of total trade value. Sparkling wine also jumped 1,100% in that period, while reds dropped 15%.

Carter said the trend should be seen within a wider context of Burgundy, Champagne and other regions diluting red Bordeaux’s dominance. ‘It’s a much more heterogeneous [market] picture than it was 15 years ago.’

Tom Burchfield, head of decision intelligence at Liv-ex, told Decanter: ‘Collectors’ cellars have undoubtedly become more diverse, and that will be a factor. It is perhaps reflective of a broader change in taste and consumption habits, but I don’t think you can underestimate the impact Burgundy has had. Interest in Burgundy (both red and white) has soared over the past decade.’

How far can this go? Carter said trading was focused on icons (see table below), yet it’s necessarily a thin market due to relatively tiny production volumes on individual wines.

Prices are correspondingly high. While it has been affected by the broader recent market downturn, there is some evidence that top white Burgundy has been relatively resilient.

‘White Burgundy didn’t rise [in price] to the same degree as red Burgundy between 2021 and 2022, and subsequently didn’t fall as far,’ said Burchfield.

US auction house Hart Davis Hart highlighted white Burgundy’s allure after its June fine wine sale, noting: ‘White Burgundy continued its skyward trajectory, with everything from 1980s [Domaines] Leflaive and Ramonet to 2020s Bernard-Bonin and Paul Pillot setting new record prices.

The Bordeaux Index view

Fine wine & spirits specialist Bordeaux Index kindly sponsors this section of Decanter, and provides its view on the market here every issue. It can be found at bordeauxindex.com

Back to the future

The fine wine market is often described as fragmented and lacking direction.

In reality, today’s landscape looks less like disorder and more like a return to historical norms.

The true anomaly was surely the 15-20 years of boom, bust and boom again, when Asia exerted an extraordinary influence, elevating Bordeaux to an unprecedented position of dominance.

That era has passed. Bordeaux remains the cornerstone of the fine wine market, but its decline from overwhelming supremacy is the single biggest structural shift of the past decade.

The beneficiaries are well documented: red Burgundy, Champagne and, on the white side, white Burgundy have all captured a greater share of collectors’ attention.

Fragmentation extends beyond buying preferences. The days when one critic could make or break a vintage are over, and wine styles are less uniform.

Climate change is demanding new approaches in both vineyard and cellar.

And at the same time, outstanding wine is now being made almost everywhere. Even the most historic domaines increasingly face competition from ambitious terrea novea.

Perhaps the greatest change, however, is cultural.

Fine wine now behaves more like other luxury markets: trends emerge faster, information travels instantly and fashion exerts a greater influence than ever before.

Today’s market may feel fragmented, but it’s also broader, more transparent and, arguably, far more interesting.

Auction highlights: Italy & rare Sherry

Italian fine wines have been a highlight of the auction scene in recent weeks, but rarely sighted 19th-century Sherry also commanded bidders’ attention.

Giacomo Conterno, Monfortino is a hallowed name for Barolo lovers and, in late June, US-based Hart Davis Hart (HDH) brought forth what it described as ‘the most comprehensive offering of Monfortino ever to appear at auction’.

Highlights included the superstar Barolo 2010 vintage. Six bottles of Monfortino Barolo Riserva 2010 sold for $11,950 (high estimate: $9,500), including buyer’s premium, while a single magnum of the same wine fetched $4,183 (high e: $3,200).

From Tuscany, six bottles of Soldera, Case Basse, Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2004 sold for $17,925 (high e: $14,000). HDH’s June auction was 100% sold – its fifth consecutive ‘white glove’ result.

Elsewhere, Zachys offered Italian gems from New York’s legendary, now-shuttered Barbetta restaurant; the Rolling Stones and Al Pacino are listed among its past patrons.

A Delaware-based ‘live’ sale in late June featured several wines from the 1990s, including 12 bottles of Bruno Giacosa, Santo Stefano di Neive, Barbaresco 1995: sold for $3,750 (high e: $3,000), including buyer’s premium.

In a change of pace, a Christie’s online auction ending 19 June featured library wines direct from Sherry producer González Byass.

A lot containing a bottle each of Pio IX Moscatel 1846 and La Cuadrada Palo Cortado 1997 sold for £2,500, including buyer’s premium (e: £2,000 – £3,000).

LiveTrade and Wine Hub link up

Private collectors and merchants can benefit from a new partnership between the LiveTrade fine wine trading platform powered by Bordeaux Index and a leading business management system, Wine Hub, created by Wine Owners.

Both partners said their deal enhances access to global fine wine trading, such as by enabling businesses using Wine Hub to trade directly on LiveTrade, plus see real-time pricing and stock availability.

LiveTrade has nearly £50m of in-bond, pristine blue-chip stock readily available for trading at any one time.

On the benefit to collectors, Matthew O’Connell, co-CEO of Bordeaux Index, said: ‘Integrations such as Wine Hub make it easier for merchants to participate in the marketplace as part of their daily workflow.

‘Increased participation drives greater liquidity, and that means broader access to fine wine, improved pricing transparency and a stronger trading experience for private collectors using LiveTrade.’

Coming up

Burgundy charity sale

Christie’s will co-host a charity auction of rare Burgundy wines sourced directly from celebrated producers, plus exclusive experiences, from 4-19 September – in aid of restorations at the historic Cistercian Abbey of Cîteaux.

The sale’s conclusion will also coincide with a charity dinner at Chȃteau Clos du Vougeot.

Ex-Chȃteau Haut-Brion

August is broadly a quieter month for auctions, but autumn is hotting up. Sotheby’s announced in July that it will offer Château Haut-Brion wines sourced directly from the Bordeaux first growth’s cellars.

Bidding opens 17 September and concludes with a ‘live’ auction in Paris on 1 October. Stay tuned for more details.

The Golden Vines weekender

Philanthropy-focused fine wine and gastronomy event The Golden Vines returns to London in 2026, from 6-8 November, said organiser Liquid Icons in July.

Held in support of the Gérard Basset Foundation, the weekend includes The Golden Vines Awards Gala. Tickets are £10,000 per person. See liquidicons.com/london

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The Texas High Plains does not look like most visitors’ idea of wine country. It is broad, flat and exposed, a place of cotton fields, caliche soils, hard winds, spring frost and summer hail. For many wine drinkers, the region may barely register at all. Yet this high, dry plateau around Lubbock and Brownfield grows more than 80% of the grapes that become Texas wine.

Far to the south, in the pastoral rolling limestone hills around Fredericksburg, visitors sip those wines under live oaks and string lights, often unaware that a bottle of Texas wine frequently begins in one landscape and is sold in another. The industry is unusually dependent on relationships between growers and wineries separated by more than 644 kilometres.

‘The High Plains is just such a wonderful place’, says Remi Immler, head winemaker at Becker Vineyards, one of Texas Hill Country’s legacy wineries and a significant buyer of High Plains fruit. ‘You have this high, dry, desert climate where you can grow a lot of wonderful varieties: Italian, Spanish, Bordeaux and really beautiful whites. They all just do so well up there’.

Texas wine has been called ‘emerging’ for so long that the word has begun to obscure more than it explains. Today, with stronger ratings from critics and growing international recognition, the state’s wine industry is better understood as established but still misunderstood. The question is whether the long-distance agricultural system behind its quality can endure.

Better grapes, but lower demand

That system has always required trust. Grapes grown in the High Plains shape wines poured in Hill Country tasting rooms, and relationships built over years on handshakes and repeated harvests have long held the system together.

During the early years of the pandemic, many Texas wineries saw sales surge as consumers bought more wine to drink at home. ‘From 2020 into early 2023, we couldn’t keep wine on the shelf’, says Ron Yates, owner of Ron Yates Wines and Spicewood Vineyards. Wineries bought grapes aggressively, growers responded to that demand, and higher prices followed. Then consumer sales softened, inventories backed up, and growers had fruit in the vineyard with fewer buyers ready to commit.

‘The irony is that 2025 might be one of the best vintages we’ve ever seen in Texas’, Yates says. ‘It was cooler, the storms dropped the temperatures at the right time, we didn’t add a single grain of tartaric acid, and yet a lot of that beautiful fruit struggled to find a buyer’.

The weather this spring may have countered that two-year dip in demand. A freeze across both the High Plains and Hill Country on 17 March significantly lowered yields, particularly among white varieties. Several growers and winemakers see the short crop as a painful but potentially useful reset, helping bring supply back into balance.

This is the paradox defining the High Plains right now. The region is not struggling because Texas failed to improve. Many winemakers argue the opposite: the best High Plains fruit is better understood, better farmed and more important than ever. But quality alone cannot stabilise a farming economy.

The pressures of High Plains viticulture

High Plains grapegrowers have always faced weather challenges. Spring frost, hail, wind, drought and synthetic pesticide drift from nearby row-crop agriculture are part of the region’s reality. But recent pressure has come as much from the market as from the sky. Wineries with excess inventory have pulled back on grape purchases. Multi-year contracts have become less common. Some buyers wait until harvest to see what fruit can be found on the spot market at a lower price.

For Katy Jane Seaton of Farmhouse Vineyards, that uncertainty directly affects how she farms. ‘The High Plains is always going to carry on quality for the same old reasons’, she asserts. ‘We’re a region of generational farmers. Many of these families farmed row crops for generations before planting vineyards. It’s agriculture for a living, here’.

But agriculture requires planning and capital. At Farmhouse, fully contracted blocks receive the premium program: nutrition, hand work, pruning and detailed canopy care. Blocks with likely buyers get solid but reduced attention. Uncontracted fruit receives only enough care to keep vines healthy.

‘If it was contracted, you got an A-plus farming plan’, she says. ‘If it wasn’t contracted, we give nutrition down the drip line, and that’s it’.

From one of the state’s largest and most diverse High Plains properties, Akhil Reddy of Reddy Vineyards sees the same fragility. His father, Vijay Reddy, planted the family’s first vines near Brownfield in 1997 and later added a winery. Akhil grew up around the farms, became a dentist, built practices, and eventually returned full-time to vineyard and winery life. Today, the vineyard spans just under 162 hectares, with 38 grape varieties.

For Reddy, diversity is both ambition and insurance: the dozens of varieties, clones and more than 100 blocks are designed to absorb Texas volatility. Freeze, hail, heat and market shifts rarely affect everything equally.

Still, he is candid about the economics. ‘It’s extremely hard to farm and to make a profit’, Reddy says. ‘And then it’s extremely hard to make really great wine, but you can only do that with really great fruit. And what’s even harder is selling the wine’.

Looking beyond Texas’ borders