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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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

If wine does not sell, grapes do not sell; if grapes do not sell, vineyards lose investment. For Reddy, one answer is professionalization. The handshake culture of earlier decades no longer feels sufficient, so he now uses formal grape contracts, including deposits to ensure buyers have ‘skin in the game’.

Connor Wilmeth, vineyard manager at Lahey Vineyards, is also pushing beyond old assumptions. At 33, he oversees roughly 405 hectares of vines and brings a row-crop marketing background to grapes. Much of his crop goes to wineries such as McPherson Cellars and Becker Vineyards, but he has also been driving to East Coast states, introducing Texas grapes, juice and wine to buyers that already source from California and South America. For many East Coast buyers, Texas also offers a shorter freight route than California.

‘I try to apply my experience in the row-crop industry’, Wilmeth says. ‘I was on the board of a cotton marketing cooperative that merchandises cotton all over the world, and for me the question was, why are we only selling grapes locally’?

He understands the importance of strengthening Texas wine, but he also has a business to run. Rather than leaving fruit to rot when local demand softens, Wilmeth argues that Texas should compete where it has advantages: its proximity to eastern markets and its broad range of prestigious vinifera grape varieties.

That idea has support from Kim McPherson of McPherson Cellars, one of the few prominent producers making wine in the High Plains itself. After decades working with regional growers while building a brand that sells beyond the tasting room, McPherson argues that the next chapter depends on wider distribution and wines that can compete outside the state’s local markets.

Seeking a succession plan

Several growers who helped build the High Plains’ reputation are now trying to transition out of the business. Jet Wilmeth of Wilmeth Family Vineyards is retiring; Andy Timmons of Lost Draw Cellars has reduced the acreage he farms; and families such as the Binghams and Newsoms are considering how to carry important vineyard sites into the next phase.

Neal Newsom, whose vineyard has long been regarded by winemakers as one of the state’s benchmark sites, is not pessimistic. Last year, he says, was one of his worst for moving fruit, but demand has improved.

‘I’m not worried about the industry’, says Newsom. ‘This is at least my third or fourth rodeo when it comes to these types of challenges. It’s going to come back; it is already happening’.

His personal question is succession. Over 70 years old, he wants to slow down without walking away, ideally by finding a working partner with enough local presence and financial resources to help carry the vineyard forward.

For wineries that depend on Newsom fruit, the transition is critical. Mike Nelson, winemaker and co-founder of Ab Astris, considers Newsom one of the state’s benchmark farmers. ‘Growers like Neal Newsom prove what’s possible in the High Plains’, he says. ‘But that old guard is aging out, and we need others to continue his level of work’.

Making and keeping connections

Despite this pullback from pioneering growers, others, such as Tony and Madonna Phillips of Phillips Vineyard, are choosing to stay in. Last year, despite a substantial decrease in demand, the Phillipses were able to place their 2025 crop.

‘It took a lot of phone calls and emails, but we found a home for every grape in our vineyard,’ Madonna Phillips says.

For Tony, grapes remain different from other crops such as cotton or peanuts. ‘When you grow and sell cotton, you have no connection to where that cotton ends up’, Phillips says. ‘The grapes we grow show up as wine in a bottle, often with our vineyard name on it. We can share that with friends and family’.

That emotional connection helps explain why many High Plains growers still believe the work is worth doing.

Chris Brundrett, CEO and co-founder of William Chris Vineyards, sees the current market as a correction, not a collapse. The best growers and most committed wineries will align more closely. But he also warns wineries against exploiting the short-term situation. ‘It’s a buyer’s market today, but that’s not going to last forever’, Brundrett says. ‘How we got to where we are today isn’t by win-lose on the grower side. It’s got to be win-win’.

Immler, 29, brings a younger voice to that same idea. Her focus at Becker in the years ahead is on direct communication: honest reports from growers, honest feedback from wineries, and earlier conversations when weather, quality or cash flow change the plan. ‘It has to be built on relationships’, she says.

For Texas wine to keep moving forward, the Hill Country and High Plains must remain connected not only by refrigerated trucks and purchase agreements, but by a shared understanding of what each side makes possible.

The correction in the High Plains is real. Yet it is also revealing the industry’s strengths: growers willing to rethink markets, families choosing to commit to the difficulty of managing vineyards, wineries still betting on High Plains fruit, and a younger generation interested in building something durable.

Texas has already shown it can make compelling wine. Its next test is whether the long-distance relationships underlying those wines can become as mature as the best bottles now suggest.

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There was once a time when the wine world operated under rigid, unwritten laws: whites came ice-cold straight from the fridge or ice bucket, while reds sat wilting at warm room temperature.

Fast forward to today, and a quiet revolution has completely redefined how we enjoy our wine.

The rise of ‘chillable reds’ – often affectionately celebrated in French natural wine circles as vins de soif or glou-glou – has transformed light-bodied, low-tannin reds into the ultimate refreshing pour.

Driven by climate shifts, evolving dining habits, and a surge in minimal-intervention winemaking, bottle shop shelves are now stacked high with vibrant Gamays, fruity Frappatos, and lively new-wave Cinsaults.

These smashable reds are light, bright, crunchy, and, most importantly, best served after a brief spell in the fridge.

Chilling them for 20-30 minutes doesn't just make them refreshing; it tightens their red-fruit profile, makes the acidity sing and keeps high-tannin bitterness at bay.

Find out if you’re a true ‘cool climate’ connoisseur with our 12-question challenge. Good luck, and remember: if in doubt, put it in the fridge for 20 minutes!

Take our quiz on chillable red wines

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Sometimes an estate will be eagerly anticipating the first wines from a new vineyard. Ask where those young vines come from, and chances are the answer will be a proud ‘Rauscedo’.

With around 60% of Italy's vines and a quarter of those growing globally originating here, VCR is by far the world's largest vine supplier.

The 430 wine grape clones VCR works with represent 90 major world varieties, sold in 38 countries across five continents.

‘Nowadays we produce around 90 million grafted vines each year,’ explains Alessandro Leon, VCR president and one of 200 member growers.

Roots

The nursery cooperative was founded in 1933 to organise the growing local trade in vine grafting, which began 15 years earlier thanks to skills taught by a locally based army officer.

European wineries were still reeling from the Phylloxera epidemic, and replanting was underway with vulnerable European Vitis vinifera varieties grafted onto naturally resistant American rootstocks.

Grafting takes place between February and March. After protective paraffin waxing and a few months of growth at member nurseries, each vine is checked manually by one of the 1,300-strong team during an all-important winter selection process, ensuring only perfectly grafted, healthy plants are sold.

Around 78% pass the test.

The laboratory

For the past 60 years, VCR has been a major player in vine research. Alongside members' nurseries, VCR has 22ha of experimental vineyards and various plots across Italy and beyond.

Its contemporary, alpine-style research centre houses eight futuristic laboratories where around 10,000 genotypes (grown from individual seeds) are trialled annually.

Lab staff undertake the meticulous job of isolating seeds, genome testing, and micropropagation.

The tiny proportion selected for aromatic quality, productivity, or disease resistance may eventually become registered clones.

‘It gets busy’

Each year, VCR carries out roughly 700 microvinifications in small steel vats and glass demijohns.

‘It gets busy,’ says winemaker Massimo De Candido, ‘but I'd find working with regular-sized equipment a challenge after 20 years of microvinifications here.’

Clients can configure orders online from over 4,000 variety-rootstock combinations, but most prefer to discuss options and taste the results from different clones.

VCR's tasting room boasts a mind-boggling archive of bottles arranged by clone codes and varieties.

‘We have, for example, 15 Merlot clones,’ points out Elisa De Luca, head of the research centre.

‘Many producers choose to plant a mix of clones of the same variety to mitigate the risks of increasingly unpredictable weather.’

Pioneering PIWIs

Exciting ongoing research involves new resistant varieties, or ‘PIWIs’ – hybrids created by crossing traditional European Vitis vinifera with naturally disease-resistant American or Asian vines.

These allow for reduced vineyard intervention and mitigate climate change risks.

VCR holds exclusive rights to 14 PIWI varieties, including Pinot Iskra, Sauvignon Nepis, and Merlot Khorus, developed with Udine University.

Two of VCR's own resistant varieties derived from Glera (the Prosecco grape) will soon be released, with more due in 2027, followed by resistant versions of Grenache and Chardonnay.

While the EU approved PIWIs for denomination wines in 2021 and regions like Champagne have altered protocols to allow small percentages, Italy has been slow to follow suit.

Some Italian regions authorise PIWI cultivation, but no regulatory changes have been approved to include them in DOC/DOCG wines.

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In the other are dried leaves rolled into tight, deep green needles with a satin sheen. Their cut-grass top note has faded but they still smell rich and vegetal with a hint of seaweed. This is Japanese sencha. Its price has risen tenfold in the last few years – a knock-on effect of the craze for matcha-flavoured everything.

Both feature in Beefeater 24, which was pioneering in its use of tea when it launched in 2008. When one taste tester commented they ‘couldn’t taste the tea’, Master Distiller Desmond Payne made it clear that was the point. In this gin its role is to modify the other botanicals rather than shine in its own right.

Tea in the spotlight

It was Ki No Bi Kyoto Dry Gin that elevated the use of tea from a supporting role to a full-throated member of the botanical chorus, especially in Japanese gin. This year is the 10th anniversary of its release.

The Kyoto Distillery gets its gyokuro tea from the oldest tea plantation in Japan. It is by far the most expensive botanical in the gin. Ki No Bi’s even more tea-steeped sibling spirit, Ki No Tea, adds matcha to the mix.

It is not what’s grown that separates a green tea from a black one, a tencha from a keemun. These types of tea, and more besides, all come from the same plant, camellia sinensis. How it’s grown has some say, but what matters most is what’s done with the leaf once it has been picked.

Leaf logic

Briefly, then: some tea is grown under shade to inhibit tannins and encourage chlorophyll and amino acids. These teas taste sweeter and have more umami. After harvest, tea leaves are withered – left to lose moisture and go limp. Next growers roll, bruise or cut them to encourage oxidation, then heat them to stop it.

Done almost at once, you get green tea. A little longer and you get oolong. Longer still and you get black tea. Skip it and you get white tea. Pu-erh is its own thing again: leaves are fermented and sometimes aged.

It doesn’t end there. You can grind it (matcha), roast it (hojicha), smoke it over pine (lapsang souchong), flavour it with bergamot (Earl Grey) or jasmine (you get the idea).

A tea tapestry

For gin distillers, then, tea is not a single botanical but a spectrum of flavours and textures. And how you handle it can alter it yet further. At Beefeater, the 24-hour steeping before distillation means that, rather than being added directly to hot water like when brewing a cuppa, the tea starts cold and slowly warms. This means a longer, slower drawing out of its lighter flavours.

‘It’s all got to be in balance,’ says Cocker. ‘Contemporary gins can do what they want, paint a picture with a whole bunch of botanicals. Ours has to work with juniper first, then make sure everything else brings something to the party.’

Karl Mason, joint founder at Masons of Yorkshire, takes a different approach with his Tea Edition gin. ‘We challenged our distiller to make our Original Edition drier, but do it in a totally unique way,’ he says. ‘We had tried a tea gin previously but it used Earl Grey tea and wasn’t to our taste at all, as it was a lot more floral.’

Instead the Tea Edition uses Yorkshire Tea from Harrogate – I mean, what else? This is black tea: tannic, drying, dominant. The result is a gin that is most definitely tea flavoured. The tea is the point.

Made to go together

Tea now shows up in plenty of gins — I have 46 in my notes alone. None use white tea; too expensive and too delicate for the still. Most opt for green or black, falling broadly into either Japanese or English breakfast flavour camps.

The more adventurous choose an oolong (Bimber’s Da Hong Pao Tea Gin) or even an aged pu-erh (That Boutiquey Gin Company’s Vintage Pu-erh Tea Gin). Either way, tea and gin have a natural affinity. In my experience, the Venn diagram of people who enjoy both is more or less a circle.

Six of the best gins with tea

Beefeater 24

A gin where tea deepens the other flavours rather than muscling its way past them. You can taste it, but you have to look for it; tonic helps. It has a softly silken texture and makes a very moreish Martini. Like regular Beefeater from a parallel dimension. Alcohol 45%

Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin

So named because the tea is rolled into tight little balls that resemble gunpowder. And you can taste it: earthy and herbal among the bright citrus, piney juniper, caraway and pepper. There’s lots going on but it makes sense in the glass. Alc 43%

Jindea Single Estate Tea Gin

Bone china rather than a Sports Direct mug; its first-flush Darjeeling is only lightly oxidised. It opens with bright grapefruit and creamy cardamom, then builds with warming angelica and ginger spice. The quietly spoken star of the summer fête. Alc 40%

Ki No Bi Kyoto Dry Gin

The green tea is evident alongside waxy juniper, citrus and pine. Silky on the palate, where yuzu and floral notes join. The tea keeps going as everything else swirls around it. A corker in a G&T or simply neat over ice. Alc 45.7%

Masons of Yorkshire Tea Edition Gin

Smooth juniper and sharp citrus rub up against crisp, drying black tea in a most agreeable manner. Not quite like drinking a cuppa; there’s cardamom and pepper spice in there too. Yet somehow, spiritually, it gives the same satisfaction you get from a proper brew. Alc 40%

That Boutiquey Gin Company Vintage Pu-erh Tea Gin

Tea, yes – bold and markedly different, with juniper dancing attendance. Herbal but also nutty and rich with dark cherry fruit just on the right side of decay. Then it tumbles into blossom, honey, and tea that’s halfway between green and black. Alc 40%

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Only 50 wines of the many thousands entered make the cut, after being put through their paces over multiple rounds of judging.

To win a Best in Show more than once for the same wine in the world’s biggest wine competition is a resounding endorsement of what is clearly a very special creation.

Here we hear from the talents behind the bottles.

Deep Woods Estate, Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River, Australia

2026: 2023 vintage

2022: 2020 vintage

Matt Buchan, senior winemaker: ‘This wine is our greatest example of not only what we can achieve as a producer but what Margaret River can offer on the world stage.

‘This small, 40-year-old vineyard – the original Deep Woods Cabernet Sauvignon block, planted on ironstone-rich soils, just below the winery – continues to perform each season.

‘And the 100% Houghton clonal selection, which is unique to the region, gives the wine its hallmark cassis aroma and elegant structure.’

Clos du Val, Yettalil, Stags Leap District, California, USA

2026: 2023 vintage

2024: 2021 vintage

Carmel Greenberg, winemaker: ‘Yettalil has always been about expressing the very best of our Hirondelle Estate Vineyard. Yettalil is a wine of style that truly reflects our Clos du Val house style of freshness and elegance.

‘Every vintage begins with the same intention: to create a wine that reflects the character of this remarkable site with precision, balance and restraint.

‘We carefully select the finest lots from the vineyard and allow each component to contribute to a wine that is layered, ageworthy and unmistakably Stags Leap District.’

Brokenwood, ILR Reserve Semillon, New South Wales, Australia

2026: 2019 vintage

2023: 2017 vintage

Stuart Hordern, chief winemaker: ‘The ILR Reserve Semillon captures everything we aspire to achieve with this iconic Hunter Valley wine style.

‘Released only in exceptional vintages, it showcases the purity, precision and longevity that have made Hunter Semillon one of Australia’s great wines.

‘Extended bottle ageing before release builds complexity while preserving the freshness, vibrancy and elegance that are its hallmark.

‘The result is a wine that honours the region’s rich winemaking heritage while demonstrating the enduring appeal and remarkable ageing potential of Hunter Valley Semillon.’

Rutini, Single Vineyard Malbec, Gualtallary, Tupungato, Mendoza, Argentina

2026: 2023 vintage

2025: 2021 vintage

Juan Pablo Murgia, winemaking manager: ‘What makes this wine unique is the combination of our expertise as winemakers, the exceptional terroir of Gualtallary, and more than 25 years of work in this vineyard.

‘Throughout this time, we have developed a deep understanding of our estate, allowing us to identify the sectors that express its identity with the greatest precision.

‘This wine represents a constant pursuit of capturing the purest essence of Gualtallary, reflecting the balance between tradition, excellence and an increasingly precise interpretation of one of Argentina’s greatest terroirs.’

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

2026: 2024 vintage

2022: 2020 vintage

Birgit and Gloria Eichinger, winemakers (and mother and daughter): ‘Great wines start in the mind. With this wine, we are guided by our general philosophy – do as little as possible, as consciously as possible, out of respect for what is there.

‘The wine comes from one of Kamptal’s best single vineyards, the historic, 23ha Ried Lamm.

‘First mentioned in 1703, it’s a vineyard planted on loess and sandstone soils, which creates wines of remarkable minerality, depth and structure. This rare geological transition gives the wine its distinctive personality and exceptional ageing potential.

‘Fermented and matured in carefully selected used oak barrels, we find that it gains subtle creaminess without losing freshness or elegance. Every bottle captures the purity, finesse and unmistakable origin of this outstanding terroir.’

Bodegas Tradición, VORS 30 Years Amontillado NV, Jerez, Spain

2026 & 2024

Miguel Villa Cebrián, winemaker: ‘For me, amontillado is the most complete and distinctive of all Sherry wines. Its unique combination of biological ageing under flor and oxidative ageing using the criaderas and soleras system gives it an extraordinary finesse and complexity, and a set of sensory characteristics unlike any other wine in the world.

‘This very special wine is made in very limited quantities – around 2,000 numbered bottles per year, all bottled, labelled and sealed by hand.

‘I love pairing it with Asian and Mexican cuisine, but it also pairs beautifully with cured fish, bluefin tuna, rice dishes and clear consommés.

‘I also recommend it as an after-lunch wine, to be enjoyed during a good conversation with friends or while reading a good book.’

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Six decades later, the same instinct is on display again, this time backed by a far bigger check.

Robert Mondavi Winery has reopened its original Oakville estate after a three-year renovation that owner Constellation Brands calls the most significant transformation of the property since it was founded in 1966. That’s not an overstatement.

The doors officially opened on 20 April 2026, timed to the winery’s 60th anniversary. Constellation has not confirmed the final cost, but industry estimates have put the investment at around US$200 million.

I attended the opening celebration, capped off with a humble performance by Grammy–winning singer-songwriter John Legend, and came away with one clear impression: even with hundreds of guests moving through the property that night, the redesigned space retained a cozy, upscale intimacy that is difficult to engineer at such scale.

In the weeks around the event, I also interviewed the winery’s key figures separately – head winemaker Kurtis Ogasawara, winemaker emerita Geneviève Janssens, director of vineyard operations Blake Wood and brand marketing director Peggy Hemphill – and became the first wine critic to taste with Ogasawara inside the new cellar.

A wine cellar built for precision and site expression

The new To Kalon Cellar introduces optical sorting, gravity-flow systems, temperature-controlled fermentation vessels and rooms for warming or cooling barrels, allowing for smaller, more precise lots from the estate’s 178-hectare portion of To Kalon Vineyard, which gained CCOF organic certification in 2023.

This fancy new winery is missing one big thing (well, a few big things): the 16-ton oak vats that were used for more than three decades to ferment and age Mondavi’s top Cabernets, including lots from To Kalon.

They were repurposed into the wooden ceilings throughout the facility.

‘We’ve added smaller stainless steel and concrete tanks to be able to isolate vineyard blocks and sections at ideal ripeness’, Ogasawara said. ‘Our goal is to push ourselves every vintage and continue to make wines that stand beside the greatest in the world’.

The cellar also puts production on display for visitors, he added, and has floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the vineyard: ‘Guests can see harvest activities firsthand and get a better understanding of what it takes to craft wines.’

To Kalon Vineyard itself is undergoing a renovation of sorts. ‘We are replanting a portion of the vineyard this year, about four percent’, said Blake Wood, director of vineyard operations.

‘We’ve replanted a bit more than one-third of the vineyard in the past decade now, focusing on highlighting the various micro-terroirs’.

Individual stars

The To Kalon grapes are now split across four labels under the Constellation umbrella: Robert Mondavi Winery, Schrader Cellars and Double Diamond (both led by winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown), and To Kalon Vineyard Company (Tony Biagi).

Each operates independently, with its own picking decisions.

‘There are blocks that are exclusive to one another and some blocks that we share’, Ogasawara said. ‘We taste each other’s wines and share different perspectives to ensure we are staying on top of our game’.

Janssens, who trained under Robert Mondavi himself, still sits in on blending. ‘Geneviève joins blending sessions to give her thoughts and holds us accountable’, Ogasawara said.

‘It's amazing to have her experience and palate in the room to ensure we are following what Robert Mondavi had intended’.

Architecturally, the project, led by Aidlin Darling Design with interiors by BAMO, preserves architect Cliff May's original arch and tower while adding a new hospitality wing: the light-filled Vineyard Room and terraces for most guests, the restored Tower Library and Barrel Room for private tastings, and the new To Kalon Collective tasting room.

Outside, a linear water feature echoes the valley’s old agricultural aqueducts, and landscaping by Surfacedesign folds the property into its surroundings so thoroughly that indoors and outdoors barely feel separate.

Tasting fees don’t break the bank

Perhaps the smartest innovation is in the decision not to charge extortionist fees to visitors in a region where entry-level tastings often carry luxury price tags and fees can range from $85 to $300.

For the Mondavi wines, Hemphill explained: ‘Our tasting experiences range from $60 to $150 per person. We also welcome walk-in guests for any of our experiences, as availability allows’.

The signature culinary offering, The Mondavi Table, is a three-course, family-style, wine-and-food pairing for $95 per person – notably affordable for a chef-driven, estate menu in Napa Valley today.

‘We believe true luxury is defined by the quality of the experience, not by exclusivity’, Hemphill said.

The To Kalon Collective is the newest experiential room, where the focus is entirely on the iconic vineyard rather than a single producer and private tastings cost $180 to $195.

‘Most people only ever experience [To Kalon Vineyard] through a single producer or a single wine,’ Hemphill said.

‘The To Kalon Collective brings together wines sourced from To Kalon Vineyard, including Robert Mondavi Winery alongside Schrader Cellars, Double Diamond and the To Kalon Vineyard Company, to tell a broader story about place’.

The idea, she explained, is to provide context – showing how vineyard blocks, farming and winemaking philosophy shape different wines from one renowned vineyard.

Blending winemaking and culture

When pressed again about the renovation costs, Hemphill shifts the focus of the question: ‘For us, it’s about creating an exceptional experience for our guests that can continue to raise the bar for hospitality here in Napa, much the way Robert Mondavi did when he first opened this winery’.

That’s the point. Yes, they ‘want this winery to continue to stand the test of time’, and yes, they want to ‘honour our legacy’, and yes, they want to ‘deliver against the values and vision under which the winery was founded’, and all that marketing speak.

But the real reason – even if they can’t express it themselves – is that they want people to come back to Napa and have an experience that creates real memories, without walking away wondering if they spent too much money.

Pointedly, the reopening comes during a challenging moment for the wine world, with an ongoing barrage of reports about falling consumption and industry layoffs, amplified by anecdotal conversations re-hashing those doom-and-gloom stories.

‘I flatly reject the idea that wine culture is heading for extinction’, said Hemphill. ‘What we are witnessing right now isn’t a funeral; it’s a massive cultural evolution. The next generation of consumers doesn’t want the stuffy, velvet-rope exclusivity of the past. They want authenticity, values that align with their own, and incredible, unpretentious experiences’.

The reopening is meant to make Mondavi ‘that loudspeaker for Napa’ again, she said, by ‘blending world-class winemaking with contemporary [wine] culture.’

Passing the winemaking baton

Another momentous shift for Robert Mondavi Winery is the passing of the torch to winemaker Kurtis Ogasawara, who is not only one of the nicest people you’ll meet in Napa Valley, but one of the most humble.

Ogasawara has spent more than a decade working in the cellars alongside Janssens, who was named director of production at Opus One in 1989 and director of winemaking at Mondavi in 1997.

‘He understands that a great winemaker doesn’t try to force their own signature onto a legendary terroir’, Janssens says of Ogasawara, ‘but rather listens to the land to bring out its purest elegance and power. There is no one more deeply rooted in our winemaking philosophy than Kurtis to lead us forward’.

Tasting with Ogasawara in the new cellar gave me a front-row seat to his frame of mind. Yes, he has big shoes to fill. Huge shoes, in fact. But he’s more than ready – confident and sure of himself.

And, to extract a new era of wines from Mondavi’s grape sources, he has a new cellar full of shiny new tanks and concrete vats designed to emphasise fruit – or, more fittingly, place.

‘I see it as continuing the mission to create wines that stand beside the greatest in the world’, Ogasawara said.

‘I have worked with and learned from some of Napa Valley’s best winemakers, from Geneviève Janssens and Andy Erickson to Thomas Brown and Tony Biagi. I promise to never settle and keep pushing to see what else we can accomplish’.

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The whole endeavour to be part of that world – that seemingly austere, almost impenetrable world – was a sort of personal test.

I wanted to know if I could walk the walk, do the hours, thrive under the intense scrutiny of money and prestige, but also, of such incredible knowledge and skill.

And while I was able to hold my nerve, and to walk the walk to a certain extent, my time in that world was ultimately cut short by Covid.

But, in that brief moment, it had become painfully clear to me that I lacked the pure drive, ambition and grit to be a truly great sommelier.

It didn’t matter if you could do the hours and take the scrutiny; you needed something far more to make it to the top.

And to be clear, I was working extensive hours, was part of study groups, did weekly team presentations, and spent most of my down time at tastings and masterclasses.

But in all honesty, this was just the tip of the iceberg.

And while my sommelier career wound down, I remained close enough to watch what came next.

Friends and former colleagues threw themselves into the circuit: studying, exams, tastings, competitions. I watched curiously from the sidelines as they prepared, sometimes unravelled under the pressure, but always picked themselves up and kept on going.

Perhaps it is unfair to say this, but it felt as if their diligence and passion began to morph into something closer to obsession.

Even when exhausted, defeated, they would not, or could not stop.

Best Sommelier in the World

Where does that obsession lead you?

To the Best Sommelier of the World competition.

And this year, in October, it will be held in Lisbon.

There will be 72 of the finest sommeliers from around the world battling it out over a gruelling four days of rigorous knowledge testing, and blind tasting, as well as service challenges played out in a faux-restaurant stage setting.

The 2026 candidate for the UK is Maria Boumpa, Head Sommelier of Da Terra restaurant, and the recent Best Sommelier of the UK winner.

Like some sort of voyeur, I want to look behind the curtain and gaze at the inner worlds of those who are setting out to summit – or have indeed summited – the tallest mountain their career can offer.

What does it take?

Maria, alongside her performance coach Simon Cox, allowed me in to see what it was all about.

Cox, a former professional rower and Olympic coach, had been enlisted in 2022 to help train the British candidates.

As Master Sommelier Nicolas Clerc points out, ‘this is the acknowledgement that, at this level, the competitor is more than a sommelier, they are an athlete like any other'.

I am not sure exactly what I was expecting, but there weren’t any tricks or high-level gadgets involved, just pure, methodical hard work.

Cox notes that whether it is for the Olympics or the Best Sommelier competition, you’re in the same world of high performance that demands the same stress testing and psychological conditioning.

I see that Simon acts as a lynch pin for Maria, bringing her world into tight orbit, alleviating any unnecessary stress, and becoming a sort of supportive membrane to keep her focused and stable in the face of unyielding pressure.

The life of a sommelier athlete

Maria, under Simon’s guidance, has created a relentless seven-day a week itinerary.

Alongside her 50-hour working week, there are tasting groups, masterclasses, service drills (run by her restaurant team), and events.

Sundays are her day of rest; no tastings, only studying. She works out twice a week, and has decided to give up drinking.

I question how she manages things like anxiety and sleep, she tells me that she sleeps excellently because she is simply so exhausted.

Cox also says that Maria is exceptionally driven and organised, knowing exactly what she needs to do to weather the course.

When I ask her what she has taken away from all of this, she tells me she has learned an enormous amount about herself – her capacity to learn, to be disciplined, and in the midst of it all, to detach from the feelings of being overwhelmed that can so easily suffocate you.

Female leadership

I spoke to Paz Levinson – the Argentine who was crowned Best Sommelier of the Americas, and Decanter's regional chair for Argentina at the Decanter World Wine Awards – about her journey.

Like Maria, she was always studious, hungry for knowledge and had an ingrained ambitious edge; both women skied competitively when they were younger.

While working as a head sommelier in Buenos Aires, Paz simultaneously went on to graduate university, becoming a professor of literature, and then was crowned the Best Sommelier of Argentina in 2010.

I can’t help but wonder if she is actually otherworldly. I wondered what drove her to achieve so much?

She told me it was partly about visibility – especially as a woman.

‘You need to prove more. This was a way to show that I was committed and professional,’ she says.

The best of the best

It is impossible to talk about this competition without talking about Gerard Basset, the man who boasted the dizzying trifecta of Master of Wine, Master Sommelier and Best Sommelier in the World (2010).

So many of the great sommeliers studied or worked under him. Indeed, Paz Levinson travelled to the UK specifically for this experience.

Gerard, who was deeply loved by the sommelier community and entire wine trade, died in 2019. It was a real pleasure to talk to his wife, Nina Basset.

It was becoming clear to me that these competitions took a huge personal toll, not least on those closest to the competitors.

What was it like to be married to someone who consistently prioritised wine, study and competitions?

Nina says that she was able to accept it from day one, and that she never resented it, but instead admired Gerard’s passion and vision.

Perhaps it helped that Nina became inextricably bound with the wine world, setting up Hotel du Vin with Gerard in the mid-90s, often joining him at events and competitions with their son, Romané, strapped to her chest.

However, she acknowledges that Gerard didn’t get too involved with the day-to-day home chores, laughing at how people would joke, ‘Gerard looked after the wine and Nina looked after everything else'.

Determination and sacrifice

Not all relationships came out so unscathed by the demands of the competition circuit.

Indeed, Paz told me that when she decided to have children, she knew she had to give up competing at this level.

What struck me across every conversation was the warmth and camaraderie – the same fierce determination that drove these people forward seemed equally directed outward, toward their community and the next generation coming behind them.

They were all so appreciative of the support and guidance that they had received, that they were eager to find ways to give it back.

In the aftermath of it all, I asked Maria what she was looking forward to most.

She says she is just looking forward to relaxing, and maybe being able to enjoy a glass without analysing every part of it.

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The law unleashed the first wave of ‘agriturismo’.

Its effects were felt most strongly in Tuscany, where historic wine estates and olive farms began to open their gates to visitors, transforming centuries-old agricultural properties into experiential destinations.

Agriturismo is ‘actually really old’, says Mania Castelli. ‘It was abused for many years and now it’s coming back properly.’

Castelli runs La Torre alle Tolfe, a 700-year-old wine estate near Siena in Tuscany – part of the modern, ‘new wave’ of agriturismo.

While tax benefits and simplified bureaucracy made the agriturismo label attractive to people who weren’t actually farmers, this new wave is agricentric.

La Torre alle Tolfe exemplifies this.

Castelli, a veterinarian who returned to run the family property in 2015, now runs a working wine and olive oil estate that integrates hospitality, agricultural education and regenerative farming practices.

Authentic experiences

Like Castelli, Alessandro Varagnolo – owner of Cadgal, a winery and agriturismo in Piedmont (pictured, above) – thinks the key to successful agriturismo is staying true to its agricultural roots.

‘Here,’ he says, referring to Cadgal’s location between Langhe and Monferrato, ‘vineyards are not just a backdrop for tourism, but an active part of everyday life and work.’

Today, Cadgal offers a B&B experience with breakfast prepared using local produce, wine tasting, horse riding and more. ‘It’s a genuine connection to wine, land and people,’ he says, ‘rather than a standardised tourism product.’

Capitalising on the tourism boom, today’s agriturismo model gives wineries an opportunity to share their area’s heritage and winemaking traditions with visitors from around the world.

‘We have to do something to tell our stories, especially if we’re small,’ Castelli says. ‘People coming to your farm is much more powerful than any kind of internet or social media [exposure].’

Castelli notes that another driver of the new wave of agriturismo is the fact that many wine producers are trying to diversify their income streams in today’s climate of market instability and extreme vintage conditions.

This is particularly powerful when direct sales can achieve the same margins as exporting far larger volumes.

Strength in diversity

But for Elisa De Lulis of legendary biodynamic estate Emidio Pepe in Abruzzo, it isn’t about money.

‘For us, diversifying into agriturismo was never about following a market trend or seeking a simple revenue stream,’ she says.

‘It was a natural, almost inevitable, extension of our winemaking philosophy. We realised that the best way to communicate and protect our heritage was to let people see it with their own eyes.’

Regional differences shape the form agriturismo takes.

De Lulis describes Abruzzo, a region located between the Gran Sasso massif and the Adriatic sea, as ‘wild, rugged and profoundly honest’.

She explains: ‘Unlike other more manicured Italian regions, our agriturismo scene is still deeply rooted in true peasant culture. Guests here can experience a biodiversity that is still intact and spontaneous.’

In Piedmont’s rolling hills, where tourism is more advanced, different agricultural sectors feed into one another.

Truffles and hazelnuts are part of the same cultural ecosystem as wine, creating what Varagnolo calls ‘slow, experiential tourism’.

As for Tuscany, the region that experienced a tourism renaissance in the late 1980s and early ’90s, when the agriturismo movement was first taking shape, wineries face a different set of considerations.

‘The word Tuscany helps you, in the sense that it attracts,’ reflects Castelli. ‘On the other hand, there’s a lot of competition.’ And high expectations.

Rather than competing in isolation, producers recommend tourists visit each other’s wineries, sell each other’s olive oils and create wine trails across regional lines.

‘Our mission is not individualistic,’ Castelli explains. ‘We’re just trying to contribute to a much bigger cause.’

Looking ahead, she envisions farms integrating tourism, education and ecological restoration into their operations, with each property shaped by its unique landscape and history.

‘Every place is different,’ she says, ‘so there’s much less competition once you do that.’

Five new-wave wine-country properties to visit

Cadgal

Piedmont

cadgal.it

Alessandro Varagnolo runs Tenuta Valdivilla and Tenuta La Cova, two agriturismo estates between Langhe and Monferrato, where he has built a business around what he calls ‘genuine, familiar hospitality’.

When he took over the properties, one already operated as an agriturismo; the other he immediately expanded.

‘From the very beginning, I strongly believed in wine tourism as a key driver for the future,’ he says.

Guests can stay in B&B accommodation with homemade breakfast prepared using local products.

Wine experiences centre around the estates’ signature Moscato variety and tastings of their most representative bottles.

Guided vineyard walks trace the journey from vine to bottle, while partnerships offer truffle hunting, horse riding and e-bike rentals in the surrounding hills.

According to Varagnolo, the model works because guests develop connections, which more often than not means they return after their first visit.

‘People become emotionally involved with the place, the wines and the people behind them,’ he says. ‘That level of loyalty is something you don’t always expect.’

Cascina Degli Ulivi

Gavi

cascinadegliulivi.it

Zita and Stefano Bellotti opened Cascina Degli Ulivi’s agriturismo in 1998 to introduce guests to the winery and its natural wines.

Today, daughter Ilaria Bellotti runs four rooms – all built using bio-construction methods – with 12 beds in the Gavi area.

The farm-to-table restaurant serves lunch on weekends and dinner from Wednesday through Saturday, using ingredients harvested directly from their biodynamic gardens.

Guests tour vineyards and the cellar, walk scenic trails through the Piedmont hills and participate in educational grape harvests. Many young people come specifically for the harvest experience.

The agriturismo generates direct income while building lasting connections with customers who experience the estate’s philosophy first hand.

‘We’re very well known in the world of natural wine,’ Ilaria says, ‘and people want to see where it’s produced.

Valleponci

Liguria

valleponci.it

In contrast to the more familiar, family-run properties, Valleponci emerged with a different origin story: five friends who met while studying food ecology at the Slow Food movement’s University of Gastronomic Sciences in Piedmont, united by a vision of ‘using food as a tool to reactivate local economies and regenerate the landscape’, according to one of Valleponci’s co-founders, Gianluca Demarchi.

Unable to secure traditional financing for the 50ha property near Finale Ligure, on the coast west of Genoa, they created a cooperative model in 2021, selling shares to about 70 investors who became co-owners with annual credits to visit.

After two and a half years of fundraising, they had their first season in 2024.

Today, an international team of up to 18 people representing eight nationalities runs four bedrooms, two apartments and a restaurant that can cater to up to 70 guests.

The restaurant reflects the network they’re building.

While 90% of the ingredients come from their regenerative vegetable gardens and Korean natural farming practices, the rest is sourced from nearby producers.

The menu blends regional Ligurian ingredients with international influences such as Nordic ferments and Middle Eastern spices.

Two hectares of vines in the humid, forested valley produce a Pigato (Vermentino) white blend and a Granaccia (Grenache) red, plus a pét-nat made using Barbera sourced from friends in Piedmont. But hospitality serves a larger purpose:

‘At the very core of our model is the cultural development of the farm,’ which Demarchi explains means publications, university partnerships and educational programs.

La Torre alle Tolfe

Tuscany

latorrealletolfe.com

Mania Castelli returned from the UK in 2015 to revive her family’s 700-year-old property near Siena, creating a 54-bed hotel and restaurant that serves up to 10,000 guests annually, alongside 13ha of regeneratively farmed vineyards and 17ha of olive groves.

Guests can join morning and evening animal feeding rounds, tour underground passages and an eighth-century tower, and participate in a variety of agricultural courses.

The property also runs a social agriculture project – a permaculture vegetable garden employing people with autism – where breakfast eggshells become compost, grape skins mix with biochar from olive prunings, and animals that graze the vineyards double as educational encounters.

‘We don’t talk about tourists, we talk about visitors who join our community,’ Castelli says.

But if that all sounds a little serious, there’s ample space to indulge and relax, too.

The restaurant menu reads like a map of the property. Alongside wines from the estate’s cellar, they serve up dishes such as hand-cut pici with Sienese garlic from the vegetable beds, and guinea fowl stuffed with cinta senese (a local heritage-breed pig) sausage and wild herbs.

Guests can engage as deeply as they want, or simply enjoy the landscape over an organic Tuscan feast.

Emidio Pepe

Abruzzo

emidiopepe.com

‘Our agriturismo is, above all, a reflection of our family’s DNA,’ says Elisa De Lulis, third-generation member of the Emidio Pepe winemaking family in Abruzzo.

‘We are a large, close-knit family, and our hospitality is rooted in the way we live every day – the decision to formally open the agriturismo was the idea of making it an extension of our home.’

Launched in 2020, the agriturismo offering has evolved from accommodation into something far deeper.

With eight rooms and a restaurant that can serve 30 guests four to five times a week, it offers privileged access to the Emidio Pepe universe: the historic wine library, artisanal winemaking traditions and a working farm where ancient grains grow alongside organic vegetable gardens. A stone mill and bakery are on the way, too.

‘We don’t offer a curated “tourist version” of farm life; we offer the life itself,’ De Lulis explains.

The restaurant – run by chefs Giuseppe Polzinetti and Jonathan Maravalli in collaboration with gardener Martina Pasqualini – serves a tasting menu that changes near-daily, dictated by what’s available. De Lulis curates wine pairings featuring rare vintages from the family’s cellar.

It’s a closed-loop ecosystem: the same biodynamic soil that nourishes the vines produces the vegetables on guests’ plates.

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Making wine is anything but easy, of course, and there are several things to consider when buying a vineyard.

Still, we've compiled a snapshot of what's on offer at the higher end of the market, featuring luxurious wine country properties listed for sale from Sonoma to Italy's Adriatic coast.

A chef’s villa with vines on Italy’s Adriatic coast

Price: €1.68m

A professional Italian-American chef who worked at the famous Waldorf Astoria in New York before relocating to Italy is now selling this picturesque vineyard estate on the Adriatic coast.

Described as a ‘contemporary farmhouse’ by listing agent Italy Sotheby’s International Realty, it’s on sale for €1.68m (£1.43m) and lies close to the beaches of Senigallia.

An outdoor living space includes a swimming pool, kitchen area with a wood-fired oven and a covered orangery.

Meanwhile, a custom-built professional kitchen might tempt dinner party enthusiasts.

There are 4.3ha of ‘fully productive’ vineyards planted to Italian classics Sangiovese and Montepulciano, as well as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon – with some Pinot Bianco, too – plus 1.3ha of olive groves.

An on-site winery produces around 20,300 bottles per year, under the Marche IGT denomination, with ‘potential conversion to Rosso Piceno DOC’, said the listing.

A Tuscan farmhouse with a vineyard project?

Price: €2,628,601

A sprawling farmhouse estate with panoramic views nestled in the hills of eastern Tuscany is among current listings by Romolini Immobiliare, local partner of Christie’s International Real Estate.

Located close to the historic city of Arezzo, this 39.5ha estate already has gardens and around 800 olive trees but comes with a portion of unplanted arable land that could potentially be used for a new vineyard project, according to the listing.

Priced slightly under €2.63m, a farmhouse renovated in the ‘original Tuscan style’ with stone walls, wooden beams and terracotta roof lies at the centre of the estate, near to a wooden gazebo for entertaining.

It’s set up for ‘agriturismo’, with ‘agricultural premises’ on the ground floor and a first-floor living area split into two apartments, the listing said.

An outdoor swimming pool and sunbathing area looks promising for relaxing on sunny afternoons, not to mention poolside dinners on long summer evenings.

Luxury life in Sonoma with a 'wine cave'

Price: $18.75m

Making wine and tending to vineyards is, of course, anything but easy.

While some owners lease out vineyard management, or maintain a few hectares as a no-profit-pressure hobby project, an alternative is to buy into the wine country lifestyle.

This luxurious estate in California’s Sonoma doesn't have its own vineyard, but does feature a 'wine cave'.

There's plenty of cellar space to store bottles from the area's many top producers, too.

It requires a serious financial outlay, however. Priced at $18.75m, it’s among the most expensive properties of its kind in the area and was recently listed by Caroline Sebastiani and Charlie Luna of Sotheby’s International Realty’s wine country brokerage in Sonoma.

This is a rare find, according to the listing, noting the property offers privacy and space but is also well-connected – located close to Sonoma Plaza and a 45-minute drive from San Francisco’s famous Golden Gate Bridge.

Provence manor house and vineyard

Price: €4.25m

From Peter Mayle’s famous memoir to celebrity buyers like Brad Pitt and high-profile wine professionals, Provence's allure is well-documented.

This 18th century ‘bastide’ in the north Luberon comes with 13.5ha of vineyards, an orchard and panoramic views of the surrounding area, according to listing agent Wine Objectives.

Priced at €4.25m, including agency fees, the vineyard is described as being in ‘full production’ and the estate also features a guest house, plus three holiday cottages – although there is no winery on-site.

Wine Objectives, which specialises in vineyard properties in several regions, including Provence, Rhône and Languedoc, also said the estate’s current owner-manager is willing to continue his activity and contribute his experience after any sale.

Boutique red wine estate in Stellenbosch

For prospective buyers looking to own an established vineyard property in South Africa, this boutique red wine estate in the picturesque ‘golden triangle of Stellenbosch' could be of interest.

Listing agency Pam Golding Properties said this 23-hectare estate includes 16ha of vineyards with drip irrigation that are used to produce award-winning red wines.

Lying on predominantly south-facing slopes, grape varieties include Malbec, Petit Verdot, Shiraz, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Roobernet.

There is a four-bedroom Manor house, cellar with tasting room, a winemaker’s cottage and and other buildings that could potentially be used to create an on-site restaurant, according to the listing.

There’s no published guide price, however; this one is a case of ‘price on application / asking’.

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Today, producers build their experience across borders and hemispheres, travelling widely and working harvests in different regions. Sharing knowledge has become the norm.

Historically, Spanish wine producers haven’t always excelled at collective action or setting aside individual interests for the greater good; however, a new generation of winemakers has begun to redefine that narrative.

Embracing the idea that together they are stronger, they’ve moved beyond small groups to form broader movements that cut across traditional boundaries.

Under the radar

This shift has gained momentum in Rioja with the launch of VIR, a terroir-focused collective that debuted in Madrid in early March with a tasting showcasing 38 producers from 18 villages across the DOCa region.

Many of the participants represented emerging projects that remain largely under the radar.

‘We firmly believe that Rioja is home to the greatest variety of exciting projects, which, unfortunately, are overshadowed by industrial-scale wineries that have appropriated the narrative of family-run, artisanal producers,’ argues regional rising star Miguel Merino, one of the organisers.

The March tasting offered a snapshot of Rioja’s growing terroir movement, bringing new names to the fore and highlighting the diversity of styles within this vision.

It also presented a more specific Rioja, with a focus on villages, sites and individual vineyards, as well as a bolder reinterpretation of tradition informed by a global perspective.

‘We are the best-prepared generation yet,’ says Alberto Pedrajo, co-founder, alongside Javier Alonso, of the forward-thinking project Alonso & Pedrajo, based in Villalba de Rioja, near Haro. ‘We have travelled extensively and witnessed other movements that have inspired us.’

A pivotal event

For those attending the VIR event, the atmosphere echoed that of the I Encuentro de Viticulturas (‘First Wine Growing Encounter’), a conference on Spain’s wine regions, rural areas and unique vineyards, held in May 2016 at producer La Granja Nuestra Señora de Remelluri in Labastida (Rioja Alavesa).

Set in the foothills of Monte Toloño, a peak in the Sierra de Cantabria range, the gathering forged lasting connections between Spain’s early terroir pioneers – not least host Telmo Rodríguez – and a younger generation then beginning to raise the profile of fine wine across regions such as Galicia, Gredos, Priorat and Valencia.

Among those present at the 2016 conference were young Rioja producers who had taken over their parents’ small wineries, as well as others who had started projects from scratch.

Some were members of Rioja ’n’ Roll, a group founded the previous year to champion small-scale vignerons with strong ties to the land and rural life.

Its founding members – Alegre & Valgañón, Artuke, Barbarot, Exopto, MacRobert & Canals, Olivier Rivière, Sierra de Toloño and Tentenublo – were already producing, or would soon be producing, some of the most compelling and exciting wines in Rioja.

Less well known at the time, but equally committed, were two young wine-growers from San Vicente de la Sonsierra, a little southeast of Labastida: José Gil, whose family runs Bodegas Olmaza, and Miguel Eguíluz of Bodegas Cupani (pictured, below).

The 2016 Wine Growing Encounter proved pivotal. ‘We realised how important it was to share ideas, build connections with other producers and move in the same direction,’ explained Gil a few years later, as his wines began to gain international recognition.

It’s no surprise that they went on to establish their own group, 'Martes of Wine', alongside other emerging producers, including Carlos Sánchez (Labastida); Miguel Merino, who in 2017 returned to start working full-time at the winery founded in 1994 by his father in Briones (Miguel Sr died in 2021); Ricardo Fernández (Abeica), who steered his family estate in Abalos towards a terroir-focused approach before turning 30; and Alvaro Loza, who returned to Rioja in 2019 after gaining experience abroad.

Shared values

Martes of Wine began informally as a tasting group, with sommelier Iván Sánchez from the Michelin two-star Venta Moncalvillo restaurant in Daroca de Rioja (southwest of Logroño) also taking part.

What started as informal blind tastings held on Tuesdays (martes in Spanish) gradually evolved into a functional network, sharing resources, acquiring cellar equipment, finding importers, visiting wine-producing regions and inviting wine professionals to share their knowledge.

The shared values of Rioja ’n’ Roll and Martes of Wine ultimately laid the groundwork for VIR.

Its origins were simple: a meeting between the two groups that led to a joint list of like-minded producers whom they would like to bring together for a tasting of contemporary Rioja. ‘Almost everyone got involved,’ they say.

The aim was not just to raise awareness, but also to convey a vision of wine based on protecting origin, vineyard identity and respect for the landscape.

‘We are committed to a sustainable model – economic, social and environmental – that safeguards both the dignity of the wine-grower and the future of our villages,’ states their manifesto, which was read out twice during the event.

The group also called for ‘solidarity among producers pursuing and championing their own projects’.

Changing mindsets

Despite their dynamism, this new golden generation, which produces some of Rioja’s most exciting wines, still faces significant barriers in reaching importers, distributors and sommeliers.

Many express frustration that the market’s upper end continues to view Rioja through a narrow, outdated lens.

‘Some importers see Rioja as a source of cheap, boring, homogeneous wine,’ notes Vicky Fernández, partner of José Gil at Vignerons de la Sonsierra, and closely involved in planning the VIR tasting.

‘They even have the wrong idea about what the region looks like,’ adds Pedrajo. ‘They expect something similar to La Mancha [in central Spain’s vast plains], so they’re really struck by the real landscape of Rioja.’

The goal for all these independent producers is now to convince importers to include not just one Rioja in their portfolio, but six, eight or 10 – and by doing so, to reveal their awareness of both the region’s quality and diversity.

The energy generated by this gathering of like-minded producers reflects the collaborative spirit that has come to define this new generation, rather than being a response to the current – challenging – market situation.

‘We wanted to encourage our distributors and customers to meet our fellow producers,’ explains Arturo de Miguel of Artuke in Baños de Ebro. ‘There are many fascinating small-scale projects in Rioja now.’

The tasting drew strong interest to producers such as Artuke, José Gil, Miguel Merino and Laguardia-based Oxer Bastegieta, among others.

The presence of San Vicente de la Sonsierra-based Abel Mendoza, who has embodied the vigneron role model better than anyone else in Rioja, added weight to the event.

Together with his wife, Maite Fernández, he has supported rising star Jade Gross in launching her own project in the region.

Other producers who have encouraged winegrowers to make the leap into winemaking include Telmo Rodríguez, who has supported Remelluri suppliers such as Alain Quintana from Familia Quintana in this transition. Alain and Jade were at the VIR tasting.

Bodegas Tierra also showcased its wines alongside those of nearby Area Pequeña after inviting brothers Joseba and Koldo García Quintana to make use of Tierra’s facilities in Labastida.

Practical benefits

Collaboration in Rioja now extends well beyond these groups.

In September 2024, Menudas Bodegas was established, bringing together 11 microproducers, each producing fewer than 5,000 bottles.

While modest in scale, the initiative has proved to be a significant step forward for its members, who typically farm their own vineyards and often have other jobs.

They’ve gained visibility and access to public funding, and support one another by pooling resources for practical matters, such as buying a barrel-washing machine or corks for the whole group.

They are also advocating for a reduction in bureaucracy, arguing that small producers face the same administrative burdens as large wineries.

Among their priorities is the removal of the DOCa requirement for a minimum of 50 barrels to certify ageing.

Navarrete-based Elena Corzana, one of the association’s most prominent members, known for her varietal wines, took part in the VIR tasting.

Subsierra, an association focusing on the Sierra de Cantabria foothills, which stretch from Briñas, just above Haro, to Moreda de Alava, north of Logroño, was also established in 2024.

Its members – Amaren, Area Pequeña, Artuke, Bodegas Tierra, Carlos Sánchez, Loli Casado, Ostatu and Teodoro Ruiz Monje – are committed to owning their own vineyards or maintaining long-term relationships with growers in the Sonsierra, paying fair (above the average) prices for fruit.

They’re equally determined to ensure the continuation of manual harvests, to preserve old vineyards, to remain family-run, with a registered address in the Sonsierra, and to have vineyards that are certified organic or in conversion.

All these groups share an underlying theme: a deep commitment to the land and a determination to enhance its value. Rioja is lucky to have them.

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Real life is not, sadly – or perhaps fortunately – like in the movies.

If you’re thinking of investing in a winery and making it your retirement project, think again. You might be signing up for early cardiac arrest.

Travelling with photographer Abel Valdenebro, who specialises in wine and other beverages, food and architecture, among other topics, we were certainly left almost out of breath after a few days following two leading Rioja bodegueros – a term that loosely translates as ‘general manager’ (the latter not fully capturing the symbolic weight of the job title in Spanish).

Tailing Richi Arambarri Perez of Vintae and Jose Ramón Urtasun of Remírez de Ganuza as they went about their business was neither easy nor boring.

The fast pace and multiple, often competing, demands that shape the days of a bodeguero reflect the many ways in which the wine industry has changed over the last couple of decades – and the many different challenges and opportunities that continue to arise.

There’s a restlessness in their days, catalysed by a sense of urgency – the need to grab (and create) prospects and compensate for tough market conditions.

However, that sense of urgency and creative anxiety is as much a product of their personalities as it is of the context that surrounds them.

Intensity in focus

These are individuals who don’t know either idleness or loitering.

You won’t find them resting on a hammock, enjoying the comfort of having built successful ventures.

In fact, it’s a deep awareness of the fragility of success that keeps them motivated and determined; an acknowledgement that this is the tough yet beautiful essence of what they do.

The wine industry is, primarily and above all, a farming venture; transience and vulnerability live alongside heritage; it’s a long-term project shaped by short-term, ever-shifting variables.

So Abel and I set our alarm clocks for painfully early wake-ups before jumping onto two intense, albeit very different, rollercoaster rides.

The routines and personalities of the two bodegueros we shadowed are very different – but equal in intensity and focus.

The structure of their days mirrors not only their idiosyncrasies but also the nature of their very different companies.

What did we learn?

That passion and grit take you to the end of each day; competence and strategic thinking keep you going for years.

And that, through it all, you need a good, equally committed team around you.

Morning fever

Arambarri gets out of bed while the house is still quiet and changes into his running gear.

‘I just need the movement and energy to start the day. In winter I might even go to the slopes,’ he explains, referring to Valdezcaray, the pistes around the San Lorenzo peak, 15km southeast of the quaint mountain town of Ezcaray and a mere 45-minute drive southwest of Logroño.

However, spring has sprung, so Arambarri leaves for a run across Logroño’s old town – where he lives with his young family – over the Puente de Piedra bridge and along the Ebro river.

He keeps an eye on his watch and loops back for a shower before taking four-year-old Sofia to the nursery.

After cycling back home to drop off his bike, Arambarri cuddles one-year-old Nicolás before checking in at Vintae’s Logroño offices, down the road from his flat.

The headquarters are the beating heart of the group’s many wineries, brands and projects, including Rioja producers Hacienda López de Haro and El Pacto, Toro’s Matsu and Aroa in Navarra.

Perpetual commute

Urtasun’s day starts very differently – 355km away from Rioja.

Based in Madrid, on any given morning he’s either walking his boys to school, heading to the airport or driving to the winery in Samaniego, 15km west of Haro, north of the Ebro.

Today he’s en route to Remírez de Ganuza for a regular catch-up with the team.

‘It’s important to come back regularly. Beyond the logistical and management side of things, it’s essential to stay in touch with what really matters and the reason we do this in the first place,’ he says.

The drive takes him just over three hours; all going smoothly, he’s in Samaniego in time for lunch.

Weeks can easily go by without time to visit the winery, though.

Juggling personal life, work at the Madrid office and the tough travel schedule he’s been fighting against – with limited success – is notoriously difficult.

‘We’ve expanded the [commercial] team; mostly so that I’m not dealing with so many markets myself and travelling so much. But as soon as [the importers and PR agencies] hear we’ve employed someone, I start getting phone calls: “So Jose, does this mean you now have more time to visit us?”. It’s a losing battle…’

In an industry built upon trust and human connection, Urtasun acknowledges that it’s important for wine companies to have a face. ‘Relationships are the basis of our work.’

Tricky balance

The perpetual tension between ‘working the global room’ and staying put, going through to-do lists, is one of the main challenges of the bodeguero’s life.

Time away means that other things in the business don’t move as quickly or are left on hold. But the quest for balance is not just an operational matter.

‘Time with the kids is precious,’ says Arambarri.

‘[Having children] has changed the way I relate to work. I used to travel more than half of the time, without giving it much thought. Now, I’ve set limits. Nothing makes up for time away from them,’ he concludes.

Those limits are still, however, very much above those of a civilian: no more than two weeks a month, with no more than five consecutive days if possible.

Urtasun echoes this feeling, amplified by the fact that he shares custody of his two boys with his ex-wife.

‘I plan travel around the time I have with the kids. It’s tough, both logistically and emotionally.’

Business of people

With all cogs turning at the office, Arambarri leaves for Cárdenas, the small village between Logroño and Ezcaray that is the epicentre of El Pacto, a range of wines produced in the Sonsierra, in the far northwest of the Rioja Alta sub-region, and Alto Najerilla at Rioja Alta’s southern edge.

Ever the master of optimisation, he’s combined a catch-up with the viticultural team with a visit from Asturian distributors and a nourishing Riojan almuerzo (like ‘elevenses’).

The entourage convenes at Cárdenas’ main square, seemingly doubling the village’s population in a matter of minutes.

The group consolidates by the two four-wheel drives piloted by Arambarri and Fernando García, El Pacto’s viticultural manager, and everyone heads to the two plots – Pieza la Villa and Senda de Haro – that supply the grapes for the El Pacto flagship Jesús Acha wines.

From there, they head to the 100-year-old Valdechuecas vineyard (see ‘Rioja Report 2026. Garnacha & friends - Tapping into history and modernity ).

Following a walk through the gnarly vines, the team sets up a tasting of El Pacto’s new releases and makes a fire from sarmientos (vine cuttings) to barbecue some lamb chops.

Back in Samaniego, Urtasun is catching up with Jesús Mendoza, the star winemaker who has been at Remírez de Ganuza’s technical helm since 2001, having joined the team in 1994.

The relationship between the two evolved through years of a gradual leadership transition from Fernando Remírez de Ganuza to Urtasun, whose family acquired the winery in 2019.

Urtasun spent the following years, until Remírez de Ganuza’s death at the age of 73 in 2024, working alongside the founder to ensure continuity and a full understanding of the winery’s ethos, which Mendoza helped to shape.

The two discuss the evolution of the wines, analytical samples and operational planning before synchronising watches ahead of a visit and tasting with a journalist (yours truly).

‘Jesús is obsessive. His attention to detail, precision and cleanliness are just incredible,’ says Urtasun as if the latter wasn’t obvious, given the pristine condition of the winery – and as if he didn’t share some of that obsessive nature himself.

Focused restlessness

Not wanting to waste either samples or time, Arambarri loads the bottles from the mid-morning barbecue into the boot and calls the team at Nublo, the one-star Michelin restaurant in Haro, to say that he’ll pop in before service if convenient.

The answer is an easy and eager yes.

But before going to Haro, Arambarri needs to stop by the aerodrome where he keeps his small plane.

‘You have to fly regularly. It’s a necessity so you can be safe.’

The wind, however, is not cooperating. ‘I’d fly alone today, but not with a passenger [Decanter’s very relieved photographer] who has never flown with me before. It gets wobbly up there on a day like this and it’s not good if you freak out inside such a small plane,’ he says, not even half joking.

He’s flown his plane to the Balearics, Madrid, Málaga, Galicia and Jerez. ‘Isa [Isabel García Castellanos, Arambarri’s wife and Vintae’s marketing director] is not a fan, though,’ he says. We certainly don’t blame her.

Arambarri is a man of many hobbies. Look closely, however, and you’ll realise that there’s a focus to all of them, an accumulation of personal resources that allow him to perform best on his intense entrepreneurial front.

In early May, Vintae announced a structural and financial plan to take over Bodegas Riojanas after the historic winery went into administration earlier this year.

This comes after the announcement, in 2025, of Vintae regaining 100% ownership of iconic vermouth brand El Bandarra, and of a partnership with Bodega Terramoll in Formentera, whose operations and sales it now oversees.

Sitting (not winding) down

Meanwhile, at Remírez de Ganuza, Urtasun and I are sitting down for a long session of analytical tasting.

He takes a step back and lets the winemaker lead, listening eagerly and commenting occasionally while repeatedly checking his phone.

‘This thing is relentless. There’s no downtime.'

As the tasting wraps up and Mendoza begins tidying up, the winery hospitality team is already waiting for their meeting with Urtasun.

‘Visits and cellar-door sales have grown a lot,’ he explains. ‘It’s important to have the right people and keep things running smoothly.’

Then it’s off to check on how Olagar, the 1978 plot in San Vicente de la Sonsierra that yields the fruit for Remírez de Ganuza’s white Gran Reserva (see ‘Rioja Report 2026. White Rioja: A Successful quest for excellence), is responding after two months of intense rains.

Against the backdrop of dramatic, thunderous clouds, Urtasun acknowledges that it’s time for dinner before it starts pouring down.

Sure enough, the skies open as he’s driving to Haro, for dinner at Los Caños, where the team welcomes him with both familiarity and deference.

He discusses which wines customers have been interested in lately, which bottles most excite the team at the moment; he asks the sommelier to suggest a bottle.

Is he relaxing now? Is he still on the job? These questions are perhaps meaningless.

‘This is not just work,’ he says. ‘It’s almost the way that we see the world.’

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The concept isn’t new – origin and provenance have applied to wine for centuries – but a renewed awareness and interest in vertically integrated products is growing the category. So much so that it has its own term: seed-to-spirit.

‘Seed-to-spirit is a natural extension of farm-to-table [as] it brings that same transparency and connection to origin into the world of spirits,’ says Rico Dynan, global brand ambassador for Absolut Vodka.

Absolut’s One Source philosophy was a founding principle of the distillery which is based in Åhus, Sweden, and it’s still implemented today, to showcase the traceability of its core ingredients. The wheat and water are both sourced from the same southern Swedish community where the vodka is distilled.

Seed-to-spirit basics

Also called grain-to-glass or barn-to-barrel, the vertically integrated blueprint is attractive to both consumers and producers. The shorter supply chain is more environmentally responsible, there’s an appeal of quality control and it’s financially beneficial to both parties.

Proof that beyond market trends, seed-to-spirit holds the potential to change the future of how we produce, consume and view spirits.

First and foremost, the ethos of seed-to-spirit ‘reminds people that distillation begins in the soil, not in a factory,’ says Kirsty Black, Master Distiller at Arbikie Distillery in Montrose, Scotland.

Raw ingredients and regional identity

For vodka, this means shifting away from pigeon-holeing the spirit into the ‘neutral’ category – repositioning it from a blank canvas to a spirit with flavour, texture and even terroir. ‘That’s fundamentally changing how vodka is judged and enjoyed,’ says Black.

For gin, tequila and whisky, seed-to-spirit may seem more inherent, but the increased attention to sourcing repositions new opportunities for drinkers to consider every step of production before buying a bottle.

In agave spirits, this is a focus on cultivation and regional identity. In whisky, it applies to grain provenance and long-term agricultural unions. For gin, a pure base spirit allows the botanicals to become the primary focus of storytelling.

‘Because gin is built around layered aromatic ingredients, the seed-to-spirit movement allows distillers to showcase biodiversity and terroir in a uniquely creative way,’ says Guy Brennan, cofounder and CEO of Procera, a gin expressing African terroir. ‘It creates space for regional identity.’

Quality control

Traceability doesn’t just make for a better story, it results in better taste. Whether farming their own land or sourcing from farms within a limited radius, when distilleries are able to oversee every step from seed selection to maturation ‘flavour is considered right from the start, not engineered at the end,’ explains Black.

That control is what attracted Chris Pateman to the Lancaster Spirits Company, a self-titled grain-to-glass distillery in northern England specialising in craft batch single malt English whisky. ‘There’s no automation; we are doing everything by hand on a proper small scale,’ he shares.

Pateman comprises one of two team members who run the entire production process. Part of their quality assurance includes a weekly tracker of grain, water and wash used for resource management. ‘We can quite literally batch check everything we make from start to finish,’ says Pateman.

An important clarification, however, is that quality control doesn’t equate to uniformity. Instead, after decades of distilleries prioritising consistency, seed-to-spirit recognises that variation is part of the story, embracing character, seasonality and authenticity.

Price tag

Vertically integrated spirits are cost effective for producers as they eliminate the middle man; labour and subsequent costs such as gas and transport fees, which are often projected on to the consumer. In England’s Lake District, Grasmere Distillery sources wheat for its single malt whisky directly from farmers. It then passes on those savings to the consumer.

‘In the UK, grain-to-glass is usually the cheaper product – it’s better and more unique for a lower price,’ says Paul Abbott, founder and head distiller.

It’s viable not only for consumers, but also the bar industry. Jared Boller, cocktail specialist at Kilgore Hospitality Group, explains a bartender’s perspective: ‘It’s in our best interest to create tighter sourcing relationships, accepting smaller batch sizes.’ The bar programme may need to be flexible with what’s available, but at least staff and imbiber aren’t overpaying for monotony.

Environmental bonus

Not only does seed-to-spirit production decrease transport emissions, but when distilleries are in charge of their own crops, they have a vested interest in their land’s longevity. In Kentucky, Maker’s Mark is transitioning its corn and wheat to Regenified certification for regenerative agriculture to encourage long-term soil health.

At its Star Hill Farm, Maker’s Mark focuses on treating the wheat types grown with regenerative farming practices ‘as a primary driver of complexity, not just an ingredient’, says Rob Samuels, managing director. The quality of flavour is a subsequent result of healthy soil.

In Scotland, Arbikie uses alternative home-grown crops, such as peas, in its Nàdar Gin. The crop requires little or no nitrogen, which can result in a climate-positive spirit. The distillery itself was born from the need to find a home for its potatoes that didn’t meet retail specifications; Tattie Bogle Potato Vodka was its first release, ensuring a continuous process and less waste on the farm.

Back to nature

The shift in consumer preferences towards the priority of integrity, not only in flavour, but also in sourcing and impact, makes room in the market for more unique spirits that are ‘less about imitation and more about identity’, says Brennan. Ultimately, that identity reflects a specific destination’s ecosystem, ethos and culture that consumers can taste.

The shift ‘feels less like embracing a trend and more like returning to something fundamental’, he adds. Just as society did with the farm-to-table movement, we’ve realised things actually taste better when they are grown, harvested and treated as an agricultural product, not an industrial one.

Seed‑to‑spirit applies that mentality to what we’re drinking. Ultimately, it resonates because it ‘reconnects distillation with nature’, concludes Black.

Six tasty seed-to-spirit bottles to try

Absolut Vodka

Smooth and full-bodied with a fruity finish, Absolut brings a velvet-like texture to an Espresso Martini. Alcohol 40%

Arbikie 1794 Highland Rye Single Grain Scotch Whisky

Spiced pear aromas evolve into a dried fruit and nut cake in the mouth. Lighter-bodied yet ripe with flavour, try this single estate Scotch in a Rob Roy. Alc 48%

Oxbow Estate Rhum Louisiane

Layers of lemongrass, ripe plantain and dried mango define this single-barrel agricole rum that’s exclusively distilled once a year from the Louisiana-based Oxbow Distillery’s estate-grown sugarcane. It’s a strong base for a classic Daiquiri. Alc 45%

Procera Blue Dot Gin

A clean juniper backbone with notes of lime zest and fresh herbs, finishing with a lingering note of pink peppercorn. Incredibly smooth and medium-bodied, it’s the ideal Martini gin. Alc 44%

Solento Organic Tequila Extra Añejo

This single-estate tequila is aged for 40 months in American oak barrels for a sip that’s toffee-forward with hints of roasted almonds and candied-orange peel. Enjoy neat with an expressed orange peel. Alc 40%

Star Hill Farm Whisky

A nose that mimics freshly baked banana bread opens to a spiced honeycomb palate with warm cinnamon and a subtle oak finish. Crafted from three different types of wheat, the rich yet silky texture lends itself to a unique Manhattan. Alc 58.2%

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Whether it’s hitting the ski-slopes, joining a wine battle or tucking into some lamb chops with a bottle of wine, Rioja is a region for all seasons.

Winter

Hit the slopes in Valdezcaray

There’s no better place to combine a cold-weather adventure with sipping wine than Rioja, and in the colder months, many locals head to Valdezcaray.

Halfway up Pico San Lorenzo, the tallest mountain in La Rioja, it’s the region’s number one winter sports destination and the local alternative to the skiing on offer in the Pyrenees.

Remodelled in 2022, it has 24 different slopes and more than 22km of marked trails, with 12 advanced-level runs for expert skiers and snowboarders, and plenty of beginner and intermediate slopes.

Didn’t bring your own skis? No problem. Rent them on the mountain or from a local shop in the picturesque village of Ezcaray, where you can also enjoy an aprés-ski bottle of wine.

Spring

Pretend you’re a pilgrim

Rioja lies along the Camino de Santiago, or Way of St James, a medieval pilgrimage route across northern Spain that ends at the tomb of the apostle St James in Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia’s coastal northwest.

Though the traditional stages are in 20km-30km chunks, from Rioja’s administrative capital Logroño it’s only 12km to the nearby village of Navarrete.

Leaving Logroño, the Camino passes through La Grajera park before following the motorway through vine-covered countryside along a mix of dirt and paved paths, and passing the ruins of the 12th-century pilgrims’ hospital of San Juan de Acre shortly before entering Navarrete.

While you’re in the village, visit local winemaker Elena Corzana, who works with traditional local grape Maturana Tinta.

Taste wine in a castle

At the end of May, the historic hilltop town of San Vicente de la Sonsierra invites visitors to Catas en el Castillo (‘Wine Tastings at the Castle’), where they can discover local wines in the underground cellars within its walled castle grounds.

Attendees can explore the historic surroundings while tasting wines and chatting with growers, with the opportunity to buy wines directly from the winemakers.

This year, the €23 ticket included a wine glass, glass holder and seven tasting tokens.

Summer

Fight in Haro’s wine battle

At about seven in the morning on 29 June, hundreds of people dressed in white make their way to the cliffs of Bilibio, about 7km north of the town of Haro.

Their clothes don’t stay white for long: over the course of the day, revellers drench one another in red wine using everything from water pistols to buckets in the La Batalla del Vino de Haro (‘The Haro Wine Battle’).

To participate, just follow the dress code, bring plenty of red wine and make sure you have something to spray it with.

It’s also not a bad idea to bring goggles and waterproof bags.

Once you’ve arrived, there aren’t really any rules – just have fun!

Taste your way through the Barrio de la Estación

For those who prefer to keep their wine in a glass, the Cata del Barrio de la Estación is Haro’s other don’t-miss event.

Held every two years in the Barrio de la Estación, or Station Quarter, the event typically includes tastings of about a dozen wines, gourmet food pairings, guided winery experiences and live music.

Still home to historic wineries such as CVNE, La Rioja Alta and R López de Heredia, Haro’s Station Quarter dates back to the second half of the 19th century, when the arrival of the railway coincided with the arrival of French winemakers and traders looking for new places to make and source wine after vineyard crises caused by infestations such as phylloxera and mildew, leading to wineries springing up around the railway station.

Autumn

Celebrate the harvest in Logroño

Each September, Logroño hosts the Fiestas de San Mateo, a week-long harvest festival and the most important celebration in Rioja’s capital.

Timed to coincide with the start of the harvest, around 21 September, one of the most important events is the symbolic crushing of the first grapes, where freshly harvested fruit is pressed into must and offered to the Virgin of Valvanera, the patron of La Rioja.

Throughout the week, there’s plenty on offer between concerts, parades, fireworks and, of course, wine tastings.

Fall in love with lamb chops in Rioja Alavesa

Though they’re more often seen in the warmer months, when villages across Rioja light communal grills and cook in the streets, there’s something about the slight chill in the air of early autumn that makes chuletillas al sarmiento even more appealing.

Preparation is simple: lamb cutlets are seasoned with coarse salt before being grilled over a bundle of dried vine cuttings, or sarmientos.

A magical dish that can pair as well with a young, semi-carbonic Rioja as it does with a long-aged Gran Reserva, one of the best versions can be found at Asador Alai, in the Rioja Alavesa village of Labastida. @asadoralai

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But what kept guests at our recent masterclass at the Decanter New York Fine Wine Encounter hanging on right until the end was the unique way it was presented.

Led by Michaela Morris – long-time Decanter contributor, DWWA Regional Chair for Piedmont, and expert on all things Tuscan – alongside myself – Decanter’s Regional Editor for Italy – the featured wines were arranged not by vintage, as is the norm, but as a timeline telling the story of the development of the category.

Evolution of an icon

In the 1970s and ’80s, Chianti (the birthplace of most Super Tuscans) was handicapped by legislation demanding the inclusion of white grapes, prioritising quantity over quality.

‘The SuperTuscans helped to improve the quality of wine coming out of Tuscany,’ explained Morris.

Antinori, Tignanello 2021

The first wine in the lineup needed little introduction: Tignanello’s place as one of the first Super Tuscans is cemented in history.

A Sangiovese-dominant blend with proportions of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, tasting the 50th vintage of this storied wine was a breath of fresh air: dark fruits, zesty acidity, and balsamic herbs, tied together by fine tannins.

Isole e Olena, Cepparello 2021

Next came a pure Sangiovese, the flagship wine of the Isole e Olena property since its first vintage, 1980.

‘Cepparello was his [former owner Paolo de Marchi’s] study of Sangiovese,’ commented Morris, pointing out that rather than a single-vineyard selection, the best fruit from across the entire estate was used.

Juicy cherry fruits, refined tannins, a fragrant herbal twist and underlying sapidity mark this out as a classy, poised example of Italy’s most renowned red grape.

Fontodi, Flaccianello 2021

Arriving 10 years after Tignanello, this 100% Sangiovese shows great contrast between dark fruits and super-bright acidity in its 40th vintage.

Morris explained that Fontodi started as a family hobby, playing second-fiddle to the family's historic terracotta business.

As a result, it was younger brother Giovanni Manneti who inherited the winery, while his older brother was given the keys to the main family business.

The original plan was to switch every few years, but Giovanni fell in love with the wine industry and refused to leave!

Born as a single-vineyard expression, since 2001 Flaccianello has been a selection of the best fruit from the estate.

Concentrated, saline and zesty with structural tannins, the 2021 will reward ageing – as we found out at the end of the masterclass...

Bibi Graetz, Colore 2023

The final part of the Super Tuscan story brings us to the turn of the 21st century, when things had began to come full circle.

The new-look Chianti Classico had shed its restrictive and damaging requirement for white grapes in the blend, and the focus had swung to Sangiovese.

In this environment, and ‘not shackled by traditions,’ young Bibi Graetz set up shop in Fiesole.

His style has meandered over the years, finally settling on wines which showcase purity and finesse in equal measure.

Colore 2023, his flagship old-vine Sangiovese selection, shows ripe, creamy strawberry and raspberry on a long, precise, and textural palate.

The older vintages

While the first four wines mapped the story of the Super Tuscans, the back four were poured in vintage order, newest to oldest, enabling guests to understand how the wines evolve with age.

Bibi Graetz, Colore 2018

This 2018 vintage includes 5% Canaiolo and 5% Colorino compared to the 100% Sangiovese of 2023.

Showing beautifully, it develops black tea and blood orange notes which overlay dark berry and cherry fruits.

Isole e Olena, Cepparello 2015

From a generous, sunny but balanced vintage, Cepparello’s deep and concentrated cherry character is deeply inviting and perfectly translates the vintage, lifted by fresh minty notes and a dancing, vibrant palate.

Antinori, Tignanello 2013

This complex and deep pour shows its plummy, herbal side alongside appealing black tea and olive evolution.

It’s a fantastic vintage to discover, not just with Tignanello but with many other Tuscan reds, too.

Fontodi, Flaccianello 2006

Stealing the show, this structural and still-youthful sip is full of minty dark berries outlined by bright acidity.

According to Morris, this is ‘one of [owner] Giovanni Manetti’s favourite vintages’ – and it’s easy to see why.

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Less discussed is how breathtakingly beautiful a travel destination it is – Rioja has a home away from home for you.

You won’t find Rioja in the Thomas Cook package holiday directory, but if you’re a wine lover who also appreciates a great view, you’re certainly heading in the right direction.

From luxurious winery stays in a building designed by legendary architect Frank Gehry to humble B&Bs and even rustic campsites, there really is a way for every type of traveller to experience this iconic wine region.

The backpacker

You’re a bit old to spend your time in hostels now, but you haven’t lost your sense of adventure and desire for a more authentic, rugged experience.

Fortunately for you, Rioja is a vast expanse of rolling hills, windswept vineyards and hiking trails.

Whether you drive here or take some other form of transport from Madrid or Bilbao, there’s no need to spend a fortune to enjoy the region’s great outdoors.

Camping de Haro

Carretera Vieja de Miranda 1, Haro

There’s nothing quite like enjoying the great outdoors, especially in the company of those who want to do the same.

For €30 a night, you can pitch a tent, park a car and have access to electricity, all barely 10 minutes’ walk from Haro. If the sound of rain hitting your tent isn’t your cup of tea, glamping bungalows are also available.

In the summer months, you can cool off after a long day of sightseeing with a swim in the vast outdoor swimming pool.

Typical peak season rates from around €30 a night camping, or €70 a night glamping. campingdeharo.com

• Insider tip Make sure you find the time to visit the Vivanco Museum of Wine Culture in nearby Briones, barely 10 minutes’ drive away.

The authentic traveller

You want to get into the heart of the region but you don’t necessarily require luxury or want to spend a lot of time in the hotel itself.

You’ll be visiting wineries during the day and need a base for operations, ideally out in the villages themselves.

Casa Robla

Calle Hornos 11, Elvillar

A charming B&B set in a former winery in the heart of Elvillar, Casa Robla is a quiet place to put your head down at night, with enough of the original exposed stonework to really connect with its productive past.

Better yet, the proprietor makes wine nearby in Lanciego, and recent vintages are readily available to try.

There’s no onsite dining here, but feel free to use the kitchen to whip up some sandwiches or cold snacks.

Typical peak season rates from around €100 per night.

• Insider tip For a more lively night out, head to nearby Laguardia (10-minute drive) for a vibrant social and tapas scene.

The upscale adventurer

Being out in the thick of it is important to you, but you also appreciate your home comforts.

Some days might be spent out exploring, while others will definitely be in the hotel, enjoying the finer things in life.

There’s no need for luxury, but a little space, privacy and understated beauty is appreciated.

Santa María Briones

Calle Concepción 37, Briones

This charming boutique hotel is set in a 16th-century manor house in the heart of one of the region’s most important winemaking villages.

There are only 16 rooms, but each is carefully considered, with exposed stonework, wooden beams and individual views.

There are also two restaurants onsite: El Calado for traditional, rustic dishes and wine tastings in an informal setting, and Allegar for fine dining.

There’s also a gym, a well-appointed library and even local kennels for those travelling with pets.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t a good option for young families, as guests must be 12 years or older.

Typical peak season rates from around €250 per night. santamariabriones.com

• Insider tip The Berones Suite has a duplex layout and grants access to the largest balcony on the property. Alternatively, ask for room 33 – it has the property’s best views!

The luxury traveller

Needless to say, the hotel you choose will make or break your trip.

You may be in Rioja for the wine but that doesn’t mean that you can’t live it up while you’re here, and you’re likely to be spending a lot of time enjoying the facilities when not on the occasional foray into the region.

Fine dining is a must and there also has to be something going on at the hotel beyond the gym.

Marqués de Riscal

Calle Torrea 1, Elciego

An icon of the region for its wines, its history, its legend and its incredible, swooping winery and hotel.

Opened in 2006, this Frank Gehry-designed masterpiece is as eye-catching as it is unique. Multi-coloured ribbons of titanium ripple and twist across its surface, glinting in the sunshine.

For the luxury traveller in Rioja, welcome home!

There are 61 rooms, each with large windows from which to enjoy the view.

Beyond that, there’s a Caudalie Vinotherapy spa, a fitness centre, a swimming pool and no fewer than three restaurants from which to choose.

You’re in the perfect location for day trips, but with so much going on, you may want to spend your time at the hotel instead.

Typical peak season rates from around €450 per night. marquesderiscal.com

• Insider tip Spend your evenings in the rooftop bar for spectacular sunset views. For something really special, ask them to show you their list of back vintages for a bottle to enjoy as the sun goes down.

The city breaker

You’re only here for a few days and you want to be somewhere that offers restaurants, nightlife and transport links.

You may do a day trip but you also want to experience wine bars, wine lists, coffee and conversation.

Your perfect city would, ideally, have a couple of wineries very close by so you can cram everything in and still have the energy to live it up in the evening.

Hotel Arrope

La Vega 31, Haro

In the heart of Haro, Arrope is a small, no-nonsense hotel ideal for a couple of days in the bustling little city. Its terrace is a popular meeting point for locals and tourists alike.

The rooms occupy the top floors above a restaurant known for its comprehensive wine list.

The small, passionate team is always happy to help and offer inside knowledge on where to go and who to meet. And the sommelier will eagerly recommend interesting, beyond-the-obvious bottles.

Typical peak season rates from around €90 per night.

• Insider tip If you’re on a short break, book your visits to the Muga and CVNE wineries before you arrive. Not only are they icons, but they’re located within the city walls, right near the train station – a mere 15 minutes’ walk from the hotel.

The foodie

Someone once told you that the best way to learn about a local culture was to eat the food and drink the wine, and that seemed like a great idea to you.

You’ve been practising just that for years now and you’ve found your place in the world.

It’s imperative to be in local places, eating real local food and enjoying the unique atmosphere that defines each village, town and city.

You’re happy in fine-dining locations as much as the pub down the street, so long as flavour is involved.

Sercotel Calle Mayor

Calle Marqués de San Nicolás 71, Logroño

This four-star boutique hotel is in the very heart of Rioja’s wine capital Logroño, making it a perfect location for those looking to experience not only the wine culture of Rioja, but its famous tapas scene.

It’s a five-minute walk to Calle del Laurel and its famous tapas crawl, yet also surrounded by excellent restaurants; there are few better places to be for those looking to discover the local cuisine.

The hotel itself also has a gym and, importantly for those looking for reservations, a 24-hour front desk and concierge service. ¡Buen provecho!

Typical peak season rates from around €145 per night. sercotelhoteles.com

• Insider tip If you’re looking for a wine experience close by, check out Javier Arizcuren’s urban winery – one of the region’s greatest producers, right in the heart of the city.

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Where traditional blanco tequilas are typically bottled at 40% abv (expressed as 80 proof in the US), high-proof blancos can range anywhere from 45%-55% abv.

Made from 100% Blue Weber agave slow-cooked in brick or clay ovens, these high-proof, additive-free blancos are distilled to proof and keep water dilution to a minimum (or skip it entirely) for greater clarity and intensity of flavour, delivering a bolder sip.

‘In well-crafted spirits, such as the [54% abv] Tequila Ocho Plata Puntas, this translates to a more vivid, layered and complete expression,’ says Jesse Estes, a global brand ambassador for Tequila Ocho.

‘It does so without the harshness or burn many associate with higher-proof spirits.’

Taste the agave

More producers are now experimenting with high-proof blanco, not only to showcase tequila in its purest, most expressive form, but also to align with the growing appreciation for a more complex profile.

‘Consumers and bartenders want to try genuine, pure agave-forward tequila flavours, whether enjoyed neat, on the rocks or mixed into cocktails,’ says Léon Bañuelos Jr, a third-generation tequilero at El Mexicano.

‘A higher proof brings out stronger aromas and delivers a traditional agave taste, making cocktails more vibrant and memorable.’

High-proof blancos help enhance the herbal notes, pepper and earthiness of the agave.

‘At lower proof, some of that gets lost in the dilution,’ says Sammy Hagar, co-founder of Santo Tequila. ‘At higher proof, the agave flavours hit you in waves.’

How should you drink higher-proof blanco tequila?

These high-proof blanco tequilas can be enjoyed however you prefer.

Tony Salles, the third-generation Master Distiller at El Tequileño, recommends starting with a neat serve to fully experience the tequila’s intensity and character.

‘High proof blancos like El Tequileño Still Strength [50% abv] also work beautifully in cocktails,’ he adds. ‘The higher proof allows the tequila to hold its own.’

Bañuelos proposes using El Mexicano Blanco 90 (45% abv) to craft a bold, agave-forward cocktail, such as a Chai Sour, paired with rich chocolate made with 50%-60% cocoa.

Hagar suggests using Santo 110 Proof Blanco (55% abv) in a Margarita. ‘The flavour doesn’t disappear behind the lime and triple sec,’ he says. ‘It stands up.’

One to try

Tequila Ocho Plata Puntas

£141/70cl The Whisky Exchange

Made with Jalisco Highland agave, using the ‘puntas’ (the still-strength portion taken from the early stages of distillation) for intense oil and flavour concentration. Agave and salted chocolate hit the nose, followed by a spicy pop of cacao and a creamy finish. A strong choice for a Paloma. Alcohol 53%.

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It was a turning point in the French Revolution, a culmination of social upheaval and the dissatisfaction of the common people against the ruling elite.

It marked the end of the ancien régime – the old order – and the beginning of the first French Republic.

Wine, as it happens, was tangled up in all of it.

Quick-fire history of wine in France

The vine likely arrived in southern Gaul (the anicent area of Europe that roughly corresponds to modern day France) around 600 BCE – centuries before any king wore a crown or the concept of France even existed.

Winemaking and viticulture flourished under Roman rule, but it was the monastic orders in the Middle Ages that turned viticulture and wine into a discipline.

Monasteries often owned huge swathes of vineyards – especially in places such as Burgundy.

Both church and nobility used their vineyard holdings to fuel the feudal economy, while increasingly far-reaching and sophisticated trade networks in which wine was a key commodity contributed to the rise of wealthy bourgeois mercantile classes as well.

Into the early modern era, wine increasingly became a status symbol in the royal courts, the nobles drinking Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux.

But the Revolution toppled the monarchy, and broke the aristocratic leash on wine. Vineyards and land were redistributed, sold back to the people, and wine became their tonic.

Bastille Day is marked as a recognition of the power of the people. Here are five French wines with which to toast it.

Five French wines to toast to Bastille Day

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There is no ‘entry-level non-vintage’ here; instead there’s the Grande Cuvée, numbered in editions following the composition of the harvests used.

Then there are the single vintages, and the two Clos of Ambonnay and Le Mesnil, in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay respectively, whose prices and rarity ascend beyond the reaches of all but the luckiest Champagne lovers.

Should these rarer, more expensive wines be considered finer than the Grande Cuvée?

Absolutely not.

Equal footing

There are no hierarchies,’ says cellar master Julie Cavil. ‘At Krug every wine receives the same red carpet treatment. It is only the blending which decides’.

Despite the price difference, collectors and Krug fans tend to agree. While Krug vintages are rare treasures, side-by-side tastings tend to reveal little sense of down-grade to the more accessible Grande Cuvée.

The vintage is not ‘the best wine,’ says Cavil. ‘It is a wine that tells the singularity of the year’.

Grande Cuvée 174th Édition

Whether Grande Cuvée editions themselves always follow the strengths and weaknesses of the youngest years in their blend is open to debate.

Yet a comparison of the new 174th Édition, built around the generous, immaculate 2018 vintage, and the 173rd Édition centred on the challenging 2017, does make the case – even with the help of the house’s enviable reserve wine library.

Indeed, the reserve wine library takes precedence, even over the vintage bottling.

When the still base wines of the year, having spent a short ‘birth’ in old oak barrels before moving into individually tailored stainless steel, are lined up and assessed, first choice is given to blending components for Grande Cuvée, ‘and then to the library of reserve wines,’ says Cavil.

Only then, if interesting wines of the year remain, will a single vintage be released.

The 2013 vintage

Could it be said that the vintage bottling sometimes remained in the shadow of Grande Cuvée?

If so, then 2013 steps out boldly.

The 2011, 2008 and 2006 vintage releases told the story of the year, but the completeness, balance and age-worthiness of the blend in late-ripening 2013 has yielded the greatest Krug vintage of recent times.

With Chardonnay singing, Krug’s designation of the wine as ‘exalted citrus’ fits like a glove.

Clos d’Ambonnay 2008

The fortune doesn’t end there for followers of Krug’s rarer cuvées, though.

The blanc de noirs Clos d’Ambonnay cuvée from one of Champagne’s greatest vintages spent 17 years ageing in the cellar.

‘It was an incredible year, with lots of intensity,’ says Cavil. ‘But we had to be patient’.

The sheer force of the year in this charmed 0.68ha walled vineyard of Pinot Noir has yielded a wine of dramatic density, freshness and potency.

All wines may be treated as equals at Krug, but when it comes to vintages such as 2013 and 2008, some may be more equal than others.

New Krug releases not to miss

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What’s unique, however, is that Cava is often produced with a blend of indigenous white grape varieties: Macabeo, Xarel-lo and Parellada. Several international varieties, including the more common varieties for sparkling wines, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, can also be used.

Scroll down to see the top 15 Cava wines of DWWA 2026

Cava has established a global reputation for making some of the best value sparkling wines produced by the traditional method. But it’s important to note the quality to be found across Cava’s categories and styles, with top expressions on par with some of the world’s best.

Styles of Cava

There are three main categories of Cava which produce different styles of sparkling wine.

When labelled Cava, the wine must undergo a minimum of nine months of lees aging, providing subtle notes of autolysis (the bready aromas and flavours found in traditional method sparkling wines). These Cavas typically have light apple, citrus and herbal notes with moderate acidity.

Cava Reserva must spend a minimum of 15 months on the lees – three months less than Champagne requires. Here, biscuit autolytic notes are more evident.

Aged a minimum of 30 months on the lees, Cava Gran Reserva wines can show pronounced autolytic characters including smoky and toasty notes. These Cavas can be premium in price but can show outstanding quality for value, especially when compared to traditional method sparkling wine counterparts.

To strengthen Cava’s notoriety as a world-class sparkling wine, estate produced and bottled Cava can qualify for a relatively new category, Cava de Paraje Calificado. These wines must age a minimum of 36 months, showing even more development and integration of flavours.

Quality rising

Cava’s quality continues to be recognised by leading experts at the 2026 DWWA with Catalonia’s celebrated sparkling wines earning eight Golds including a Top Value Gold. The competition also recognised two magnum-format Cavas with Silver medals.

Along with the top accolades, Cava was awarded an additional 46 Silver and 72 Bronze medals.

To celebrate International Cava Day this 12th July, we highlight 15 award-winning wines to celebrate with.

International Cava Day: 15 award-winning wines to try

Asda, Exceptional Mas Miralda Brut 2023
Value Gold, 95 points
Hugely aromatic and soulful with boundless lemon peel, fresh herb and almond notes swaddled in glossy mousse and succulent acidity. A tasty joy to behold. Alcohol 12%

Bardinet Wines, Palau Gazo Brut NV
Gold, 95 points
Light and frothy, imbued with luscious lemon, fresh herb and wet stone character in a frame of curvaceous acidity. A linden blossom fragrance inures the length. Alc 11.5%

Cavas Hill, Panot Gaudí Brut, Reserva 2020
Value Gold, 95 points
A delightful perfume of chamomile, yellow fruit and butterscotch underscored by a twist of saline. Zesty lemon pith mousse and grapefruit acidity dapple the creamy texture. Alc 11.5%

Conde de Caralt, Brut Nature, Guarda 2024
Gold, 95 points
Well-defined green apple, pear and quince fused with lightly toasted brioche. Energetic and fresh with fine mousse and a zingy eucalyptus buzz at the end. Alc 11.5%

Dominio De La Vega, Cerro Tocón, Reserva 2018
Gold, 95 points
Restrained strawberry and rose petal perfume slinks into the smoke-infused effervescence and brushes against the fulfilling creamy texture. Gushing grapefruit. Alc 12%

Guilera, Centenari Brut Nature, Gran Reserva 2005
Gold, 95 points
Vast swathes of ripe peach, apricot, pineapple and mango simmer over the creamy brioche texture, complete with fine bubbles and red apple acidity. Fabulously moreish. Alc 12%

Jaume Serra, Reserva Brut Nature 2022
Value Gold, 95 points
Evocative dried petal, resin and nut aromas gently soothe the nose; bright. green apple fruit and lemon foam textures lavish the palate. Long, herbal finish. Alc 11.5%

Vallformosa, 150 Brut, Gran Reserva 2020
Gold, 95 points
Engaging floral perfume simmers alongside gooseberry fruit and french toast. Buttery and textured with a stylish smoky mousse and fine, savoury aftertaste which is just phenomenal. Alc 12%

Maria Rigol Ordi, Maria Brut Nature, Gran Reserva 2017
Silver, 94 points
Characterful aromas of fennel, dried herbs, brioche and intense toasty touches. Creamy and smooth, with a crisp acidity. Alc 11.5%

Rabetllat I Vidal, Brut Nature, Gran Reserva, Cava 2021
Silver, 94 points
Restrained character with earthy undertones and delicate aromas of brioche. Showing tension and energy, elegant and stylish palate. Long finish. Alc 12%

Art Laietà, Alto Alella 10 Pujol-Busquets Guillén Brut Nature, Gran Reserva 2014
Silver, 93 points
Savoury character with notes of butterscotch, bread, orange, golden pineapple and lemon balm. Toasty and creamy palate, well layered. Alc 12%

Família Ferrer, Can Sala Brut Nature, Paraje Calificado 2013
Silver, 93 points
Developing nuances of caramelised apple, quince, toasted almonds and butterscotch. Honeyed palate, rich and creamy, with a mineral finish. Alc 12.5%

Marevia, Chardonnay-Pinot Noir Brut, Reserva 2020
Silver, 93 points
Light nuances of delicate brioche and citrus fruit on the nose. Creamy on the palate, very tasty and elegant. Alc 11.5%

Pere Ventura, Clos La Secreta Paraje Calificado Can Bas, Gran Reserva 2017
Silver, 93 points
Delicate aromas of peaches, apricots, brioche and digestive biscuits. Well made and layered, with a crisp acidity and lovely mousse. Alc 12%

Sumarroca, Ecològica Brut Nature, Gran Reserva 2019
Silver, 93 points
Perfumed, with bittersweet lemon, peach skin, Mediterranean herbs and aniseed. Savoury, saline and precise, with a nougat-like richness and long finish. Alc 12%

Search all award-winning Cava wines from DWWA 2026

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Cheval Blanc 2025 was one success. ‘We sold everything we could get,’ said Carter.

Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, said that the St-Emilion estate released everything it made after especially low yields.

Parker said Batailley and Lynch-Bages were top sellers. Will Hargrove, head of fine wine at Corney & Barrow, cited interest in Lafite, plus Mitjavile and Moueix offers, but also said: ‘Demand has been slower than the vintage deserves.’

Despite high scores, Bordeaux 2025 is entering a world of macroeconomic uncertainty. Carter said en primeur is largely ‘an amplification of what’s going on in the [wine] market, and the market is flat.’

He agreed it’s a great time to be a Bordeaux drinker, with good availability of high-quality vintages, but said 2025 release prices weren’t compelling enough in a tough environment.

He also highlighted the value offered by the well-regarded 2019 vintage (see table), with several years of bottleageing (and storage costs) under its belt.

Liv-ex’s Bordeaux 500 index – one indicator of pricing in the secondary market – was down 16.5% in value over five years to the end of May 2026.

While stable year-to-date, it was back to mid-2016 levels. Châteaux haven’t stood still. For example, Liv-ex data showed Lafite 2025’s release price was up year-on-year but otherwise the lowest of the past decade.

Vinum’s Davis said many 2025 en primeur prices looked relatively reasonable. He said there’s an ‘amazing opportunity’ for younger collectors to build a drinking cellar.

In his view, it’s not an investment market and people aren’t buying to make money, but he added: ‘There will be a time when we look back at these prices and think, were they really that cheap?’

Bordeaux 2025 vs 2019: A pricing snapshot

Bordeaux Index’s Geraint Carter said 2019 is a good-quality vintage that may present value for collectors who are considering alternatives to 2025 en primeur releases.

While some 2019s look more expensive than corresponding 2025s at face value, they have already been aged for several years.

DATA SUPPLIED BY BORDEAUX INDEX/LIVETRADE

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

En primeur own goals

The old maxim is that you can only control what you can control. For en primeur, that boils down to two things: the price and the offer.

Leaving the price to one side, en primeur today is, in essence, a marketing event. Bordeaux enjoys an extraordinary privilege: for a few weeks each year, the attention of the fine wine world is focused almost entirely on the region.

That opportunity should be cherished. Yet the 2025 campaign has felt like a masterclass in how to squander momentum.

Late April’s early releases were followed by two weeks of near silence, before a few releases around the holidays and a flood of big names in the closing stages.

In what was always going to be a difficult campaign, allowing interest to dissipate for weeks at a time was bizarre. For en primeur to succeed, the process has to feel transparent.

Visibility has improved, but buyers increasingly suspect that release quantities are being managed more aggressively, which feeds a damaging conclusion that the wine will be as easy, and quite likely cheaper, to buy in a few years.

Direct consumer engagement is also better, but in a world of abundant choice, the case for greater outreach is stronger than ever.

It’s difficult and expensive, yet it’s one of the few levers still entirely within Bordeaux’s control. If consumers are worth courting, then chances to do so must be seized wholeheartedly.

Now, did someone mention price?

Leroy leads Burgundy mega-sale

Wealthy collectors’ thirst for superstar Burgundy has appeared undimmed at recent US auctions, led by notable rarities from Domaines Leroy and Georges Roumier.

Auction house Hart Davis Hart (HDH) claimed a new record auction price for a single bottle of Domaine Leroy wine after selling the Burgundy producer’s Musigny Grand Cru 2015 for $95,600 (£71,374), including buyer’s premium (hammer price $80,000; high estimate $30,000).

It was from the ‘Orion Collection’ that formed part of a three-day auction marathon in May. All 3,563 lots offered found buyers, generating sales of $14.66m.

‘The market remains incredibly robust,’ said Hart Davis Hart CEO Paul Hart. Leroy’s Musigny is among the world’s most expensive wines, although prices can vary.

From the same collection, HDH sold single bottles of 2011 and 2013 for $41,825 and $35,850 respectively (high e: $30,000 and $28,000). In New York in June, a Christie’s auction of wines from ‘a Silicon Valley pioneer’ was also 100% sold.

Six bottles of Georges Roumier, Bonne-Mares 1971 fetched $100,000, including buyer’s premium (high e: $35,000).

In Hong Kong, meanwhile, rare Bordeaux was prominent as Bonhams offered wines from fashion designer Marie France van Damme.

A bottle of Saute Loup 2010, rarely sighted and made by Pomerol icon Petrus, sold for HK$13,750 (£1,314), including buyer’s premium (high e: HK$9,500).

A bottle of legendary Petrus 1961 fetched HK$81,250 (high e: HK$70,000).

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Sun-drenched slopes. Gentle hills sloping into fertile valleys. Terraced vineyards, orchards and olive groves. Every few kilometres, another pretty hilltop hamlet with a stone church, a small square and a different grape variety to try.

From the highest hills, views of the Gulf of Trieste to the south and Alpine peaks in the distant north. The air feels clean: Alpine fresh. The aromas are enticing: Mediterranean.

This is what it’s like to cycle through Slovenia’s key wine region, Primorska, in the country’s far west.

It’s a special place – especially for wine. Rebula (also sometimes called Ribolla here, after its Italian name Ribolla Gialla) and Refošk are the key grape varieties, but a few grapes are as local as the dialects.

Many French varieties, brought to the region in the second half of the 19th century, have found homes here, too. Italian varieties have spread from neighbouring Friuli, just over the national border to the west. It’s a vinous melting pot.

And the best way to explore the region? By bike… well, e-bike – there are a lot of hills.

Since 2025, three of Primorska’s sub-regions – Brda (or Goriška Brda), Vipava and Kras – have been linked by a 93km circular cycling route as part of an EU-funded project called Bike Time.

Serious cyclists could do it all in a day or two, but they would miss out on so much. Instead, base yourself in each of the sub-regions for a couple of days and go on loops from the hotel (this also means you won’t need to transport your luggage).

At a glance: Key areas, travel and bike hire

How to make it happen

• Nearest airports Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, or Trieste in Italy.
• Best time to visit Late spring to early autumn.
• Bike rental Bike Vibe delivers bikes to hotels in all three districts.
• Top tip Many cellars welcome cyclists, but book tastings in advance – the smaller estates sometimes require a reservation.

Key sub-regions

• Goriška Brda (Brda) Slovenia’s best-known wine region, which sits cheek-by-jowl with northeast Italy’s Collio. Known for highquality white and orange wines, particularly those made from Rebula, and red blends made from Bordeaux varieties.
• Vipavska Dolina (Vipava valley) Specialises in light, crisp white wines made from rare grapes Pinela and Zelen
• Kras (Karst) An iron-rich plateau that produces a notable red wine, Teran or Terrano, from the Refošk variety. This is also the region I go to for white and orange versions of Vitovska Grganja.

Day 1: Brda – The kingdom of Rebula

The bike route

Kabaj → Dobrovo → Medana → Gredič → Ceglo → Vipolže → Kaba

Focus on Rebula

The recommendation for your first day in the saddle is to get to know Rebula, the key grape in Brda.

Although it also grows across the border in Italy, Slovenians swear their version is more mineral, more elegant, more itself.

Rebula has been here since Roman times and now comes in a variety of styles, including unoaked, oak-aged, skin-contact, sparkling and passito.

Try them all, but don’t forget to spit – you’ll need your wits about you for some of the descents.

Wineries to visit on this route

The central town, Dobrovo, is home to Slovenia’s largest wine cooperative. Klet Brda brings together 400 growers and nearly 1,000ha of vines (more than half of the region’s roughly 1,900ha).

It’s a good place to get an overview of Brda’s wide range of wines. Try Bagueri’s Sauvignon Blanc for reference, then Bagueri’s or Krasno’s Rebula.

South of Dobrovo, in the border village of Ceglo, is the acclaimed biodynamic winery Movia, Slovenia’s most celebrated producer. A pioneer of natural wines, the charismatic and idiosyncratic Aleš Kristančič has now handed the reins to son Lan.

Highlights of a tasting include a complex Rebula, an orange Pinot Grigio and the unique sparkling wine Puro, which is disgorged in front of you – in an ice bucket filled with water.

Also in Ceglo is organic producer Marjan Simčič – another standard-bearer for Brda wines.

French and local grapes grown on marl-rich schist (opoka) are fermented with native yeasts and boosted with a little bit of skin contact – try the Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay to see a different side of these grapes before experiencing three different Rebulas.

Where to stay in Brda

A good base for this first part of the adventure is Homestead Kabaj Morel in the village of Šlovrenc, near Dobrovo.

Also known as Kabaj Wine & Dine, the homestead combines a top winery and charismatic French winemaker with an amazing restaurant and comfortable rooms.

Jean Michel Morel crafts wines that he likes to drink, regardless of trends and commercial viability.

Enjoy his skin-contact, low-intervention whites and old-school Bordeaux-style reds with dinner on the restaurant’s terrace. There’s no menu – the dishes are inspired by ingredients gathered in the market that morning.

Day 2: Brda beyond Rebula

The bike route

Kabaj → Biljana → Šmartno → Gonjače → Kojsko → Višnjevik → Kabaj

Wineries to visit

Brda is small but dense with excellent boutique producers. Whatever route you take, you’ll probably come across a good, family-run cellar.

Today’s loop explores the district’s other grape varieties and its underrated bubbles. Among the best sparkling wine producers in Slovenia is the specialist Bjana in the village of Biljana, east of Dobrovo.

Start the day with a sip of Miran and Petra Sirk’s Cuvée Prestige Extra Brut – typically 50/50 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, roughly four years on lees. Another good family-run winery in Biljana is Marko Sirk Wines (contact: vina.marko.sirk@gmail.com).

Father Marko and son Miha produce two premium sparkling wines, excellent Sauvignon and Malvasia varietals, and a delicious red blend made from Merlot and Cabernet Franc, among others.

At the Ferdinand winery, a small detour off the road between Gonjače and Kojsko, winemaker Matjaž Četrtič has teamed up with Italian friend Robert Prinčič (owner of Gradis’ciutta in Collio) to create a special fizz, Sinefinis Rebolium.

It’s a blend of Rebula/Ribolla Gialla grapes grown on either side of the border, paying tribute to the Brda and Collio terroirs, which have been divided since the imposition of that border in 1947.

The other white grape to try in this part of the world – perhaps at the end of the day in the quaint medieval village of Šmartno, northeast of Dobrovo – is the underappreciated Sauvignonasse (formerly Tocai Friulano; now simply Friulano in Italy).

It makes a beautiful aperitif, but few producers like its official name; Kabaj calls it Ravan, Zanut calls it Zakaj, others call it Jakot (Tokaj backwards) and Sauvignon Vert.

Whatever the name, it’s a fitting glass with which to conclude your time in Brda.

Day 3: Vipava valley – Indigenous treasures

The bike route

Slap → Planina → Vipava → Slap

Wineries to visit

The beautiful Vipava valley, a broad corridor flanked by mountains and dotted with vineyards, is home to three of Slovenia’s rarest, most delicate whites (which sound more like Marvel heroes): Zelen, Pinela and Klarnica.

A key feature of the terroir here is the strong wind, known as the bora or burja, which can exceed 200km/h.

This is why the old villages have narrow streets, the terracotta roofs are littered with rocks to keep tiles in place and such finicky grapes are able to thrive here and nowhere else.

In the picturesque village of Slap, eighth-generation winemaker Urban Petrič at Vino Petrič is working hard to get more complexity into the typically light, easygoing Zelen and Pinela.

He’s harvesting later, maturing longer and selecting the best southeast-facing, limestonerich sites for planting.

Planina is a bit of a climb, but has two producers worth visiting: Guerila and Štokelj.

The terrace, tasting room and three apartments at biodynamic producer Guerila offer amazing views over the valley. These views are best paired with their benchmark versions of Zelen and Pinela, or a sparkling wine made from both varieties: Castra Brut Nature.

Meanwhile, among the Štokelj wines to try are the still and sparkling Pinelas, and a very serious Merlot-Barbera blend.

Next, head to Vipava, a picturesque town situated at the source of the river of the same name, which consists of nine karst springs. It has a large winery, the former cooperative Vipava 1894, which makes good-value conventional wines.

However, the bistro and wine bar Gustl has better views, a more eclectic wine offer, and some very tasty dishes – such as the Vipava jota, a stew made from turnips fermented in grape marc.

Where to stay

Majerija in Slap, a 300-year-old estate with 10 rooms located under the herb garden and a superb restaurant, is a good base for the next two nights. Owner Matej Tomažič offers traditional cuisine with a contemporary touch and some excellent pairing suggestions.

Day 4: Vipava valley – International interlopers

The bike route

Slap → Branik → Sveti Martin → Dobravlje → Podraga → Orehovica → Slap

Wineries to visit

The medieval Rihemberk castle, overlooking the village of Branik, is one of the best and oldest in the region. It’s a fitting place to begin a day exploring the other face of the valley: the invading varieties.

There’s a lot of good Merlot here, but plantings are in decline. It’s largely being replaced by in-demand white Malvazija Istarska. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Rebula and Cabernet Sauvignon are also widespread among the valley’s 2,060ha of vines.

From the castle, head north and then east towards the village of Sveti Martin and the Stegovec family’s Vina Sveti Martin.

As well as offering white and skin-contact Pinela and Rebula, Peter Stegovec can pour a good Barbera and Merlot, among others.

Heading northeast towards Dobravlje, the Tilia Estate in Potoče stands out as a Pinot specialist. Matjaž Lemut even calls his winery ‘the House of Pinots’. It’s one of the few wineries in the valley to offer consistently good Pinot Noir and Gris.

Beyond Vipava, near the eastern end of the valley, there’s a cluster of top-notch wineries.

In the village of Podraga, Mitja Lavrenčič of Sutor has built a good reputation for precise, elegant versions of Chardonnay, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc.

A little further south, in Orehovica, the Burja Estate’s Primož Lavrenčič offers an excellent Pinot Noir (dubbed Burja Noir) and an exceptional red blend named Reddo that combines the valley’s traditional red grapes: Modra Frankinja (Blaufränkisch), Pokalca (Schioppettino) and Refošk (Refosco).

Biodynamic Pasji Rep has a superb Pinot Noir and Merlot, and one of the best examples of the valley’s traditional white blend, known as Vipaveca.

Pasji Rep’s iteration, Moser, contains Rebula, Welschriesling, Malvazija and Zelen.

Restaurant to know: Gostilna Pri Lojzetu

If you want a culinary crescendo to complete your visit, there’s the fine-dining theatre that is Gostilna Pri Lojzetu in Zemono Manor, near the town of Vipava.

You’ll have to book way in advance to land a table. Chef Tomaž Kavčič is one of the best in Slovenia and the wine list is a carefully curated love letter to Primorska.

Day 5: Karst – Where Teran rules

Karst plateau bike route

Štanjel → Sežana → Dutovlje → Krajna Vas → Gorjansko → Štanjel

Cycling the Kras wine road

It would be easy to concentrate on Brda and Vipava and skip the smaller (525ha of vines), more compact Kras, but Kras has a special terroir.

The Karst plateau, which underlies the region, is a table of limestone with a thin layer of rust-red, iron-rich (terra rossa) soil on top.

Refošk or Refosco is the signature variety, accounting for about 70% of plantings. It’s used to produce a wine called Teran (not to be confused with the Croatian grape of the same name) or Terrano, a dark, robust red with pronounced acidity, flavours of sour cherry and wild berries, and distinctive minerality.

To fully appreciate it, try it with fatty meats such as kraški pršut (Karst prosciutto). The region’s signature white Vitovska Grganja was once just a component in the local blend, but now produces elegant varietals and complex orange wines.

The Kras wine road connects almost 170 cellars across the plateau, along with two of the main settlements, Štanjel and Sežana.

The former – a medieval hilltop village – makes a good base. From there, make your way to the largest town, Sežana, in the region’s centre.

Wineries to visit

The Vinakras cooperative in Sežana, the area’s largest producer, is a good place to try different versions of Teran: from young, fruit-driven styles aged in tanks to full-bodied, oak-aged wines.

The ‘must-try’ is the single-vineyard La Marie Izbrani Teran, which is partially matured in concrete eggs. The La Marie Vitovska is also a good introduction to the variety.

On the way back to Štanjel, stop in the village of Dutovlje for Terans and Vitovskas from biodynamically farmed Renčel or family-run Domacija Lisjak – or continue to Krajna Vas for one of the area’s benchmark producers, Vina Štoka.

While Teran is central to their output, father and son Primož and Tadej Štoka also produce traditional-method sparkling wines that mature in a natural karst cave. Amazingly, these are also made from Teran and Vitovska.

But the ‘must-visit’ winery is Gorjansko-based Vina Čotar, a natural-wine reference in Slovenia. Father and son Branko and Vasja Čotar farm organically and bottle distinctive, terroir-driven whites (Vitovska, Malvasia Istriana, Sauvignon Blanc) and reds (Teran, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon).

Back in Štanjel, order a well-deserved glass of Vitovska in the castle’s prettily decorated bistro and reflect on your whole experience: Primorska isn’t just a wine and food destination, it’s a feel-good place where ancient grape varieties are kept alive out of love.

Where to stay

Hotel St Daniel is an ‘ecological’ boutique hotel in Štanjel with a range of rooms, suites and apartments, a restaurant that uses only ingredients from certified organic producers, and an outdoor pool.

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At its best, however, Sauvignon Blanc can be gorgeously textural and expressive, with weight but no heaviness, and richness balanced by salinity and succulence.

Its aromatic and zingy nature makes it one of the world’s most popular grape varieties, and flavours and aromas vary depending on where and how it's grown – climate, pruning and trellising systems, even the yeast strains used in fermentation.

Expect anything from tropical and exotic to citrusy and zesty, grassy and herby, or stony and mineral.

Organic Sauvignon Blanc – not an easy task

Despite its popularity, Sauvignon Blanc is fairly tricky to grow, and needs careful work in the vineyard to keep it healthy.

‘Sauvignon is relatively complex to work organically or biodynamically,’ says Jonathan Pabiot, a biodynamic winemaker in Pouilly-Fumé. 'It's sensitive to powdery and downy mildew, so in humid years treatments have to be very regular.'

Yet Pabiot says the vine's flower is very sensitive to copper, which is problematic for organic growers because copper-based Bordeaux mixture is one of the only permitted fungicides used to protect against powdery mildew.

For Pabiot, Sauvignon Blanc's very sensitivity to climate and disease stressors is what makes it so responsive to biodynamic farming. ‘Biodynamics helps us overcome these climatic risks, but it isn't magic either,' he says. ‘What it does do is help build living soil.'

Biodynamic winemakers in Languedoc Patricia and Luc Bertoni, of Domaine les Eminades, believe that it is precisely the nearly 20 years of organic farming that has made their Sauvignon particularly resilient to disease – as well as the clement climate of the south.

My Sauvignon Blanc moment

The moment I realised the heights and depths that great Sauvignon could reach was when tasting Andreas Tscheppe’s Blue Dragonfly, from south Styria in Austria, near the border with Slovenia.

Tscheppe and his wife Elisabeth farm their terraced vineyards biodynamically, at 500m altitude. These vineyards, like the wines, are full of life: picture lush vegetation, myriad plants, weeds, flowers, grasses, bugs, beetles, bees, dragonflies and birds.

Fermented with natural yeasts and minimal sulphur, and aged for almost two years in large old barrels, it tastes like wildflowers and wild grasses, sun-warmed orchard fruit, lemon and brine, with an intricate texture like a crispy snowflake.

For me, this is one of the purest, most stripped back and alive versions of Sauvignon Blanc – far removed from the pungent blast of Marlborough.

Of course, not everyone is looking for this hyper textural, nuanced version of the grape. Sauvignon has become something of a celebrity accessory,: Gary Barlow and Graham Norton both have their own brands, though Taylor Swift has, tellingly, traded up to Sancerre.

Has the grape’s cultural moment peaked?

Not if this summer’s internet wine trend is anything to go by – dropping frozen dill pickles into a glass of Sauvignon Blanc suggests it’s found a new, slightly unhinged lease of life.

Either way, here are seven delicious organic bottles to satisfy the Sauvignon-seekers this summer – pickle optional, but not advised.

Seven Sauvignon for summer sipping

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Their wines are, in some instances, immediately recognisable – often shamelessly compromising the premise of a blind-tasting exercise – possessing their own distinctive style while also being unmistakably Riojan.

Our list of standout producers therefore aims to celebrate not just quality but also identity.

Theirs are wines that combine a sense of time and place with a distinct personality, making the case for typicity beyond uniformity.

There are clear common denominators: expressiveness (both terroir and personal), purity, drinkability and technical ability.

All of these wines evoke a sense of personal commitment and craftsmanship supported by painstaking work, deep knowledge of the vineyards and an overlap of personal and historical narratives.

This lineup also highlights the fact that it’s possible to arrive at a destination via different paths – it’s all about the journey and the many encounters it allows. And Rioja is, in its very essence, a region forged by serendipitous turns of history leveraged by very different stakeholders.

These are producers whose wines invite further engagement and discovery.

Arturo & Kike de Miguel

Artuke
Baños de Ebro, Rioja Alavesa

Brothers Arturo and Kike de Miguel (see what they did with the brand name there?), took over their father’s vineyards and small winery in Baños de Ebro and have since been crafting some of the region’s most exciting and sought-after ‘new wave’ wines. The purity and expressiveness of their creations became apparent in how they performed in our report tasting.

The two farm about 25ha following biodynamic principles and have a terroir-first approach, eschewing all ageing-based classifications in favour of village- and parcel-specific bottlings, all under the Genérico (formerly known as Joven) classification.

Their wines combine fierce intensity with structural exactness and aromatic nuance; not unlike the brothers themselves, whose frankness and bonhomie is framed by broad shoulders and warmly thunderous voices.

While their village blends (Pies Negros and the carbonic maceration namesake Artuke) are among Rioja’s most insanely good-value modern wines, Artuke’s top single-vineyard labels – La Condenada and El Escolladero – are on the path to icon status.

Artuke wines tasted for this report
La Condenada 2024 98pts
Trascuevas 2024 98pts
El Escolladero 2024 96pts
Paso Las Mañas Paraje El Chorro 2024 96pts

Carlos Mazo Gutiérrez

Vinos en Voz Baja
Aldeanueva de Ebro, Rioja Oriental

One of the wines that most surprised and delighted at the masterclass we hosted at the Decanter New York Fine Wine Encounter in June 2025, to celebrate Rioja’s centenary, was Carlos Mazo’s Nace La Sierra.

It stood out for its levity and purity, and introduced the audience – more familiar with the traditional, classical style of Rioja – to the possibility of a different interpretation of the region, more focused, fluid, quieter. It’s not by chance that he decided to name his project Vinos en Voz Baja – ‘wines in a soft voice’.

The same quiet rusticity and gentleness of touch made Mazo’s wines shine in this report’s tasting. Both traits are evocative of Mazo himself, a softly spoken, unassuming winemaker, completely committed to land and family.

He works mostly with old-vine Garnacha (red, white and grey), with scattered and interspersed plantings of Pasera, Viura and Tinto Velasco.

The fruit is handled with remarkable subtlety, infused rather than extracted, allowing the varieties to shine through the prism of their specific location.

Mazo’s wines coax you into slowing down and engaging with a different way of doing things; although refreshing and supremely drinkable, their textural appeal invites time on the palate – and some good bread, thinly cut jamón and fragrant olive oil.

Vinos en Voz Baja wines tasted for this report
Barrio Pastores 2024 95pts
Costumbres Blanco 2024 94pts
Nace la Sierra 2024 94pts
Costumbres Tinto 2024 93pts

Sandra Bravo

Sierra de Toloño
Villabuena de Álava, Rioja Alavesa

One of our standout producers last year, Sandra Bravo easily earned a spot in our top lineup again. Her wines are immediately recognisable in the glass: elegant, upfront, crystalline and textural.

Their evolution since Sierra de Toloño’s first harvest in 2012 is also remarkable, showing ever greater confidence and increasingly lending more expressiveness to Bravo’s pristine technical ability.

After completing her studies, Bravo honed her craft in Bordeaux, Chianti, Marlborough, California and Priorat, she returned to Rioja in 2012 with equal amounts of emotion, drive, work ethic and critical thinking.

Knowledge and approachability are the foundations of her style, informed by emotion and technique, allowing her to interpret the more than 20 plots of old vines – mostly Garnacha – she farms on the rugged slopes of the Sonsierra region.

While technically pristine, Bravo’s wines never come across as ‘technical’ or ‘cold’; there’s indeed a comforting quality to them that reflects Bravo’s down-to-earth authenticity.

Classical approachability and elegant rusticity are possibly the best ways to summarise the essence of her wines – from her pure, poised so-called entry-level red and white (an outrageous steal at just €12 in Spain, about £20 in the UK), to her single-plot creations, of which there are many.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: wines such as the white Nahikun (‘desire’ in Euskadi) and Tereseño, from Garnacha planted in 1944, are among Rioja’s future (present?) classics.

Sierra de Toloño wines tasted for this report
Tereseño 2023 97pts
La Dula Garnachas de Altura 2023 96pts
Nahikun Blanco 2024 95pts
Sierra de Toloño Tinto 2023 94pts

Victor Ausejo

Alberite, Rioja Oriental

Victor Ausejo’s trajectory was unusual from the outset. The son of an experienced Rioja viticulturist, he never liked viticulture and began working as a plumber.

However, when work dried up, he found himself working towards a degree in viticulture and winemaking in Logroño; and while studying, the wine bug bit him hard. While gaining experience at Vivanco and Gómez Cruzado he started to set his sights on making his own wines.

Here again, his path wasn’t obvious. In 2014, his father convinced him to regraft a family vineyard of Tempranillo with Garnacha Blanca, anticipating (correctly) increased demand for white grapes in Rioja.

Little did he know that this would become one of his son’s specialisms. In 2016, Ausejo planted two more hectares of the variety; in 2018, the first Victor Ausejo Garnacha Blanca was produced. It wasn’t until 2021 that Ausejo produced his first reds.

Today, he works with Garnacha, both white and red, and Mazuelo to produce a boutique range that’s unique in its energetic grip and electric tension. Ausejo calls his tiny winery a workshop, a place of experimentation and discovery.

Victor Ausejo wines tasted for this report
Garnacha Blanca Vino de Clavijo 2024 96pts
Garnacha Tinta 2023 96pts
Mazuelo Vino de Alberite 2023 96pts
Parcela 333 2024 95pts

Muga

Rioja Alta

With the third generation now at the helm, Muga continues to evolve, not resting on its many laurels, and not taking success or status for granted. Ultimately, this is part of Muga’s enduring appeal: an unpretentious classicism and authoritative humility.

The evolution of the range has been both a response to market demands and a refinement of the house style.

Alongside long-standing classics such as Torre de Muga and Prado Enea now stand Muga’s flagship white and rosé (both dubbed Flor de Muga), whose development in the past decade itself reflects ongoing fine-tuning and self-questioning – while staying painstakingly true to a recognisable identity.

A meticulous approach is paramount, in the vineyard as in the cellar. With help from the University of Salamanca, technical director Isaac Muga and head winemaker Pablo Orio are conducting an extensive study of the soils in each vineyard parcel.

Meanwhile, Muga is the only winery in Rioja with its own cooperage, fastidiously selecting and maturing the wood for each barrique and foudre in-house.

Clarification of the wines is still done with egg whites and racking (transferring between containers) is done by gravity only – the approach is low-tech, high-detail and craft-heavy.

Like other Rioja powerhouses, Muga also plays a crucial socioeconomic role in supporting a tight-knit network of small growers – something that makes its evolution and success very much a collective endeavour.

Muga wines tasted for this report
Flor de Muga Blanco Reserva 2022 97pts
Flor de Muga Rosado 2025 95pts
Torre Muga 2021 94pts
Muga Selección Especial 2021 90pts

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