Swirl, sniff, taste, spit out – for three days, the 250 or so experts in the colonnades of the Wiesbaden Kurhaus do little else.

It is the annual ritual for wine critics, sommeliers and merchants from all over the world, who gather here at the end of August to taste and evaluate the new ‘Große Gewächse’ (or Grosses Gewächs, the 'Grands Crus') for the first time.

The so-called ‘GGs’ are the dry, top-quality German wines of the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP, Association of German Predicate Wine Estates), which has around 200 members.

This time, 396 of their GG wines were available for tasting. The focus was primarily on two vintages: the white Grosses Gewächs from 2025, led by Riesling, and the red Grosses Gewächs from 2024, particularly Pinot Noir (known as Spätburgunder in Germany).

Riesling as the star

Of course, Riesling is the star, but one that once again did not make life easy for winemakers in 2025. Although – unlike in 2024 – Germany's vineyards were at least spared from frost.

Every year is different, and 2025 began warm and extremely dry; then there were a few regional showers – and suddenly the heat and drought returned.

This resulted in small, thick-skinned berries, but only in small quantities, which then needed to be harvested quickly.

This drought stress is evident in some wines, particularly certain Rieslings from the Mosel: bitter notes can be detected on the palate.

In the best cases, these provide a delicious balance to the more mature acidity in the fruit-forward wines and, consequently, to the obvious fruit sweetness.

The VDP describes a ‘turbo autumn’ during the harvest. Winegrowers in the Pfalz (Palatinate) and Rheinhessen, in particular, coped well with this.

VDP President Steffen Christmann, himself a winemaker in the Pfalz, speaks of exceptional complexity and density in the white wines: low yields and fully ripe grapes have produced concentration, whilst a pronounced acidity lends the wines tension and precision.

Those who harvested their grapes at just the right moment have produced wines that truly display an impressive combination of ripeness and freshness, of fruit intensity and acidity.

The Riesling Abts E from Weingut Keller and the Morstein from Wittmann in Rheinhessen are outstanding. The precision, clarity and beauty of both wines were exceptional.

Surprisingly, third favourite among the 2025 Rieslings this time comes from Franconia (Franken), a region otherwise better known for Silvaner.

However, the Rudolf Fürst winery is located in the far west of the region, outside the epicentre of Silvaner production – and the Centgrafenberg vineyard, with its red sandstone, evidently suits Riesling just as well as Pinot Noir.

The Rieslings from the Nahe are also noteworthy.

Whites beyond Riesling

As always, when it comes to Silvaner, the Stein-Harfe from Bürgerspital is a safe bet, and for Pinot Blanc (Weißburgunder), ‘Pinot Blanc World Champion’ Rebholz with his wine from the Mandelberg.

The 2024 Chardonnays, on the other hand, are disappointing. Superstar Julian Huber from Baden says he has decided not to bottle a single Grosses Gewächs with it this year.

The Schlumberger-Bernhart winery, also in Baden, was at least able to present a very respectable wine.

In Rheinhessen, Chardonnay is not yet permitted for Grosses Gewächs; otherwise, the Keller winery could have presented a world-class Bâtard-Montrachet-style wine in Wiesbaden with its 2024 Chardonnay from the Wachenheimer Rotenberg.

The best reds: navigate the challenges

Everyone is still feeling the effects of the heatwave of 2026 – and many are quick to forget that the weather just two years ago was exactly the opposite: late frosts, high humidity, resulting in significant pressure from fungal diseases, and uneven ripening made that year a real challenge.

The result was significantly higher acidity and fruit that seemed rather cool on the palate. However, the best winemakers knew how to turn the situation to their advantage for their red wines.

The Rings brothers from the Pfalz, together with Klaus-Peter and Felix Keller from Rheinhessen, have taken the lead among the red wines.

Keller’s wine from the Zellerweg am Schwarzen Herrgott vineyard in the cool, yet very dry, Zellertal valley displays captivating finesse and elegance with a silky texture.

Father and son attribute this primarily to their high-density planting of more than 20,000 vines per hectare. ‘This creates the finesse and depth,’ they say.

Only the Rings brothers can keep up at this level with their 2024 Pinot Noir from Saumagen – one of the Pfalz’s most traditional vineyards.

In this small valley basin, which opens out to the south and south-east, the soil consists of calcareous marl intermixed with numerous limestone fragments.

Here, everything simply came together in just the right balance: warmth and cooler nights, rain at just the right time.

Added to this was the right instinct to include only very few whole bunches in the fermentation this year.

The blend of new and used barriques during ageing was also spot on. A great wine from a vintage that was perhaps not quite so great.

2026 Grosses Gewächs releases – 30 top wines to try

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With dozens of native varieties, distinct regional specialities and unique identities formed by the ebb and flow of past empires and immigrants alike, southern Italy can be complex.

Compared to Tuscany, where Sangiovese is king, or Piedmont, where Nebbiolo largely holds sway, the south doesn’t have one single variety that heads it up.

If you’re coming from the relative tidiness of France or Spain, or the varietal simplicity of southern hemisphere wines, it can be tricky to know where to start. But it’s worth the effort.

Southern Italy frequently upends expectations and can be hugely rewarding for wine lovers looking to break out of a rut.

The wines are shaped by mountains, volcanoes and the sea and, despite the heat, it’s where you’ll find many of Italy’s most interesting white grape varieties.

Indeed, some of the country’s very best white wines, such as Etna Bianco (Etna Bianco Superiore especially) come from places most drinkers would associate with red wines.

Southern snapshot

The island of Sicily is a good base; the main white varieties that offer everyday value are tropical, tangy Grillo and mellow Catarratto, while fruity, spicy Nero d’Avola and perfumed, chillable Frappato are reds to watch out for – especially in the £12-£25 range.

On the island of Sardinia to the north, Cannonau (genetically the same as Grenache or Garnacha) rules the reds, although it is lightening up thanks to earlier picking and less time spent in oak – this is delivering wines with smooth, plummy fruit that will appeal to Côtes du Rhône drinkers.

Vermentino prices have been rising, but there are some excellent wines made outside the premium Vermentino di Gallura DOCG area that are more than just easy seafood whites.

Over the water in Campania, the ‘shin’ of Italy, Falanghina is a considerably more affordable white variety than highly esteemed Fiano and Greco, and in the right hands it can make a wide range of wines, from richer and more savoury to inexpensive thirst-quenchers.

Puglia, the heel of Italy, is mainly associated with Primitivo reds, but for autumn dishes and darker nights, chocolatey Negroamaro is often equally good value in a less heady style.

The white grape Verdeca is a rising star, too; as producers strive to build its reputation and work it into more shopping baskets, it remains well priced and a smart buy.

West of Puglia, tiny Basilicata struggles to offer value given the costs of viticulture, so there’s no Basilicata wine in the selection that follows for that reason, though its Aglianico del Vulture Superiore DOCG reds are worth seeking out.

Calabria, Italy’s foot, fares a little better with the paprika and tomato-spiked wines of Cirò, which seem to improve with every vintage – although you’ll need an independent merchant or wine bar to track them down, as they have not broken into the supermarkets in the UK.

Don’t neglect the rosato versions either; they are among the most characterful of Italian rosés for those who like something with a deeper flavour than most Provençal pinks can offer.

Compelling value

Today, southern Italy offers one of the best quality-to-price ratios for UK shoppers.

Although it produces some world-class, highly priced wines, there are also dozens of affordable, well-made bottles that overdeliver on price.

Thankfully, these wines are gathering momentum in UK supermarkets, such as Waitrose, whose range is particularly strong in 2026.

‘We are seeing a growing number of customers looking to diversify their wine racks and southern Italy has some really characterful wines that offer new flavour experiences,’ remarks Waitrose wine buyer Rebecca Hull MW.

‘We are experiencing a growing demand for wines from the southern regions of Italy, as they offer real personality and great value. There’s a wealth of untapped flavour diversity and varietal interest to explore.’

Many of these more widely distributed wines come from quality-focused cooperatives such as Settesoli in Sicily, whose mid-tier ranges – Mandrarossa, in the case of this selection – tend to offer compelling value and are a great way to dip your toe into discovering indigenous varieties.

But the south isn’t just about large-scale, low-priced production.

Unsurprisingly, many of the best wines are from small- and medium-sized wineries at fair prices.

Doug Wregg, of UK importer Les Caves de Pyrene, has long championed grower-producers and small-batch wines with strong environmental credentials.

‘I definitely feel that southern Italy and the islands are on the up,’ he says.

‘There is a fantastic array of local grapes and a revival of “lost” varieties, the return of field blends and old-vine material, and many of the wines today are more digestible as a result, with less heavy extraction and oak.’

With wine prices now punitively high in more established regions of Europe, Italy’s south is attracting both professional wine buyers and amateur wine lovers who seek the thrill of discovery, quality and value in the same bottle.

The 20 wines that follow don’t take too much effort to find, and they are a great way to start exploring the bounty of the south.

Southern Italian wine gems: 20 great buys

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The retreat from noticeable oak extraction in Bordeaux wine has been most often associated with St-Émilion.

But subtler shifts in barrel ageing have also been taking place across Bordeaux’s Left Bank.

The trend extends well beyond any three properties, but recent visits this year to Château Lascombes in Margaux, Château Gruaud Larose in St-Julien and Château d’Armailhac in Pauillac reveal three different approaches to recalibrating new oak, showing why percentages tell only part of the story.

Bordeaux’s changing relationship with oak is easiest to recognise in St-Emilion, where the combination of ultra ripe Merlot with elevated alcohol, pronounced extraction and generous new oak became associated with the style of many estates starting at the beginning of this century.

It reached a woody apotheosis between 2005 and 2016, before the pendulum began to swing decisively towards freshness and less overt oak from 2018.

Known for his many years at Petrus, Jean-Claude Berrouet has long observed that the higher the alcohol in the wine, the greater its capacity to extract tannin from new oak during élevage; which is one reason why oak could become particularly conspicuous in very ripe styles.

But oaky changes in the Médoc have been far more subtle.

As opposed to the more evident change in St-Emilion, the Médoc starts from a different equation: oak evolution is less a story of reducing new oak than of managing it differently.

Château Lascombes: Turning down the volume

At Château Lascombes, change is recent and deliberate. The Lawrence family acquired the Margaux second growth in 2022 and entrusted Axel Heinz (Ornellaia’s director of 17 years), with reshaping the estate’s direction.

‘When I came, we asked ourselves whether Lascombes is indeed a second growth,’ Heinz told me over lunch at the château this past July.

His answer begins in the vineyard. Lascombes today extends far beyond the estate that earned its place in the 1855 Classification.

Its historic terroirs include Les Régies, Les Doumens, Curton and Terrefort, around some of Margaux’s higher gravel elevations.

The modern vineyard is much larger and unusually diverse, encompassing clay and sandy gravels as well as gravel over calcareous marl and clay-limestone soils.

Heinz’s task has been partly to identify the parcels capable of providing what he calls the ‘spinal column’ of the grand vin.

He estimates that roughly 50 hectares currently correspond to the style and quality he seeks, which is less than half the estate’s 120 hectares under vine.

That sharper selection has been accompanied by changes in the cellar. Extraction has become gentler and shorter, pre-fermentation maceration abandoned and fermentation temperatures lowered, with vatting generally limited to no more than three weeks.

Picking times and winemaking increasingly favour freshness and balance.

Oak is part of the same rethink. Lascombes has moved away from the historically high proportions of new oak that even reached 100% in vintages such as 2005.

That reduction had already begun before Heinz’s arrival, and was down to 60% for the 2025.

But Heinz is also changing the barrels themselves, favouring mostly fine-grained wood, medium toasts and a revised selection of coopers and oak origins.

‘We want to avoid heavily toasted barrels that cover the fruit and “coat” the wine with sweetness,’ says Heinz.

The changes in vinification and élevage are interdependent. As Heinz puts it, a different approach in the vat requires ‘a new balance in the use of oak’, with the estate still learning which barrels best integrate with the changing profile of the wine.

His ideal comes from the late Bordeaux oenologist Denis Dubourdieu who often said: ‘When tasting a wine aged in oak barrels, one should identify it as being aged in oak, but without noticing the oak itself.’

The contrast was apparent over lunch. The 2009, aged in 90% new oak, was enjoyable but still noticeably marked by the oak-driven style I had long associated with Lascombes. I preferred the much younger 2023.

For those (me included) who have associated Lascombes with excessive oakiness, the change is not simply about how much new oak is used, but how loudly it speaks.

Château Gruaud Larose: Looking beyond new oak percentages

If Lascombes illustrates a deliberate move towards reducing the oak imprint, Château Gruaud Larose proves how the percentage of new barrels is blatantly misleading, even contradictory.

A recent vertical at the estate this past summer provided a clear demonstration. The 2014, raised in around 40% new oak, was fresh and juicy and floral albeit a bit light on its feet.

In 2015, the proportion doubled to 80%, and the difference was regrettably obvious. Nearly a decade later, I still found the wine’s impressive depth and length muddled by conspicuously toasty oak.

The 2016, again aged in 80% new oak, showed a similar imprint, albeit with that vintage’s greater freshness and balance.

The arrival of technical director Virginie Sallette in 2017 marked an important change. The proportion of new oak did not fall, however, staying at 80% and then rising.

What changed was the type of oak and its use, including a different selection and combination of coopers. For Sallette, the percentage matters less than the type of barrel and how it interacts with the wine.

The point is especially striking with the 2020, which saw approximately 95% new oak, considerably more than either the 2015 or 2016, and yet barely perceptible when I tasted it.

Instead came graphite, depth and a creamy mid-palate, with the oak absorbed into the wine rather than hovering over it.

That evolution sits within a broader change in approach. Sallette tastes the fermenting wines twice daily and adjusts extraction accordingly, deciding whether a vat needs an air pulse, a rack-and-return or simply to be left alone.

With Cabernet Sauvignon, she argues, the objective should not be to ‘master’ it but to let it express itself. ‘The search for purity is super important in my work,’ she told me.

Gruaud Larose therefore provides a clear warning against treating new oak percentages as shorthand for oakiness.

Between 2015 and 2020, the proportion of new barrels rose from 80% to around 95%, while their sensory imprint diminished.

The transformation has been not about using less oak but rather about using it differently.

Château d’Armailhac: Refining tannins with new oak

Similarly at Château d’Armailhac, new barrels increased from around 30% from 2015 onwards to approximately 50% today.

Director Lucie Lauilhé argues – again – that the percentage only tells half the story.

Crucially, the increase accompanied an extension of élevage from 12 to 18 months. Counterintuitively, Lauilhé says the additional six months help make the oak less conspicuous.

At 12 months, ‘the wood is still present’; by 18 months, slow oxygen exchange through the barrel has helped its contribution meld into the wine.

The barrels themselves changed too. When only 30% were new, d’Armailhac could employ oak with heavier toasts to compensate for the larger proportion of used barrels.

As new oak increased, toast levels were reduced and new coopers introduced, favouring barrels that emphasise fruit and freshness rather than mocha or chocolate.

Today Lauilhé regards around 50% – occasionally approaching 55% – as the right equilibrium.

She also explains that, surprisingly, new oak can prove more useful in cooler, less concentrated years, when it can envelop less polished tannins and improve texture and balance.

Moreover, increasing levels of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend did not prompt the move towards more new oak but rather have reinforced it.

Lauilhé believes Cabernet Sauvignon particularly benefits from the combination of controlled oxygen exchange and oak tannin.

‘Cabernet Sauvignon is a little like a pony that needs training,’ she says. ‘The barrel makes it calmer and more beautiful.’

The estate’s new winery, finished in 2021, has meanwhile brought greater precision through smaller vats, finer parcel selection and vinification adapted to individual fruit profiles.

Lauilhé stresses that while this development is separate from the increase in new oak, both reflect the same search for precision.

Ultimately, oak is a means rather than an objective: ‘The barrel is a support for élevage,’ she says. ‘The aim is to make a wine that resembles the place where I am.’

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Jason Millar, Melania Battiston and Victoria Daskal tasted 78 wines, with 3 Outstanding and 37 Highly recommended

Super Tuscans under £50: Panel tasting scores

78 wines tasted

Outstanding 3

Highly recommended 37

Recommended 26

Commended 12

Learn more about Decanter's blind-tasting process and scoring system.

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their red Super Tuscan wines, being varietals or blends from any vintage made using Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc or Merlot, and produced under IGTs Toscana, Costa Toscana or Colli della Toscana Centrale, or DOCs Bolgheri or Maremma Toscana

Super Tuscans might be famous for high prices, big scores and bold flavours, but there was a great deal of pleasure and midweek drinkability in this tasting of wines made in part or entirely from French varieties, mainly bottled under the Toscana IGT.

Our higher-scoring wines certainly offered impressive complexity at fair prices; it’s worth noting that about half the wines tasted in all scored 90 points or more, with many in a more refreshing, midweight style than readers might expect on hearing the word ‘Super Tuscan’.

Take, for example, Gaja’s Ca’ Marcanda Promis, Ornellaia’s Le Volte, Tenuta San Guido’s Le Difese and Tua Rita’s Rosso dei Notri – all lovely wines that readers should buy by the dozen, serve at 18°C and enjoy over a few years.

Indeed, the three judges’ main conclusion from the tasting was that most of these were wines likely to be most enjoyable in their youth.

‘There is no set template for a Super Tuscan’

The zesty, digestible 2024s were pure pleasure, and the 2023s showed finesse in many cases.

By contrast, older vintages were less impressive and mostly warranted drinking up. ‘The strongest wines combined freshness with unmistakable Tuscan character and were drinking beautifully without requiring additional ageing,’ observed Victoria Daskal.

There were surprises, too. Given the bad press the grape has had in some quarters, the Merlot-influenced wines from 2024 were the most consistently delightful wines from any variety.

‘They showed a freshness and elegance that I really enjoyed,’ said Melania Battiston.

Our three Outstanding wines – one Cabernet-heavy, one Syrah-driven and one a varietal Cabernet Franc – demonstrate that there is no set template for a SuperTuscan.

These top wines also come from a broad base: a decade-old organic newcomer from a family in the Florentine hills with a sharecropping heritage; an aristocratic, Antinori-founded estate in the Bolgheri orbit; and a Bulgari-backed statement winery in the far southeastern reaches of the province of Siena.

Super Tuscan may mean everything and it may mean nothing, but readers who look at the scores and notes closely will see that even the less expensive wines here still offer some of the smartest buys in Tuscany.

See all notes and scores from the Super Tuscans under £50 tasting

The judges

Super Tuscans under £50 panel tasting results

Wines were tasted blind

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Welcome to the land of the red gods. The Cederberg is a mountain wilderness in the Western Cape, where Cape leopards roam among iron-stained sandstone, weathered over millennia into fantastical structures.

Elephants and buck are painted in ochre and clay, among thousands of such examples of San rock art. It’s also home to Cederberg Wines.

Beneath a gnarled, century-old vine, a table is set for lunch at the Nieuwoudt family' s ancestral farmhouse, where David and daughter, Emma welcome us.

The vineyards at 1,000m above sea level are spread out below, punctuated by ancient stone outcrops. At dusk, they glow orange.

This inspired the cellar’s facade; hand-cut bricks mirror the mountains, changing with the light. At night, the stars hang low.

Mountain poetry

The Nieuwoudts settled at Dwarsrivier in 1893, farming fruit, tobacco, vegetables and livestock. In 1997, David, then studying viticulture, told his father: ‘I think you’ve farmed the wrong produce for the last century.’

His father laughed, saying he’d heard that students went to Stellenbosch and became clever. Today, 74 of the 5,500ha are under vine.

South African classic bobotie (a baked meat casserole topped with savoury custard) is served with the estate’s Five Generations Chenin Blanc 2024.

Adding to the mysticism, Emma points out her grazing horse. ‘His name is Midnight,’ she laughs. Born black, his coat has gradually turned white.

It’s an extreme landscape, snow in winter is common. The threat of black frost literally keeps the team up at night. Fans installed throughout the vineyards help mitigate this.

‘The biggest advantage of altitude is the long hang time,’ says David. Harvest stretches almost three months and an average 22°C degree difference between day and night.

As lunch comes to an end, he sums up his winemaking philosophy. ‘The wines will always be technically correct. I leave the poetry up to the mountains.’

A race to the top

The search for altitude is something vineyard consultant Rosa Kruger predicted. ‘I’ve been telling people for the last 15 years: “Plant higher.”’

She remembers standing among the old vines of the Skurfberg – an unofficial satellite ward in Citrusdal Mountains – and being struck by the combination of elevation and maritime influence.

Afternoon mist and wind were arriving from the West Coast, ‘cooling the vineyard down and hydrating it’.

In its official ward, high-altitude bush-vine farming has been going on in the Piekenierskloof for decades, if not centuries.

Many of the older vineyards at roughly 620-750m are dry-farmed and ungrafted. Grenache is the star, some vines are so old they stand as tall as a person, earning them the nickname booms, meaning ‘trees’.

Chenin Blanc is something Chris Alheit has made a devotion of. Some of his most important wines are from the Skurfberg, including Magnetic North at 540m. Rosa offered him a few rows of vines in 2011.

‘I said yes before she’d even finished her proposal,’ remembers Alheit. ‘And those first wines were just wonderful. It’s very difficult to make bad wine from that place.’

While the Skurfberg was something of a re-discovery, Rosa continues to prospect for new vertiginous potential. Just outside Ceres, a current project of hers is in the lofty Koue Bokkeveld.

Using satellite mapping, she’s implementing ‘hydrological keyline design’ to capture and direct rainwater; she considers water the most important factor when planting a vineyard.

Taking the temperature

Rosa is one of the many viticulturists that climate scientist Dr Tara Southey works with. TerraClim, her climate and terrain mapping platform, uses data to interpret vineyard conditions.

‘Higher sites generally experience cooler summer maximums and dramatically fewer hours of extreme heat, potentially delaying ripening and preserving acidity and freshness,’ explains Southey.

But elevation doesn’t necessarily mean a greater diurnal swing. ‘Geography and continentality matter more,’ she says. Inland Ceres and Piekenierskloof typically record daily summer diurnal ranges of 13-15°C, compared with roughly 10°C in maritime Banghoek.

‘Two vineyards at the same elevation can behave very differently,’ notes Southey.

TerraClim’s research shows that on the Ceres Plateau, at 960-1,060m, winter temperatures fall consistently with elevation.

Meanwhile stronger UV and direct solar radiation create what Southey calls the paradox of ‘cooler air but stronger radiation’.

Pieter Walser of BLANKbottle Winery has a real-time anecdote of this effect. Entering the snow-covered pass with his team one winter, with temperatures at -5°C, he recalls: ‘We were soon in T-shirts because the sunlight was so intense.’

Aiming high

‘If you really want to push the limits, plant in Sutherland.’

This from Rosa, whom winemaker Johan Kruger persuaded to visit the Mount Sutherland vineyard at 1,500m on the Roggeveld plateau in the Karoo region of the Northern Cape.

Convinced, she subsequently planted Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for the Rogge Cloof brand even higher at 1,516m.

‘Sutherland is a different world,’ says Rosa. ‘There is snow in winter, and vines must be pruned late to try to escape frost. The site is remote, the soils are brackish, and porcupines and dassies eat the vines.’

Farther north is Bertie and Alette Coetzee’s Lowerland farm in Prieska. At 1,000m, vines grow in Kalahari red sand over limestone. Lukas van Loggerenberg makes the wines.

The farm is regenerative; kudus wander about helping to ‘prune’, while pigs, Bonsmara cattle and sheep graze beneath the vines.

Aiming even higher still, Mile High Vineyards grows grapes at 1,690m in the Eastern Free State, within sight of Lesotho’s peaks.

Higher purpose

The potential for high altitude viticulture is writ large in established wine-growing areas too, such as Stellenbosch and the Swartland.

The wards of Banghoek and Simonsberg-Stellenbosch, as well as Simonsberg-Paarl, have the potential to plant up to 700m.

Then there’s the newly rubber-stamped Piket-Bo-Berg Wine of Origin (WO) in the Northern Swartland, with slopes rising to 785m.

Admittedly, as TerraClim’s data shows, elevation is only one part of the story. Temperature, aspect, sunlight, water, wind and soil complete the picture.

But going higher could be the answer to finding places where these factors align.

Luckily, some of the country’s best wine minds are asking the right questions, Rosa Kruger and Tara Southey among them.

David Nieuwoudt’s Cederberg dream wasn’t so crazy after all. It’s a good thing he grubbed up those apples.

10 High altitude South African wines to try

Looking at the Tanaro valley, you can’t help but think of Robert Redford’s movie based on Norman Maclean’s novel A River Runs Through It.

Even though we’re not in Montana, the Tanaro river – one of the longest in Italy, meeting the Po southwest of Milan – flows northeast through a uniform landscape of hills in southern Piedmont, creating a green landscape of vineyards.

From a wine perspective, however, the Tanaro seems to separate rather than unite: the hills on its right/south bank form the Langhe area, producing Barolo and Barbaresco, while those on the left/north belong to another wine district that is just beginning to take off: Roero.

Roero encompasses about 20 small villages perched on steep hills, centred around Canale in a fertile valley.

Winemaking here runs deep; it’s worth noting that Piedmont’s most common grape, Nebbiolo, was first mentioned in a land lease contract in Canale back in 1303.

Nebbiolo was considered a prized grape even in the past, resulting in the widespread habit of growers planting aromatic white grapes at the ends of the rows of Nebbiolo to ʻdistractʼ the greedy birds.

That grape was Arneis, a native variety which gradually gained favour with the winemakers who planted more and more of it at the expense of Nebbiolo itself.

The soils of Roero have some unique features. When the ancient Pliocene basin seas retreated, they left a sandy floor rich in shells and minerals, from which local wines derive their finesse and lightness – traits historically appreciated more in white wines.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Arneis phenomenon really took off thanks to investments on the rive gauche from prestigious wineries in the Langhe, such as Vietti, Bruno Giacosa and Ceretto – the latter with its famous Blangè made with Arneis planted in Roero, even though it’s labelled as Langhe DOC Arneis.

The future of Roero’s wines appeared decidedly white – until Matteo Correggia arrived on the scene.

Inspirational figurehead

In the early 1990s, this young winemaker from Canale, fascinated by the exploits of the ‘Barolo Boys’ (a renowned group of forward-thinking winemaker friends who developed a new and, to some, contentious approach to the production of Barolo in the 1980s and 1990s), decided to go against the tide and bet everything on Roero Nebbiolo.

At that time, the DOC regulations [Roero became a DOCG in 2004] permitted the red Roero wine to include 2%-5% of Arneis – a nod to the tradition of mixed vineyard rows.

But Correggia adopted the approach of the Langhe ‘modernistsʼ for his wines: strict vineyard thinning, ageing in barriques and single-vineyard selections.

The results showed that his instincts were right; the Nebbiolo from Roero – somewhat unfairly dubbed Nebiulin (‘little Nebbioloʼ) – combined the power and tannins typical of the variety with the elegance and freshness conferred by the loose, sandy soils.

Encouraged by Correggia, other young producers started making red Roero wine using the same techniques.

A symbolic year for this new wave is 1996, which saw the release of labels that became icons in the qualitative growth of Roero’s reds: Ròche d’Ampsèj by Correggia, Sudisfà by Angelo Negro and Audinaggio by Cascina Ca’ Rossa.

The latter is produced in the Valmaggiore sub-zone, a spectacular amphitheatre of mostly terraced, south-facing vineyards in the municipality of Vezza d’Alba.

Rapid rise

Matteo Correggia’s work was as significant as it was brief: the winemaker died in 2001, not yet 40, in a tragic work accident, leaving his colleagues without their charismatic and talented leader.

But the path was set, and Roero never looked back. In 2004, the shift from DOC to DOCG brought some amendments to Roero’s production rules and the previously permitted fraction of Arneis was removed, to be replaced by native red varieties instead.

Unlike Barolo and Barbaresco, 100% Nebbiolo is not mandatory for Roero, but the trend among producers became to vinify Nebbiolo in purity.

Today, despite Arneis covering 1,007ha compared to Nebbiolo’s 363ha (according to the Roero DOC consorzio’s most recent data), it’s the red wine that winemakers are focusing on.

The Langhe remains an overwhelming point of comparison, yet Roero offers a distinctive palette of floral and balsamic aromas, delivering immediate drinkability and hitting the market just 20 months after harvest (32 months for Riserva), compared to 38 months for Barolo and 26 for Barbaresco.

Older vintages prove Roero can age just as well as Barolo and Barbaresco, with the bonus of usually coming with a lower price tag.

The approval, from the 2017 vintage, of 134 menzioni geografiche aggiuntive (MGA – specific, named locations added to the main denomination name) completed the territorial enhancement pioneered by Correggia et al 30 years ago.

Right time, right place

The feeling you get strolling through the villages on the left side of the Tanaro river is that the Roero district is finding its own identity.

Tourists seem drawn not only to the area’s culinary and wine delights, but also to its history, represented by the picturesque castles scattered across the hills, and to its biodiversity, with dense forests and rocche (deep chasms and sandy peaks) crossed by a network of engaging hiking trails.

With its juicy, contemporary red wine, Roero is primed and ready to become the next Italian destination to discover.

If you’re already in the hotspot of Langhe, all you need to do is cross the Tanaro and take a look.

After all, that’s how it works: all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.

Six leading lights of new wave Roero Nebbiolo

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Covering 3.4 million acres – well more than California’s Napa, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino county wine regions combined – the Willamette Valley is vast.

Too vast, objected the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms back in 1982, when vintner David Adelsheim petitioned to make the region its own American Viticultural Area.

But Adelsheim pushed back. Which part of the Willamette Valley, he asked, didn’t they want to include in the Willamette Valley?

In the end, that cool logic prevailed. Today, the Willamette Valley AVA stretches nearly 150 miles, from north of Portland to south of Eugene.

The southern Willamette: The same, but different

A staggering majority of the Willamette Valley’s wineries sit in its northern half, with most clustered between Salem and Portland.

But the Pacific Ocean–influenced weather throughout the valley is remarkably uniform, and distinctive soils abound.

So does the north possess some kind of magic that works wonders on Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and other grapes?

‘There’s nothing you can do there that you can’t do here,’ says Andrew Smith, a well-known consulting winemaker based in Eugene.

The differences, he and others contend, are historical, cultural and commercial.

After Eyrie Vineyards garnered international attention for its Dundee Hills Pinot Noirs, wine talent and investment flowed into the north. A wine mecca was born – one with easy access to the significant Portland market.

In the south, the sparse vineyards are still spaced out by miles of Christmas tree farms and hazelnut orchards. That nascence thrills winemaker Drew Voit, who sought out fruit from the Cheshire area when he founded his Harper Voit label.

‘The south will have the same evolution as the north, but the wheels turn slow,’ he says. ‘People didn’t know Ribbon Ridge either … until they did.’

The southern Willamette gets its own sub-AVA

Dieter Boehm moved to Oregon in 1976, after escaping Communist East Germany by way of Czechoslovakia, then cutting through two fences at the Austrian border. In 1984, he founded High Pass Winery in the foothills of the Coast Range.

Rich in prized Bellpine marine sedimentary soils and shielded from Pacific winds by 3,425-foot-high (1,044-meter) Prairie Mountain, the area merited its own sub-AVA, Boehm and his neighbours knew.

But naming it proved difficult. The US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau rejected ‘Prairie Mountain’ for their own arcane reasons, and the petitioners couldn’t agree on an alternative.

Boehm, weary of the process, ploughed ahead with a new name, taken from the waterway that winds through the area before joining the Willamette River. On 10 November 2021, the Lower Long Tom AVA was approved.

The name had few fans, but the approval was a win, and Boehm is confident the controversy will fade.

‘Ultimately’, he says, ‘we have to prove with our product that we’re distinct.’

An obsessive pursuit of place

Antiquum Farm’s Stephen Hagen dresses like the farmer he is, but his choppy hair and tattooed arms hint at a punk core.

‘Stephen farms like he doesn’t know what a concession is,’ says Voit. ‘He doesn’t just not cut corners – he disavows their existence.’

It’s easy to get Hagen talking about the ‘massive disconnect’ between the lofty language of terroir and widely followed vineyard practices – especially fertilisation.

‘I don't understand how we say we make wines of place, but we’re using potassium sulfate that comes from the southeastern United States,’ he remarks.

Vines subsist on nutrients absorbed from the soil, with fungal colonies helping the root system along, Hagen explains; fertilising them ‘breaks the communication chain’ between soil and plant.

So in 2007, he quit. Now he uses a rotational, intensive grazing system, letting pigs, sheep and poultry do the work of adding nutrients naturally.

Hagen’s zeal for terroir purity might border on obsession, but that’s not to say he’s 100% uncompromising.

He does age his wines in French oak barrels – a dalliance with an Oregon cooper didn’t work out – but don’t think it doesn’t bother him.

The three Bs: South Willamette’s A-list

Three well-established wineries, two of them in Lower Long Tom, are doing the south Valley proud.

Brigadoon, led by second-generation winemaker Matt Shown, is producing excellent acid-driven dry whites, including Pinot Blanc, Riesling and the Suzanne Elizabeth blend of four varieties, a tribute to Shown’s blind, four-foot-eleven, tough-cookie of a grandmother.

In 2018, Benton-Lane winery was acquired by Huneeus Vintners (owners of Napa icon Quintessa and Sonoma Coast Pinot pioneer Flowers), and their young winemaker, Amael Orrego, is making his mark.

‘If you make a change and nobody notices’, he says, ‘I don't think you did a good job changing things.’

Orrego cut Pinot Gris and rosé from the Benton-Lane lineup – to the chagrin of many longtime customers – and has focused the range on one Chardonnay and three Pinot Noirs, all estate-grown. The uptick in quality is impossible not to notice.

Nearby Broadley Vineyards, just outside Lower Long Tom, has long been one of the area’s most coveted labels: From 1994 to 2019, riding critical praise, they sold much of their production through futures.

The commercial climate is very different now, but under the leadership of second-generation vintner Morgan Broadley, the winery remains outstanding.

King Estate: Bigger and biodynamic

In 2022, stalwart winery King Estate established a foothold in Lower Long Tom by acquiring the 70-acre (28ha) Pfeiffer Vineyard, one of its longtime grape sources.

King Estate, symbolically at least, stands at the southern limit of the Willamette Valley: In 2016, the winery succeeded in having the AVA’s border redrawn to include its 1,033-acre (418ha) site, which is the largest Demeter-certified biodynamic vineyard in North America.

Though some still grumble about the well-resourced winery’s inclusion, few question King Estate’s value to the Willamette Valley or its commitment to responsible farming.

‘I have a lot of respect for their ethos,’ says Antiquum’s Hagen, who appreciates the care that King Estate puts into farming nearby Pfeiffer. ‘They’ve been really good neighbours.’

The Headwaters: A wine region by any other name

In the Willamette Valley, the distance between the north and south is real. The division, however, need not be.

Capitello Wines’ Ray Walsh, a widely respected winemaker who came from New Zealand in the 1990s to work at King Estate, doesn’t much care for the ‘south’ framing.

The word has too many negative connotations. So he’s coined an alternative.

‘As I’ve always told people, we’re the headwaters of the Willamette,” he says. ‘This is where it starts.’

10 Southern Willamette wines to try

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Wine & dine with Michael Caines MBE

I never thought I’d spend a summer afternoon – house-made gin in hand – on the balcony of one of Lympstone Manor’s 21 individually decorated guestrooms and suites in Exmouth, Devon.

My fellow visitors have gone off to the nearby Pool House Restaurant and Bar for a swim; in the distance, the vineyard rolls down towards the glittering Exe estuary.

The Grade II-listed Georgian manor house, now a luxury hotel and one-star Michelin restaurant, was the brainchild of chef Michael Caines MBE, a passionate wine lover keen to produce food-friendly, early-drinking English wines.

In 2018, he teamed up with long-standing business partner Steve Edwards and Clem Yates MW of Lyme Bay Winery to plant 8ha of vines on the property’s south-facing parkland.

During the intricately crafted dinner by the master chef, we tasted the award-winning Triassic Pinot Noir 2020, from the estate’s first vintage – perfumed dark berries and eucalyptus, with minerality and dark spice.

The upcoming 2025 already shows charming wild berry puree and rose petals, salinity and elegance.

The whole-bunch-pressed Edwards Chardonnay 2025 is savoury and textured, its ample fruit waiting for the oak to settle.

Among the sparklers, I suspect the new demi-sec rosé – generous red cherry, cassis and spice lifted by bright freshness – will become a diners’ favourite upon release.

Beyond Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Oregon

Although Willamette Valley’s Björnson Vineyard debuted with the 2009 vintage, the family’s wines couldn’t be found in the New York City area – until now.

To kick off its east coast distribution through Banville Wine Merchants, the Salem-based winery hosted a casual evening rooftop tasting with half a dozen wines.

Of course, there’s a Pinot Noir, currently the 2023 Willamette Valley bottling (US$29 The Cellar d’Or), popping with Bing cherry and vibrant acidity that carries red fruits, vanilla, cola spices and fine tannins.

But Björnson is also notable for its offbeat options, including the first commercial US plantings of now-rare Gouais Blanc, a parent of Chardonnay and Gamay, among many others.

In the windy Van Duzer Corridor AVA, Mark and Pattie Björnson experiment with alternative varieties suited to fresh, crisp wines.

Out east, the winery’s Chardonnay is joined by a Chenin Blanc and the lightly textured 2024 Pamar Vineyard Aligoté (US$32 The Cellar d’Or), full of spiced pear, citrussy acidity and accents of fresh herbs.

I love that the wines come in Revino reusable bottles to cut down on tasting room waste. Revino collects the empties, removes the labels and capsules, then washes and inspects the bottles so Björnson can refill them

Heroic viticulture in Tenerife

Tenerife is often considered an island of two halves.

This was all too evident as my plane descended into Tenerife South airport, skirting a tad close to the towering hotels of the highly developed southern tip of the Spanish volcanic isle.

But take a drive to the leafier, greener northern side and it’s a different story.

Here, Juan Jesús Méndez’s Viñátigo in La Guancha has made a name for heroic viticulture on the Canary islands.

A visit begins in front of 120-year-old ungrafted Listán Negro vines, followed by a 12m descent down an impressive corkscrew staircase to the winery, built deep into the rock.

For a perfect introduction to this volcanic terroir, try the latest vintage of the Ensamblaje Blanco (2024, £34.95 NY Wines), a joyful blend of local white varieties, including Gual, Marmajuelo, Vijariego Blanco and Malvasía Aromática.

Meanwhile the amphora-aged, singlevineyard Camino de La Peña 2023 serves up a wonderful, hydrocarbon-driven palate, intense lemon acidity and a touch of struck match.

I’m looking forward to opening the skin-contact Elaboraciones Ancestrales Blanco 2023 that slipped home in my suitcase to bring a touch of Tenerife sunlight to a grey October day.

Barrique Fine Wines: northern entrepreneurial flair

I first met Edd Simpson when we were both completing the final stretch of the WSET Diploma.

Before Brexit, before Covid, before the invasion of Ukraine, before crippling inflation… ah, those were the days.

In 2020 – and despite obstacles big and small – Simpson started a neat import and retail business, Barrique Fine Wines; he then opened NoNo Wine Bar in Leeds in 2025.

The sister ventures leverage Simpson’s rounded portfolio of producers and wines of great character, depth and technical exactness.

They include some of the most interesting bottles I tasted this summer.

Among my favourites were Mesquida Mora’s Acrollam Blanc 2025 (£26.95), a trip to Mallorca in a glass; Jordi Miró’s Textura 4 Naturalment Brisat 2024 (£25.50), a clean, elegant orange wine to convince the sceptics; and Jorge Piernas’ Soldados de Cuera 2024 (£37.95), a benchmark expression of Macabeo.

All are testament to the talent of small producers and to the passionate determination of entrepreneurs such as Simpson, and all are available from Barrique Fine Wines.

Scott of the Luberon

In 1992, British filmmaker Ridley Scott was keen to buy a French holiday home; fast forward 34 years and he’s the proud owner of a cutting-edge winery surrounded by 35ha of vines in the Luberon.

On a recent visit, I was lucky enough to taste a selection of Mas des Infermières wines with the man himself – from the easydrinking entry-level wines named after his dogs, including the Lulu Blanc and Jojo Rouge, through the Source range, designed to remind you of being in the Luberon, to the more powerful and complex Chevalier wines.

At the tasting, I was most taken by the light and fruity Source Blanc, a blend of Rolle, Roussane and Clairette, and the Chevalier Rouge, a spicy blend of Carignan, Syrah and Grenache, but at lunch the following day at Insitio in Vaugines, it was the Chevalier Blanc (same grapes as the Source Blanc) that really shone, its greater weight helping it to match perfectly with a tasty fish dish.

The bottles all bear quirky labels drawn by Scott and what’s inside them represents the type of wine he likes to drink: fresh, low-alcohol and suitable for any occasion.

They don’t currently have a UK agent, but fingers are crossed for a deal soon.

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Not all Prosecco is created equal. The category ranges from inexpensive, easy-drinking fizz to wines with much greater complexity, individuality and sense of place.

So how can consumers navigate the different DOCs, DOCGs, sub-zones and styles?

A useful rule of thumb is that the more specific the information on the label, the more precise the wine’s origin and often its style and quality.

Here are the essential details on how to make sense of it all, and make choosing your next bottle less of a gamble.

Prosecco’s broad base

Let’s start with Prosecco DOC – short for denominazione di origine controllata (‘controlled designation of origin’).

It’s the largest and most successful of not just the Prosecco categories, but of all Italian sparkling wine categories, with more than 667 million bottles produced in 2025, according to data from the Prosecco DOC consorzio.

The Prosecco DOC planted area spans about 28,000 hectares across nine provinces within northern Italy’s two regions of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Prosecco DOC wines are made by fermenting the wine twice in stainless steel tanks.

The Italians call this ‘metodo Martinotti’ (otherwise known as the Charmat method), after the Italian oenologist who developed it in Asti, Piedmont, in 1895...

Grapes

Minimum 85% Glera; up to 15% other authorised grapes (including Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and Pinot Noir).

Styles

Although it’s possible to find still (tranquillo) and semi-sparkling (frizzante) Prosecco, the vast majority is twice-fermented, fully sparkling (spumante).

Expect these wines to be relatively straightforward in style, with a floral bouquet of white flowers and flavours of apple, pear and citrus. They’re crowd-pleasing, versatile all-rounders.

Sweetness

There is some confusion caused by the labelling.

Because sparkling wine sugar classifications differ from those for still wines, brut is the drier style (up to 12 grams per litre of residual sugar); extra dry (12-17g/L) is actually what UK consumers would consider ‘off-dry’, and it will taste noticeably rounder and sweeter.

In the UK, most Prosecco DOC is either extra dry or brut.

You may recall seeing Treviso on some labels when searching for a Prosecco to buy.

This is a special geographical mention (see chart), which means the grapes must be grown only within the province of Treviso, north of Venice in the central-east of the Veneto region, where the wine will also be made and bottled.

It’s essentially a more specific area within the wider DOC: a geographical specificity which also carries an implication of higher quality in the bottle.

The pink revolution

Prosecco DOC Rosé has been an increasingly popular category since its introduction in 2020, outperforming expectations with more than 60 million bottles produced last year.

It’s made under tighter regulations compared to its non-rosé stablemate...

Grapes

Glera needs to account for between 85%-90% of the blend, with 10%-15% Pinot Noir.

Vintage only

Prosecco Rosé must be a single-vintage product (at least 85% of the grapes from the specified year’s harvest), which must be clearly stated on the label.

Style

Available in spumante form only, it offers a drier profile filled with wild strawberry, red cherry and bright citrus notes.

Into the hills

To find Prosecco wines with genuine terroir definition, we must leave the flat plains of the DOC and climb the hillsides.

Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG

Take a breath before you try to say it: Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG.

The ‘G’ (garantita) is all-important, guaranteeing stricter production regulations, including reduced yields and mandatory hand-harvesting.

The stunning terraced, clay-and-limestone vineyards of Conegliano Valdobbiadene – a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2019 – are often too steep for modern machinery.

The manual work that goes into caring for these vineyards and the grapes they produce are the primary reason the price is often steeper (no pun intended), resulting in superior flavour intensity, complexity and structural elegance.

Asolo Prosecco Superiore DOCG

Located on the south side of a stretch of the Piave river, Asolo is a smaller, lesser-known DOCG nestled in the hills of Asolo and Montello in Treviso, and offers a different expression of Prosecco Superiore: a less perfumed, beautifully structured and mineral-driven alternative to Conegliano Valdobbiadene.

Asolo is growing in popularity and shoppers are likely to see these bottles on the shelves more often in the future...

Grapes

Wines made in these DOCG zones must be a minimum of 85% Glera and can use up to 15% of local varieties such as Glera Lunga, Bianchetta Trevigiana, Verdiso and Perera, as well as international varieties Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco and Pinot Noir.

Prosecco’s ‘grands crus’

For those looking to explore the peak of the region’s quality pyramid, Prosecco offers two highly specific designations...

Rive

This term denotes wine from one of 43 recognised steep hillside communes or hamlets within the Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG zone.

Rive wines are always single-vintage, hand-harvested, and are even more strictly regulated. They offer a precise snapshot of a specific village microclimate.

Cartizze

This 107ha amphitheatre of steep hillside vineyards in Valdobbiadene traditionally produces the finest Prosecco.

Historically, Cartizze was made in a sweeter ‘dry’ style (17-32g/L residual sugar) to pair with cakes and pastries, but today, forward-thinking wineries are crafting drier versions in line with changing consumer tastes and to showcase the site’s potential for complexity.

With so much to discover beyond supermarket brands, a little knowledge can go a long way.

Armed with these core facts, you’re now equipped to explore the great variety that Prosecco has to offer!

Prosecco: The ultimate buyer's guide tasting notes

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As Pablo Picasso famously said: ‘Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.’

This idea of persistence and labour being at the core of creativity is useful when it comes to explaining what makes the best wines of Ribera del Duero stand out – especially when climate change keeps presenting the region’s producers with new challenges.

During the compilation of this year’s annual report – for which María José Huertas and I blind tasted 342 wines released between July 2025 and July 2026 – the friction between the different schools of thought on how to approach these challenges was palpable.

It’s a difficult but interesting moment for the region as a whole, forced to wrestle with tradition and wedged between different, often competing, premises and demands – environmental as well as commercial.

However, the common denominator across the wines we tasted and producers we visited is the amount of passion and work invested in and by each of them.

One question, many answers

If tensions in Ribera del Duero were once primarily stylistic (power versus elegance, approachability versus ageworthiness), the differences are now more fundamental, going right to the core of the region’s identity.

What makes a wine from Ribera a Ribera del Duero?

The issue lies, perhaps, in the question itself. Our tasting supported our long-standing belief that Ribera needs to embrace a stylistic and philosophical plurality, reflecting a diversity of approaches in the cellar but also – and increasingly – differences in the vineyard.

Decisions on vineyard management and picking times are more decisive and difficult than ever; finding balance is elusive and often a delicate game of compromise.

Producers are unanimous in their concern about alcohol levels creeping upwards, but also increasingly aware that the problem derives not only from climate change but from a loss of ancestral viticultural knowledge and of genetic diversity in the region’s vineyards.

Producers such as Francisco Barona and Alonso del Yerro are among those championing research on old vineyards and genetic heritage, preserving pruning techniques and cataloguing as well as propagating different clonal expressions of Tinto Fino (the name for the Tempranillo grape in the region).

I believe it’s no coincidence that their wines reflect a distinct balance, juggling muscularity and finesse, leveraging fruit complexity to integrate wood and alcohol – and vice versa.

Freedom for precision

This ever more complex quest for balance has led many Ribera producers, as in other regions around the world, to eschew ageing classifications in favour of winemaking freedom.

The range of vintages (and prices) of wines released under the once-considered ‘basic’ Genérico category is testament to that.

This does showcase, with refreshing vividness, the plurality that we think is worth championing.

The few unoaked examples we tasted this year revealed a mineral fluidity and purity of fruit that put the idiosyncrasy of the Ribera del Duero grapes to the fore.

Purity of fruit aside, time in wood allows the wines to lean into Ribera’s inherent earthiness and hone the concentration of the raw material.

Wines showed best where the purity, juiciness and intensity of the fruit (and, so often, black olive and liquorice notes) are allowed to shine freely and/or through the lens of minerality, supported by a wood framework for definition.

The deft use of wood in fact highlights that the character of the local Tinto Fino is distinct and worth preserving.

I invite you to read both our Rioja and Ribera reports – there’s no doubt that there’s an inherent structural difference between the quality and character of the former’s Tempranillo and the latter’s Tinto Fino.

With an extraordinarily high baseline level of quality, the Genérico releases are a showcase of successful diversity but, most of all, of winemaking – or as suggested above, viticultural – ability.

The 2024 and 2023 vintages were notoriously challenging, with heatwaves and drought pushing the Ribera del Duero vines to scary extremes. Yet we found wines with beautiful energy – and in the best examples, gliding juiciness.

On the other hand, the 2021 vintage continues to stand out for its fresh, enduring vividness, marked by bright fruit and a firm acid line. This is a vintage that will keep on giving and is well worth investing in – and drinking.

The ghost of Gran Reservas past

So what of the classical, ageing-based categories?

We found Crianza to be where the best value could be found – with all but two wines at under £30, all showed character and expressiveness, in many cases outscoring pricier counterparts in other categories.

The Reservas, on the other hand, showed more variability but also the most potential.

This is where, in our view, Ribera del Duero truly comes into its own, allowing enough time in wood and in bottle to achieve a more defined (well, mature) sense of itself.

The magic of Ribera is its ability to make wines whose depth, complexity and energy live on and keep evolving.

Here, again, the 2021s showed their bright, elegant appeal; the 2019s showed remarkable, enduring energy, as did some of the 2020s – from an underestimated vintage.

Overall, the standout Reservas share elegant structure and ageing potential perfectly balanced by approachable drinkability.

But if Ribera is a DO for marathons, not sprints, one might be shocked to learn that only seven Gran Reservas were submitted to our annual report’s tasting.

Is this a symptom of increasing cost pressure, making producers reluctant to keep stock sequestered in the cellar, or of consumers being sceptical about longer-aged, traditional styles?

It’s probably a bit of both, married to a certain lack of confidence from producers, compounded by unstable markets and tough trading conditions.

‘We need to give future generations the privilege of drinking Gran Reservas,’ says Fernando Ortiz, winemaker and co-owner at Territorio Luthier. ‘We need to recover the tradition of elegant, long-aged wines.’

He sees them as an invitation to discover ‘the subtle, beyond the evident’. María José and I echo this feeling and hope to see a return – cashflow notwithstanding – to Gran Reservas as an important part of Ribera del Duero winemakers’ expression.

See all notes and scored from our Ribera del Duero vintage report

Different shades of Ribera

All of these questions and dilemmas are arguably best captured when one looks at production of white and rosé wines in Ribera.

Because these categories are only now being brought to Ribera’s canonical fold, the debate over which direction to follow is open and, again, evolving along very different paths.

It’s clear that some producers are using the opportunity – as they have with the region’s reds – to explore Ribera’s heritage, traditional (pre-modern) styles and overlooked viticultural resources.

This translates into wines of deeper hues and textural expressiveness that stand in stark contrast with the more international-leaning examples.

Although there were very well-made examples in both camps, we believe that the way forward lies clearly in the former.

Last year, we pointed out that Ribera’s whites are a hidden gem that deserves more attention. In order for them – along with the rosados – to carve out their deserved place, they need to be wines both from and of Ribera.

Oaked, old-vine Albillos stand out, leveraging fruit concentration and the grape’s affinity with wood.

There’s something refreshing and authentic about them, combining poise and rusticity with ease.

Herein lies the essence of Ribera del Duero: an inescapable ferocity – where detail and power, sophistication and rusticity coexist harmoniously – and on whose side time is.

Ribera del Duero vintage report: 24 of the best recent releases

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If you want to deepen your understanding of a region or appellation nothing beats visiting in person.

But certain vineyards are more stubbornly inscrutable than others. I’ve been visiting Côte-Rôtie for years, yet every time I go there I learn something new.

On paper, it’s a southeast-facing hillside. In reality, it’s a succession of crumpled, corrugated slopes that are so mangled that vineyards can face in almost any direction.

What’s more, the appellation extends across three villages – it takes two hours to walk from one end to the other.

With 343ha of vines divided into 73 lieux-dits, there’s one thing that would make the vineyards of Côte-Rôtie much easier to understand – a classification or ‘cru’ system.

If it exists in Burgundy, then why not here?

Missed opportunities

It’s not a new idea. Marcel Guigal says some producers were using the term ‘premier cru’ in Côte-Rôtie until well after phylloxera. But the term was used liberally throughout France until the appellation d'origine contrôlée system instilled some order.

In the early 1980s, the idea of an official vineyard classification started to gain traction once more.

In 1983, Guigal says that growers voted on the measure – but with three quarters against the motion, it didn’t pass.

‘It was a big mistake,’ says Guigal. Back then, bottle prices were much lower, despite the same high cost of production, and validating vineyards via a cru system could have helped producers increase their prices.

But the idea refused to die. Stéphane Ogier says that not long after he joined the family estate in 1997, ‘the idea was on the table,’ and growers were talking about a possible classification once again. But they failed to achieve a consensus.

One sticking point was this: who has the knowledge and authority to draw up the plans? Finding someone with the necessary level of expertise – but with no skin in the game – proved intractable.

Possible grands crus

I asked Ogier if he could hypothetically draw up such a map. He said he would focus on the original heart of the appellation above the village of Ampuis: from (lieux-dits) Le Combard to Côte Blonde, then from Côte Brune to La Landonne and Côte Rozier, with the middle of the slope designated grand cru and the top of the slope premier cru.

I don’t think many local vignerons would find this suggestion overly controversial.

Then, further north, La Viallière, Les Grands Places and Montmain ‘could be very good premiers crus,’ says Ogier. I’ve no doubt there are others that would class the first two as grand cru.

Looking further south, Maison Rouge and Coteau de Tupin would have their advocates too, at least to premier cru level.

Ogier adds that this preliminary suggestion amounts to broad brush strokes, and that any final classification might end up more like a mosaic of premier and grand cru sites.

Patrick Jasmin has a more poetic suggestion: ‘When it snows, the first places for it to melt, those are the best sites.’

For him, these include lieux-dits Le Mollard, Côte Blonde, Fongeant, Côte Brune, Côte Bodin, Les Moutonnes, Rochains, La Landonne, La Viallière and Les Grands Places.

Sticking points

The further Ogier develops his idea, the more detailed the hypothetical map becomes.

Cognet, for example, would be designated a premier cru on the slope, but not at the foot of the hill where the soil is deeper.

Similarly, Lancement would be a premier cru at the top of the slope, then grand cru towards the middle.

This is where the problem lies. The climats of Burgundy were established around subtle differences in terroir and resulting wine style; whereas the lieu-dit boundaries of Côte-Rôtie follow roads, old estate boundaries and other geographical features.

In the words of Pierre Burgaud, in Côte-Rôtie ‘a lieu-dit does not necessarily correspond to a homogenous unit of terroir,’ as it can contain various soil types, soil depths and exposures.

For a reliable, consistent cru system, an entirely original map would need to be created. And this would create endless arguments among growers and a lot of bad feeling.

‘It would be war!’ says David Duclaux.

But what about renowned vineyards such as La Landonne – surely this would be a grand cru?

Jean-Paul Jamet vinifies his parcel of this vineyard by itself every year but only bottles it separately very rarely, as it can be simply too austere if unblended.

If the greatest grands crus don’t always produce balanced and complete wines by themselves, surely this undermines the idea to some extent?

Maintaining course

Single-vineyard wines are nonetheless increasingly common. But some producers, such as Burgaud, intentionally produce just one Côte-Rôtie, blending together all their parcels.

‘Historically, Côte-Rôtie is an appellation based on blending,’ he says, ‘blending allows me to achieve greater consistency, preserve the wine's complexity and maintain a high level of quality regardless of vintage conditions’.

And a classification system could lead to a proliferation of single-vineyard micro-cuvées, which in reality could make the situation more complex, not clearer.

So it’s perhaps no surprise that Duclaux and Guigal, the appellation’s current co-presidents, state there is currently no intention to establish a cru system in Côte-Rôtie.

I’m actually quite pleased. Without this shortcut to understanding the vineyards, I’ll have to keep going back to this beautiful place.

And a lack of a cru system forces us to focus on the estate, rather than the vineyard – which tends to be a better guide, no matter the region.

In the meantime, if you see any of the lieux-dits named above on your bottle, you can take that as a very good sign.

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Matt Walls, Heather Dougherty and Alexandre Freguin tasted 105 wines, with 14 Outstanding and 34 Highly recommended

Southern Rhône cru whites: Panel tasting scores

105 wines tasted

Outstanding 14

Highly recommended 34

Recommended 41

Commended 16

Learn more about Decanter's blind-tasting process and scoring system.

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their latest release white wines from any of the southern Rhône crus (Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Vacqueyras, Cairanne, Lirac, Gigondas and Laudun)

‘A clear increase of precision and consistency’

These southern Rhône cru whites perfectly encapsulate why the style is growing both in popularity and availability, backed up by increasing quality.

This tasting comes at a transformative time for southern Rhône whites.

Production has never been higher, demand is growing year on year and winemakers are raising their game.

The number of crus producing white wine is also ticking up; Gigondas introduced them from the 2023 vintage, and from 2026, Vinsobres will, too.

It came as no surprise that Châteauneuf- du-Pape fielded the highest number of Outstanding wines and the three highest scorers.

But all appellations managed at least one Outstanding wine – apart from Laudun that is, which ‘needs to show some more ambition’, according to Heather Dougherty.

Outside Châteauneuf is where the best value is to be found.

It pays to spread your net widely; we found excellent wines from all over the region, particularly from Gigondas and Vacqueyras.

Alexandre Freguin noted ‘a clear increase of precision and consistency from all the appellations’.

Vintage breakdown

Most of the wines were from recent vintages: 2023, 2024 and 2025.

The 2023s were ripe, concentrated and drinking well; these are broadly wines to drink young.

The 2024 vintage was even better – it’s an outstanding year for whites, ‘smooth and silky across the board… very consistent and harmonious’, said Freguin. The best will age beautifully.

‘Producers have been excited about 2025 from the word go and we saw the beginnings of why,’ said Dougherty.

Though not quite the equal of 2024, they’re already showing their class, with little in the way of excess alcohol or heaviness, despite the heat.

But Freguin pointed out that these are often wines that benefit from long lees ageing, so it’s likely that the best wines of 2025 are yet to be bottled. An exciting prospect.

It’s not just the crus that are developing their whites.

The 11 Côtes du Rhône named villages, which aren’t currently permitted to produce white wines, have made a group appeal to the appellation authorities to relax this regulation and it’s looking likely to be accepted.

Lovers of textural, food-friendly whites have plenty more good things coming their way.

See all notes and scores from the southern Rhône cru whites tasting

The judges

Southern Rhône cru whites panel tasting results

Wines were tasted blind

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The Germans are world champions in consumption of sparkling wine (or Sekt in German), even though the level has fallen in recent years – down to around 4.8 bottles (or 36 glasses) per person aged 16 and over in 2024.

Ten years earlier, that figure was 6.1 bottles. Consumers are drinking better, however; the quality of German Sekt has improved enormously and the best are now on par with their international peers.

The trend has been similar in neighbouring Austria, even though the reputation of its sparklers has so far scarcely spread beyond the country’s borders.

The focus in this selection is solely on the top end of the quality spectrum – featuring German and Austrian Sekt wines, from specific growing regions, that have undergone a second fermentation in bottle and prolonged lees ageing.

The Sekt revival

Sparkling wine has a special tradition in Germany. In the well-known houses of Champagne, German employees were favoured for roles in bookkeeping, sales and administration, but some also worked their way into production – and subsequently set up their own businesses.

Among the top examples of houses with German-born founders are Bollinger and Krug. Others returned to their homeland and began producing Sekt in Germany using the so-called Champagne or traditional method.

However, in 1902, Emperor Wilhelm II imposed a tax on Sekt to finance the Imperial German fleet, pushing wineries to cut costs and replace the traditional method with the cheaper and faster tank fermentation.

Pioneers such as Volker Raumland and Mathieu Kauffmann played an instrumental role in reviving quality Sekt-making in Germany.

Today, many producers have followed their lead in using Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for their traditional-method sparkling wines.

Some of the others specialise in single-vineyard sparkling wines made from Riesling, the national grape, which is treasured for its acidity yet never loses its fruitiness, even after prolonged lees ageing.

In Austria, Grüner Veltliner plays a greater role than Riesling. On both sides of the border, origin and the length of lees ageing are also key quality indicators.

In 2015, Austria introduced a three-tier quality system for Sekt with protected designation of origin. The top-tier Grosse Reserve must come from a single wine-growing municipality and the wine must mature on the lees for at least 36 months.

In Germany, beyond the Sekt bA (‘Sekt from specified growing regions’) system, another classification was introduced by the private organisation Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP) in 2020.

It distinguishes between VDP.Sekt and VDP.Sekt.Prestige, with minimum lees-ageing periods of 15 months and 36 months respectively.

German and Austrian traditional method fizz

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The chill of fall always makes me need a glass of something with more substance than a summer wine – something that suits an evening of indulgence or a night of reflection in front of a fire.

Good thing we have autumn releases from some of the West Coast’s top names in wine: Appassionata, Inglenook, L’Aventure, Pym-Rae Tesseron Estate, Quintessa and Vérité.

It can be hard to pin down ‘official’ release dates for US wines, as they differ between the states, the UK and elsewhere in the world, not to mention between mailing-list members and the general public.

But each of the wines below was introduced at La Place de Bordeaux’s fall 2026 ‘hors Bordeaux’ campaign for notable wines from outside the region.

Though American, many of these wines do have a connection to Bordeaux or other parts of France, either through their founder, winemaker or source of inspiration.

Some of our experts’ new reviews below provide a sneak peek of wines still to come, while other wines are available right now. (We did not include the 2023 Napa Cabernets that we reviewed earlier in our vintage report.)

Either way, these picks are worth tracking down on winery websites or at your favourite merchant carrying high-end California and Oregon wines.

White Wines from Napa Valley

Here’s an early head’s up on the latest vintage of Illumination, a complex, layered Napa Valley white that is one of my favourite Sauvignon Blancs of all time.

Quintessa winemaker Rebecca Wineburg (yes, her career was seemingly preordained) crafts this blend – Sauvignon Blanc from the Huneuus family’s biodynamic estate in eastern Rutherford, Sémillion (the Bordeaux influence) and the Sauvignon Musqué clone – with an extraordinary attention to detail.

The most fascinating thing about Wineburg’s approach is the variety of fermentation vessels – French oak (new and neutral), acacia and stainless-steel barrels, plus egg-shaped concrete – that she uses to coax out depths of textural, aromatic and flavour complexity rarely seen in California Sauvignon Blanc.

Inglenook’s Blancaneux is a bit of a rarity in Napa’s Rutherford appellation, prime real estate for Cabernet Sauvignon and its companion blending varieties.

The winery is best known for its flagship Rubicon, a classic Left Bank Bordeaux-style blend, but has made this signature white since 1999.

Blancaneux looks to the Rhône Valley for inspiration, bringing together three white varieties – Viognier, Marsanne and Roussane – from estate vineyard blocks that get morning sun but afternoon shade to preserve acidity in the grapes.

The vineyard blocks, blend percentages and amount of new oak versus neutral fermentation and aging vessels changes from vintage to vintage, but Bordeaux-trained director of winemaking Philippe Bascaules and his team deliver a consistently high-quality California interpretation of a Rhône white.

The 2024 vintage has reached Europe, but the 2025 is now available in the US.

Napa Cabernet with a French accent

Pym-Rae is Château Pontet-Canet by way of Napa’s Mount Veeder AVA: Bordeaux varieties, mature vines, biodynamically farmed, but on steep slopes at cool, high elevations of 500 to 600 meters.

Bordeaux’s Tesseron family – Alfred, Justine and Noé – acquired the late actor Robin Williams’s former estate, kept the vineyard name and moulded it in their vision.

Famed consultant Michel Rolland, who died in March 2026, was brought on to help shape the Pym-Rae wines.

Now estate manager Jérôme Ledit carefully tends to the property, overseeing the detailed work, such as hand harvesting, manual destemming and the use of 40 small concrete fermentation vats.

These allow for close study of each plot, so the team can fine-tune the farming and winemaking practices, as well as make more nuanced selections for the always-distinctive final blend.

Bordeaux blends from a Sonoma viewpoint

French winemaker Pierre Seillan has honed decades of experience in Gascony, the Loire and Bordeaux into his approach at Verité, an elite Sonoma project he created with the late Jess Jackson of Jackson Family Wines. (The two also partnered on Château Lassègue in St. Emilion.)

Seillan’s daughter, Hélène, has since joined him as assistant winemaker.

The five Bordeaux grape varieties they use in the Verité blends are sourced from 50 micro-sites across four appellations: Bennett Valley, Alexander Valley, Chalk Hill and Knights Valley.

Each site is harvested and fermented separately in oak barrels with toast levels customized to the lots.

The 2023 growing season in Sonoma County was long and cool, allowing for slow, even ripening, and the portfolio’s three reds – the Merlot-dominant La Muse, the Cabernet Sauvignon-based La Joie and the Cabernet Franc–led Le Désir – show freshness and balance.

Regularly earning scores of 95 and up, these are stunning in 2023.

A Paso twist on Syrah and Grenache

South of Napa and Sonoma, in Paso Robles AVA, Stephan Asseo crafts remarkable Rhône-style reds.

Though he initially started off by creating a wine estate in Bordeaux, he became frustrated with the restrictions there and longed for more freedom.

After much exploration, he landed on Paso’s hilly west side and started L’Aventure, whose name speaks for itself. His daughter Chloe has since joined the family business and is now general manager.

With more than 51 hectares of rolling hills, Asseo has a lot of blocks to play with for different varieties and expressions.

His Syrah–based reds are exciting and seductive: The flagship Estate Reserve and Optimus both mix Syrah with Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot, showing the creativity that led him to this region.

In a more typical Rhône expression, the Côte à Côte is a blend of Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvèdre with a California spin.

A Rare Pinot Noir from Oregon

It’s unusual enough to have a German winemaker working with Pinot Noir in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, but Ernst Loosen’s Appassionata project is all the more unique for not releasing its wines until they have some extra years of maturity.

Named after Beethoven’s piano sonata, Appassionata encompasses three ‘movements’ of Pinot Noir, with Fortissimo the last to be released, after 10 years in barrel and bottle.

Loosen first started this project in 2005 as a limited-edition bottling with J Christopher Wines.

Later, he acquired a property in the Chehalem Mountains and planted it from 2010 to 2014 with nearly seven hectares of Pinot Noir and 1.2 hectares of white varieties.

The 2016 vintage is considered exceptional in the Willamette Valley, early and warm, but not hot, so the Fortissimo provides an excellent opportunity to see how well the wines have aged.

11 fall fine wine releases from the US

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If the Champagne region, navigating a testing period of slowing sales and financial pressures, needed a reminder of just how resilient its top producers can be, the house of Louis Roederer would fit the bill.

The company is celebrating its 250th anniversary, and the 150th anniversary of its emblematic cuvée Cristal.

Cristal was created for Tsar Alexander II, emperor of Russia, in 1876. Its clear bottle with a flat base was supposedly designed to ensure it could harbour no hidden poisons, or weapons, when brought to the table.

The secret to the house’s success?

Independence, according to CEO Frédéric Rouzaud.

‘Independence is a state of mind,’ he says, ‘it enables us to take a long-term view’.

Roederer’s success today, which includes owning vineyards not only in Champagne but also in California, Provence, Bordeaux and most recently Burgundy, was hard-won.

‘When my grandmother inherited the house in 1932 it was nearly bankrupt,’ he says.

Yet the ability to rebound remained, thanks to the ultimate long-term play: the acquisition by the founder himself of much of what is known as the ‘Cristal Estate’ of formidable vineyards in today’s grand cru villages of the north of the Montagne de Reims, Côte des Blancs and Grande Vallée.

This vine-to-glass mentality has stuck, with the house enjoying more ownership of its grape supply than any other major Champagne house.

The visionary cellar master

The protagonist in the success story of this house over the last 30 years has been Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon.

A mercurial figure, he is responsible for everything from viticultural renewal, climate change resilience, organics and biodynamics, the preservation and study of historic variants of Champagne’s Pinot and Chardonnay, to the house’s precise, forward-thinking cellar work itself.

The newest release: Cristal 2018

All the single-vintage wines at Roederer are essentially ‘grower Champagnes’ made entirely from the house’s own vineyards.

The latest release of 2018 shows off the exceptional Pinot Noir resources in the northern Montagne de Reims villages of Verzenay and Verzy in particular.

The harvest began in August in 2018, and the vintage is remembered for its bountiful generosity.

This will likely be reflected in the coming years in a bountiful supply of vintage and prestige cuvées.

The generous yields presented a challenge for a wine usually built on intensity and longevity, though.

‘We had to look for freshness…there were plots lacking salinity, a bit diluted, and we needed more depth and concentration,’ says Lécaillon.

The solution was to forgo making the house’s fine Blanc de Blancs, and instead use that Chardonnay – alongside younger vines of Pinot Noir from the fresh, chalky village of Verzy – to ‘go for a cooler, more mineral’ expression, says Lécaillon.

Has this flexibility paid off? With Roederer’s whole estate worked under either organic or biodynamic viticulture, yields in 2018 were not as excessive as elsewhere in Champagne.

The resulting wines – not only Cristal, but also the vintage and the Brut Nature – all show a notable step up in depth and drive from many wines of the year that relied on fruit more susceptible to dilution.

There’s no doubt this is quite a different Cristal to the tighter, more inward 2016 or the more classical 2013.

Unlike some 2018s, though, Cristal holds enough substance and tension to set it on a path that will last as long – indeed decades – as its top vintages.

How does Roederer celebrate 250 years?

Befitting a celebration of this importance, Roederer is offering a series of rarer, long-aged releases of Cristal from the exquisite 2008 and 2002 vintages.

Both the white and rose Late Release bottlings from 2008 feature an unusual technique: ‘poignettage’.

By shaking the bottles as they age on their lees every three months, the wines receive a boost to all the savoury depth and texture that comes from this stage of ageing.

It’s like adding Marmite to Cristal, Lécaillon jokes (although any fans, or otherwise, of Marmite should take the comparison figuratively).

With 2008’s natural acidity, tension and energy, the end results are dramatic.

Finally, the house’s other programme of limited-edition Cristal releases offers the majestic 2002 Cristal Rosé Vinothèque.

It is what Lécaillon terms an ‘essentia’ of Cristal, made with a programme of shaking that lasts longer than the Late Release – four to five years – followed by 11 years on lees and seven on cork.

An ode to Pinot Noir, Cristal Rosé relies heavily on grapes from the grand cru village of Aÿ, extracting colour and aroma through a gentle infusion technique rather than via the more standard addition of a red wine to the blend.

Despite the allure of such rarities, though, the qualities of the straight, unadorned 2018 Cristal tell just as strong a story about the advances already revealing themselves by this time – and those which remain, tantalisingly, to be discovered in vintages to come.

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Terroir, or sense of place', is one of wine’s most enduring ideas. While many drinkers equate it with soil and climate, indigenous-owned wineries across California offer a broader interpretation of what terroir can mean.

Drawing on long-standing traditions of stewardship and care for the land, these producers are expanding the conversation around sustainable farming while crafting distinctive wines and visitor experiences.

At Bellacana Vineyards, owned by the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, the vineyard – whose name combines ‘beautiful’ in Italian and ‘river’ (‘cana’) in Southern Pomo – is part of a much older story.

The tribe has 55 hectares (138 acres) planted in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley, and Lisa Lellis, board member and tribal member, describes the property as more than a vineyard.

When she looks across the vines, she also sees wildlife, a salmon run and native plants and oak trees that fed her ancestors.

'The vineyard is really the newest chapter in a much older relationship with this place,' she says.

A centuries-old introduction to wine

That idea that a vineyard can be incorporated into a much older relationship with the land is important when considering California’s wine history.

While indigenous tribes foraged from wild grapevines, Spanish missionaries began planting the first recorded wine grape varieties in the state and making wine in the 1770s, as part of the Mission system.

Often left out of that story are the native hands that planted and tended those vines.

For Chris Lobo of Native Hands Wines, that history is personal. His ancestors, members of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation, built the mission at San Juan Capistrano.

Hundreds of his family members are buried there, and it has been the site of marriages, baptisms and funerals for generations of his family.

‘The mission system has been an extremely sensitive topic‘, he says, ‘But I don’t have the luxury to not talk about it.’

Rather than avoiding that history of coercion and exploitation, Lobo, who can trace his lineage for nine generations through the mission’s sacramental records, wants to bring greater historical accuracy to the story.

An ancient connection to the earth

For indigenous producers, re-establishing a relationship with the land does not necessarily begin with planting a vineyard.

At Séka Hills, owned by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, agriculture is at the centre of the tribe’s enterprises.

In their Patwin language, 'séka' means 'blue', referring to the Blue Hills along the west side of the Capay Valley in the tribe’s homeland, northwest of Sacramento.

Jim Etters, the Nation’s director of land management, has spent 23 years working with the Tribal Council to develop agricultural operations that include almonds, tomatoes, olives, wine grapes and other crops, as well as cattle ranching.

The tribe has 11ha (29 acres) planted to grapes, but does not handle winemaking.

Etters reports monthly to a committee of 15 tribal citizens who share their vision and insight.

He describes the Nation’s relationship with the land as ‘unlike anything I’ve ever seen – it’s bigger’.

He has been on walkabouts with tribal elders. ‘To walk with them, and to watch them, as they look over the landscape, it’s really something special,’ he says.

Terroir as a living ecosystem

That idea of interconnectedness also informs the wines of Tara Gomez, a member of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians and owner of Camins 2 Dreams with her wife, Mireia Taribó.

The couple makes minimal-intervention wines, partnering exclusively with organic, biodynamic and regenerative vineyards in San Benito and Santa Barbara counties, with a focus on Sta Rita Hills.

For Gomez, terroir extends beyond soil, climate and geography. It also includes animals, farmers and vineyard workers, as well as the generations that came before.

The goal is not simply to take from the land, but to work in harmony with it and give back.

Darin Winton, owner and winemaker at Cellar 13 Winery in Livermore, is one-quarter Cherokee and a registered, voting member of the Cherokee Nation.

Winton looks at the vineyard holistically as an ecosystem rather than something to be controlled.

When dealing with pests, he does not want to eradicate one species – squirrels, for example – only to harm another animal such as owls, which play a role in the vineyard environment.

On the label and in the tasting room

Culture also shapes how these wineries tell their stories. At Séka Hills, the checkered pattern incorporated into the logo references the basketry for which the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation is known.

Bellacana’s logo centers on a Pomo basket based on an actual basket from the tribe, incorporating grapes to represent abundance, along with oak branches and acorns. The native oaks are part of the landscape around the vineyard, and acorns were an important food source for the tribe’s ancestors.

At Cellar 13 Winery, Winton incorporates Cherokee names for the wines and original label artwork by his uncle, John Balloue.

Native Hands gives each wine an English name and a Native name, with the labels representing a time, place, ceremony or position of the Mission Indians before first contact. Lobo’s grandmother was one of the last fluent speakers of Uto-Aztecan from the Takic Branch.

At Camins 2 Dreams, Gomez approaches the visitor experience through ‘restorative hospitality’, a core element of her tribe. It is about welcoming people into their space, sharing what they have, and sending them home with something they learned.

‘I try to incorporate my culture in a way that feels natural and not forced,’ Gomez says.

For her, language and the stories behind the wine names offer a way to share a little of her Chumash culture and where she comes from.

Perhaps that is another way of thinking about sense of place. It is not simply what you can taste in a glass, or what you can measure in soil, climate and geography.

It can also be the history, people, language and relationships that connect a vineyard to the place where it grows.

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The heart on the label may be Château Calon Ségur’s most famous symbol. But after 20 years at the Saint-Estèphe Third Growth, technical director Vincent Millet is increasingly preoccupied by the less romantic issue of water shortages.

More precisely, he is interested in the clay beneath Calon’s gravel and its ability to retain water as Bordeaux faces hotter, drier growing seasons.

Millet arrived in July 2006 and, by 2008, had begun paying closer attention to variations within Calon’s 55-hectare vineyard.

Today he points to Terrace 3, towards the southern part of the estate near its historic wall, where the estate’s geologist has identified more argile lacustre, or lacustrine clay.

The prized geological gravel layer of Terrace 4 running close to the Gironde estuary receives more attention historically in the Médoc, but ask Millet which matters more in our era of climate change, and he compares the debate to something that would keep lawyers or economists arguing indefinitely.

More important is what the clay can do. ‘It is our hydric reserve,’ he says.

Put to the test

The 2026 growing season provided a test. After a wet winter replenished reserves, spring and early summer turned hot and dry.

Just 22mm of rain fell in June and 26mm in July. As in 2025, Millet says, the lack of water contributed to very small grapes.

August brought relief: 42mm fell during the first 25 days, followed by another 49mm in the final six.

The rain came too late to increase berry size, but he says: ‘It certainly helped unblock ripening.’

More revealing was where the vines coped better. Despite temperatures well above seasonal norms compounded by water deficit, Millet observed no significant differences in yield between Calon’s various soil types ‘but as long as we have clay’.

On sandy soils, by contrast, ‘the vine suffers’.

For Millet, adapting to climate change is not yet primarily about planting different authorised grape varieties.

Water management is the immediate concern. If irrigation were required – subject to authorisation and depending on the age of the vines – Calon has a potential resource: a natural reserve collecting winter rainwater on the estate.

As Calon considers how it needs to adapt for the future, change is not new for an estate where continuity and evolution have long gone hand in hand.

Heart of the matter

Calon’s origins have been associated with the Gallo-Roman period, its name thought to derive from calones, small craft that once navigated the Gironde.

Its modern identity owes much to the 18^th-century Marquis de Ségur, the celebrated ‘Prince of Vines’, who also owned Lafite and Latour and is credited with declaring: ‘I make wine at Lafite and Latour, but my heart is at Calon.’

The heart eventually appeared on the château and, later, its labels. The vineyard itself offers another continuity: its footprint has remained largely unchanged since 1855, with a mere 0.4 hectares acquired from Château Domeyne in 2026 representing what Millet calls a ‘logical extension’ of Calon’s terroir.

The vineyard may have changed little in extent, but much has changed in how it is managed.

Since Millet’s arrival, the vineyard has increasingly emphasised Cabernet Sauvignon. Currently representing around 56–57% of plantings, it is intended to reach ‘roughly 70% by 2032’, he says, as the château continues a long-term programme of replanting, increased vine density, and massal and clonal selection.

‘I prefer the finesse of the Cabernet to the Merlot,’ Millet says, particularly Cabernet grown on Calon’s clay-gravel soils.

Of equal importance is precision. From 2008, Millet developed more detailed parcel and intra-parcel selection, allowing an increasing proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon into the grand vin.

That philosophy received a technological boost after Suravenir, a subsidiary of Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, acquired Calon-Ségur and neighbouring Château Capbern from the Gasqueton family in 2012.

Extensive investment followed.

Finding balance

In 2016, a new gravity-fed vat room and renovated ageing cellar came into service. Production did not increase, but the number of vats doubled.

Today 75 stainless-steel vats, ranging from five to 120 hectolitres, permit grapes from individual plots, massal selections and even sections within a parcel to be vinified separately.

Grapes are destemmed, hand-sorted and cooled before descending by gravity into the vats, minimising the use of pumps and helping preserve intact berries.

The grand vin is subsequently aged for around 18 to 20 months.

The result, Millet says, is greater precision, but without losing the identity that has made Calon distinctive.

That balance between change and continuity defines the estate today. Climate has introduced a new variable, yet Cabernet is gaining ground and increasingly sophisticated tools allow Millet and his team to divide the vineyard more precisely.

The heart is Calon’s enduring symbol but, as it turns out, the real heart of the estate has indeed been its terroir all along.

Six older vintages of Château Calon Ségur

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Elegance, energy, nuance, sophistication. A fresh set of descriptors immediately springs to mind while I’m tasting through all of the 2024 Barossa Shiraz wines submitted for the annual Decanter vintage report.

A wind of change is evident in a raft of beautiful, medium-bodied wines that embrace complexity in addition to power.

Winemakers at the vanguard of a movement that celebrates Shiraz differently include Michael Hall, Alex Head of Head Wines, Amelia Nolan at Alkina, Craig Stansborough of Purple Hands Wines and, appropriately, Michael Corbett of The Vanguardist.

I first identified these new-school wines three years ago, during Decanter’s inaugural vintage report tasting for the 2022s, which profoundly heralded the arrival of the new Barossa.

Change was overdue. I won’t lie; I had grown weary of Barossa’s early millennium obsession with brutish power, with exaggerated ripeness amplified through assertive oak and fierce tannins.

Daring to differ

However, global warming has prompted radical vineyard transformations. Improved soil health and vineyard management provide grapes with better balance and fruit that retain acidity while reaching optimal ripeness.

Wines no longer need to speak at an exaggerated volume to show their strength.

As Torbreck winemaker Ian Hongell succinctly puts it: ‘We can have great beauty and power in the same glass.’

This is certainly evident in his wines The Struie (a blend of Barossa and Eden Valley fruit) and The Gask (from the Eden Valley) – but they represent only a portion of Barossa’s new elegance.

A raft of favourites have caught my attention. Purple Hands celebrates the earthy vitality of the southern Barossa in three vivacious Shirazes.

Alkina has plugged into the complex geology of its Greenock vineyard to reveal onion-layers of complex, savoury berry and mineral notes in wines of filigree beauty.

Biodynamic viticulture profoundly influences Yalumba’s The Steeple Shiraz and Kalleske’s estate Shiraz.

Variety of expression

There’s also a great variety of expression. Michael Hall lets each vineyard tell its own tale: Flaxman’s Valley Syrah shows an energetic mid-palate laced with blueberry and black plum; while stern Stonewell Road Shiraz has a fleshy texture held taut by sooty tannins.

Barr-Eden from Mengler’s Hill proudly displays gnarly Shiraz character in tightly wound blackberry, tempered by a lick of granite.

It stands in stark contrast to The Cutting’s deliciously savoury take on old-vine Stonewell Shiraz, embracing red fruit and earthiness in long, languid flavour lines.

Vanguardist’s BV Syrah from Ebenezer has solid, earthy structure and crisp fruitiness, being serious and playful in the same moment.

Embracing new expressions

It takes a certain amount of courage to embrace this new expression.

Winemaker Reid Bosward left Kaesler Wines, noted for its weighty old-vine Shiraz, and has adopted a strikingly different approach for his own Bosward Wines.

His 2024 Shiraz is a delight – bright and engaging, yet with firm tannins and resonating bass notes to show substance that matches its lively spirit.

Such fresh interpretations of Shiraz provide a window into a vivacious, new, optimistic Barossa.

Get some in your glass and marvel at the difference.

Barossa 2024: David's top 20

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When a vintage provides challenges rather than perfect conditions, that’s when you learn just how keenly winemakers know their region to still produce superb wines.

Barossa’s 2024 Shiraz vintage can be measured by this yardstick. Harvest was preceded by an especially dry winter, isolated frost events during bud burst and flowering that reduced grape yields.

There were also picking challenges due to rain events scattered during grape picking.

'Distinctive elegance and poise'

It resulted in fewer dazzling superstars – yet an especially strong strata of superb wines have emerged that show distinctive elegance and poise.

From the 110 wines submitted to Decanter’s annual Barossa Shiraz vintage tasting, it proved very difficult to isolate the Top 40, such was the breadth of consistency, stylistic harmony and balance among the most attractive and worthy wines.

Challenging yields from the 2024 vintage have not compromised quality output – a statement clearly made by rising star winemaker Belinda van Eyssen of The Cutting.

She barely had enough Shiraz grapes from her Stonewell Vineyard to fill a 500-litre barrel, but her keen attention to detail has produced exceptional wine – which is only being sold in magnums to ensure this vintage’s tiny output will be celebrated in a grand manner.

Streamlined style

This is evident at Torbreck. Winemaker Ian Hongell has cleverly amplified the vitality and freshness of Shiraz from old vines that in a previous era were overly weighty, marked by extravagant oak usage.

No more; Torbreck Shiraz now has immediate appeal. ‘It’s all about achieving balance,’ says Hongell. ‘It can be big and beautiful at the same time.’

Hongell doesn’t achieve this in isolation. He works year-round with Torbreck viticulturist Nigel Blieschke, who is fixated on rejuvenating the health and productivity of old vineyards.

‘Look at the length of those vine canes – all consistent,’ Blienschke says, long after vintage has finished and leaves have fallen from the 1958 Gnadenfrei Vineyard at Marananga in the Barossa, which supplies fruit for The Laird.

‘That’s a picture of health, showing vines that are completely in balance.’

New energy

This is exactly what veteran winemaker Reid Bosward is searching for. Having left Kaesler Wines in 2023, Bosward now buys berries from a variety of growers for his own eponymous wine brand, and is making an irresistible brand of lively modern Shiraz.

‘I want serious fruit to speak of freshness, so that people can love drinking it now,’ says Bosward.

There is now an impressive fraternity of like-minded Barossa winemakers pursuing elegance and structural strength in their delicious medium-bodied Shiraz – Michael Hall, Alex Head, Amelia Nolan at Alkina, Michael Corbett of The Vanguardist (who also makes Whistler Wines) and Craig Stansborough’s Purple Hands Wines.

They are not alone. Yalumba’s Octavius, Dean Hewitson’s Monopole and Barr-Eden Estate are notable as big-bodied wines sourced from intense old-vine fruit, that now show more sympathy in their youth, without sacrificing any of their sturdy longevity or depth of flavour.

Even some of the heaviest mainstays of big Barossa Shiraz – such as Hentley Farm’s The Beast and Kaesler’s Old Bastard – are more nimble, and underline a dynamic new energy at the core of Barossa’s best modern Shiraz.

Barossa Shiraz 2024: 20 more noteworthy wines

Some vintages are lauded for their outstanding quality, while others represent a pivotal moment; the last two vintages ending in ‘6’ fit firmly into the latter category, marking the opposite ends of a decade of profound transformation for Italian wine.

The 2006 vintage fell within a transitional phase. Established appellations were beginning to drift from the heady, modernist trends of the 1990s and early 2000s towards a quest for greater transparency.

Meanwhile, then-unsung regions, such as Etna and Colli Tortonesi, were laying the groundwork for their own subsequent rise.

By contrast, 2016 embodies the fruits of that decade-long refinement – a period that involved a systemic rethinking of viticultural methodology and greater commitment to sustainability.

Looking back 20 and 10 years on, respectively, both vintages offer outstanding wines that highlight this stylistic evolution while sharing a similarly compelling combination of depth and energy.

2006: A pivotal year

Although less celebrated upon release than 2001 or 2004, 2006 still sparked considerable enthusiasm, with several leading critics of the day defining it as a benchmark vintage.

Still, it fell short of a ‘classic’ season. A cold winter delayed bud break, then a warmer than average spring accelerated vegetative growth.

A hot, dry midsummer raised concerns over hydric stress, while an erratic August brought frequent showers – particularly in northern Italy – and a temperature drop that temporarily slowed ripening.

A mixed September followed, with some areas of Italy experiencing a prolonged ‘Indian summer’. These weather patterns anticipated the climatic challenges that would become increasingly common in the decade to follow.

Success in 2006 relied on proactive choices. The lessons learned during the scorching 2003 vintage proved valuable, as wineries applied a stricter grape selection than they would have done in the past.

‘That was essential to avoid both greenness and overripeness in 2006 – which stemmed less from peak temperatures than from elevated nighttime lows,’ explains Carlo Paoli, technical director at Tenuta San Guido in Tuscany.

Sassicaia in particular is an outlier in this vintage, characterised by vibrancy while other notable Bordeaux blends – including Frescobaldi-owned Ornellaia – sport a fleshier profile, though often with surprising balance.

As for Sangiovese-based wines, Montalcino wineries returned to a more classical style following the infamous so-called ‘Brunellopoli’ scandal that came to light in 2008, in which several wineries were found to have illicitly blended international varieties into their Brunello di Montalcino (required by regulation to be 100% Sangiovese).

Contemporary reports noted that the wines would require time to shed some of their tannic grip, but today those tannins have softened while the fruit and acidity remain intact.

2006 Brunello from the northern sector – cooler and less celebrated then than it is now – particularly shines. In the rest of central Italy, bold, inky wines still enjoyed considerable momentum.

Montefalco Sagrantino benefited from optimal late-season weather, yielding impressive, ageworthy expressions such as Arnaldo Caprai’s 25 Anni.

In the south, Aglianico fared particularly well, as evidenced by benchmark producers such as Perillo, who released a special 2006 Riserva Taurasi.

A mixed message up north

Further north, in Piedmont, the 2006s are a little more uneven – and also quite elusive.

‘Not only due to the growing season but also because many producers declassified part of the production to cope with the 2008 [economic] crisis’, explains Andrea Marchetti, co-owner of Marcarini.

Opinions of the 2006 vintage and its wines varied considerably: Roberto Conterno deemed it outstanding, releasing a highly coveted Barolo Monfortino Riserva, while Bruno Giacosa skipped it entirely, unconvinced by the results.

As in Montalcino, cooler or clay-rich sites generally performed better, giving fully integrated expressions of Nebbiolo that are still far from full maturity even now.

The same holds true for Alto Piemonte: ‘It was a rather warm vintage in Gattinara and a milder one with copious rainfall in Ghemme,’ says Mattia Donna (pictured, opposite), head winemaker at Torraccia del Piantavigna.

‘While everyone preferred the wines from Gattinara early on, Ghemme performed better in the long run.’

In Valpolicella, in the Veneto region, mild temperatures and moderate rainfall through November and December favoured flawless appassimento – the process of partially drying grapes after harvest over a period of months, in order to concentrate the flavours.

At a time when many wineries were still pushing ripeness to the extreme, the best examples resist that temptation, such as Tedeschi’s gently mature entry-level Amarone, and a surprising La Fabriseria Valpolicella Classico Superiore, which demonstrates that appassimento isn’t obligatory to achieve longevity.

Even the remaining bottles of white wine from this era surprise today. La Colombera’s stunning Timorasso is testament to the variety’s potential even before its recent surge in popularity.

2016: Reaching the pinnacle

The 2016 vintage possesses a superior pedigree to 2006. It stands as the pinnacle of its decade, outshining the warmer and much-loved 2015 and rivalling the legendary 2010.

Crucially, where 2010 relied on individual achievement, 2016 impresses for its remarkable overall consistency.

A textbook season began with a relatively cold winter, followed in most areas by a mild spring with significant but not excessive rain showers.

Summer brought above-average temperatures and dry conditions, but without extreme heat spikes as seen in more recent years. Most importantly, noteworthy day-night temperature swings in September favoured an extended ripening period yielding perfectly balanced fruit.

Ultimately, 2016 turned out to be one of the last classic seasons before a full decade defined by climatic extremes.

Tuscany’s 2016 reds are highly coveted. In Bolgheri, Sassicaia stood out in a homogenous lineup, earning unanimous critical acclaim.

Now starting to open up after a silent phase it still demands time, while Ornellaia from the same vintage proves more accessible.

For Sangiovese, 2016 emphasised the grape’s inherent vibrancy, with less austerity than in past top vintages.

Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino from the latter appellation’s northern sector remain more backward than wines from warmer areas; excellent tannin integration is the common thread across Tuscan Sangiovese in this vintage.

Most wines are approachable now, yet lifted acidity ensures a long trajectory ahead. In Piedmont, low pH levels resulted in protracted fermentations [higher acidity levels can inhibit yeast activity and lead to ‘stuck fermentation’], risking high levels of volatile acidity but also yielding uncanny complexity where well managed.

The wines jump out of the glass but vary significantly in texture: Barolo and Barbaresco from sandier and warmer, earlier-ripening sites are already seamless, while examples from areas with higher proportions of clay – most notably Serralunga d’Alba – require additional time in the bottle to soften.

Personal favourites in this vintage include GB Burlotto’s Barolo Monvigliero and Giovanni Rosso’s Vigna Rionda Barolo Ester Canale Rosso, yet 2016 also offers several lower-key options, including a gorgeous La Serra by Marcarini, blending immediacy and long-running tension.

Set for the challenge

When tasting beyond the most coveted appellations, the evolutionary shift from 2006 to 2016 becomes even more evident.

‘What really improved over the last 10 years is producers’ capability of managing macerations to achieve more polished tannins,’ suggests Donna, while pouring a pure, silky Vigna Pellizzane Ghemme 2016.

This greater finesse is also demonstrated in Arnaldo Caprai’s 25 Anni Montefalco Sagrantino 2016 – assisted from 2015 by the late winemaking consultant Michel Rolland.

And what about southern Italian reds? For those appreciating classically structured wines, 2016 Aglianico and Primitivo prove solid, but they were outperformed by Etna Rosso, which had gained the edge in terms of prestige by this point.

Etna 2016s were highly praised upon release, although the wines are currently in an awkward phase, the fruit slightly dulled while the acidity and tannins remain mighty. Only more time will tell if they’ll return to balance.

There are also many compelling white wines in 2016 that reflect these remarkable qualitative improvements, shining for their mineral complexity and even a touch of kerosene in their development: Cortese, Nascetta, Verdicchio, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Fiano and Carricante all show these hallmark features.

Some of the biggest surprises in 2016 come from cooler, off-the-radar sites. For instance, Valle Reale’s Popoli vineyard, at about 350m among the mountains of Abruzzo, yielded a stunning Montepulciano showing a modest 12.5% alcohol but with enough complexity for long-term performance.

Looking ahead, it is precisely these cooler microclimates in Italy – along with a restrained approach to winemaking – that will be required to defy heat-related challenges.

2006 and 2016 compared, north to south

Wines are listed 2006 first, then 2016

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Knox Alexander and Isabelle Clendenen inherited more than a family winery. Au Bon Climat, founded by their father, the late Jim Clendenen, helped establish Santa Barbara County as a serious source of cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, building a reputation far beyond California.

Now, the siblings are carrying that legacy forward while finding distinctly different places within it.

International markets have long been central to Au Bon Climat, known to fans simply as ABC.

Today, around 45% of sales are exports, with Japan its largest international market, followed by the UK. For Knox and Isabelle, that international identity was part of childhood.

‘Dad could be away travelling for as many as 200 days a year,’ Isabelle remembers. ‘He’d always bring back stories and souvenirs from the places where he was introducing Au Bon Climat to the world.’

One destination in particular captured Isabelle’s imagination.

Learning Japanese

Her fascination with Japan began with little figurines her father brought home from his travels.

Eventually, she convinced him to take her along. There, she found herself surrounded by people eager to interact with her, but with whom she could barely communicate.

She returned to California determined to learn Japanese.

Jim released the first vintage of Isabelle, his barrel-selection Pinot Noir named for his daughter, in 1995, when Burgundy remained the benchmark for Pinot Noir and the influence of Parker-era criticism reinforced the prestige of French fine wine.

By the time Isabelle began travelling to Japan around 2007, Japanese wine lovers were beginning to look beyond Burgundy for more affordable expressions of cool-climate Pinot Noir. Au Bon Climat offered precisely that kind of alternative.

That connection shaped what came next. Isabelle majored in Japanese, and spent a semester in Japan working with one of ABC’s distributors.

She realised then that a life in wine did not necessarily mean following her father into the cellar; it could be built around language, relationships and creating shared experiences. Isabelle joined Au Bon Climat full time in 2018.

‘I wouldn’t speak Japanese without wine, and I wouldn’t be in the wine industry without Japanese,’ she says.

The call to action

Today, Isabelle is one of ABC’s principal faces in Japan, strengthening distributor relationships and hosting wine dinners and events.

She says Japan’s share of the winery’s sales has roughly doubled, from 7% to 15%.

While Isabelle found her place at ABC by following the winery outward, Knox arrived at his role from almost the opposite direction.

Growing up in Santa Barbara wine country, where seemingly everyone was a winemaker or connected to the industry, Knox became ‘numb to the concept’ and initially wanted something different.

He journeyed through an odd sequence of experiences before finding his way back to wine: working security at a concert venue and, while studying journalism at Temple University’s campus in Japan, picking up voice-acting gigs for commercials and a video game.

Jim’s death in 2021, during Knox’s junior year, brought things to a crossroads.

‘That was a call to action for me’, he says, ‘a realisation that I had the opportunity to take part in something that was beyond just me, a continuation of a legacy.’

The succession question

After graduating, Knox returned for his first harvest in 2022 and has since worked alongside winemakers Marc Piro and Sarah Atwood in production.

Knox resists the expectation that a new generation must remake a family winery in its own image.

‘I think about this business as a passing of the torch,’ he says. ‘It’s the same flame and all.’

While Isabelle describes herself as a ‘crystallised version of Dad’, venturing outward to build within, Knox expresses succession differently – at home and in the cellar.

Asked where he hopes ABC will be in 10 or 20 years, he answers: ‘Hopefully the same, just with a few more grey hairs.’

Au Bon Climat remains committed to freshness and acidity in its wines, barrel fermentation for its whites, French oak for the barrels and the food-friendly style on which Jim built its reputation.

But preservation does not mean keeping everything in amber. Isabelle’s less romantic example of generational change?

‘The first thing I did was finally update our company website,’ she laughs.

A reassuring presence

Abroad, the evolution is more substantial. ABC has produced private labels for distributors in China, Japan, Denmark and the UK, while food, language and personal relationships increasingly shape how the wines are presented.

The siblings grew up with wine and food intertwined, particularly through the famously diverse daily winery crew lunch their father established.

Today, Isabelle carries that tradition into wine dinners around the world, pairing her namesake Pinot Noir with crispy duck bao (steamed buns) in China; Hildegard with matsutake gohan (seasoned rice with wild mushrooms and dashi) in Japan; and Los Alamos Chardonnay with tom kha gai (coconut milk chicken soup) in Thailand.

For the Clendenens, taking Au Bon Climat forward is less about reinventing their father’s wines than finding new places for them.

‘We aren’t rushing to mechanise our production. We aren’t straying away from our utilisation of French oak,’ Knox says.

‘We’ve realised these are the wines that we love, just like Dad did. In a world that is constantly changing, I think it’s somewhat reassuring to have something that stays the same.’

10 Au Bon Climat wines to try

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The wines of Pommard were once thought of as structured and substantial, but somehow impassive and mute; the antithesis of the flashy and expressive wines from neighbouring Volnay.

A new generation in Pommard, however, is making wines today that are engaging and approachable when young, but substantial enough to age gracefully.

Today, even the ‘old guard’ Pommard domaines are updating their game.

The 400 year-old Domaine de Courcel has a new director, Pierre Clair. Courcel’s neighbour, Domaine Comte Armand, has also recently seen a changing of the guard, with Jane Eyre taking over as manager from Paul Zinetti.

Below are eight key producers leading this renaissance, each demonstrating how modern winemaking techniques, organic practices and thoughtful stewardship are reshaping the reputation of Pommard.

Domaine de la Commaraine

The new generation is already well underway at Domaine de la Commaraine. The domaine traces more than nine centuries of history and a succession of owners.

Most recently, it was sold in 2017 to Americans Denise Dupré and Mark Nunnelly, who hired Paul Krug as director.

Paul is the son of Olivier Krug, who worked with Burgundy superstar Louis-Michel Liger-Belair and soil specialist Pedro Para, both of whom collaborated on early stages of this new project.

Early tastings with Paul amply demonstrate both the quality of the terroir and his ability as a winemaker.

Château de Pommard

The Château de Pommard is another venerable property, founded in 1726. The estate was sold to American entrepreneur Michael Baum in 2014.

Baum appointed Paul Négrerie as head winemaker in 2021, who led the estate to organic and biodynamic certification.

The vineyard, rechristened the Clos Marey-Monge, is huge at 20ha. Négrerie and his team realise that the entire surface is not of equal quality, and they manage it in seven different parcels as outlined by former consultants Claude and Lydia Bourguignon.

Results are encouraging, and the top wines seem destined to restore the estate's lofty 19th century lustre.

Domaine Lejeune

The Lejeune family is another longstanding presence in Pommard, founded in 1753.

Although diminished over time from the 50ha Lejeune amassed, the family achieved organic certification in 2021 before selling to Louis de Belleroche and investors in 2023.

De Belleroche honed his craft with the accomplished Jacques Devauges at Domaine des Lambrays.

His first vintage was 2023. Moving away from the estate’s former tannic style, De Belleroche now uses only the ripest stems and extracts more gently to deliver a modern Pommard style.

Domaine Joannès Violot-Guillemard

Another passionate member of the new generation in Pommard is Joannès Violot-Guillemard, who took over in 2015 from his father Thierry.

Joannès is restlessly experimental. He began returning to his grandfather's whole-bunch fermentations, while retaining his father's very gentle extraction.

He is now maturing half the wine in ceramic containers called Clayvers and half in barrel.

He is very optimistic about the long-term potential of the vintage: ‘2025 is particular, [but] I think it will be one of the best vintages ever in Burgundy.’

Domaine Yvon Clerget

Thibaud Clerget is among the brightest stars of the young winemakers in Pommard, even though many of his wines come from Volnay.

The domaine is located in Pommard, however, and its largest holding is in Pommard Rugiens premier cru, where they farm two parcels totalling almost a hectare.

Thibaud, the family's 28th generation of winemakers, took over in 2015. He has reduced the percentage of whole bunches in the fermentation and tells me he ‘has not punched down since 2019,’ keeping the grapes moist by gentle pumping over.

This careful treatment brings a supple, velvety texture to the wines. They are a pleasure to drink and are approachable when young, a key attraction to his style.

Domaine Georges Joillot

Based in the centre of Pommard, Domaine Georges Joillot offers a selection of the better terroirs from Pommard and elsewhere, including the Pommard premiers crus Les Charmots and Les Epenots among others.

The new generation has been making the wines since 2019: Jeanne Joillot, the founder's great-granddaughter, her husband Grégoire Guidot, and her half-brother Simon Goutard.

The grapes are picked by hand, destemmed and carefully fermented in concrete with minimal punching down before ageing in barrels with a modest amount of new oak.

Domaine Jeanson-Parigot

Jeanson-Parigot is a new domaine founded by Florent Jeanson and Anaïs Parigot in 2019.

The pair met while Jeanson was working at the estimable Domaine Parigot in the Hautes-Côtes with his brother-in-law Alexandre Parigot.

The pair are now based in the village of Pommard, and their wines show promise.

These organic wines are carefully made with moderate extraction and modest use of new oak to keep them approachable. It will be interesting to follow this young couple as their domaine develops.

Domaine AF Gros

Domaine AF Gros still lists an address in Pommard, even though the wines have been made for some time now in Beaune.

It is well worth a detour to taste their delicious Pommard, now being made by Mathias Parent and his sister Caroline.

The style is elegant and modern; in ripe years there is no punching down, with moderate maceration, and maturation is done half in barrels and half in ceramic Clayver vessels, for an admirably ‘updated classic’ style.

The ‘bodybuilder’ style of the Pommard of former times has a charm of its own. I regularly seek out top names from the 1950s and 1960s, which still drink well and can offer stellar value.

But with a new generation making wine in Pommard, you no longer need to wait 70 years to enjoy top wines, so it's time to discover – or rediscover – this Burgundian classic.

Eight Pommard wines that define a new era

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The windswept limestone plateau of Carso, overlooking the Bay of Trieste, is home to Friuli-Venezia Giulia’s smallest functioning DOC.

Carso-Kras, or simply Carso, has a mere 57 hectares of vines officially registered to the denomination, with production in 2025 of 199,000 bottles.

Yet these figures do not tell the whole story: only a small number of wineries in the area claim the DOC as most bottle their wines under the regional Venezia Giulia IGT.

Properties in Carso are small. Castelvecchio, the only relatively large estate, has 36 hectares, while Edi Kante has 17.

None of the other 21 members of the local growers’ association works with more than 10 hectares, and several have fewer than five.

Wines shaped by rock

Carso is an area of extreme viticulture, with native varieties strongly associated with the region.

It is also a border region, closely connected to neighbouring Slovenia through culture and language.

Place names sound Italian, but family names are Slovene, and Slovene is the language most often spoken at home.

The environment puts strict limits on what can be cultivated in Carso. With bare rock often at the surface, little besides olive trees and vines can survive.

Luca Tomasig of the Castelvecchio estate recounts that it can take more than a month to break up the stone and prepare one hectare for a new vineyard. Consequently, vines are planted in small plots wherever soil can be found.

The deep underground streams typical of limestone karst do little for the surface. Thin soils retain little water, so drought is a constant threat.

These challenges, however, come with a silver lining. Doline – sinkholes where deep banks of red ferrous soil accumulate – provide soil that can be scooped up and used to prepare ground for cultivation.

And extraordinary underground cellars, such as those of Skerk and Zidarich, are carved into the rock to depths of up to 25 metres.

Two prominent features shape Carso’s climate: the nearby sea, which moderates summer temperatures, and the almost constant winds, which bring clear skies and high solar radiation.

These conditions also mean fungal disease is almost entirely absent. ‘I wouldn’t know what downy mildew looks like,’ producer Martin Merlak told me.

Together, Carso’s soil and climate produce naturally low yields of healthy, ripe grapes.

The resulting wines are vibrant, with low to medium alcohol, tense acidity and a distinctive mineral character.

The grapes of Carso

Chardonnay and Sauvignon were introduced to the area in the 1970s, when Friuli-Venezia Giulia’s wine industry was undergoing modernisation.

Although these varieties can make wines of great personality – Edi Kante, for instance, makes an outstanding Chardonnay – they have a marginal presence.

The grapes that define Carso are Malvasia Istriana, the native white Vitovska, and the red Terrano.

A skin contact tradition

Wine-growing on the karst plateau has a long history. Pliny the Elder wrote of a wine called Pucinum from the northern Adriatic and associated it with Livia, the wife of Emperor Augustus.

In the 20th century, the region was devastated during WWI, but recovered enough for the Istituto Centrale di Statistica to estimate 1,606 hectares of specialised vineyards in 1938.

Production, however, declined again WWII, and recovery only really began in the 1980s. The Carso DOC was approved in 1985.

Traditionally, as in neighbouring Slovenia, all white grapes were crushed together and fermented with their skins.

When I asked Benjamin Zidarich when he had started macerating his white wines, he looked surprised and replied that he had always done it that way.

Edi Kante was the first to depart from tradition, making single-variety white wines using conventional modern vinification. Today, the two styles exist side by side.

Alongside Kante, the excellent Castelvecchio ferments white grapes without their skins.

Almost all the small artisan producers, however – including leading names such as Kocjancic, Lupinc, Merlak, Milic, Skerk, Skerlj and Zidarich – macerate their wines for varying lengths of time.

Skerk, Skerlj and Zidarich favour an extracted style with long skin contact, while others, such as Martin Merlak, macerate for shorter periods to preserve varietal freshness.

‘It might be macerated, but it still needs to taste like a white wine,’ Merlak argues. When handled sensitively, both styles work in Carso.

Although a handful of the most representative producers export small quantities, the best way to get hold of a few bottles is to visit this remarkable region – something I highly recommend.

Below is my selection of wines from Carso to look out for.

Wines from the Carso plateau

Wines are grouped by grape variety

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When fabled Champagne house Moët & Chandon first decided to open a winery outside France, it set its sights on South America.

Chile had been making sparkling wine since 1879, Argentina since 1902 and Brazil since 1913.

All three countries were considered, but Moët & Chandon ultimately settled on Mendoza after experimental harvests in the late 1950s.

Chandon Argentina was formally established in Luján de Cuyo in 1959; its Brazilian sister estate followed in 1973.

These were among the first major modern multinational wine investments in South America, and it’s no minor detail that they were for sparkling wine.

Over the past half-century, South America has become a growing force in sparkling wine production.

A thirsty local market has long celebrated life’s highs and lows with bubbles and most production stays close to home.

But as Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay gain renown abroad, some of their top sparkling wines are finally beginning to make their way into international markets.

Pushing the limits

When Chandon first invested in Mendoza, the vineyards were mostly at the lower, more accessible elevations, but as the region shifted from volume to quality in the 1990s, Chandon began to look for cooler climates, which meant planting higher.

The company was among the pioneers of Gualtallary, first planting vineyards there in 1990 at more than 1,200m.

Although the region is now better known for Malbec, some of its earliest modern plantings were Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, destined for sparkling wine.

The high-elevation Uco Valley remains one of the key sources for Argentina’s top bubbles today.

In Chile, the quest for a cooler climate has focused primarily on the Pacific coast, where the Humboldt Current brings low temperatures that lock vibrant acidity and crispness into the fruit.

The regions of Limarí, San Antonio, Casablanca and Aconcagua are especially important for sparkling wine, and are home to some of the country’s key vineyards for bubbles.

Uruguay, too, looks to the (Atlantic) coast for its coolest climates, notably in Maldonado and Canelones.

The other frontier lies further south.

While Chile’s Secano Interior has been a focal point for sparkling País for more than a decade, through Miguel Torres’ Estelado, Torres and others have increasingly looked to Malleco, Osorno and Lago Ranco.

These cooler, wetter, volcanic-lake regions offer racier styles, with sharper acidity and greater tension.

In Argentina, producers are pushing further south in Patagonia, most thrillingly in Chubut, where Otronia is making some of the continent’s most sophisticated sparkling wines.

Meanwhile, Brazil has taken sparkling wine as its emblem, with several houses and families specialising in bubbles.

Perhaps the most notable is Família Geisse, whose work in Pinto Bandeira helped define one of South America’s most important sparkling terroirs – and its only DO entirely focused on the style.

Brazil’s traditional-method sparkling wines are often autolytic, toasty and savoury, while Italian immigration left a deep mark through Moscatel, Brazil’s joyful answer to Asti-style bubbles, as well as Prosecco-inspired tank-method wines from aromatic varieties.

South America's best sparklers

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When looking back at a great vintage that’s now ready to drink, it can make for a rather short column. If the weather was perfect and the wines are brilliant, what more is there to say?

But this is Châteauneuf-du-Pape; even in a good year, there’s usually a considerable qualitative spread.

And one thing I love about Châteauneuf is its unpredictability as it ages; there are always a handful of ugly duckling tank samples that, through luck or skillful winemaking, end up developing into something surprisingly beautiful.

There’s another important element that we need to face. Châteauneuf in a hot vintage like 2016 is inevitably high in alcohol.

But that doesn’t mean they should be avoided – I’ll explain why in a moment.

The growing season

Vincent Avril of Clos des Papes remembers a mild, dry winter with strong winds. The whole year was marked by regular bouts of Mistral in fact, making for healthy vineyards and concentrated wines.

It was Florent Lançon of Domaine de la Solitude’s first year fully in charge of the family winery, and he had just steered the vineyards towards organics.

‘The growing season was relatively easy to manage,’ he says, ‘featuring a cool, dry spring followed by a summer that was considered hot at the time – though far removed from the temperatures we have experienced in recent years’.

After a very dry August, 45mm of rain fell on 14 September. ‘I believe the success of the vintage really hinged on the rainfall,’ says Lançon.

Eric Bonnet of La Bastide St-Dominique agrees, saying that it ‘allowed the grapes to complete their ripening process under excellent conditions.’ It was a long, unhurried pick.

‘Ultimately, it was a harvest that can truly be described as exceptional,’ says Bonnet, ‘perfect fruit health, excellent phenolic ripeness, and a superb balance between concentration and freshness.’

Olivier Mousset, co-owner of Clos St Michel with his brother Franck, is also convinced it’s a magnificent year: ‘For us, 2016 is the most successful vintage in 30 years,’ he says.

Not only was it great in quality, it was generous in quantity. Lançon says that it was the largest crop he’s harvested since joining the estate in 2007.

The tasting

When I tasted the 2016s from tank and barrel in 2017 I was convinced of their formidable potential. Returning to them now, it’s clear that they turned out just as well, if not better, than I’d hoped.

The 2016 vintage will go down in the history books along with 1978, 1990, 1998, 2007 and 2010 as one of the greatest of the last 50 years.

Some wines that showed well to begin with have blossomed into something truly extraordinary, including Château La Nerthe’s Cuvée des Cadettes, Domaine de la Solitude’s Cornelia Constanza and Domaine de Marcoux’s Vieilles Vignes.

Those are wines which often excel in top vintages.

But for many less famous estates, 2016 represents a high water mark, producing brilliant wines that will likely offer great value for money if you can still find them.

They include Domaine du Père Caboche’s Vieilles Vignes Elisabeth Chambellan, Domaine du Grand Tinel’s Hérès, Domaine Tour Saint Michel’s Feminessence and Domaine Albin Jacumin’s La Bégude des Papes.

A quick search online uncovered many 2016s still for sale. Snap them up while you still can.

The style

Vincent Avril sums up the style of 2016 succinctly: ‘A powerful vintage with deep colour. Good extraction, ripe tannins, very good pH levels and good balance.

'It is a very nice vintage for cellaring, one that has gained freshness and elegance over time. The alcohol is well-integrated, so everything is there’.

For the best wines of the vintage, I agree with all of this. Most of these wines have at least 10 years still ahead of them, some 20 years, some even longer.

But despite the overall quality of the vintage, I wouldn’t buy indiscriminately. Of the 54 wines I tasted, there were a dozen or so that missed the mark for various reasons, whether overripe, overoaked or oxidised.

And some were simply too alcoholic.

The burning issue

From the beginning, the alcohol levels on the 2016s felt high – this was my one reservation when I tasted them from barrel.

Of the finished wines I tasted from bottle, only 12 of the 54 had a stated alcohol percentage of under 15%. Some were 16%.

For Grenache to reach its apogee in Châteauneuf-du-Pape – its most complex, texturally sumptuous and terroir-reflective – it has to be fully ripe. And that rarely happens under 15% alcohol.

Alcohol is an important component of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, contributing to its signature richness. But if it sticks out or burns, that’s a problem.

Some were gently warming on the finish, but not excessive. Three wines were way out of balance, and I didn’t include them in my selection on that basis alone.

For the others, the alcohol was technically high, but – crucially – it felt integrated and the wines tasted balanced for the style.

Not all drinks are the same

There is a current trend towards lighter reds with low alcohol. Like a crunchy Cinsault or a fresh Poulsard, they can of course be delicious.

But sometimes it feels like there is a push for all alcoholic drinks to drink the same – to quench thirst above all. But that’s not why we drink wine, not really. Not all wines are made to refresh, and Châteauneuf is a case in point.

Red Châteauneuf is a powerful wine that for centuries has been prized for its ability to age for decades, and take on layers of complex flavour as it does.

When I imagine people passing over these 2016s just on sight of their stated alcohol content, I can’t help but feel they’re missing out. Yes it’s an extreme style, but in wine, sometimes these are what create the strongest memories.

Another prevailing trend is to moderate our alcohol consumption, which is undeniably wise. But the answer here is simple: leave some in the bottle for tomorrow.

If we can’t adapt the way we drink different types of wine, we risk losing out on some wonderful, delicious experiences.

Which is exactly what so many 2016 Châteauneuf-du-Papes have to offer.

Châteauneuf 2016 wines to buy or drink up

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Champagne’s brands and blends may be better known than its villages or vineyards, but if there’s one place in the region that has broken through it is Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.

What makes the Chardonnay grown in this sleepy Côte des Blancs village just south of Épernay ascend to such mythical status?

Perhaps it’s the famous names dotted discreetly around the village. Krug’s Clos du Mesnil and the house of Salon yield two of Champagne’s rarest blanc de blancs, often commanding bottle prices that exceed the cost of entire cases of other prestige cuvées.

Meanwhile, the famous Chétillon vineyard that straddles the road beneath the village was responsible for catapulting Pierre Péters’ Les Chétillons to fame and desirability, attained by few grower Champagnes during the 2000s.

At the heart of the question is time. Le Mesnil’s legendary longevity makes time an essential ingredient in almost all of the region’s blended Prestige Cuvées from the famous houses, from Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne and Charles Heidsieck’s Blanc des Millénaires to the likes of Dom Pérignon and Cristal.

Even if it would placate their bank managers, the vignerons of Le Mesnil have to wrestle with the truth that the village’s wines can’t be turned around quickly.

Perfection can't be rushed

At Guy Charlemagne in the village, sisters Justine and Marie are just a few years into their journey to transform and modernise one of the great estates of the village.

Their entry-level wine has, somewhat remarkably, spent six years on the lees – more than double a normal time for a non-vintage Champagne.

‘You can’t drop the ageing, though,’ says Marie, ‘for Le Mesnil, you need time’.

When Eugène Salon released his first wine in 1905, the concept of a blanc de blancs was almost unheard of. Chardonnay was still primarily viewed as a blending variety for Pinot Noir rather than a standalone star.

At Salon, with no oak and no malolactic fermentation, it is time alone that reveals the village’s secrets: it ages on lees for around a decade and then often decades more afterwards.

Rodolphe Péters of Champagne Pierre Péters notes that the village’s austerity serves it well amid risks of overripeness elsewhere.

‘People mistake it for high acidity,’ he says. ‘But the freshness is driven by a crispy, electric perception from the chalk, alongside an iodine-like minerality that can feel almost metallic.’

Some, like both Marine Zabarino at Domaine Vincey and Paul Girard at Domaine Girard-Bonnet, suggest that Mesnil is slightly less sunny, and more exposed, than neighbouring Oger, explaining the more inward style of wines.

There’s a chalky austerity here which can’t really be explained away just by looking at the slope, or the aspect, though.

Péters explains that the chalk is ‘dryer’ here than in other villages, and has been more subject to crumbling under the surface thanks to repeated freezing and thawing.

‘There’s no science behind it,’ he continues, ‘but there are deep veins of fragmented chalk here, and the vines go deeper in search of water and mineral sources,’ he believes.

Heart of the terroir

The good news, though, is that the village’s treasures are more accessible than in the past thanks to the riper, fruitier grapes found in today’s warmer vintages, and a new generation of growers unlocking them.

Paul Girard of Domaine Girard-Bonnet manages the austerity with super-ripe grapes, careful oak vinification and plot selection, believing that some parts of the village can yield more accessible wines.

He feels the very lowest vineyards, such as Hautes Mottes, can be ready in three years, whereas the heart of the terroir – the ‘cœur du terroir’ as the Charlemagne sisters refer to it – needs longer.

Views differ, though, and unlike Burgundy’s love of the mid-slope, the flatter vineyards nearer the bottom of the Côte des Blancs are often viewed as the classical, long-lived terroirs thanks to the closeness of the chalk just beneath the surface.

The vines of the village are also severely hit with the court-noué virus in the historical mid-slope sector, which dramatically intensifies ripeness and drops yields.

Girard notes he may harvest only 2,000 kg/ha in the famous Volibarts plot (which, with its intensity and ripeness also makes Louis Roederer’s still white Coteaux Champenois), whereas Hautes Mottes can yield 12,000 kg/ha.

‘Of course, you’re going to say that Hautes Mottes is better!’ he jokes.

Ripples and bumps mean that adjacent vineyards even on the same slope can have markedly different topsoils, and markedly different wines.

At Pierre Péters this is the source of the contrasting Les Montjolys cuvée, a companion piece to famous, chalky Chétillons that always offers a little more juicy breadth thanks, Péters believes, to the deeper topsoil that collected in the foot of one of these undulations.

‘Mesnil is very wavy thanks to erosion,’ he says, with Chétillons and Montjolys on ‘two extremes of soil’.

Blends and barrels

Girard, too, blends some of the purer chalk sites with those richer in colluvium for his Mon Village cuvée, aiming to keep the strictness and refreshment value in the wine but also yield something approachable (and sellable), with around three years on lees.

The strength of the village’s wines means he opens them up with 70% of the blend going through oak, something he feels a less structured, austere village such as neighbouring Vertus couldn’t take.

‘If I did this with Vertus,’ he says, ‘the wine would be dead’.

For some such as Girard, Zabarino or Mesnil expert Robert Moncuit, opening up the wines with a little oak helps soften the wines a little.

Adrien Dhondt, too, works with the higher part of Chétillon, Chétillon de Haut, which is richer with more clay than the famous Chétillons.

The beautiful concentration and oak fermentation yields a heady, intense yet not austere wine in the forcefully sunny 2020 vintage.

For more established names, though, reserve wines can help tame Le Mesnil’s force.

At Péters (where there’s no oak in the cellar), the family has maintained a perpetual reserve of base wines since 1988.

For Rodolphe, this is ‘security,’ not only smoothing out vintage variation but also allowing wines like his Cuvée de Réserve (two-thirds Le Mesnil Chardonnay) to achieve complexity without requiring extensive lees aging.

It’s a benefit, too, as the Côte des Blancs faces a second consecutive heatwave vintage in 2026, challenging its identity as the racy, restrained backbone of Champagne.

With frost wiping out some of the higher yielding parts of the village beneath the road – ‘the parts we usually use to compensate for the court-noué,’ Péters explains – the quantities of top blanc de blancs produced in both 2026 and naturally low-yielding 2025 are undoubtedly down on top years of the past.

More scarcity might drive up prices in an already elevated terroir, but thanks to the new growers on the scene this village’s mystical appeal is, for now, still relatively easy to access.

Eight Champagnes from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger

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Green wheat fields peel back on either side of the N7, that endless road that goes all the way to Namibia. Fog swishes up and down like a theatre intern’s first time at the ropes.

Trucks thunder past. Soon the Desert Rose Farm Stall looms ahead, all punk Afrikanerism: its gaudy glory the symbolic gateway to the northern Swartland.

For all the hype, the region remains an enigma, largely because of its sheer size. Its 999,000ha stretch from the Paardeberg in the south to the Piketberg and West Coast in the north.

Where rhinoceros roamed

It begins here in Koringberg, home to a handful of wineries. Nieuwedrift slips past, owned by the Mostert family since 1965.

A little further along is Org de Rac, one of South Africa’s pioneering organic estates.

Nearby is Mphumeleli ‘Mphumi’ Ndlangisa’s organic concern. Although this is a hot part of the Swartland with a wide diurnal range, ‘the Berg River is a moderating influence as well as the strong southeasterly winds coming off the ocean,’ explains Ndlangisa, who left a career in investment banking to start natural wine label Magna Carta.

In 2020, he bought his 7ha virgin Koringberg farm. ‘It was wonderful to find indigenous renosterveld,’ he remarks.

This type of shrubland is named after the bitter-tasting renosterbos – rhinoceros bush – as black rhinos once roamed here.

Into the mountains

Passing rocketship-shaped grain silos, the Piketberg mountain range starts to dominate the skyline.

Clouds boil over the precipice as I drive towards Schenkfontein wine cellar, established in the early 1900s.

Descendant Philip Hanekom greets me in his timber-and-brick office, a taxidermied caracal frozen mid-prowl behind him.

‘It’s the people that make the north different,’ he laughs as we taste his Chenin Cap Classique. ‘The further you travel, the less English you hear.’

It’s also drier. ‘Our average rainfall is between 250mm and 450mm. As you move towards Cape Town the rainfall increases.’

From here an iron-red road leads me towards Bandit’s Kloof, home of South Africa’s leading natural wine label, Testalonga.

The fynbos-clad Olifantsberg Mountain seems to tuck the 135ha farm in. It was bought in 2015 by Craig and Carla Hawkins, who planted Mediterranean vines at 400m above sea level, which they farm organically.

Inside their home we taste the El Bandito and Bandits Kloof ranges – the latter is their recently launched estate tier.

Termite topography

Speaking about what makes the north special, Craig says: ‘Well, it’s built by termites.’

It’s true; ancient mounds swell like goosebumps from the Berg River all the way to the West Coast.

Known as heuweltjies (little hills), they are the world’s oldest active termite nests, some dating back 34,000 years.

‘Everything north of the river is Die Noordelikes,’ explains Craig. Meaning ‘The Northerners’, it’s the name of their unofficial tasting group.

Other than the termites, Craig cites the diversity of soils. ‘My farm alone has seven different soil groups,’ he explains.

He prizes the intersection of sandstone and Bokkeveld shale, adding that ‘the groundwater levels are good’.

Testalonga is making a commitment to the north. From its fairly substantial portfolio, six wines originate here, three from their farm, and another two from an old Chenin Blanc block planted at the foot of the Piketberg in 1961.

Coastal treasures

A little further afield in the West Coast, the north extends into the St Helena Bay ward (Eben Sadie’s Skerpioen also comes from here).

Here Hawkins farms Chenin planted in 1961, growing on limestone and sandstone.

‘It’s in the middle of nowhere. You can watch the fog bank roll right off the ocean,’ notes Craig.

The coast holds another of the north’s hidden treasures. Tucked away between Aurora and Elands Bay is the ancient vineyard from which Sadie makes ‘T Voetpad (footpath).

Just 1.4ha in size, it was planted with Cape heritage varieties between 1887 and 1928, all on their own roots.

Remarkable too, is its survival without irrigation, sustained by an underground river flowing beneath the vineyard.

Aiming high

It’s a winding, hair-raising mountain pass to the Piket-Bo-Berg plateau, a high-altitude farming community that feels a world apart.

The temperature drops sharply in this newly minted Wine of Origin (WO) region.

The WO was championed by winemaker Johan ‘Stompie’ Meyer, and 2025 marked the maiden release of his Mother Rock wines bearing the designation.

‘We had a leopard kill here recently,’ says Meyer, pointing at a patch of rocky ground as we bump along in his bakkie (pick-up truck) taking a tour of his vineyards.

‘This mountain is the most densely populated leopard habitat in South Africa.’

Meyer’s farm, Platteklip Vineyards, is perched 650m above sea level with the slopes ascending to 785m.

He bought the property in 2016 after seeing its wealth of sandstone and koffieklip (iron-rich soil, literally ‘coffee stone’).

‘There was nothing here. We built everything from scratch.’

Cool climate Swartland

The farm has both south- and north-facing slopes. The cooler, southern side is planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, the other to Rhône varieties such as Grenache and Mourvèdre.

‘Between them there can be a temperature difference of five degrees,’ explains Meyer. This is why Piket-Bo-Berg needed its own identity, he says.

‘If you see “Swartland Pinot Noir” on a shelf, you’re going to walk straight past it.’

Stompie is no longer the lone winemaker on the mountain. On the way down the pass, I pop my head in at the cellar of Thinus Krüger of FRAM Wines, and his wife, Hanneke Krüger, formerly winemaker at AA Badenhorst and now focused on her Vino pH label.

It’s still early days. Vineyards are slowly being established, and so far they have filled two barrels: Cabernet Sauvignon and a white blend: Chenin with Palomino and Verdelho.

The plan is to bottle the wines under a new label.

Watch this space…

Another name to watch. The Krugers share their cellar space with Adriaan van Zyl, formerly of Testalonga.

His family’s organic and biodynamic farm, Vergesig, lies further down the mountain, where he has planted Grenache Noir and Chenin Blanc.

‘It’s unique, which is a good start,’ says Thinus, when asked why Piket-Bo-Berg? ‘It’s also affordable. Well, the land is.’

The Paardeberg was at one point, too. ‘And it’s not anymore,’ he laughs. ‘Now you have to move a little bit further north.’

He may be onto something. As this road trip has shown there is real momentum building here.

And as land becomes scarcer and more expensive, the search for distinctive terroir and fresh opportunity has the compass pointing assuredly north.

Top bottles to try from Northern Swartland

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Amanda Barnes MW, Eugenio Egorov and Ben Gubbins tasted 51 wines, with 4 Outstanding and 14 Highly recommended

South American value whites: Panel tasting scores

51 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 4

Highly recommended 14

Recommended 29

Commended 4

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their dry white wines, priced up to £15/$20 in the UK or US, from any South American region or country, including all geographical indications; skin-fermented wines from white varieties were also permitted

Finesse on the rise

South American value whites punch well above their weight. Making a wine, shipping it halfway around the world and selling it for under £15 is no easy feat today, let alone producing something distinctive and characterful.

Yet that was the resounding message from our panel tasting: there is an abundance of creativity and value to be found in South America’s affordable white wines.

The lineup reflected the ever more diverse offering of white wines from the continent, from classic Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc to inventive blends and skin-contact whites.

Fortunately, there weren’t the usual trappings of generic flavour-profiles so often found in budget wines.

Instead, many of the wines we tasted offered genuine varietal character, regional identity and surprising sophistication.

‘It’s thrilling to see how many enjoyable South American whites are sitting at this price level,’ said Eugenio Egorov.

‘The biggest takeaway from this tasting is a clear shift in style. We are moving away from the heavily oaked expressions of the past, particularly with Chardonnay, and towards wines with a leaner profile where pure fruit and balanced acidity shine.’

Ben Gubbins agreed: ‘There was consistent evidence of thoughtful winemaking that respected not only the grape variety but also its place of origin, which at this price point is truly commendable.’

‘Ultimately, these bottles offer phenomenal value’

As judges, we were encouraged by the breadth of regions represented, spanning Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Peru, alongside an impressive range of varieties including Riesling, Semillon, Chenin Blanc and Gewürztraminer.

Experimentation was evident throughout, but generally handled with balance and purpose.

‘At a time when wine consumption is down and people’s disposable earnings are squeezed, finding so much good quality at affordable prices is very rewarding,’ reflected Gubbins.

‘Ultimately, these bottles offer phenomenal value,’ concluded Egorov.

‘This forward-thinking approach to winemaking is exactly what the region needs in order to capture the imagination of a new generation of wine lovers.’

See all notes and scores from the South American value whites tasting

The judges

South American value whites panel tasting results:

Wines were tasted blind

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Many denominations in Italy permit the sale of a wine from 1 January once they have completed the necessary period of ageing, although this varies from area to area.

For instance, Brunello di Montalcino must complete a lengthy five years of ageing before release.

And yet, more and more wineries are choosing to hold onto their bottles for longer before making them available.

The reasons for choosing to release later in the year vary from area to area and winery to winery.

But besides commercial factors – more people are buying wine in the run up to Christmas than they are in January – it's hard to argue with the fact that extra time in bottle allows all the important elements of a wine to come together.

Anthocyanins, acids, tannins, wood and alcohol are all spiky and rough round the edges when a wine is first bottled, requiring time to settle down into a harmonious groove.

Releasing these wines earlier is great for cashflow, but less so for strong critical reviews and, therefore, sales.

Today's wine drinkers are typically not buying to lay wines down for many years – we want to enjoy our purchases immediately, or at least in the short- to mid-term.

So are these autumn releases as interesting from a consumer perspective as from a professional perspective?

That's the question; answers on a postcard...

Below you'll find the wine launches I'm most excited about this autumn.

Pick of the bunch

They're here because they're among the best – partly a matter of vintage, and partly the result of continuous refinement and adaptation in the vineyards and cellars.

Solaia 2023 is perhaps the best I've ever tasted, pairing generous fruits with a beautiful vertical shape.

For me, Masseto 2023 is not quite up to the supreme standard set by the 2021 – but that's an incredibly high bar. Like Solaia, there's generosity and juiciness to the fruit in 2023, accented by pretty aromatics.

Masseto's little brother, Massetino, is a strange beast as it's made in even smaller quantities than the grand vin. I love its vibrancy and saline, breezy character in 2024, making this a hard-to-resist buy.

Petrolo's take on a 100% Merlot is particularly finessed in 2024, making this latest Galatrona bottling – for me – the most compelling vintage to buy to date.

I recall tasting a sample of La Massa's Asiram (yet another 100% Merlot) debut 2019 vintage before its official launch and being suitably impressed. This year I had the opportunity to taste the '19, '21 and '23 side by side, and there's clearly been a marked step up.

Like owner Giampaolo Motta, the wine is no shrinking violet – but there's great balance and complexity in the 2023, combining Panzano's intrinsic warmth with careful work in the vineyard and cellar.

Giampaolo says that flagship Giorgio Primo 2023 reminds him of Sin Qua Non, such is the generosity of fruit (do you see a vintage theme developing here?). It's a viscous, rich yet brilliantly fresh and balanced wine that will reward mid- to long-term ageing.

Bibi Graetz's Colore 2024 is a slightly lighter offering than usual, reflecting the delicacy of the vintage. I typically prefer Testamatta for its sinuous energy, purity and beauty, but in this vintage, the old-vine depth of Colore with its incredible texture win out.

Caiarossa is a comparatively affordable buy (particularly when compared to most of the other wines on this list), but focusing on its value does the wine a disservice – the estate works with small plots and micro-vinifications to really draw the most from this seven-grape blend.

Cepparello needs little introduction. A prime Sangiovese bottling, the 2023 is both succulent and fine-boned, making for a classy drop exuding 2023's generous nature.

Siepi, a striking 50/50 blend of Sangiovese and Merlot, is a slightly lighter, juicier interpretation in 2024. Zesty and harmonious, it encapsulates all the drinkability I'm coming to love in Tuscany's 2024s, but will also reward short- to mid-term cellaring.

The only non-Tuscan wine on this list, Girolamo Russo's Feudo 2024 from Etna follows on from a grim 2023 vintage for the estate's reds where owner Giuseppe Russo bottled no cru wines at all.

Thankfully the 2024s fared much better (thanks in part to hard work in the vineyards), and Feudo Rosso is full of energy, capable of displaying all of Nerello Mascalese's beauty.

Italian autumn fine wine releases

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In recent years we have examined the decennial anniversaries of Bordeaux vintages that have yielded a broad spectrum of success from the ‘unlucky number 4’ to the spectacular ‘rule of 5’.

This year, looking back at vintages ending in ‘6’ has been far more interesting than I imagined at first glance.

Sadly, for any ‘experienced’ Decanter readers emanating from the 1956, 1946 or 1936 vintages, the news is not great.

Although I’m sure there are drinkable examples, they are few and far between.

However, if you are receiving your letter from the King this year and have the wherewithal to be opening a venerable old claret from 1926, you are blessed with one of the finest vintages of the era.

2016

So much has been spoken about 2016, many believing that it may ultimately surpass its peers as the finest vintage of all.

Indeed, tasting over 80 of the top wines earlier this year at 10 years of age, the consistency and uniform quality was sublime.

There is an argument to put forward that the very apex of the vintage does not stack up to that of a handful of others, but we are splitting hairs.

The 2016s are, across the board, impeccably balanced and wines that will stand the test of time.

All of the producers you expect to have hit grand slam home runs have done exactly that, but special mention should go to both Durfort Vivens and Calon Ségur for producing arguably their greatest wines ever.

From top to bottom, buy everything you can within your means.

2006

Often a vintage that splits opinion, but one I personally love.

The right bank is, in some cases, superior to 2006 while the left bank wines are linear and generally very well made.

I wouldn’t suggest that it is a vintage that will satisfy the hedonists but it’s a haven (particularly in terms of price) for traditional claret lovers that want a little more ‘oomph’ than can be found in 2004 and 2007.

The wine of the vintage is undoubtedly Mouton Rothschild which made a wine that vies for the best of the decade against 2000, 2005 and 2009.

On the right bank La Conseillante punches well above its weight alongside glorious expressions of both Cheval Blanc and Le Pin.

1996

An out and out left bank vintage, and the finest of the decade at that. The wines east of the Gironde leave a little to be desired although it is far from a disaster in St-Emilion and Pomerol.

From the Médoc, almost everything was exceptional and stylistically typical examples of the respective appellations.

Depending if you crave power or elegance, respectively Latour and Lafite are the wines of the vintage with Pichon Comtesse following closely behind.

If it’s quintessential Pauillac you are after then Batailley, Grand-Puy-Lacoste and Lynch-Bages offer exactly that at varying levels.

Léoville Las Cases is a world beating wine that is backward and still needs time whereas, further north in St-Estèphe, Montrose and Calon Ségur are both ‘a point’ right now.

For readers wedded to 1996, I’d urge you to experiment with well-stored bottles at all levels from the Médoc and you will rarely be disappointed.

1986

To my mind 1986 is a vintage that was somewhat misjudged. Not because the quality is not generally exceptional, but because the initial expectations and predictions for greatness were misguided.

Let’s be clear, there are wines here like Mouton Rothschild, Lafite Rothschild and Léoville Las Cases that are world beating mature clarets and deliver as such, but the structured nature of the vintage has meant that many lesser wines have simply never had the fruit concentration to outlive the tannin.

Some wines are dry and austere, some are still shut for business, waiting to emerge (or not!) from their 40-year slumber, that said, the very best wines are built to last a century.

Margaux and Palmer further south should be included in that bracket. Without breaking the bank Gruaud-Larose, Pichon Comtesse, Talbot and Lynch-Bages are all exceptional on the left bank.

And, while pickings are much slimmer on the right bank, I have always had a soft spot for Vieux Château Certan.

1976

Anyone born in the UK before 1960 will immediately volunteer in any conversation around 1976 that it was famously ‘the hottest year on record’.

The fact that very few people could proffer almost any other historical meteorological facts serves only to emphasise the gravitas of this infamous vintage.

Although achieving ripeness in the 1970s in Bordeaux was a genuine concern, heat of this nature was equally unwelcome.

There are good examples of 1976, but sadly no great wines produced outside Sauternes. A recent bottle of Duhart-Milon was delicious if not profound. Similarly, it’s big brother, Lafite Rothschild.

On the right bank Cheval Blanc is, I suspect, the finest example, and both Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion are both very acceptable.

The wine of the vintage is, without question, Yquem, an almost perfect wine. Alongside the undisputed heavyweight, Climens and Coutet are exceptional.

I’d suggest anything from Sauternes or Barsac that is well stored will still be wonderful.

1966

1966 is a vintage often overshadowed by other superb or, in the case of 1961, legendary vintages in the decade.

It is a vintage of great homogeneity. You will rarely find a wine to rival 1961 or indeed 1964 on the right bank but almost everyone made solid wines that have aged very well.

If this World Cup winning vintage is special to you, then I suggest seeking out a bottle from any château you love in more recent years.

For the sake of specifics, Latour is the wine of the vintage. Its neighbours, Pichon Comtesse and Léoville Las Cases are also stunning.

Gruaud-Larose, Lafite Rothschild, Haut-Brion, La Mission Haut-Brion and Cos d’Estournel come to mind as great examples of mature Bordeaux still drinking beautifully.

Cheval Blanc in St-Emilion would be my pick on the right bank and pushes Latour for the very best wine produced in this landmark year.

I also have a very fond recollection of a magnum of Lafaurie-Peyraguey 1966 which was outstanding, as is so much in Sauternes, especially when it is this mature.

If only it were more popular…

Best Bordeaux wines ending in 6

Wines are listed youngest to oldest

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Juicy pineapple, dried mango and marmalade, garnished with sweet spices and camomile, with luscious sweetness always backed by a vivid streak of acidity – these form my impression of Hungary’s noble rot-influenced golden nectar, Tokaji Aszú.

With such a strong character inherent in the style itself, can the nuanced differences in terroir and vintage still work their wonders in the glass?

Royal Tokaji’s single-vineyard aszús provide a fascinating window for discovery.

What shapes the flavours of aszú

Co-founded in 1990 by bestselling wine author and Decanter columnist Hugh Johnson, Royal Tokaji takes a single-vineyard-focused approach to producing its dry white and aszú ranges.

The upcoming release of Royal Tokaji’s signature single-vineyard aszús will be from the 2019 vintage, sourced from the estate’s own plots within Birsalmás, Nyulászó, Szt. Tamás, Betsek and Mézes Mály in the commune of Mád.

Although the estate has produced single-vineyard aszús since the 1990s, releases have not always been consecutive.

The 2019 follows an unbroken run from 2016, through 2017 and 2018 (with the exception of Birsalmás, due to replanting).

I was fortunate enough to taste all four recent vintages of the set pre-release, each time finding myself fascinated by the diverse expressions of each plot – ranging from mineral and lifted to pure and luscious, complex and profound – while my preferences varied hugely between vintages.

The ripeness and health of the fruit and the timing of noble rot (botrytis) infection, combined with Tokaj’s choice of grape varieties (principally the late-ripening, high-acid Furmint), cool continental climate, complex volcanic soils and distinctive winemaking methods, are key factors shaping the flavour profiles of these glamorously sweet yet vibrant dessert wines, as Caroline Gilby MW explains in her Tokaji Aszú vintage guide.

The 2019 vintage

The year 2019 saw a cool spring before Tokaj embraced a hot summer, with temperatures regularly reaching 35˚C and setting the course for an early-ripening vintage.

Following a dry August, ‘we were hopeless at the beginning of September as there wasn’t a sign of aszú,’ said winery director Zoltán Kovács.

Thankfully, rain in mid-September, combined with high temperatures, triggered the rapid onset and spread of botrytis.

Although rain towards the end of October shortened the picking window, Royal Tokaji reported picking ‘rich and clean’ fruit for its single-vineyard aszús, starting with its plots in Nyulászó and finishing with Szt. Tamás.

The aszú winemaking

Traditionally, the shrivelled aszú berries are macerated in a base of grape must, fermenting must or young wine to extract the botrytis flavours and sugars.

At Royal Tokaji, the base wine is fermented to 5%-6% alcohol before the aszú berries are added to the still-fermenting must for two days of maceration.

After pressing comes a more distinctive step for Royal Tokaji’s single-vineyard aszús: fermentation is completed in Hungarian oak (30% new for the 2019).

The method was adopted in 2017, the year Zoltán Kovács joined the estate, with the aim of adding greater complexity and depth.

The aszús are then aged on fine lees in 300- and 500-litre barrels made from oak sourced from the Zemplén Hills.

The same vinification and ageing process is applied across Royal Tokaji’s single-vineyard aszús, allowing the differences between the sites to come into focus.

The highlights

My top pick among the 2019s has been the Nyulászó (meaning ‘a good place to catch hares’) – a site featuring volcanic bedrock topped with brown clay and rhyolite tuff.

Its layered complexity and elegant dried-floral characters go hand in hand with a seamless mouthfeel, driven by limpid acidity and finishing long and lingering – a bottle you can slowly savour through, favourite book in hand, to the last drop.

The neighbouring Szt. Tamás brought a more vinous, dried fruit-driven aroma to the glass, although the palate would surprise you with its zesty freshness.

For spiciness and a touch of herbal freshness, backed by splendid purity of fruit, opt for the Betsek from the Mád basin, which has the lowest alcohol among the 2019 single-vineyard bottlings.

A warming globe vs the aszú style

With extreme heatwaves sweeping across the European continent and Hungary reaching a record high of 42°C this summer, the 2026 harvest will be an ‘interesting study’ for aszú production due to the high temperatures and lack of humidity so far, said Charlie Mount, Managing Director of Royal Tokaji.

But the arrival of autumn rain may still completely change the situation, said Kovács, reflecting on similar situations in 2019 and 2025.

‘In Tokaji during harvest time, [for making sweet wines] you don’t need to be in a hurry, just wait for the right time.’

For dry wines, this year’s heat spells have shown that the estate’s plantings in the lower parts of the single vineyards, or on east- and northeast-facing plots, tend to be better shielded from sunburn.

Kovács doesn’t see the need for immediate operational changes at Royal Tokaji to cope with the warming temperatures, however.

‘We just have to react, using the resources we have, to what nature gives us.’

Royal Tokaji Aszú 2019

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Maturana

Maturana Winery was founded in 2011 by brothers José Ignacio and Sebastián Maturana.

Based in Colchagua but sourcing fruit from across the country, the brothers have sought out historic dry-farmed vineyards, overlooked grape varieties and distinctive terroirs.

‘The best wine is the one that honestly expresses the place it comes from,’ says winemaker José Ignacio.

That philosophy extends into the cellar, where concrete eggs, clay amphorae, stainless steel and oak are selected according to the character of each vineyard rather than to create a uniform house style.

The result is a range that celebrates Chile’s diversity through wines of freshness, authenticity and a clear sense of place.

As the winery has grown, so too has its vision. Recognising that today’s consumers increasingly seek experiences alongside great wine, Maturana has embraced wine tourism and cultural initiatives designed to deepen that connection.

‘Our goal has never been to sell wine,’ José Ignacio says. ‘Our goal is to inspire more people to fall in love with the world of wine.’

Among its latest ventures is Andes Colchagua, a collaborative initiative that brings together wineries, boutique hotels and local attractions to showcase the region as a unified destination.

Their approach is refreshing, forward-thinking and just what Chile needs.

‘Innovation is not about abandoning tradition,’ Sebastián says. ‘It is about finding new ways to help more people discover and enjoy the world of wine.’

These are wines that are packed full of personality, local character and passion.

JP Martin

JP (José Pablo) Martin’s winemaking journey has taken him from southern Chile to some of France’s most established wine regions, but it’s in the country’s far north that he has found his greatest inspiration.

Born in Osorno in Chilean Patagonia, with family ties to one of the pioneering pisco producers of the Elqui Valley, Martin studied agronomy and oenology before gaining experience across Chile, including in Cauquenes, San Fernando and Maipo.

He later worked vintages in St-Emilion, Cognac and the Loire Valley. His return to Chile in 2006 saw him join Viña Tamaya in the Limarí Valley as technical director.

Working with the region’s limestone soils and under the cooling influence of the Pacific, he became convinced that Chile’s Norte Verde (which encompasses Limarí, Elqui and Huasco) offered a distinctive expression of coolclimate viticulture.

That conviction led him to establish his own project in 2017 after Viña Tamaya closed, planting vineyards in the Huasco Valley with business partner Daniel Llorente Viñales of Buena Esperanza.

The inaugural JP Martin wines, released from the 2021 vintage, comprise Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, varieties Martin believes best capture the region’s character. There’s now also a superb Grenache, as well as a Syrah, a Carmenère and a Pedro Jiménez produced in Limarí.

Huasco presents a compelling combination of extremes: vineyards on alluvial limestone soils at the edge of the Atacama desert, moderated by the cold Humboldt Current and the proximity of the Andes. These conditions produce naturally fresh wines with notable tension and precision.

In the winery, intervention is deliberately restrained. Native yeast fermentations, limited use of oak and ageing in neutral vessels, including concrete and stainless steel, are intended to preserve site expression rather than shape it.

The wines are bottled unfiltered, or with only minimal filtration, to maintain texture and purity.

These are some of the most exciting wines to have been released in recent years in Chile and they help to shine a light on what is without question one of the country’s most exciting regions.

Ana María Cumsille

For Ana María Cumsille, the Itata Valley is far more than a place to make wine – it’s a landscape of history, tradition and remarkable old vineyards that deserves wider recognition.

After studying agricultural engineering and oenology in Chile, Cumsille continued her training in Bordeaux before returning to work at Viña Indómita, Viña Altair and later Viña Cucha Cucha in Itata.

When Cucha Cucha closed, she chose to remain in Itata, launching her own label in 2020. What began with just 500 bottles of País and Cinsault has grown to around 20,000 bottles.

‘The philosophy behind this project is to capture the essence and soul of the Itata Valley in every bottle,’ says Cumsille.

‘Its centenarian vineyards, its people, its traditions and the deep history behind each wine.’

Working with old-vine País, Cinsault and other heritage varieties, she seeks to express the valley’s identity while celebrating the growers who’ve cared for these vineyards across generations – thus their names appear on the labels.

‘For them, the vineyard is not simply a business, but a family heritage,’ she explains.

Although reluctant to name a favourite wine, Cumsille admits País holds a special place. ‘It was a personal challenge to truly understand the variety and achieve the wine I envisioned,’ she says.

‘Learning how to interpret it while preserving its essence has been a beautiful and long journey.’ And then there’s the Semillon, which is consistently one of Chile’s finest examples.

Today, alongside her current role as chief winemaker at Viña Carmen, Cumsille continues to champion the Itata Valley, producing wines that are designed to honour one of Chile’s oldest and most expressive regions.

Andes Plateau

Felipe Uribe’s path into winemaking has taken him across continents. After beginning his career in San Pedro, he travelled to Madrid to complete a master’s degree in viticulture and oenology before returning to Chile for harvest.

He later gained experience in the US before spending four and a half years at William Fèvre Chile, refining his approach to producing elegant, expressive wines.

Founded in 2012, Andes Plateau has always been guided by three principles: family, passion and the Andes. The aim has never changed – to produce wines that reflect both the dramatic landscapes and the people behind them.

Uribe’s philosophy is to let each vintage speak for itself. Rather than pursuing trends or overmanipulating the wines, the focus is on preserving natural alcohol levels, freshness and the influence of altitude.

These are wines of great purity and clarity that harness the natural advantages of the Andes and of high-elevation vineyards. They’re wines that truly belong on the table, with vibrant acidity, poise and effortless drinkability.

Uribe’s enthusiasm is equally engaging; he speaks with a conviction that’s backed up by deep knowledge, yet always with humility and understated confidence.

When asked to choose a favourite, he highlights the 700 Chardonnay as the clearest expression of the estate’s style, combining purity, delicacy and bright acidity.

I have to agree, it combines tension, as well as underlying richness and concentration; and it possesses, as crazy as it may sound, a crystalline purity that gleams and glistens like Andean meltwater.

Casa Bauzá

For Natalia Poblete, great wine begins not in the cellar but in the vineyard. After studying at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, she honed her craft through harvests across Chile, California and Australia before returning home determined to make wines of greater clarity, elegance and authenticity.

That vision found its home at Casa Bauzá where, alongside owner Rodrigo Bauzá, she has helped redefine both the estate and one of Chile’s most misunderstood grape varieties.

Founded in 2011 in the warm northern Maipo sub-region of Til Til, Casa Bauzá initially focused on rich, oak-driven wines. Under Poblete’s guidance, however, the estate has embraced a more terroir-led philosophy.

‘We aim to guide every stage of the process so the grapes can express the full potential of their terroir with the greatest possible purity,’ she says.

Nowhere is that more evident than in Carmenère. Challenging the long-held belief that the variety requires heavy oak and late harvesting, Poblete has championed a fresher, silkier style that boasts vibrant fruit, finesse and remarkable drinkability without sacrificing complexity.

The search for greater nuance has also taken Casa Bauzá south to the Rapel Valley, where vineyards in Colchagua and Cachapoal benefit from granite soils, maritime influence and cooler growing conditions.

The resulting wines combine freshness, refined tannins and a vivid sense of place. While Carmenère has become the winery’s signature, Poblete retains a particular affection for Cabernet Franc, showcased in the Veraz cuvée.

Yet whatever the variety, her philosophy remains constant: ‘Wine carries our signature, but the true protagonist is always the terroir from which it comes.’

The result is a portfolio of wines that have such drinkability but always with softness and an understated exuberance.

La Despensa

There are few straight lines in wine; Matt Ridgway’s journey began not in a vineyard but with a backpack. Arriving in South America in 2003 as a young English teacher, he could scarcely have imagined that a chance move across the continent would eventually lead to one of Chile’s quirkiest boutique wine projects.

After several years in Argentina and Chile working in real estate, the pull of the countryside proved irresistible. Having grown up in rural England, Ridgway found something familiar in the rolling landscapes of Colchagua.

A small parcel of land purchased in 2011 was planted with vines two years later, initially with no commercial ambitions. The plan was simply to exchange grapes for finished wine.

Instead, a single barrel produced in 2015 ignited a passion that would see him take full control of the winemaking by 2020. Today, the wines offer a refreshing counterpoint to Colchagua’s reputation for powerful Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenère.

Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Sangiovese and Rhône white varieties share the vineyard, with fruit also brought in from an old País planting located about 20 minutes from the winery, together producing wines defined by energy, purity and drinkability rather than weight or oak influence.

That same approach extends to the vineyard. Farmed organically, though not certified, the estate runs entirely on solar energy and is home to hundreds of newly planted native trees, reflecting a commitment to thoughtful stewardship rather than marketing credentials.

Fourteen rescue dogs complete a property that feels every bit a (slightly chaotic!) working farm.

Looking ahead, Ridgway is expanding both his Rhône-inspired white wines and the estate’s wine tourism offering.

Alcohuaz

At first glance, the vineyards of Alcohuaz seem almost impossible. Perched at about 2,000m in Chile’s Elqui Valley, they cling to steep mountain slopes where intense sunlight, arid conditions and dramatic diurnal shifts test both vines and those who farm them.

Yet it’s precisely this unforgiving landscape that inspires winemaker Rosario Fillol (pictured above), whose mission is to capture the essence of one of South America’s most distinctive terroirs.

‘The goal is to express this place,’ she says. ‘We work with minimal intervention to demonstrate just how expressive this territory can be.’

Since joining Alcohuaz in 2021, Fillol has brought an international perspective shaped by harvests in Chile, Napa Valley, New Zealand, Barolo, Oregon and Burgundy, as well as winemaking roles at Viña Aresti and Viña Santa Carolina.

But it’s the extremes of Elqui that continue to fascinate her. ‘You see the vines facing permanent stress, yet the final wines are incredibly expressive,’ she says.

Planted in 2005, Alcohuaz has steadily refined its understanding of this high-elevation site, embracing organic viticulture, albeit without certification.

The result is a collection of wines that speak as much of granite, altitude and relentless sunshine as they do of grape variety.

Plantings include Syrah, Grenache, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Petite Sirah and Carignan. Fillol’s favourite of the Alcohuaz wines is the Cuesta Chica Grenache, whose fruit, grown at 2,179m, bears little resemblance to more familiar Chilean expressions of the variety.

Here, Grenache trades weight for the perfumed, fresh and tense style that can come with increased elevation.

The future looks equally ambitious. Orange wine, rosé and fortified styles are all under development, while the estate is investing in wine tourism and conservation.

The vision, however, remains rooted in the mountains: creating wines that could only come from Alcohuaz, a truly special site.

Clos de Luz

For Gabriel Edwards, the road to founding Clos de Luz began far from the vineyards of his childhood.

After graduating with a degree in economics, he chose to pursue his passion for wine, studying in the master’s programme at ESC Dijon in Burgundy (now the Burgundy School of Business) before gaining experience at Moët & Chandon in Champagne.

Yet his ambition was always to return home to Almahue in the Cachapoal Valley. In 2015, with limited resources but a clear vision, he established Clos de Luz to showcase Almahue’s old, dry-farmed vineyards.

His aim was not simply to make fine wine, but to reveal the distinctive identity of a region that’s quickly turning into one of Chile’s finest.

That sense of purpose extends beyond the winery. Edwards sees Clos de Luz as part of a broader effort to elevate Almahue’s reputation, protect its viticultural heritage and encourage his neighbours to pursue quality.

Success, he believes, should benefit the entire valley. While tradition remains at the heart of the project, innovation continues to shape its future.

Prizma, a new vermouth inspired by Almahue’s native botanicals, was launched earlier this year and the estate is expanding its wine tourism experiences.

Among the portfolio, the Azuda Carmenère perfectly captures the Clos de Luz style. Fermented and aged in concrete, it’s a vibrant, pure and thrilling expression of Carmenère, highlighting freshness, spice and elegance.

These are wines that are elegant, supremely confident and expressive at the same time.

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It’s a moment that Alejandro Vigil, oenologist at Catena Zapata and El Enemigo, remembers very well: ‘We started to separate out parcels in Gualtallary so we could tend to each consistently in its own way.’

For decades, he has been making wines with grapes from separate parcels that, while they might sit a metre or two apart, produce wildly different wines.

Vigil’s findings have changed the discourse in Argentine wine. For years, Mendoza sold Malbec as a monolithic product.

The key factor in its promotion was the winemaking regime and the star oenologist behind it, while the place, or places, from which the grapes came was only mentioned to add a little local colour.

‘Argentina now finds itself at a point where it must define who it wants to be,’ says Edgardo del Popolo at PerSe Wines. Winemakers in Argentina have moved on from just making the best wine they can to making the right wine for the right place.

This is especially true in the sub-regions of Gualtallary, Paraje Altamira and Los Chacayes.

‘People are often amazed that the difference in Mendoza is so marked even within a relatively short distance,’ says Madeleine Stenwreth MW, an expert in Argentina’s wines. Her Master of Wine dissertation on the effect of altitude on Malbec in Mendoza earned her the Quinta do Noval Award for best research paper in 2008.

From valley to mountain

This shift was initiated by changes in the vineyard rather than in the winery. Andrés Vignoni at Raquis sums it up well: ‘We’ve moved on from valley viticulture to mountain viticulture.’

In the past, land was levelled to allow for mechanisation, but that practice has been abandoned – levelling involves stripping away the original soil, which is precisely what winemakers want to preserve.

With the new approach, the rows of vines follow the terrain and the local flora is maintained in order to ensure that all the conditions required to conserve the wine’s authenticity are met.

‘It makes you a vine-focused oenologist,’ says Vignoni.

Sebastián Zuccardi outlines a succinct hierarchy: ‘The climate first, then the soil.’

Geophysicist Guillermo Corona author of the book Raíces del Vino (‘The Roots of Wine’, October 2025), explains how this comes through in the glass: ‘The climate is reflected in the fruit and on the nose, the soil in the mouth.’

Gualtallary

Rising from 915m to 1,600m over a distance of just 16km within the Tupungato region, Gualtallary’s alluvial soils contain calcium carbonate in markedly shifting quantities and forms, which can produce radical changes in the resulting wine within just a few hectares of space.

Researchers and producers have identified a range of further potential subdivisions, but none has official recognition as yet: to date, Gualtallary itself hasn’t even been granted Geographic Indication status.

Vigil pithily sums up the texture obtained as ‘tension and verticality’. ‘Many of the wines here seem to extend upwards rather than to the sides,’ he says.

Del Popolo adds: ‘When we began to understand how the climate interacts with the soil, we started to produce wines with a sense of place. We weren’t simply looking to make a great wine, we were looking to make a Gualtallary wine.’

Malbec continues to dominate in Gualtallary, but the district is increasingly drawing attention with its Chardonnays, which are some of the most precise in the country, and Cabernet Francs.

Paraje Altamira

The landscape in Altamira, a highly regarded sub-region in the San Carlos department of the southern Uco Valley, can be misleading: the continuous plots of vineyards and rows of poplars make it difficult to believe that the area is actually a desert.

This was the first terroir in the valley where the prevailing sense of place was backed up with hard scientific evidence.

In 2013, it was named the first Geographic Indication in Argentina, a sub-region defined not by administrative borders but by the natural terrain, soil samples, climate data and laboratory testing.

The vineyards here grow at an elevation of 975m-1,100m, generally lower than those of Gualtallary.

However, the climate isn’t warm: cool air flows down the slope to gather at the bottom, meaning that the fruit takes longer to ripen and spring frosts endanger the harvest.

‘Putting it down to elevation alone isn’t enough,’ says Federico Gambetta of Altos Las Hormigas.

Calcium carbonate combines with lime in the soils to produce wines that possess rounded tannins and a texture that Gambetta describes as a mouthful of chalk.

Paz Levinson, co-founder of wine events company Argentina Reloaded and the DWWA Regional Chair for Argentina & South America, expands upon the aromatics: ‘Altamira produces more floral notes, violet, dark fruit and a little red fruit. It has a potent freshness but isn’t as sharp [as the feel in areas further north].’

Malbec is the principal medium, but old-vine Semillons are one of Paraje Altamira’s best kept secrets: these venerable vineyards produce whites with a depth rarely seen elsewhere.

Los Chacayes

A latecomer to Argentina’s wine region scene it may have been, but Los Chacayes, on the western side of Uco Valley’s Tunuyán department, grew rapidly.

The GI was declared in late 2017 and the area went from barely having any vineyards to being one of the most rapidly expanding districts in the valley.

With vineyards growing at about 1,100m-1,400m, the landscape is more open than in Altamira but is pressed up against the mountains.

The wines here tend to be relatively spicy and potent. ‘We haven’t yet seen the best of Los Chacayes,’ says Vignoni.

Stenwreth caught a glimpse when she tried a Riccitelli wine from one of the higher vineyards:

‘It’s quite different from what I was expecting from Los Chacayes,’ she admits. The highest part, she discovered, is a whole other world compared to that further down in the same GI.

Malbec heads up the planted area, but there are also plots of Garnacha, Syrah and Mourvèdre – Mediterranean varieties that thrive in the rocky terrain, which isn’t found elsewhere in the greater valley.

Cru or not?

In its original usage, in the vineyard classification of the Burgundy region in France, a cru is a formally delineated, named plot of land where centuries of experience show that the wines produced are of superior quality and character.

Mendoza’s Gualtallary, Paraje Altamira and Los Chacayes aren’t ‘crus’ in the strict sense of the word, therefore.

But the three do introduce a discourse based around a sense of place – one that bears more resemblance to the broader Burgundian concept of ‘village wine’ than that of classified parcels.

Zuccardi advises caution: ‘The worst thing we can do is get ahead of ourselves. These are just the foundations on which the future will be built.’

Vigil is more welcoming of the ‘cru’ term, though with caveats: ‘If it helps us to think in terms of place, then it’s very constructive. If it misleads us into thinking we know it all already, then it’s a trap.’

However, Stenwreth points to the unfinished business: ‘It is a nightmare when I hear someone say, “This tastes like Argentine Malbec.” The time has come to move towards a place-based logic, because these localities already stand for quality.’

Great terroirs aren’t declared, they emerge after decades of painstaking work. The language of Argentinian crus is being written now, vintage by vintage, parcel by parcel.

Wines from three Argentine crus in the making

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Vinho Verde: Pleasure beyond summer

In the lead up to this year’s scorching summer I was lucky enough to taste a wide selection of stand-out Vinhos Verdes – not least at a session I had the pleasure of hosting in Decanter’s Tasting Suite – that truly illuminated the region’s diversity of terroir, varieties and styles.

Vinhos Verdes have evolved tremendously in the last decade, with a vibrant community of producers reviving traditions and styles nearly lost to the incredible success of young-drinking, crisp, slightly spritzy iterations.

As the days draw in, it’s well worth seeking out bottles such as the Quinta de Linhares Grande Reserva Avesso 2016, a feat of classicism and longevity, Aveleda’s Parcela do Roseiral 2024, an expressive single-vineyard Alvarinho partially fermented in oak, and Constantino Ramos’ Zafirah 2024, a lively, refined example of the region’s alluring reds.

With texture, nuance and depth, these wines are worthy of your table beyond summer – and will hopefully inspire you to discover the landscapes and history of Vinhos Verdes.

Clemens Busch, but in Poland

In June, I was in Poznań for Polskie Korki (Polish Corks), the annual Polish wine competition and festival.

The fast-growing event, brainchild of restaurateur and Polish wine advocate Lechosław Olszewski, is now in its 10th edition.

At his restaurant and bar SPOT, I had the pleasure of meeting Mosel biodynamic legend Clemens Busch for the first time. Invited by Olszewski, a friend and importer, Busch was here to judge the wines (a good proportion being Rieslings) and give a masterclass to local producers, many of whom are very keen on practising low-intervention winemaking.

Busch’s Ortswein (‘village wine’) Riesling vom grauen Schiefer 2024 was already charming, with honeyed elderflower, daisy and a creamy, spiced palate.

More mesmerising was the Marienburg GG 2024, from a southeast-facing ‘great growth’ vineyard: a complex mix of wild herbs, lemon oil and nectarine, bright yet polished, with exhilarating green fruits.

Minerality was my first impression of the Marienburg Fahrlay-Terrassen GG 2020 (£54.30 Honest Grapes), from the prized blue slate plot: waxy and zesty, with fantastic tension and an almost signature spiciness.

Finally, the 2011 Marienburg Falkenlay GG from vines (more than 85 years old) grown in deep grey slate. An explosion of pineapple, dried mango, butterscotch and sour yellow plum. Layered, vinous and spicy, finishing long, with touches of nuts and umami.

What a treat!

20 years of Palladius

‘This is a snapshot of 24 years of work – which is nothing in the wine world,’ noted South African winemaker Eben Sadie at a vertical tasting of his star white blend Palladius.

Inspired by wines from France and Spain, his idea of creating a blend to express the complex geology of Swartland was radical for the Cape at the time.

Going back to the first vintage, the 2002 – a blend of Chenin, Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Chardonnay – he recalled: ‘The first Palladius made quite a few waves. Someone called me an enfant terrible and it took a while to shake that.’

Today, the sophomore 2003 vintage bears comparison with an aged white Rioja – savoury and structured but wearing its age lightly.

It was fascinating to taste the evolution of this icon, from the introduction of Clairette in 2007 through to the first use of a pneumatic press and addition of Semillon and Palomino in the standout 2009, the transitional 2013 vintage where Sadie started to ferment juice in ceramic and concrete rather than wood, and the relatively recent addition of Vermentino, Grillo, Cinsault Blanc and Assyrtiko.

The current release 2023 (96pts, £96£119.72 Bordeaux Index, Mayfly Wine Co, NY Wines) is a complex blend of 13 varieties, with thrilling purity and freshness; saline and structured, with nuanced herbal tones.

The father of Greek wine (in the UK)

The fact that the exciting wines of Greece have become almost mainstream in the UK today is largely thanks to one man.

Steve Daniel has championed Greek wines for decades, first at Oddbins and now at Hallgarten & Novum.

The importer held a tasting to showcase its Greek portfolio at The Swan at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, with producers pouring the wines.

Glorious sunshine and blue skies added to the Mediterranean vibe. There were highlights aplenty, familiar and new, and I’d encourage Grecophile readers to explore the portfolio online.

Lovers, like me, of Assyrtiko whites and Xinomavro reds will be spoiled for choice, but also take a look at Vidiano, the Cretan white grape tipped enthusiastically by Daniel as ‘the next big thing from Greece – like Chardonnay but with a more lifted, saline character and a herbal edge’.

The two examples on show illustrated how malleable (like Chardonnay) it is. Oenops, Vidiano 2024 (£21.90-£24.95 All About Wine, Hallgarten Wines, Vin Cognito, Vinvm), from 24 plots vinified separately in a mix of oak, amphora and concrete, is rich with stone fruit and warm lemon.

In contrast, Idaia Winery’s Ocean Vidiano 2025 (£19.95-£21.83 Great Wines Direct, Hallgarten Wines, The Whisky Exchange) is breezy and crisp, all sea spray and summer freshness.

‘Mâcon-like, in contrast to the Puligny-like wine from Oenops,’ observed Daniel.

Fruity and Franc

At the height of summer I enjoyed two very different reds – in wildly contrasting locations.

In the picnic table ice bucket in a friend’s garden, the Viña Sol Fruity Red 2025 (£8.20 Ocado) from Spain’s Familia Torres – condensation beads running down its clear glass and the liquid inside beckoning quenchingly, like cherryade – was hard to resist in the heat.

The unoaked blend of Garnacha and Tempranillo was bursting with ripe raspberries and tangy redcurrants; juicy, uncomplicated enjoyment at just 11% abv.

A few days later (and no longer wearing shorts and flip flops), I was in the air-conditioned grandeur of London’s Vintners Hall to meet winemakers from the Iconic Wineries of British Columbia, including new technical director Emily Faulconer, who will oversee winemaking and viticulture across its stable of seven family-owned estates.

It’s a big move to Canada from Chile, where she held the same role for the Chadwick group (Errazuriz, Viñedo Chadwick, Seña), but she’s excited at the possibilities ahead – particularly for Cabernet Franc, which she sees as the Okanagan’s new calling card.

Mission Hill Family Estate’s Terroir Collection Cabernet Franc 2022 (£70 Goedhuis Waddesdon) is smooth and seductively dark, with vibrant black berries and herbal lift, deserving of its Silver (93pts) medal in the 2025 Decanter World Wine Awards.

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Vintage conditions and the 2024 Chardonnays

While 2023 in Margaret River was a dream of a vintage, 2024 took the region’s winemakers by surprise thanks to the earliest harvest on record. Many started picking a month earlier than usual, which proved logistically challenging.

But while winemaking staff holidays were cut short, careful vineyard management and astute winemaking paid off and there’s no shortage of excellent wine from 2024.

‘It was the earliest, driest, hottest vintage on record,’ says Vanya Cullen (pictured, above) of Cullen Wines in Wilyabrup. ‘It was a more challenging vintage, and I think that’s when the vineyard management shows.’

Joanne Davies at Windows Estate in Yallingup agrees: ‘Vineyard management is important in all years, but it was very important in 2024.’

While the overall quality was fantastic, interestingly, when wines lacked balance, it wasn’t due to overripeness.

Instead, they had an angularity, with very striking acidity, perhaps from picking a little too early to mitigate the unseasonable warmth.

The Margaret River region spans more than 100km from north to south, so there’s plenty of diversity.

Variables include distance from the (Indian) ocean, latitude, soil composition, clonal material, vineyard management and winemaking choices.

In my opinion, the 2024 vintage conditions have amplified that diversity, with every winemaking choice spotlighted.

The best wines have firm structure, energy, fruit clarity and bright natural acidity.

While a degree of reduction – a characteristic of certain winemaking processes typically revealed in flinty, smoky or ‘struck match’ aromas – has become a popular stylistic choice for producers, some should err on the side of caution, since its presence can obstruct a wine’s intrinsic flavours.

It’s a shame when you find wines that should show a core of lovely fruit, but it’s being masked by overzealous reduction.

The 2023 Cabernet Sauvignons

Margaret River’s Mediterranean maritime climate provides a consistent cooling system, rainfall is reasonably predictable, frost is (almost) unheard of, and even the warmest years don’t reach extreme levels.

So when a Margaret River vintage is touted as perfect, you know it’s going to be good.

‘2023 was a really lovely “Goldilocks” type vintage,’ says Glenn Goodall, senior winemaker at Xanadu.

‘It’s probably only in hindsight that I say that, though, because at the time I thought, yeah, that was a good vintage. But, wow, when you see these wines once they’re bottled – and I don’t mean just ours, I mean, everyone’s – they’re all really smart.’

Why was 2023 so great? As per the children’s tale, it wasn’t too hot or too cold; it was just right. Other elements contributed, too.

‘The 2023 vintage is up there with 2018 and 2012,’ declares Cullen, ‘because of the lead-in to the growing season, the warmth and evenness of warmth.

'And then the mildness around flowering ensured good crops. The evenness of temperature really produced wines of great flavour.’

What really stands out is the vintage’s consistency. Despite the region’s wide variability in terms of microclimates and soils, 2023 was an exceptionally fair year to all.

Wines are pretty, aromatic, nuanced and very elegant, with supple, defined tannins and abundant natural acidity. There’s plenty of potential for enjoyment in their youth and for ageing.

The thing about a great Cabernet is that the more you come back to it, the more you find. Some of these wines kept surprising me days after opening.

More top Margaret River wines? In addition to the wines shown below, see here for 10 more each of the 2024 Chardonnay and 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon releases, tasted and rated for Decanter by Cassandra Charlick

Margaret River's new-release Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon

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Pinot Noir has been cultivated almost as long as Malbec in Argentina, Cabernet Sauvignon in Chile, or Tannat in Uruguay.

Yet only recently have South American winemakers begun making Pinot Noirs that stand confidently alongside their flagship reds.

For much of the 20th century, the continent’s simple viticulture and robust red-wine traditions suited the hardier Bordeaux and Basque varieties better.

Pinot Noir demanded another level of precision in the vineyard and winery.

That learning curve has taken more than two decades to navigate, but it has positioned South American Pinot Noir in its most exciting phase yet.

A shift of focus

‘When we arrived in Chimbarongo [in Colchagua], we found these really old vines of Pinot Noir and knew we had a treasure on our hands – old vines, and a variety that no one was focusing on in Chile at the time,’ recalls Matías Ríos, winemaking director at Cono Sur one of the world’s largest producers of Pinot Noir and a key champion of the variety in Chile since the mid-1990s.

‘Our first experiences were a little traumatising, though,’ he admits. ‘We were treating it like a Bordeaux variety! But then we started getting advice from winemakers in Burgundy, and focusing on different winemaking.

'But most importantly, we started looking for different terrains – going to cooler regions and looking for the right clones to plant there.’

That shift – away from simply planting Pinot Noir anywhere and towards understanding what those specific vines needed – was decisive.

The first leap in quality in Chile became apparent in the early 2000s, as much of the original genetic material, often better suited to sparkling wine, was replaced with clones selected for still Pinot Noir and for specific terroirs.

The story was similar in Argentina.

‘The first major lesson was understanding which plant material works best under our conditions,’ explains Roy Urvieta, winemaker at Domaine Nico, Laura Catena’s boutique Pinot Noir project in Mendoza.

Some early assumptions proved wrong. Clones that had become fashionable elsewhere, such as Dijon 777, weren’t always the best fit for Argentine conditions, while other clones and massal selections (from cuttings from existing vine stocks) began showing greater promise.

If I’ve lost you at clone, the point is simple: South American producers have invested heavily in understanding not only where Pinot Noir should grow, but what Pinot Noir should be planted there.

That, combined with the search for cooler sites and a deeper understanding of South America’s unique geographies, has driven the recent quality boom.

Quest for cool

Today, the focus for Pinot Noir is on cooler climates, whether through coastal influence, latitude, elevation or some combination of all three.

Chile’s coastal regions have seen the greatest expansion. Casablanca and San Antonio were the first focal points, where coastal hills receive the cooling influence of the Humboldt Current and morning camanchaca fog, which keep average temperatures low while allowing bright, sunny afternoons.

‘We have great luminosity and solar radiation in the coastal regions, but also these really cool temperatures,’ says Ríos, whose top-of-range Ocio Pinot Noir comes from vineyards in San Antonio.

‘That is the fingerprint of Chilean Pinot Noir. With low yields, the right clones and the right sites, we get vibrancy and freshness but also complexity.’

The search has since moved both north and south along the coast.

From Aconcagua Costa, the next coastal wine region north of Casablanca, the Errazuriz Las Pizarras bottling has emerged as a sanguine Pinot Noir grown on schist soils (pizarra literally meaning ‘slate’); while in Limarí, some 250km further north, Tabalí’s calcareous marine terraces have become one of Chile’s most exciting sources of taut, chalky Pinot.

Even the coastal Atacama, in the form of JP Martin (winemaker José Pablo Martin’s own project) and Ventisquero’s Tara wines, is beginning to show promise, its desert luminosity tempered by cold Pacific influence.

Atlantic influences

In Uruguay, too, the focus for top-quality Pinot Noir has moved closer to the cooling influence of the coast, albeit facing the more moderate Atlantic than the cold Pacific.

With its clay-calcareous soils, Canelones – Uruguay’s main wine region surrounding capital Montevideo – has long been considered well suited to Pinot Noir, but Maldonado – the neighbouring coastal region to the east – has come increasingly to the fore, with breezier conditions and a diverse range of soils, from granites and schists to calcareous and gneiss.

Site selection alone, however, hasn’t been enough. Producers have also had to refine viticulture, learning where the variety’s tipping points lie.

In Uruguay, third-generation winemaker Santiago Deicas of Familia Deicas says yield has been one of the most important lessons.

‘Following many tests, on different soils and microclimates,’ he says, ‘we believe you can’t produce Pinot Noir at more than 5,000 kilos per hectare in Uruguay, otherwise it loses its finesse.’

In a country better known for the structure and generosity of Tannat, Pinot Noir has required a different approach, one based on restraint, balance and precision.

New heights

In Argentina, Pinot Noir was one of the varieties that drove the first high-elevation plantings in Mendoza’s Uco Valley in the 1990s.

Although much of the production was initially destined for sparkling wine, cooler temperatures at altitude soon became a focus for still wines, too.

Today, some of Argentina’s top Pinot Noirs come from the Uco Valley, particularly Gualtallary, Paraje Altamira and San Pablo. Elevation doesn’t only bring cooler temperatures.

‘Each parcel has different soil, plant material and climate conditions,’ explains Urvieta, whose Domaine Nico wines each have the relevant parcel’s elevation marked on the label.

‘Every parcel was selected because it was clearly different from the others. In Villa Bastías, at around 1,100m, the profile is more black fruit, earthy, with more concentration and finer texture; whereas Le Paradis at about 1,500m is a very cold site with stony-calcareous soils and the profile is more austere and floral, with a finer and slightly richer texture and marked acidity.'

Chile’s Pinot Noir is more coastal than Andean, but there are exceptions.

Laberinto in Maule and Sierras de Bellavista in Colchagua both show how cooler mountain sites can produce refreshing, lightly herbaceous Pinot Noirs, shaped by elevation and the biodiversity found on the lusher Chilean side of the Andes.

Pushing into Patagonia

The other frontier is towards the far south. Patagonia is becoming one of the most thrilling territories for cool-climate varieties, especially Pinot Noir, with projects on both sides of the Andes.

On the Chilean side, the rainier climate does make viticulture more challenging, but Malleco, Ranco and Osorno are producing increasingly exciting Pinot Noirs from producers including Undurraga, Morandé, Trapi del Bueno, Casa Silva and Vinos Baettig.

Further south, in Chiloé and Chile Chico, the wines emerging are still few, but they point towards an even cooler future for Chilean Pinot Noir.

On the Argentine side, Río Negro has long been synonymous with top-quality Pinot Noir.

The old, ungrafted vines of the region, which lies at a similar latitude to Malleco in Chile, inspired Sassicaia heir Piero Incisa della Rocchetta, to establish Bodega Chacra in 2003 – its single-vineyard wines, including ’32 and ’55, named for the year the vineyards were planted, helped set a modern benchmark for Argentine Pinot Noir internationally.

Further south still, Otronia is pushing the limits in Chubut with one of the southernmost commercial vineyards in the world.

On the shores of lake Musters, lying at about 45°S, the cold climate and intense luminosity combine to produce Pinot Noir with electric acidity, pure fruit and floral lift.

It remains extreme, with winds rising to 150km/h and repeated frost events, but it’s also one of Argentina’s most promising new sources of Pinot Noir.

In the cellar

Understanding where to plant Pinot Noir, and which clones to use, was only part of the challenge. Equally important has been learning how to approach the variety in the cellar – not by replicating Burgundy or any other Pinot region, but by finding what works for each specific site.

‘Our Pinot Noir for Escaleras de Empedrado is on slate soils, which gives us much darker colour and more acidity,’ says Eduardo Jordán, technical director at Miguel Torres Chile, whose dramatic Empedrado vineyard is planted on slate terraces in Maule Costa, some 120km southwest of Curicó.

‘Over the years, I learnt that you have to respect the place. In our terroir, you can’t try to make a lighter Pinot Noir like Burgundy does. Empedrado always has a deeper colour and more tannin.’

For Jordán, this has changed both cellar and vineyard decisions. Maule Costa may be cooler than Burgundy in terms of average temperatures, but higher peaks of heat and luminosity can produce firmer tannins and sharper acidity in the wines.

The response has been greater sensitivity: gentler extraction, more precise picking decisions and protective canopy management. These lessons haven’t been learned in isolation.

Working together

One of the advantages of Pinot Noir’s recent quality push is that it has largely happened in the hands of a new generation of winemakers, many of whom are open to tasting, sharing and learning together.

In Uruguay, a group of winemakers have met each February for almost a decade to taste Pinot Noir blind, including wines from around the world alongside experimental lots from their own cellars.

‘It has really helped us discuss the wines openly, exchange ideas and understand what we were each doing,’ says Santiago Deicas, who instigated the tasting. That shared learning has built confidence.

‘In the winery, we used to fear macerating Pinot too much,’ he adds. ‘But by working with the skins more, we have learnt how to extract more, but in a delicate way. Without being scared.’

This growing confidence – in viticulture, in cellar work, and above all in interpreting Pinot Noir via South American terroirs rather than European templates – has driven the recent leap in quality.

The clonal investigation and exploration of new regions came first. Now the continent is beginning to see the fruit of that labour, tantalisingly in parallel with greater experience in the cellar.

‘Each year we notice the quality of our Pinot Noir improving,’ says Deicas. ‘Not because we are necessarily changing anything dramatically in the winery now, but because the vines are getting older – and Pinot Noir is a variety that really shows the benefit of vine age.’

Steady progression

The same sentiment is echoed across the continent. The steepest learning curves have already been climbed.

New vineyards have been planted, many existing vineyards entirely replanted, and sites shaped by the accumulated knowledge of the last two decades are only just starting to reach maturity.

For Urvieta at Domaine Nico, the lessons today are more subtle than they once were.

‘Since we started the project, we have not made many dramatic changes, but every year we learn something new – it is part of understanding how we can interpret each place so as to express our landscape more clearly,’ he says.

‘The vines are getting older, and so are we.’

That combination of vine age, accumulated experience and a deeper understanding of South America’s cool-climate terroirs means Pinot Noir is not only enjoying its strongest moment on the continent so far – the best may still lie ahead.

For wine lovers, that is exciting news. South American Pinot Noir remains remarkably affordable compared to many other regions, yet the quality gap is narrowing with every vintage.

The secret is no longer hidden. The only question is how much longer it will remain one.

Upper echelon: Amanda’s pick of 12 South American Pinot Noirs

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Judges: Jonathan Cristaldi, Jenica Flippo and Cara Patricia

By any measure, this was a very strong showing for Napa blends, with half the field of 76 rated Outstanding or Exceptional, and all bar four scoring 90 points or more, confirmation that the valley’s long, cool 2023 growing season delivered structured reds (and a few whites) with complex flavours and expressive personalities.

‘There’s good concentration and freshness here,’ Jenica Flippo noted of one top performer – a refrain that echoed across a full day of blind tasting.

Critical to note, these wines fall mostly in the luxury-to-super-luxury tier, priced from US$50 to $100, with one third of the blends above $100 per bottle, so the calibre of submissions was high.

‘I was prepared for a parade of heavyweight Napa wines,’ Flippo admitted at the close of the tasting.

However, she added: ‘I found many wines that truly impressed me and upended my expectations, leaving me genuinely excited about the 2023 vintage.’

While the results were remarkably consistent, the blends were consistently variable, showing how far the ‘Napa red blend’ category has expanded beyond yesterday’s Left Bank Bordeaux-inspired ‘Meritage’ wines.

Napa Valley blends: Panel tasting scores

76 wines tasted blind

Exceptional 2

Outstanding 36

Highly recommended 34

Recommended 3

Commended 1

Learn more about Decanter's blind-tasting process and scoring system.

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their dry, still Napa Valley wines, 2023 reds or 2024 whites, made using more than one grape variety and not labelled as a single-varietal wine

‘This is a wine that can bring Millennials and Gen Z back to Merlot’

Cabernet Sauvignon still led half the wines, but the panel also tasted Merlot-driven cuvées, Sangiovese ‘SuperTuscan’ style wines, Zinfandel field blends, even Tempranillo and a Syrah-Mourvèdre that Cara Patricia likened to ‘a Napa take on a Côtes du Rhône’.

Another Merlot-led red, from Patel, prompted Patricia’s boldest claim: ‘This is a wine that can bring Millennials and Gen Z back to Merlot.’

Where the judges aligned, they aligned emphatically; Miner Family’s The Oracle drew scores within a point of each other.

On the other hand, ripeness proved a dividing force. With the wines’ alcohol levels spanning 12.9% to a heady 16.2%, the panel split over where ripeness tips into excess.

Hill Family Estate’s Like a Hawk at 14.8% alcohol was downright delicious to me; but Patricia noted, ‘I taste the winemaking more than the wine’.

While the number of 2024 whites submitted was small and focused on Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, they held their own in the ratings.