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

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

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

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

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

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

Decline & rebirth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elemental wines

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

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

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

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

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

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Visitors to Domaine Leroy are greeted with a version of a quote attributed to Salvador Dali: ‘Those who know how to taste no longer drink wine but taste secrets.’

Many would doubtless be delighted to learn the secrets of the proprietor, Madame Bize-Leroy, one of the wine world’s most successful entrepreneurs. Leroy has long been a name with which to conjure.

Maison Leroy was created in 1868 by François Leroy and developed by his son Joseph and grandson Henri, who took charge in 1919.

The present pinnacle of the house’s renown, however, is due to both Henri and his daughter Marcelle, known to the world as 'Lalou'.

Few winemakers have had as lasting an impact on Burgundy and the larger world of winemaking as she has.

Hers were the first notable estates in Burgundy to adopt biodynamic viticulture, and she has produced wines of hitherto inconceivable concentration and power.

Her leadership on biodynamic grape-growing has influenced generations of growers, with many implementing elements of this philosophy, even as the number of certified-biodynamic domaines remains fairly modest.

Lalou also inspired many with her commitment to producing concentrated wines through low yields and rigorous sorting, although her success here was often admired but seldom imitated, since few domaines could command the prices she did, which made this approach economically viable.

First steps

Born in Paris in 1932 to Henri Leroy and his wife Simone Brun, Lalou always longed to work beside her father.

Her dream didn’t take long to materialise – he gave her control of the négociant business in 1955 at the age of 23.

The family had long owned vineyards, and had developed other businesses as well, buying and selling both wines and spirits.

Henri’s great passion, however, was the wines of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC).

He had been a devoted customer and friend to proprietor Edmond Gaudin de Villaine throughout the difficult years of the Great Depression (1929-1939).

When de Villaine’s business partner Jacques Chambon decided to sell his half of the domaine in 1942, Henri Leroy leapt at the chance to purchase it, and in the years that followed, he lavished his attention on it.

As his daughter notes: ‘Henri Leroy made this domaine one of the jewels of Burgundy.’

Perhaps inevitably, his négociant business received less of his attention, and in 1955 his young daughter began to buy the wines for Maison Leroy.

She has long been famed for her acuity as a taster and, judging by the results, she did a remarkable job, even from the beginning.

I have had the extraordinary good fortune to taste many vintages of Maison Leroy wines from the 1960s and 1970s with collector friends, providing indelible wine experiences during the years I was living in Asia and later.

Bottles of 1962 La Romanée, 1966 Grands Echezeaux, and 1971 Corton from Maison Leroy were just a few of the spectacular wines from that era that I still remember vividly.

Frédéric Roemer, the maison’s sales director and Mme Bize-Leroy’s right-hand man, explained at the time that she looked for a classic style, remarking that 'the 1955 is the reference standard of where the house wants to be with the Chambertin, while 1949 is the reference for Musigny’.

Grand holdings

In 1974, Mme Bize-Leroy was named co-director of DRC upon her father’s retirement, working alongside Aubert de Villaine.

Then in 1988, she purchased Domaine Charles Noëllat in Vosne-Romanée and Domaine Philippe Rémy in Gevrey-Chambertin with the backing of Japanese partners, combining the vineyards to form the nucleus of Domaine Leroy.

At the same time, she purchased the interest of her sister Pauline Roch in the vines that they had inherited jointly from their parents and incorporated them into Domaine d’Auvenay, which she owns outright.

D’Auvenay is the home in the hills above St-Romain that she shared with her late husband Marcel Bize and where she still abides.

In 1992, she resigned from her role as co-director of DRC to focus on her two domaines; she was succeeded in this role by her daughter, Perrine Fenal. Domaine Leroy focuses on red wine.

Mme Bize-Leroy is quite specific about its dimensions, stating that ‘it currently comprises 22ha, 19 ares and 85 centiares’.

It includes eight village-level vineyards and eight premiers crus (see box). The pride of the domaine, however, are the nine grands crus.

At Domaine d’Auvenay, on the other hand, the focus was initially on white wine.

She began with vineyards in Auxey Duresses and Meursault, to which she added holdings in PulignyMontrachet and Meursault, including grands crus Chevalier-Montrachet, Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet, with red wines from Bonnes-Mares and Mazis-Chambertin thrown in for good measure.

Biodynamic from the start

Although the négociant wines Mme Bize-Leroy bought for Maison Leroy were brilliant, her lasting contribution to the art of winemaking stems from the rigour and precision she brings to grape-growing and winemaking at her two domaines.

From the beginning, these domaines have been cultivated organically and biodynamically.

Her conversion to biodynamics in 1988 was among the first in Burgundy, and she led the way for a great many others.

Today, many of the region’s top domaines are certified biodynamic, including Domaine Leflaive (certified in 1997), Domaine Trapet Père et Fils (2009), Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair (2012), and DRC (2016), among others.

Mme Leroy specifies: ‘Among other treatments, the vines receive herbal teas and plant decoctions tailored to the season, weather and temperature.’

Bottling is done according to biodynamic principles, on ‘fruit days’ – when the moon is passing through the ‘fire constellations’ of Aries, Sagittarius and Leo (her preference is for the latter two).

When necessary, vines are replanted one by one using massal selection (taking cuttings from a diverse group of the healthiest, highest-quality old vines) rather than replanting an entire block – a technique called repiquage in French, preserving the older vines and increasing the vineyard’s average age.

See articles on previous Decanter Hall of Fame Award recipients

Meticulous methods

The domaine also led the way in introducing a technique known as tressage to Burgundy.

Vines grown in this way aren’t hedged in the more common method; instead, the vine tips are folded back over themselves (tressage translates as ‘braiding’ or ‘plaiting’).

Mme Bize-Leroy believes this reduces the trauma to the vine from the traditional hedging, explaining that the vine tip or apex is ‘the force that pulls the vine from the ground’.

Once the shoots are set, in an effort to encourage photosynthesis the canopy isn’t trimmed. In her words: ‘Le soleil grille, les feuilles nourrissent.’ (‘The sun scorches, the leaves nourish.’)

Some winemakers resist using the technique, arguing that the larger canopies it provides can hold humidity and increase disease pressure, particularly in a humid year.

In all likelihood, however, disease pressure is diminished in the generally hot, dry climate of global warming, and tressage may be the way of the future.

If some decry this labour-intensive technique because it can triple the staff required to work a vineyard, Bize-Leroy values it for producing tiny, concentrated berries.

Some winemakers also suggest that sugar levels are naturally lower when tressage is used, which can be beneficial in a hot, dry year.

She goes on to describe another pillar of her philosophy: ‘Yields are controlled through strict pruning,’ noting that the canes are pruned to three or four buds.

Even in an optimal year, this will yield only 15-16hl/ha, dipping to 10hl/ha or less under problematic conditions.

Yields this low are possible only for exorbitantly expensive wines, and Domaine Leroy has some of the region’s lowest yields.

Leroy fans find that such yields give wines of intense concentration, although some top domaines prefer the equilibrium of wines made from higher yields.

After sorting at the end of the Pinot Noir harvest, the central stem (rachis) is removed with scissors, but the bunches are either left whole, re-shaped with scissors, or snipped with scissors and sorted berry by berry.

Above all, the grapes are left whole to preserve the yeast and other microflora on their skins. They’re gently trodden by foot as needed to release the juice.

Chardonnay clusters are also kept whole until they are pressed in a pneumatic press.

After a gentle fermentation in wood, the wines are racked by gravity into lightly toasted oak barrels from François Frères (made from wood that has been air-dried for three years) for ageing.

No comparison

In the vineyard and in the winery, Mme Bize-Leroy is fiercely true to her own principles.

Although she has many admirers, none have reached the same heights of renown or succeeded in fully implementing the full range of her techniques.

Many have followed her down the path of biodynamics. Fewer implement the laborious tressage technique, or are willing to sacrifice yields to the extent that she has or put in place the rigorous sorting and grape-reception methods that she uses.

Her methods are sometimes compared to those of Jean-Yves Bizot, but Bizot is organic (not biodynamic) and uses less sulphur than Domaine Leroy.

Mme Bize-Leroy prefers stable wines – when asked about ‘natural wine’, Gilles Desprez, her sales manager at Domaine Leroy, commented: ‘She has no interest in natural wine.’

Others have remarked on the influence that Mme Bize-Leroy has had on Charles Lachaux, but their paths have diverged as well.

Lachaux (like Bizot) employs tressage in the vineyard and keeps yields at a draconianly low level, but he eschews extraction and, since 2022, has moved away from ageing in barrel, now ageing his wines entirely in ceramic vessels.

Another vigneron who practices tressage is Olivier Lamy, but here the comparison is less apt, since he’s known for high-density planting in contrast to Leroy’s repiquage at standard density.

Similarities but also striking differences are found with other biodynamic powerhouse domaines such as Domaine Leflaive and even DRC, where the Leroy family still owns a 50% stake.

Perched at the pinnacle

One common point among the aforementioned domaines is the stratospheric prices of their top cuvées, which put these wines out of the reach of everyday wine lovers.

This unfortunate state of affairs is perhaps inevitable, given the attention to detail, extraordinarily low yields, high-touch vineyard and winery techniques, and a luxurious maturation regimen lavished upon all the wines at Domaine Leroy, from the Aligoté to the Musigny.

This is not a domaine that struggles to sell its wine, even when the economy slows.

It’s a testament to the rare ability of Lalou Bize-Leroy that she has maintained her perch at the pinnacle of Burgundian wine through good times and less good times, and, in doing so, has left us a vinous legacy that will surely stand for decades to come.

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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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A variety, not a style

Malbec is mostly associated with the steak-friendly, sweet-fruited, often heavily oaked styles that became a staple in pubs and steakhouses in the early 2000s.

This is not, however, a true representation of the variety’s character and potential.

It can deliver beautiful aromatic nuances, with herbal and savoury touches over crunchy fruit, that make it delicious and elegant.

Elegance beyond wood

One of the best ways to explore Malbec’s true character is to delve into one of the most significant explorations around the variety in the last half decade: the use of a variety of fermentation and ageing vessels.

So seek out expressions vinified in ceramic and concrete, and prepare to be surprised.

Terroir matters

With the increasing understanding of the nuances of terroir across South America – not least in Mendoza – site-specific examples of Malbec convey the variety’s expressiveness and potential for nuance.

Instead of buying nondescript cross-regional blends, spend a bit more on bottles that clearly state a sub-region or even a specific vineyard.

Diverse complexity

Single-variety, single-clonal vineyards (and the resulting wines) are a modern invention, and South America is home to fascinating old massal selections (vines grown from cuttings taken from different high-performing, healthy plants within an existing old vineyard) of Malbec; their genetic diversity translates into more complex wines.

Do a bit of research on the producers that own this type of old vineyard and seek out their wines.

The right temperature

Malbec might be a summer barbecue must-have but it’s often served too warm. Make sure you chill it, bringing the bottle down to 14-16°C before opening.

Don’t be shy about leaving it in the ice bucket.

Make space in the cellar

Benchmark Malbecs have remarkable ageing potential – they’re among the fine wine world’s most overlooked marathon runners.

If you splash out on top Malbecs, patience will bring you great, unexpected rewards.

Pour similar-aged Cabernet Sauvignons alongside them to surprise your guests and challenge their assumptions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Bordeaux Index view

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

Champagne conundrum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Higher prices may be inevitable, but not yet.

Auction record for Judgement of Paris wine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Organic pioneer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A dancing star

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

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

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

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

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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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Not a spirit

Although many sakes are clear, resembling spirits such as vodka or gin, this beverage, made from rice, water, kōji mould and yeast, isn’t distilled.

Alcohol typically ranges between 15% and 17%, just slightly higher than that of wine.

Core ratio

The rice milling ratio indicates how much of the grain remains after ‘polishing’, which removes outer layers rich in fats and proteins to reveal the starchy core.

The lower the percentage, the purer, more delicate and aromatic the sake, such as the premium Ginjo (≤60%) and Daiginjo (≤50%).

Pure or adulterated?

Junmai (‘pure rice’) means no added alcohol, and what’s in the bottle tends to be richer and more savoury; added alcohol Sake barrels often makes the sake crisper, with a cleaner flavour.

Drink fresh, hot or chilled

While you can age some sakes (‘koshu’), the vast majority are intended to be enjoyed young, and many suit a range of temperatures.

Lighter, fruitier styles are typically served chilled; richer styles may be served warm, though this largely depends on personal preference.

An all-round food companion

With lower acidity than wine, sake usually tastes rounder and slightly sweeter, making it suitable for a wide range of dishes.

Pick a Junmai for a first try; sparkling sake also makes a refreshing summer aperitif.

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Beware clear bottles!

Rosé Champagne is often bottled in clear glass, but bottles that sit on brightly lit shelves or in windows are vulnerable to ‘light strike’, a fault that gives wine an unappealing vegetal, savoury flavour.

The red wine factor

Most rosé Champagne is made by the ‘assemblage’ method, with red wine from Pinot Noir added at the blending stage.

The amount of red wine added is the major factor in how deep the style is; Taittinger and Ruinart, for example (with at least 15% red wine), are deeper and fruitier than Bollinger or Charles Heidsieck (below 10%).

Upping the intensity

Less common are ‘macération’ or ‘saignée’ styles, which are made by extracting colour directly from Pinot Noir or Meunier grapes at harvest time.

Wines labelled ‘saignée’ tend to be darker and more intense.

Pink for white lovers

If you enjoy the blanc de blancs style of Champagne (made from the Chardonnay grape), there may well be a rosé for you – producers such as Ayala make delicate, citrussy rosés with more Chardonnay than Pinot in the blend.

Cellarworthy styles

Just because it’s pink doesn’t mean it won’t age. Vintage and prestige rosés can be just as ageworthy as the white versions; try cellaring them for at least three years after release to bring out delicious spicy, dried fruit complexity.

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Don’t be in a rush to drink it

Most of us think of Sauvignon Blanc as an aromatic, early-drinking style, but Sancerre offers so much more.

Do as the growers do and wait a few years for the primary fruit characters to soften, revealing the complexities of the terroir.

The 2022 vintage is drinking beautifully right now.

Check out cuvées parcellaires

Small-batch wines from specific sites have proliferated in recent years, reflecting the appellation’s complex geology.

While there are no designated premiers crus in Sancerre, look out for wines from premium vineyard sites such as Monts Damnés, Cul de Beaujeu and Chêne Marchand.

The significance of silex

Following the success of the late Didier Dagueneau’s wine Silex, the name has almost become a brand in its own right, featuring on many Sancerre labels. ‘Silex’ is a reference to flint or silica.

These soil types make up a minority of the vineyard area in the region and produce wines said to possess a distinctive, powerful and smoky minerality.

It’s a great destination for wine lovers

One of the prettiest villages in France, Sancerre is perfect for a tasting trip. There are countless opportunities to visit and taste, often paired with a plate of the local goat’s cheese.

The vineyards are crisscrossed by a network of hiking paths and cycle trails for those wishing to get up close and personal with the vines.

Producer name is key

Sancerre sells at a premium these days, so it pays to seek out good producers.

Happily, there’s no shortage of winemaking talent, to be found at domaines Tabordet, Paul Prieur, Denizot, Claude Riffault and Jean-Philippe Agisson, to name a few.

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Are today’s collectors cellaring more white wine?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Bordeaux Index view

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

Back to the future

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Perhaps the greatest change, however, is cultural.

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

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

Auction highlights: Italy & rare Sherry

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

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

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

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

Elsewhere, Zachys offered Italian gems from New York’s legendary, now-shuttered Barbetta restaurant; the Rolling Stones and Al Pacino are listed among its past patrons.

A Delaware-based ‘live’ sale in late June featured several wines from the 1990s, including 12 bottles of Bruno Giacosa, Santo Stefano di Neive, Barbaresco 1995: sold for $3,750 (high e: $3,000), including buyer’s premium.

In a change of pace, a Christie’s online auction ending 19 June featured library wines direct from Sherry producer González Byass.

A lot containing a bottle each of Pio IX Moscatel 1846 and La Cuadrada Palo Cortado 1997 sold for £2,500, including buyer’s premium (e: £2,000 – £3,000).

LiveTrade and Wine Hub link up

Private collectors and merchants can benefit from a new partnership between the LiveTrade fine wine trading platform powered by Bordeaux Index and a leading business management system, Wine Hub, created by Wine Owners.

Both partners said their deal enhances access to global fine wine trading, such as by enabling businesses using Wine Hub to trade directly on LiveTrade, plus see real-time pricing and stock availability.

LiveTrade has nearly £50m of in-bond, pristine blue-chip stock readily available for trading at any one time.

On the benefit to collectors, Matthew O’Connell, co-CEO of Bordeaux Index, said: ‘Integrations such as Wine Hub make it easier for merchants to participate in the marketplace as part of their daily workflow.

‘Increased participation drives greater liquidity, and that means broader access to fine wine, improved pricing transparency and a stronger trading experience for private collectors using LiveTrade.’

Coming up

Burgundy charity sale

Christie’s will co-host a charity auction of rare Burgundy wines sourced directly from celebrated producers, plus exclusive experiences, from 4-19 September – in aid of restorations at the historic Cistercian Abbey of Cîteaux.

The sale’s conclusion will also coincide with a charity dinner at Chȃteau Clos du Vougeot.

Ex-Chȃteau Haut-Brion

August is broadly a quieter month for auctions, but autumn is hotting up. Sotheby’s announced in July that it will offer Château Haut-Brion wines sourced directly from the Bordeaux first growth’s cellars.

Bidding opens 17 September and concludes with a ‘live’ auction in Paris on 1 October. Stay tuned for more details.

The Golden Vines weekender

Philanthropy-focused fine wine and gastronomy event The Golden Vines returns to London in 2026, from 6-8 November, said organiser Liquid Icons in July.

Held in support of the Gérard Basset Foundation, the weekend includes The Golden Vines Awards Gala. Tickets are £10,000 per person. See liquidicons.com/london

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In 1985, the Italian government passed a law establishing a legal framework for farmers to offer hospitality services, with the aim of protecting rural and agricultural heritage while helping struggling farms diversify their income.

The law unleashed the first wave of ‘agriturismo’.

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

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

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

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

La Torre alle Tolfe exemplifies this.

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

Authentic experiences

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Strength in diversity

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

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

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

Regional differences shape the form agriturismo takes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Five new-wave wine-country properties to visit

Cadgal

Piedmont

cadgal.it

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cascina Degli Ulivi

Gavi

cascinadegliulivi.it

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

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

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

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

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

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

Valleponci

Liguria

valleponci.it

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

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

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

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

The restaurant reflects the network they’re building.

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

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

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

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

La Torre alle Tolfe

Tuscany

latorrealletolfe.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Emidio Pepe

Abruzzo

emidiopepe.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The sense of rivalry that once existed among winemakers globally has largely faded, replaced by a culture of exchange and mutual support.

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

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

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

Under the radar

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

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

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

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

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

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

A pivotal event

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shared values

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Changing mindsets

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Practical benefits

Collaboration in Rioja now extends well beyond these groups.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Active inertia

In September 2024, I was in Joško Gravner’s cellar near Gorizia in Italy’s Collio region when, after passing rows of clay qvevri and amphorae, I came across something wholly unexpected: a square glass vessel that looked as though it had come from the future.

Despite the fact that humans have been making glass for roughly two millennia longer than they have been using oak, the former’s use in winemaking is a surprisingly recent development.

The 10,000-litre EnoKube – designed for its properties of thermal inertia and resistance – entered Gravner’s vinification process months later.

‘We consider glass to be an inert and pure material that can contribute to the proper maturation of wine,’ estate director Mateja Gravner (pictured, above) explains.

It’s now used to complete a cycle that begins with fermentation in qvevri, continues in large barrels (up to 7,000-litre) and ends in the bottle, ‘which is nothing other than smaller glass’.

A year earlier, when I was interviewing Frank Cornelissen about his move away from skin-contact whites, he drew a careful distinction between Gravner’s use of oak and extended maceration, and his own shift toward neutral vessels in pursuit of purer terroir expression.

Standing before the EnoKube, the connection felt oddly circular, prompting a broader question about the role of glass in shaping wine.

For Mateja, the move comes within a broader context.

‘For a couple of decades, there has been a return to less invasive winemaking,’ she says, ‘where the container takes on the role of service – that is, of “connecting” – much more than [directly] influencing the flavour and development of the content.

Clear case

Pre-dating Gravner’s EnoKube are 220-litre glass Wineglobes, produced in Bordeaux by the Paetzold family from 2015, after an initial request from Burgundy producer Arnaud Ente in 2014.

CEO Marie Paetzold says Ente ‘wanted a material that cannot transfer any metals inside the wine’, in contrast to cement and terracotta. ‘They impact the taste.’

What surprised them, Paetzold explains, was the absence of expected reduction (the introduction, in the absence of oxygen during fermentation, of unwelcome sulphury aromas that suppress fruit character).

By convention, limiting oxygen should have pushed wines in that direction. Instead, those ageing in Wineglobes stayed open.

‘It evolved during the ageing process,’ she says. ‘We were surprised by the liveliness and the purity in the glass.’

The aim was not only preservation, but expression: ‘We keep 100% of the potential of the grapes,’ she says, ‘but we still wanted the result of a great wine, with the polish, the harmony you expect from oak.’

The difference lay in the glass itself. Tinted versions, requiring added metals, produced tighter, more austere wines more prone to reduction.

Fully transparent glass, free of metals, behaved differently altogether, yielding ‘purity, liveliness, energy, vibrancy’, she says. ‘It was important to protect, but also to express the wine during the ageing process.’

Other advantages of Wineglobes (and other glass vessels) include the durability (they last forever in theory); the ability, thanks to glass being easier to clean, to reduce the amount of sulphur used to one third of what would be expected in a wooden barrel; and that, unlike wooden barrels, you don’t lose liquid to evaporation.

Assessing the options

In Etna, Sicily, Frank Cornelissen (pictured, above) uses fibreglass epoxy tanks with a similar aim.

‘They bring whatever the grape brings,’ he explains. ‘They are basically tubes and you mould the bottom, you reinforce it to be able to hold the pressure and whatever else.’

Large tanks are used – 5,000, 8,000, even 10,000 litres – round in shape, so the lees can float freely and easily into suspension in the tank when the seasons change.

The trade-off is cellar space efficiency, but for Cornelissen it’s preferable to the alternatives.

‘Stainless steel has an issue with reduction. In other words, steel tanks suffocate the wine, causing unpleasant odours, and the metal surfaces disrupt its natural, living chemistry.’

Cornelissen traces his early attraction to amphorae to a purely logical thought process: because vines grow in soil, clay buried back into the earth felt like the most coherent expression of place – ‘the perfect intellectual way of making wine’, he says.

In practice, consistency proved elusive.

Differences in the clay and its firing meant that results varied from batch to batch, eventually leading to liners and then a gradual shift towards fibreglass.

Georgian qvevri offered a historical precedent, but their beeswax coating left a persistent honeyed note, incompatible with wines aimed at purity and precision.

‘Other materials, like ceramic, I like,’ Cornelissen adds. ‘But they do have an openness, so there is an exchange of oxygen that is a little bit more evolved than, for example, with the fibreglass tanks’.

For him, such vessels can work where fruit is more robust, but in terroirs such as Burgundy and Etna they are less appropriate.

‘That needs to be put into perspective,’ he says. ‘Suppose I had chosen Burgundy [as opposed to Etna] as the area to go and produce wines – there, oak does have a historical logic to it. And so then it becomes much more complex just to skip a historical ingredient.’

Still, he qualifies: ‘I think you can also make great Burgundy in fibreglass tanks.’

Not set in stone

Arnaud Ente was the first big name in Burgundy to head in that direction, having adopted Wineglobes for all vinification and ageing in 2023 (he started with white premier cru wines and reds in 2019).

Another Burgundy producer moving away from oak – with similar aims, but a different choice of vessel, is Charles Lachaux (pictured, above).

His wines have also been held in greater esteem by critics since he switched production to sandstone tanks, with ageing upped to 36 months.

‘I didn’t want to use glass because glass doesn’t breathe,’ Lachaux told me over the phone just before the new year, as he was about to bottle the 2022 vintage.

‘Since the [sandstone] ceramic vessel still allows oxygen to go through, it’s not completely hermetic – it still has a certain porosity. And it’s neutral compared to concrete.’

The vessels are ‘only sandstone and water, there is nothing else’, he adds, ‘so it’s pure and there is no conductivity’.

He also prefers them to clay amphorae, which ‘still let some oxygen breathe in’, and this ‘doesn’t suit the fragility of Pinot Noir; even more so for long élevage’. He compares the ceramic vessels to low-temperature cooking, which you feel in the wines.

‘They’re more accomplished, more defined, but they are raw at the same time, which is quite particular.’

This is something he was looking for, because ‘it’s a way to be more transparent to the vintage, appellation and terroir’

Pros and cons

Other producers express a similar scepticism about the ability of wines to breathe in glass vessels.

‘I like the purity of it,’ says Eric Narioo, producer with his wife Anna Martens of Vino di Anna in Etna, but the problem is ‘it doesn’t breathe at all.’

What this means for him is a slower fermentation, and more reductive notes than you would get if using wooden containers.

They produce Vigna Pirao, a red field blend of pre-phylloxera, ungrafted Nerello Mascalese (and other varieties) – and one of 13 cuvées – in glass demijohns, but to counter the reduction problem, the wine settles in 600-litre chestnut barrels for six weeks.

‘There, it kind of recomposes itself, and then the wine is happier,’ Narioo says. ‘It does breathe before going back into the bottle.’

But the reasons for not adopting Wineglobes aren’t always technical.

For Rajat Parr in the US, using them became financially untenable. After producing his pink-skinned Chardonnay grown on Phelan Farm in San Luis Obispo Coast, California, for three straight vintages (2021-2023), he reversed course.

‘I loved it because the maceration was really even. The [Wineglobe] opening was small. And ageing it was great… It was completely pure.’

What he didn’t like was the turbidity, which meant the wines needed more time to settle – he was ageing them in the Wineglobe for just one year, but it would have taken two to three years to reach his preferred level of clarity, he says.

This, in the end, led him to sell his Wineglobe. ‘If I had a lot of money, I would have bought more of them and figured out a way to settle the wines longer.’

All in the mix

Still, winemakers are increasingly turning towards glass – and other neutral vessels – to create purer expressions of terroir.

Many, like Gravner, see them as part of a broader cellar, which doesn’t necessitate abandoning oak entirely.

At Domaine François Chidaine in the Loire, for instance, Pierre Chidaine makes a Chenin Blanc from an even mix of oak and Wineglobes (his mother Manuéla insisted that 100% glass would be too much of a stylistic shift).

What is clear is that the search for neutrality – containers that exercise little or no influence on the wines during production – will increasingly come into play, even if producers don’t make a total switch.

Felix Gabillet, winemaker at England’s Hambledon Wine Estate, for instance, has recently brought in clay, ceramic and glass (Wineglobes) alongside the stainless steel and oak they already work with.

‘The main objective,’ he explains, ‘is to preserve the fruit and the minerality and salinity of the terroir, to bring maturity and complexity without masking the wine with oak.’

The Hambledon team did the first tasting post-fermentation of those vessels in November 2025, and they were very pleased with the results.

‘There is a difference in texture and volume already between them and in comparison with our standard tanks and oak barrels,’ he says. ‘Each of those vessels brings something very interesting.’

The future, it appears, is a greater mix of vessels in wine cellars.

For Antoine Arraou of Château Lafitte in Jurançon – who works with everything from stainless steel and oak barrels to concrete eggs, stoneware, terracotta and porcelain – the key is to find what works best for the raw material.

‘I don’t believe any grape variety is inherently meant for a particular vessel,’ he says.

Still: ‘True neutrality exists,’ he insists, ‘at least, the form of neutrality that best respects the grape.’

Hart’s pick: 10 varied and fascinating wines made using alternative vessels

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While most people plan to visit Spain during their summer holidays, there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy its best-known wine region throughout the year.

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

Winter

Hit the slopes in Valdezcaray

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

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

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

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

Spring

Pretend you’re a pilgrim

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

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

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

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

Taste wine in a castle

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

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

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

Summer

Fight in Haro’s wine battle

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

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

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

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

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

Taste your way through the Barrio de la Estación

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

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

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

Autumn

Celebrate the harvest in Logroño

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

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

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

Fall in love with lamb chops in Rioja Alavesa

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

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

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

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For New Zealand’s aromatic whites ‘small but mighty’ could become the catchphrase – excluding Sauvignon Blanc, which obviously needs no introduction.

Making up just a tiny fraction of New Zealand’s total production, and often representing a labour of love for those who champion them, these aromatic varieties are nevertheless behind some of the country’s most thrilling and distinctive white wines.

Collectively, they make up less than 8% of New Zealand’s total planted area (including reds), bolstered considerably by the rise of Pinot Gris, whose plantings are nearly five times that of Riesling (see box), which in turn dwarfs Gewurztraminer. Albariño, generating real excitement in recent years, still boasts just 65ha, while semi-aromatic Chenin Blanc has dwindled to a mere 22ha, albeit in dedicated hands.

There aren’t a lot of these wines around, but they offer exceptional quality and remarkable value for drinkers willing to seek them out.

Paul Pujol, winemaker and general manager at Prophet’s Rock in Central Otago – and formerly the winemaker at Alsace’s Kuentz-Bas, the first non-family member to hold the position in the domaine’s 200-year history – is a passionate producer of Pinot Gris and Riesling (alongside a soon-to-be-released four-variety blend including Gewurztraminer and Muscat).

‘Outside Europe, there aren’t many places you can achieve the vibrancy, purity, intensity and freshness, and the true cool-climate expression of aromatic whites that we get in New Zealand,’ he says.

He feels that the varieties have been overshadowed by Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc.

Perfect conditions

The quality and distinctiveness of these varieties stem from New Zealand’s southerly, largely maritime-influenced growing conditions.

These create long, cool, generally sunny seasons, often combined with significant diurnal temperature shifts, that intensify varietal expression while enabling a wide range of styles, from bone dry to botrytis-affected.

Most wines are made with at least a few grams of residual sugar, offset by vibrant natural acidity that gives the best examples appealingly clean finishes.

Winemaking is largely centred around the use of stainless steel containers to preserve fruit purity, though producers are increasingly turning to older oak, concrete and clay amphorae, with ageing on the fine lees adding texture and complexity.

At Framingham in Marlborough – renowned for producing half a dozen (or more) Riesling styles each season – winemaker Andrew Brown notes that the commercial realities remain challenging.

These wines largely depend on cellar door and retailer hand-selling to find their audience.

‘We are passionate about making the best examples of Riesling we can; the scope may be restricted if we didn’t have the cellar door as a sales channel,’ he says.

But he sees heads increasingly turning.

‘There are some really great examples coming out of NZ at the moment – more textural, restrained and ageworthy.’

Anna Flowerday (pictured, above) of Te Whare Ra, whose Riesling and Gewurztraminer vines are among Marlborough’s oldest, puts it simply: ‘We truly believe that aromatic whites are the unsung heroes. Overseas visitors are constantly blown away by the quality.’

New Zealand's finest non-Sauvignon aromatics

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Melania Battison, Andrea Briccarello and Bruno Besa tasted 61 wines with 3 Outstanding and 25 Highly recommended.

North Italian Pinot Grigio: Panel tasting scores

61 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 3

Highly recommended 25

Recommended 30

Commended 3

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their Pinot Grigio wines, from any vintage, from a northern Italian region: Aosta, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Piedmont or Veneto.

Quality and diversity

Tasting 61 Pinot Grigios might sound like a dream to some, or a slow-burning endurance test to others. I’ll admit I approached it with cautious optimism.

And sure enough, somewhere between glass number 15 and 40, I was reminded why this grape deserves far more credit than it often gets.

Having spent time in Friuli Venezia Giulia, in Italy’s northeast, I’ve seen first-hand what Pinot Grigio can achieve when it’s taken seriously – and how frustrating it is that so much of the good stuff rarely travels beyond Italian borders.

The denomination is evolving rapidly, not just in volume but in quality and demand.

Three key regions in northern Italy were represented in this tasting, each with distinct traits that genuinely help consumers navigate the category, whether browsing a wine list or standing indecisively in a supermarket aisle.

Friuli Venezia Giulia, in particular, refused to be boxed in. As Bruno Besa neatly put it: ‘There isn’t a common denominator here.’ Quite right.

'There is a style for everyone’

The range moved from bright, youthful examples to bottle-aged wines and traditional yet adventurous, copper-hued ramato styles – a result of the natural greyish-pink pigments in the grape’s skins, which will colour the wine if extended maceration is allowed.

Represented in four of the top six wines, ramato stole the show: textured and characterful, they’re proof that Pinot Grigio has a backbone and personality.

Yet across all styles, elegance was the unifying thread in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region.

Veneto, meanwhile, reminded us why Pinot Grigio conquered the market in the first place. The quality-to-price ratio remains unbeatable. These wines were defined by freshness, energy and accessibility – less contemplative perhaps, but joyfully drinkable.

Alto Adige (Südtirol) felt shaped by its alpine climate, delivering precision and consistency: zesty acidity, citrus clarity and subtle texture, thanks in part to the grapes’ thicker skins and the cooler nights.

As Andrea Briccarello concluded: ‘There is a style for everyone.’

After 61 glasses, I can agree and confirm that Pinot Grigio’s greatest strength is versatility without pomposity.

See all notes and scores from the north Italian Pinot Grigio tasting

The judges

North Italian Pinot Grigio panel tasting results:

Wines were tasted blind

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High up on the Col de Durbize, near the top of the Chiroubles appellation in Beaujolais, the view is breathtaking.

Due south, across a rippling wave of vineyard-covered hills, the mounded form of the Côte de Brouilly towers over the landscape. Beyond it, a flat plain spills away towards the Saône river.

On a cloudless day you can often catch a glimpse of Mont Blanc in the far distance, its snow-capped shoulders marking the highest point of the Alps.

The sloping vineyards to the north of the col are punctuated by copses of trees and sunshine-yellow gorse bushes.

Even though you’re less than 3km from the village, it’s peaceful up here, the silence interrupted only by the loud song of blackbirds and the occasional quiet hum of a peloton of cyclists whooshing by.

It’s not just the view that takes your breath away. Even on a sunny spring day, you can feel the wind that blows over the col.

Its name, Durbize, is a portmanteau of bize, the moniker used in the Alps for a cold, dry mountain wind, and dur (meaning ‘hard’), a reference to just how biting that wind can feel when it really gets going.

The bize is often keenly felt by the producers working the steep vineyards that spread out over the slopes beneath and behind the col.

It’s worth bearing in mind that although the Col de Durbize, perched at 500m above sea level, is one of the highest points in the region, some of the Chiroubles vineyards are situated even higher.

Work your heart out

Furthermore, not only is Chiroubles the highest of the 10 crus of Beaujolais – its highest-quality sub-regions – it also features the region’s most vertiginous slopes.

Toiling up and down the sharp inclines in this hilly cru is not for the faint of heart or the weak of limb.

The growers’ task is made even harder by the nature of the vines they’re tending. The vineyards of Beaujolais’ crus are largely populated by ancient bush vines, almost entirely Gamay, many of them so low to the ground that they look like bonsai versions of the more vigorous plants seen elsewhere.

Bending and kneeling to prune these vines, and to harvest the low-hanging bunches, takes a physical toll on Chiroubles’ growers over time.

‘I love being up there in my vineyards. I love the landscape, and the feeling that I’m surrounded by nature, and I love the views,’ says Domaine de la Grosse Pierre’s Pauline Passot.

Then she sighs. ‘It’s incredibly hard work and I have to work my heart out. The vineyards are so steep they just can’t be mechanised – everything has to be done by hand.’

But although those steep slopes, buffeting winds and old vines may be a tribulation for grape-growers, they are a distinct advantage in the context of climate change.

While the Chiroubles cru may have struggled to ripen its grapes in past years, when chaptalisation (adding sugar to the fermenting must to increase potential alcohol) was the norm in the region, the freshness derived from elevation and wind is now a positive blessing in a changing climate, when those tending vines grown in riper sites sometimes struggle to keep alcohol levels under control.

Rocky descent

The final piece in the puzzle of the distinctive terroir of Chiroubles is geology. It’s the only one of the 10 crus to be composed exclusively of the pink granite soils for which the region is renowned.

Even Fleurie, the cru most strongly associated with pink granite in most people’s minds, has a fan of alluvial soils situated in the southeast of the appellation.

In some parts of the Chiroubles appellation, geology and topography combine to create incredibly shallow soils in which the bedrock lies exposed, while elsewhere these rocks have decomposed to create relatively deep, free-draining granitic sands.

It’s this combination of elevation, cooling influences and granite soils that gives the wines of Chiroubles a unique tension and energy, while vine age (many of these plants are well over 80 years old) lends concentration and focus.

Chiroubles is typically fine-boned and perfumed: the Beaujolais equivalent, perhaps, of Volnay or Chambolle-Musigny.

Unfortunately for the region’s growers, however, Chiroubles doesn’t command anywhere near the price of the wines of the Côte d’Or, despite their stylistic similarities.

As a result, it’s perhaps unsurprising that over the course of the two years I spent researching my book The Wines of Beaujolais (£35 Académie du Vin Library, September 2025), Chiroubles lost nearly 15% of its vineyard area – and a recent trip to the region suggests that a further 5%-10% of vineyards have been abandoned in the past 12 months.

All this in a cru that is already the second smallest of the 10 in terms of area.

Commercial realities

‘Lost’ is a euphemism in this particular context. What typically happens is that, when a grower retires, he struggles to find anyone to take over his vineyards. These are then left to lie fallow, the grasses growing wild between the tightly spaced vines.

For many growers, farming a hectare or two of Chiroubles is, it would appear, far more trouble than it’s worth.

As Passot points out: ‘Very few people want to take on these difficult vineyards, especially when it’s hard to make a return on the investment in the time and money it takes to farm them.’

She’s not wrong. A quick back-of-an-envelope calculation suggests that the steepest hillside vineyards in Beaujolais cost two or three times more to farm than those that lie on flatter land – possibly even more if you farm organically, as many of the best producers do.

The story of Jules Métras’ La Montagne, one of the finest wines made in Chiroubles, is a perfect illustration of the potential loss to the wine world.

The 2024 vintage of this wine – and of its stablemate, the Vieilles Vignes Chiroubles – is the last Métras will ever bottle.

When I visited him last year, he told me he was giving up his long-term lease on the vineyards with great regret, but with a pragmatic eye on both the commercial realities of the situation and his own physical limitations.

Métras’ father Yvon, one of the pioneers of the natural wine movement in Beaujolais, has recently retired from the viticultural fray, handing over the management of his Fleurie vineyards to his son.

Métras, having decided that he wanted to keep his production on a small enough scale to enable him to operate as a one-man band, was faced with a decision about whether to keep his father’s vineyards or the ones he’d been farming under his own label.

Ultimately, much as he felt an affinity for his plots in Chiroubles, Métras’ calculation was driven by the pragmatics.

‘It’s just far easier to sell Fleurie than it is to sell Chiroubles,’ he shrugged, adding that another factor that influenced him was having watched some of his relatives farm Chiroubles’ sloping vineyards until they reached their 60s.

‘All those years of climbing up and down those hills, tending those low-lying vines, simply wore them out,’ he told me.

And there’s a further issue that makes Chiroubles a challenge for any producer. The hailstorms that sweep through the region with increasing frequency seem to strike the cru with both monotonous regularity and devastating consequences.

Most of the growers in Chiroubles tell me that they count on losing a significant proportion of their crop at least one year in three.

Sometimes, when the hailstorms roll through, they’ll escape with relatively minor damage, but in the worst-case scenarios, 70% or 80% of a vineyard’s potential harvest can be lost in the space of half an hour or so.

For the love of it

And yet this troublesome, capricious cru has a way of working its way into the hearts and souls of those who take the trouble to get to know it.

‘The people who farm these vineyards are doing it for love,’ says Michele Smith of Domaine Chapel, who farms 3ha of vineyards spread across three of Chiroubles’ lieux-dits (‘named locations’).

‘They’re doing it because they believe in the cru. I think that eventually this will resonate with people. Chiroubles deserves the same amount of respect as the more prestigious appellations – maybe even more because of the challenges that it brings. These wines just have the most amazing energy and vibrancy.’

But if the wines of Chiroubles are so good, why are they so difficult to sell?

One of the cru’s greatest problems is that, unlike the larger, more famous crus of Morgon and Fleurie, Chiroubles doesn’t have a big winemaking name – either in its past or in its present – to drive its image.

Most of the grapes grown in the cru have been absorbed into big (and often rather bland) négociant blends, humdrum wines that aren’t likely to attract discerning palates or turn collectors’ heads.

Nevertheless, the wines recommended below are evidence that great winemakers – if not famous ones – are prepared to carry a torch for Chiroubles.

Another issue that may play its part in Chiroubles’ travails is that the distinctive identity of each of the 10 Beaujolais crus isn’t yet widely recognised.

One importer told me, off the record, that the typical response from retailers and restaurants (ones that happily list a couple of dozen wines from Burgundy or a generous handful of Piedmontese Nebbiolos) is: ‘Thanks, but we already have a Beaujolais’.

Given that, for an outlet that believes that listing Beaujolais is a box-ticking exercise, the first cab off the rank is usually either a Morgon or a Fleurie (or possibly a Moulin-à-Vent if they’re feeling really adventurous), poor little Chiroubles rarely gets a look in.

The exhortation to ‘use it or lose it’ is a familiar one to any gym-goer over the age of 40, but it’s less frequently heard in the context of wine.

Nevertheless, the clock is ticking for Chiroubles. It’s time we all realised that the hills of Beaujolais conceal a hidden treasure.

If we don’t, there’s a risk that this particular pot of elegant, perfumed vinous gold will disappear from our lives forever.

Gamay at the extreme: Natasha’s pick of 10 Chiroubles to try

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When you’ve lived in Australia for a while, you’ll eventually notice how many Italians – migrants or their descendants – you meet.

By then you’ll also have noticed how entrenched Italian culture, especially food and wine, is in the local landscape.

Following the major post-war waves of migration, Italy remains within the top 10 countries of birth among Australia’s overseas-born population, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

Many migrants from the post-war Italian diaspora chose to work in agriculture and several Australian wine regions – in particular the Riverina in New South Wales and King Valley in Victoria – boast numerous Italian families whose members have been making wine for generations.

Given this generational exposure and deep appreciation, it’s fascinating to see a small, adventurous group of Australians and New Zealanders travelling in the opposite direction.

I reached out to five of these mavericks, each of whom is carving a name for themselves in Italy, and often bringing a uniquely antipodean adventurous spirit to winemaking, shaking up centuries-old traditions along the way.

Jeffrey Chilcott

Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy, Piedmont

After being part of the Kiwi hospitality scene during the 1980s, Jeffrey Chilcott moved to London to see some of the bands that had never made the long trip to New Zealand performing live.

After a three-month train trip around Europe, he ended up in Italy, where he caught the Nebbiolo bug, prompting him to knock on doors across the Langhe region until Celestino Vacca, the then president of Produttori del Barbaresco, offered him accommodation.

‘People said the Piemontesi may not be so open, but I found the opposite,’ Chilcott says.

In the early 1990s, he would meet with Giovanni Conterno and other old-guard producers to taste local and international wines.

‘New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc was alien to them as a wine style, and they struggled to get their heads around the overtly herbaceous and pungent nature,’ he says.

Chilcott later joined the historic Marchesi di Grésy. ‘I’m the cellar master at Marchesi and I do some travelling for them,’ he says. ‘I’m very close with the family and everyone else in the region.’

Considered one of Piedmont’s top producers, Marchesi di Grésy is renowned for a style rooted in tradition but ‘open to technology’.

Among its 35ha of vineyards, spread across the Langhe and Monferrato, is the monopole Martinenga, owned since 1797 and the jewel in the estate’s crown.

Considered a human encyclopaedia of vintages, Chilcott has witnessed the rise of the modernists, influencing his approach to Nebbiolo.

While he believes the variety demands patience, he acknowledges that incremental fine-tuning – particularly in tannin management and winery hygiene – has opened Barolo and Barbaresco to international audiences.

‘You know Campari? It has that dolce-amaro – bittersweet – quality, intrinsic to a lot of Italian food, and people,’ Chilcott says.

‘In the old days, Nebbiolo wasn’t always harmonious – the dolce [the fruit quality] was not always in harmony with the amaro [the tannins, which could dominate and require significant time to integrate].’

David Fletcher

Fletcher Wines, Piedmont

Born in Adelaide and now an Italian citizen, David Fletcher has always had itchy feet. He was working as a winemaker in Victoria, focused on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, when he first discovered Nebbiolo at a Barolo tasting – the wines stopped him in his tracks.

‘I jumped on a plane a year later to work the 2007 harvest at Ceretto, in the Langhe,’ he says. ‘I wanted to learn everything about Nebbiolo. I thought I might take that knowledge back to Australia – which I did to some extent – but I also fell in love with Italy.’

Fletcher founded his own label in 2009, initially buying grapes from Barolo and Barbaresco, and working out of other producers’ facilities.

It wasn’t until 2012, when he started working full-time as winemaker for Ceretto and stopped dividing his time between Australia and Italy, that he was able to base himself in the latter and fully focus on growing his label locally.

The project began modestly, with wines sold mainly in Australia. For sommeliers there it was exciting to pour a Barbaresco made by an Australian; for the people back in Piedmont, acceptance took longer.

‘There are Barolo families older than me and you put together,’ he says. ‘In Langhe, it’s a very hands-on, relationship-based business. In Australia, you just pick up the phone and someone will do things for you.’

The turning point came in 2015 with the purchase of the building that would become the winery – the dilapidated Babaresco train station, uniquely positioned in a valley surrounded by top-quality vineyards.

‘One morning I walked into the local café and a few pensioners came up to me, patting me on the back and saying I’d done something good for the community.’

Today, Fletcher farms 5.5ha organically, while also making Nebbiolo in Australia under the label of Fletcher, The Minion.

He uses open fermentations, with fully destemmed fruit, extending the ageing beyond minimum requirements in old barriques.

By ‘deconstructing the tradition’, Fletcher has developed a nuanced understanding of the territory.

These days, the only thing he really misses about Australia is his family, though he’s happy to be growing his own in a country where family remains at the heart of everything.

Zoe Johnson

JG Benda, Montalcino, Tuscany

A Sydney-based food and wine journalist with a British passport, Zoe Johnson first bridged the gap with Italy from afar, working in PR for Emilia-Romagna-based kitchen appliance company Smeg and Barilla, the world’s largest pasta producer.

In 2014, she was sent to Venice to assist Australian architects at the Biennale exhibition.

‘From there I decided to stay,’ she says. ‘I promised my dad I would come home after one year, but I never did – it’s still a problem.’

Her path into wine came almost by chance, at a moment when she was considering returning home as she approached 50.

‘I met John [Benda], my partner; he had previously worked in banking and finance in London, and had just bought some land here in Montalcino,’ she says. ‘The 2021 was our first vintage together.’

Though neither comes from a winemaking background, both share a deep love of Italian food and wine. Their 2ha sit at around 550m, higher than many local sites. The couple do everything together, from working in the vineyard to bottling.

The dry-farmed vineyards are certified organic; in the cellar, the approach is firmly minimal intervention, with no temperature control.

They look after distribution and direct-to-consumer events themselves. They only receive occasional guidance from a microbiologist from the University of Florence.

‘We are pruning now; my hand is very sore – I think I have arthritis from using normal cutters. But we’re so humbled,’ Johnson says.

‘I’m staying in Tuscany because if you find a purpose, it doesn’t matter where you are. And I found everything all in one place – the person I love, the job I love and the land I love.’

Trish Nelson

Gazzetta Wines, Lazio

A globetrotter from birth, Trish Nelson changed countries every five years, only arriving in Australia at age 15. Italy took a little longer.

‘I was working in Hong Kong in architectural design and got really interested in sustainable agriculture,’ she says.

‘I then moved back to Sydney and met Giorgio de Maria, sommelier at Berta and natural wine bar 121 BC.’ De Maria’s contagious passion for natural wine proved decisive.

When Nelson travelled to Italy to pursue a master’s degree in sustainable agriculture, she visited many of the producers whose wines had first inspired her in Australia.

An invitation to visit Cantina Giardino in Campania turned into a year and a half there, working in the vineyard and winery. This was followed by stints in viticulture and winemaking at Ajola in Orvieto and Le Coste, on lake Bolsena in northern Lazio, Europe’s largest volcanic lake.

It was there, two hours north of Rome, that she found her base in 2017: a small house and a run-down vineyard above the town, overlooking the lake.

The Gazzetta natural wines – made from organically farmed Procanico, Ansonica, Malvasia, Trebbiano Giallo, Aleatico, Sangiovese and Merlot grapes, among others – are fermented spontaneously, and made without added sulphur.

To stabilise the wines for export – including to de Maria, her Australian distributor – Nelson relies on extended maceration.

‘The tannins are natural preservatives,’ she explains, ‘and if you’re not adding anything and the pH of the wine is high – which it is here, given the volcanic soils – a few days of maceration helps.’

While awaiting Italian citizenship, Nelson admits that life isn’t a bed of roses.

‘It’s beautiful that tradition and regionality are so strong here,’ she says, ‘but as a foreigner, sometimes you feel like a fish out of water.’

Anna Martens

Vino di Anna, Etna

Having begun your career in microbiology at Petaluma in the Adelaide Hills in 1993 and enrolled in the Master of Wine programme six years later, your trajectory might seem set on a prestigious, if conventional, path.

That was certainly the case for Anna Martens, who, in 2004, was offered the position of assistant winemaker at the cult Tuscan estate Ornellaia, where she had previously worked, during the 2001 vintage, in the laboratory.

However, a chance encounter that year with Eric Narioo – founder of UK importer Les Caves de Pyrene and a key figure in the natural wine scene (and now Martens’ husband) – redirected her path to Sicily.

‘Etna was very different back in 2007,’ Martens says. ‘I was working for Andrea Franchetti at Passopisciaro. A few cult names from that versante [‘slope’] were on the rise, like Girolamo Russo and Alberto Graci.’

Martens had already been exposed to natural wine producers through Narioo, which convinced her to adopt a low-intervention approach.

The first Vino di Anna red, 95% Nerello Mascalese, 5% Nerello Capuccio (co-planted), was made in 2008.

‘Until that time, I’d always known that if something didn’t work out, I could add sulphur, enzymes, or filter everything,’ she says.

‘We made our first wine by literally putting whole bunches, with no sulphur, into two mastelloni [‘wine tubs’]. There was so much energy in the wine! Producers told us we were crazy, while to the older locals it was reminiscent of their family wine.’

Now splitting her time between London and the village of Solicchiata, on the northern slope of Etna, Martens says that returning to Sicily always resets her.

‘Every time I land in Catania, I take off my watch, drive with an Italian flair up to the winery, and soak in the luminosity of the place,’ she says.

Martens attributes a profound shift in both her approach to production and her lifestyle to what she has learned on Etna, through others and through the terroir itself.

‘I’ve been asked why I used to rush the wines,’ she says. ‘Energetic as I am, when I get to the winery, the surroundings ground me.’

Italian wines made by Antipodeans

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Early Bordeaux 2025 en primeur sales rose on last year’s weak 2024-vintage campaign, according to Geraint Carter of international merchant Bordeaux Index and Miles Davis of Vinum Fine Wines. Farr Vintners’ Thomas Parker MW said sales were up ‘a little’ although below the level of five years ago.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bordeaux 2025 vs 2019: A pricing snapshot

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

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

DATA SUPPLIED BY BORDEAUX INDEX/LIVETRADE

The Bordeaux Index view

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

En primeur own goals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now, did someone mention price?

Leroy leads Burgundy mega-sale

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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While a high-quality baseline determined the tone and rhythm of this report, some producers stood out through wines that not only scored well but also jumped from the glass for their idiosyncrasy and self-assuredness.

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

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

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

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

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

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

These are producers whose wines invite further engagement and discovery.

Arturo & Kike de Miguel

Artuke
Baños de Ebro, Rioja Alavesa

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

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

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

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

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

Carlos Mazo Gutiérrez

Vinos en Voz Baja
Aldeanueva de Ebro, Rioja Oriental

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sandra Bravo

Sierra de Toloño
Villabuena de Álava, Rioja Alavesa

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Victor Ausejo

Alberite, Rioja Oriental

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

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

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

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

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

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

Muga

Rioja Alta

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More from the report

The year after its momentous centenary celebration, producers in DOCa Rioja are going through what some might call a ‘post-celebratory hangover’.

But others – including my fellow tasting judge Beth Willard and I – see it as a moment of exciting development and, crucially, an opportunity to establish a new kind of relevance for Rioja on the world stage.

What does this moment look like? We see it as a point of inflection, in which Rioja’s winemakers become more confident in the quality and character of their wines and the spotlight shines on both small and big names.

New headliners

Last year was not merely a token landmark anniversary.

The centenary coincided with never-before-seen quality levels and the coming of age of a bubbling community of maverick independent growers whose wines – some of which topped this annual report’s scoring charts across categories – questioned where Rioja was heading by reminding everyone about where it had come from.

This year’s report is witness to a new canon that is steadily establishing and framing itself, built from strong historical foundations while animated by a sense of benevolent dissent.

If one of the sections in last year’s Rioja guide report focused on the unsurprisingly standout performance of the long-standing classics of the region, this year a new cast of protagonists (the classics of the future?) has fully come into focus.

It’s an exciting, satisfying validation of many producers that we have long been rooting for and are now topping the score charts (and, in some cases, the investment market spreadsheets).

Overall, this has allowed stylistic expressiveness and character to develop, while also consolidating a more layered yet cohesive portrait of Rioja as a region of great (and significantly differing) terroirs and wines.

In front of these producers is a make-or-break challenge. We circle back to the idea that this is a tipping point for Rioja; leveraging this explosion of potential relies on the ability to deliver what Pablo Franco, technical director at DOCa Rioja, himself identified as a key goal: to support both small producers as innovators and big producers as consolidators, while allowing an overall balance of legacy and progress.

Creative tension

This means embracing an inevitable tension between different – but certainly not incompatible – ideas on typicity and style in Rioja’s wines.

Evolving beyond the traditional age-based categories is necessary; but so is the preservation and fine-tuning of those categories.

If stylistic freedom, based on a vineyard-first purity principle (see Stylistic variations with the 'generic' category and Vino de Municipio & Viñedo Singular), is yielding remarkable wines, equally of note is the finesse and identitarian strength (and outstanding value) of Rioja’s Crianzas and Reservas.

There’s a gradual but inevitable recognition that those differences are not, as perhaps many once thought, contradictions – they are rather expressions of the inherent complexities of a region that has evolved steadily through its long history, forging a strong heritage while never shying away from innovation and progress.

Perhaps the most obvious expression of this magnetic tension is the different attitudes towards the Vino de Municipio and Viñedo Singular categories introduced in 2017, implementing a geography-based quality pyramid in parallel with Rioja’s long-standing ageing-based categorisation.

The quality of the increasing number of wines released with these top-tier regional stamps fully justifies their creation – which ultimately, in the view of myself and Beth, helps to better contextualise the region’s other categories.

Explore the full 2026 Rioja Report