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).

Related articles

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

One of the main myths debunked by Rioja’s spectacular (and exciting) shake-up since the turn of the millennium, is that the region is synonymous with Tempranillo.

The ubiquity of high-yielding Tempranillo clones, replacing field blends where multiple varieties had grown alongside each other, is relatively recent; a process that happened in the last third of the 20th century.

It’s unsurprising, therefore, that with the backlash against the Rioja region’s ‘industrialisation’ coupled with renewed interest in origin and terroir came an interest in the vineyards and varieties of yore, and in the once-dominant Garnacha in particular.

And it’s certainly not by chance that many of the Vino de Municipio or Viñedo Singular wines submitted for tasting for this year’s report were either single-varietal or Garnacha-led blends – you’ll find plenty here.

Nuance & precision

And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Garnachas being produced in Rioja are marked by nuance, precision, delicious drinkability and an ever greater sense of place.

Those are, ultimately, the purposes of the renewed interest in the variety.

‘It surprises me that Garnacha from Rioja continues to surprise – if that makes sense!’ says Beth Willard.

‘There’s been a focus on Garnacha for quite some time and there have been wonderful wines bubbling away under the surface. Perhaps the really interesting, more recent development is the advance of more specific identities for different sub-regions, even different towns.’

Handled by mindful winemakers, Garnacha has a notable transparency, expressive of both origin and winemaking philosophy.

The realisation has impacted on the region’s wines more broadly – there are echoes of this newfound fragrant lusciousness in the finesse and genius loci (‘spirit of place’) gained in recent years by the Crianzas and Reservas (and to an extent even Gran Reservas).

Reversing genetic and historical erosion is not only a tale of Garnacha: it also explains Rioja’s ‘White Revolution’ , as well as the exploration of other red varieties.

Mazuelo once again performed well in our tastings, with standout examples really showing the grape’s balance of elegance and rusticity.

And we had a surprising flight of Maturana Tinta wines: a modest but clear prelude of better things to come.

‘There are many really interesting Maturanas, but it is a variety that still has a way to go in terms of finding its identity and a connection with the final consumer,’ concludes Willard.

The wines we tasted suggest that it’s a worthwhile quest.

Garnacha & friends: Highlights from the 2026 Rioja Report

Garnacha

Mazuelo

Maturana Tinta

Full score table coming soon

More from the report

The ‘Genérico’ category of the Rioja classification system has been the stage for Rioja’s spectacular evolution in the last couple of decades.

It’s here that, without the corset of (in some cases arguably obsolete) rules for required periods of ageing in wood and for vessel types, producers have found the space to experiment and (re)discover the essence of the region and assert their own identities and styles.

This explains why so many of Rioja’s most exciting new wines – including most of this report’s top-scorers across categories – come without a Crianza, Reserva or Gran Reserva stamp.

As you will see in this section’s wine selection, and in those that follow, this has been the fertile ground for the growth of a diverse, riveting landscape of wines that explore terroir and varietal diversity – from fragrant Garnachas and alluringly rustic Mazuelos, to the new village and single-vineyard wines.

Genérico is also, inevitably, the stage for the many and urgent reinterpretations of Tempranillo, reflecting the wider, ongoing explorations of terroir, looming concerns about climate change, and the ever more confident assertiveness of personal identities in winemaking.

In this selection of wines, we see a region in fast but quiet motion, looking for excellence in simplicity and diversity through the lens of purity and nuance.

Freedom of expression

Here, boutique and powerhouse producers mingle in a quest for authenticity that creates an understanding of Rioja that’s at once more diverse and more clearly defined.

The result is a more focused and expressive use of the Tempranillo variety, not as an end in itself but as a tool to convey time, place and philosophy.

Approachability, fluidity and definition are balanced by a very Riojan rugged elegance.

And it’s also great to see producers leaning confidently into the character of each vintage, prioritising the ‘truth’ of the fruit rather than winemaking or style.

On the other hand, the decision of when to release each wine is itself a stylistic choice – the contemporary release of Tempranillos from the troubled yet promising 2024 vintage, of the superb 2021, and of mature, still vibrant 2015s and 2016s is yet another sign of the unique dynamism of Rioja.

Always complex, never boring.

Highlights from the 'Generic' category: 2026 Report

Full score table coming soon

More from the report

The fast-evolving rosé wine offering from Rioja shows such an interesting, multifaceted side of the region, deeply rooted in tradition while also nodding to modern trends.

However, most producers still seem to approach the category tentatively, as if to do so would require them to choose between classicism or hipster cool.

They shouldn’t worry: the fact is that Rioja’s pink-hued tradition is inherently fashionable now.

We definitely want to see a bigger rosado/clarete lineup in our annual tasting next year!

Among those that bravely stepped forward in 2026 were the delicious, characterful examples highlighted below.

Rosados and Claretes: Highlights from the 2026 Report

Full score table coming soon

More from the report

The allure of Rioja’s barrel-aged Crianza and Reserva wines has always been their consistency and unpretentious, approachable classicism.

This is increasingly the case, as producers have further honed their use of wood, no longer relying on it as a crutch (to mask poor-quality wines), but rather leveraging it as a sophisticated frame.

The showing for both categories in our tastings this year was remarkable, especially when the quality and character of the wines is considered alongside their price tag.

Beth Willard articulates it clearly: ‘The value of these wines is astonishing; particularly those priced in the €15-€30 range [in the Spanish domestic market], which will buy you something that would likely sell at double the price if it were from another region.’

Core identity, renewed flair

If the price tags are friendly, so are the wines themselves, poised yet deliciously drinkable, classical yet approachable and fun.

It’s great to see these categories evolving while retaining their identity and intrinsic appeal; and to see stylistic differences emerge, yielding wines that are interesting and characterful.

‘The diversity of styles among the Crianzas is impressive,’ says Willard, ‘as well as the fresher, brighter nature of the wines. Sure, there’s still plenty of classic oak cues – offering reassurance – but there is less reliance on wood.’

Freshness and elegance were indeed the recurring attributes of our favourite Crianzas and Reservas, with the quality of the fruit supported rather than obscured by the oak influence.

It was also interesting to see the Crianzas and Reservas outscore the Gran Reservas – an indicator of the slow (but sure) evolution of Rioja’s most traditional styles.

These wines remain at the core of Rioja’s identity.

That they are becoming ever more exact, nuanced and refined speaks to the fruitfulness of the internal, creative tensions mentioned in this report’s introduction.

As Pablo Franco of DOCa Rioja put it, the future of Rioja requires ‘evolving beyond traditional [wood-aged] styles without losing them’.

If Rioja’s Crianzas and Reservas are supposed to be a place of comfort and guaranteed satisfaction for wine lovers, they are certainly meeting the brief, with renewed character and flair – these are wines that deliver more than expected, seemingly without trying too hard.

Crianza & Reserva: Highlights from the 2026 Report

Crianza

Reserva

Full score table coming soon

More from the report

‘Rioja is truly starting to cement itself as one of the great white wine regions in the world,’ says Beth Willard.

‘The work of the past decade is coming to fruition with experimentation around styles, varieties, recuperation of old vineyards and planting of new ones all coming together in a real sense of place. Producers seem more comfortable than ever in their own styles.’

The turnout of whites was, not unexpectedly, remarkable – and certainly a step up from last year’s.

If in 2025 we noted that there was a significant number of samey, less-than-exciting bottles (technically correct wines but somewhat lacking in identity and regional typicity), one year on this was decidedly not an issue.

The sense of experimentation we previously felt lacking has now begun to percolate through from the red cohort.

Hopefully this will soon translate into more varied use of fermentation and ageing vessels, as well as wider, more confident personal imprint – which is the hallmark of the outstanding top-scorers in this selection.

The latter are world-class new classics, both from established and maverick producers.

These are forged when, in lieu of trying to fit a generic white winemaking matrix, producers deploy their own interpretation of time and place.

A similar process is happening with the red wines, as the selections in the following pages will illustrate further, but the evolution of Rioja’s whites has been so dramatic, intriguing and fruitful – and so relevant, even beyond the context of the region itself.

World-class potential

The white Rioja category captures, with particular vividness, the different catalysts of Rioja’s current dilemmas and opportunities: the ever more granular understanding of terroir; the different interpretations of classicism versus modernity, tradition versus innovation; the need to spread the word about the premium offering it already has, as made obvious in this report.

The quality of the wines speaks for itself, with textural appeal, structural poise and layered aromatics as common denominators.

‘The trade and consumers will benefit from recognising the outstanding quality and diversity of styles that exist now, and that white Rioja is not a one-trick pony,’ Willard concludes.

One thing we’ll be looking out for in future reports? More Maturana Blancas. The variety is being actively reintroduced by producers and has so much potential to deliver word-class and truly Riojan white wines.

White Rioja: highlights from the 2026 Report

Full score table coming soon

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

The take-up of the Vino de Municipio and Viñedo Singular categories introduced in 2017 – effectively building a Burgundy-like regional hierarchy in Rioja, operating concurrently with the long-standing wood ageing-focused categorisation system – has been less than unanimous among producers, decision makers and commercial stakeholders alike.

It’s understandable that, amid ever growing market instability and social media noise, stakeholders would be fearful of adding another level of complexity to the story behind each product.

I would suggest – and the wines so far released with a village or vineyard-specific stamp seem to support this hypothesis – that these fears completely miss the purpose and value of this still relatively new proposition.

It should be seen primarily as a tool of internal research development – concerning Rioja’s overall identity as well as its technical aspects – that helps to build and define ‘brand Rioja’.

The new regional categorisation has catalysed a much clearer understanding of Rioja not as a monolithic entity but as a system that contains multitudes; a place with a strong, multifaceted character made of nuance and depth.

Advancing the region

While tasting for this annual report, Beth Willard and I felt vividly that the renewed focus on terroir ultimately benefits Rioja as a whole – not least the producers so far not engaging with the geographical classification system.

Its implementation, and the heated debates around it, have catalysed more attunement to detail, given licence to more exploration in winemaking and carved space for different terroirs and grape varieties to emerge (or re-emerge).

These site-specific wines indeed help to underscore the variety of styles and grape varieties that defined Rioja prior to Tempranillo’s dominance.

The Garnachas, Mazuelos and Gracianos seen here – and many of the standout white wines that also bear the Vino de Municipio and Viñedo Singular stamps – are testament to that.

Vino de Municipio & Viñedo Singular: Highlights from the 2026 Report

Full score table coming soon

More from the report

There’s a stretch of road I always dread when I’m on my way to Rioja from Castilla y León.

As the highway approaches Burgos, hundreds of trucks snake their way from the south of Spain towards the Basque Country, heading to the north-coast port of Bilbao.

Weaving in and out of this endless queue is exhausting. But exit 57 towards Pancorbo offers much welcome relief. The N232 meanders through the province of Burgos before giving way to La Rioja as the valley sweeps into view.

The road is quiet and gently winds its way eastwards, in the shadow of the rocky Cantabrian mountains to the north and the Sierra de la Demanda in the south.

In spring, a patchwork of green and yellow covers the valley floor as bud burst awakens the vines and vibrant rapeseed flowers come to life, and in autumn the fiery red and amber of the vine leaves form a kaleidoscope of colour.

It’s a majestic landscape, rooted in permanence yet alive with renewal.

Given its centuries of viticultural heritage, Rioja presents a somewhat surprising sense of dynamism and energy rarely found in the world’s most traditional regions.

A new wave of small growers and a younger generation are making vineyard-focused wines; indeed, a tasting in March in Madrid by VIR (Viticultores Independientes de Rioja) offered a diverse and fascinating overview of these producers.

Many of these wines fall outside the traditional classification system (Crianza, Reserva, Gran Reserva), many simply defaulting to the catch-all Genérico designation and embracing the new geography-based Rioja classification pyramid.

Yet in the broader market, both domestically and internationally, it’s often the larger, well-established or historic Rioja houses through which most consumers get to know Rioja.

Historic wineries such as Marqués de Murrieta, CVNE and Marqués de Riscal boast histories that date back well over 100 years.

In the 1980s, Roda became a new member of the band of bodegas in the old Barrio de la Estación in Haro and has helped build brand Rioja alongside its neighbours La Rioja Alta and Muga.

Staying relevant

So how do you adapt to changing tastes and a shifting wine scene?

Many wines have already achieved a high level of success through recognisable styles and critical acclaim.

For Victor Urrutia, owner and CEO of CVNE (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España), the key is remaining relevant.

‘For us, it means perfecting the old, for instance our Gran Reservas, and inventing the new,’ he explains. ‘It sounds dramatic but it is quiet work, interpreting our vineyards as faithfully as possible, and through a different lens. That is how Contino got started 50 years ago as Rioja’s first single vineyard.’

And what is today’s fresh, modern interpretation of those vineyards?

Contino, Don Vicente is a single-varietal wine made from a single plot of Mazuelo. It’s one of only a few wines in Rioja made solely from this variety, which producers are finding to be well suited to the changing climate.

As a late-ripening grape that retains acidity and is quite sturdy in the face of drought, Mazuelo offers potential beyond its classic blending capabilities.

Don Vicente 2021 is only the fourth vintage released and offers something surprising under the reassuring umbrella of the Contino brand.

‘So in effect,’ says Urrieta, ‘we side-step the issue of changing a well-established reference.’

It’s a similar story for Torre de Oña, part of the group of wineries belonging to La Rioja Alta, which has now produced two vintages (2021 and 2022) of El Camino, a refreshing, elegant wine with serious poise and a chalky texture from parcels in Elvillar, far removed from the very recognisable, classically oaked styles of Viña Ardanza 890 and 904 from La Rioja Alta’s iconic range.

‘For a winery like La Rioja Alta, to innovate is not a challenge but a necessity,’ says head winemaker Julio Saénz. ‘To keep defending a style means you have to adapt to new situations like climate change. In the case of El Camino, the vineyard determined the style.'

Rooted in change

For Luis Hurtado de Amézaga (pictured, above), technical director of Marqués de Riscal and sixth-generation of the bodega’s founding family, the future of his winery and the region lies in its soils.

Founded in 1858, the winery has a storied tradition of producing fine wines and impressive stocks of old vintages in its underground cellars, but for Hurtado the key to the future lies in its vineyards: ‘Only a living soil is capable of reflecting the personality of the terroir in the wines and enhancing their varietal character.’

Hurtado has overhauled the winery’s viticultural practices with a ban on herbicides, a new regime of cover crops, organic compost and a keyline planting system to combat erosion and improve access to water on both their own terraces and those of their partner suppliers.

‘It’s all about improving the biodiversity and microbiology of the soils,’ he explains. ‘In this way, old vines can be maintained for much longer with viable yields and the ability to produce high-quality wines.’

A paler shade of Rioja

Developments in the vineyards also extend to a shift in colour.

Whites have always been planted in Rioja, often playing an important role in old, co-planted vineyards (in which different varieties grow beside each other) exploited by some of the most historic wineries.

But the success of Rioja’s reds in export markets saw the area of white vineyards decline dramatically: in 1985, there were 9,094ha of white vineyards; by 2005, just 4,645ha remained.

That year, the Rioja consejo regulador (‘regulatory board’) authorised the planting of new white vines and now there are about 6,000ha producing some of Spain’s most thrilling white wines.

One of Rioja’s most recognisable estates, Bodegas Muga introduced a new white into its portfolio with the 2018 Flor de Muga Reserva Blanco. Now in its fifth release, it’s a modern approach to an oak-aged white that blends Viura with Garnacha Blanca and Maturana Blanca.

Fruit-focused, the wine reflects a wider trend in the region towards serious whites that combine classic cues with a contemporary focus on freshness.

At the forefront of this movement was another foundational bodega of the Barrio de la Estación, Gómez Cruzado (founded in 1886), which released its first vintage of Montes Obarenes in 2013.

The 2021 vintage is a blend of Viura with Tempranillo Blanco, Malvasía, Garnacha Blanca and Calagraño. It continues to be one of the most characterful white wines of Rioja.

Another Haro winery, Bodegas Roda, has also introduced a white wine to its range – Roda I Blanco – launched in 2022 with the 2019 vintage.

But it has also joined a growing number of producers championing serious, ageworthy rosés with the debut this year of Roda, Perdigón Reserva Rosado 2023 (see recommendations, below), a single-vineyard wine made from Tempranillo and Garnacha, and aged in French oak.

Beyond barrels

Oak has always been an important part of Rioja’s wines and continues to be the ageing vessel of choice, but the reliance on wood as the driving characteristic of the wines has certainly diminished.

Marqués de Murrieta is one of Rioja’s oldest and most prestigious wineries, so even its most subtle stylistic shifts merit scrutiny.

The mainstay of the estate, the red Reserva is more elegant and finer in its current incarnation than ever before.

The completion of the new winery in 2021 has allowed for a more precise and careful treatment of individual parcels, including fermentation in concrete and ageing in a custom-built barrel room designed for detailed and delicate evolution.

The move to a prettier and more refined style is perhaps even more noticeable in the Dalmau cuvée, which hasn’t lost any of its concentration but now offers supple tannins and an inherent minerality that points to its freshness and lighter touch.

The new classics

So, who is fanning these winds of change? Are smaller growers and modern wineries shaping future trends or are historic producers with established reputations leading the innovation race? Perhaps the answer is yes and yes!

There’s energy, experimentation and a sense of renewal across the whole region.

But it’s certainly important that these prestigious, world-renowned wineries are adapting and challenging norms – they have the trust of their customers and often the means to market these changes.

Regions evolve and adapt to changing circumstances.

‘To maintain a style doesn’t mean always doing the same thing,’ explains Julio Saénz. ‘It’s one thing to be resistant to change, but another to maintain a style.’

As he acutely observes: ‘All the innovation that we are undertaking today in La Rioja Alta – in 10 years it will be seen as tradition.’

The new, modern wines of today will surely become the classics of tomorrow.

Classic Rioja producers shaping the future: Willard’s pick of six

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Get me a glass of Malbec.’ ‘Add a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to the shopping list.’ ‘I love a good Cabernet.’

Grape varieties have become shorthand for the wines we feel like drinking, sometimes not really giving much thought to their origin or producer.

Sure, the Malbec will be from Argentina. The Sauvignon Blanc? Maybe from Chile – or New Zealand, or the Loire.

The ubiquity of varietal-labelled wines has created an easy way to communicate with consumers. At the same time, however, it has also hindered an engagement with the beautiful, sometimes messy, reality of the vines and people behind them.

This is particularly true in South America, where the development of viticulture is woven into the complex narrative of colonisation.

Single-varietal wines stood for a sense of modernity that seemed to overcome a fractured, contentious past. But things have been rapidly changing in the last decade, as both viticultural and geopolitical heritages are reassessed.

‘South America, and Argentina in particular, followed the Californian [variety-based], rather than the European [origin-based] model, of marketing wines,’ explains 2024 Decanter Hall of Fame recipient Susana Balbo, who, in addition to leading her successful winery, served three terms as president of Wines of Argentina between 2006 and 2016.

‘When we were looking at how to raise our profile in export markets, we did a number of studies and that was the direction that was chosen. In many ways it worked; Argentinian Malbec became a success all over the world. But now we need to overcome that success. We were very comfortable [with the varietal focus] for 20 years, but luckily we’re being forced out of our comfort zone.’

Injecting creativity

Overcoming that success, Balbo and others argue, means engaging with the nuances of terroir and the diversity of grape varieties that make the South American landscape and history both diverse and unique.

Signs of this change in perspective are palpable and have yielded South America’s ‘white wine revolution’ and ‘Criolla revival’. Underpinning these ‘movements’ is a slow but sure shift from single-varietal wines to blends – from prescriptive, technical winemaking to a creative, personal response to terroir.

‘Blends force you to think and speak about wine differently,’ continues Balbo. ‘They inherently tell stories and individual perspectives, rather than “packaged” messages about grape varieties. This is particularly important because we need to champion our heritage – now more than ever.’

Balbo has put this philosophy into practice. As the creator of South America’s first fine white blend based on the Criolla variety Torrontés (her Signature White Blend), she tapped into and, in a way, catalysed many of the ongoing changes.

Blends also bring to the forefront the incredible wealth of old vineyards that South America is home to, and the diverse genetic material that they contain.

Sisters Laura and Adrianna Catena have been fierce advocates for this stock of massal selections (vines propagated by taking cuttings from the best existing vine stocks), which they argue calls into question the notions of Old versus New World that structure orthodox wine discourses.

‘People often think of Europe as the classical source of old grapes, and therefore fine wine,’ says Laura Catena.

‘Without knowing that in fact most of Europe’s vineyards are mono-clonal, relatively new plantings. Meanwhile, in South America we have these incredible, truly old and in many cases ungrafted, massal selections.’

The sisters argue that not only does this bring a different kind of complexity to the wines, but it also lends them a symbolic value that goes well beyond what’s in the glass.

They echo Balbo’s view that heterogeneity forces a different way of talking and engaging with wine, focused on narrative rather than labels.

From California to Bordeaux

In counterpoint to the varietal focus that informed export-growth strategies, as South America’s producers began to toy with the idea of fine wine during the 1990s, Bordeaux was undoubtedly the role model.

Star consultants such as the late Michel Rolland, Paul Hobbs and Alberto Antonini were brought in to produce Cabernet Sauvignon-based blends in Chile and Argentina, only to be surprised by the allure of extreme terroirs that yielded particular expressions of the classical varieties.

If some (Rolland, for example) remained faithful to a signature framework, most winemakers were taken in by the idiosyncrasies of the South American landscapes, laying the groundwork for truly South American classics such as Seña and Nicolás Catena Zapata.

The emergence of a new generation of extremely talented and globally well-travelled local winemakers only helped these wines to evolve into a character of their own, rather than being derivative, Bordeaux-informed iterations.

This also meant, almost inevitably, that Cabernet’s protagonism began to be questioned, not least because varieties such as Tannat and Carmenère found such a strong – and arguably more alluring and nuanced – character away from French climes.

Again, their interpretation has changed significantly over the past few years, increasingly attuned to place and to the synergetic potential of blending.

Santiago Deicas, third generation at the helm of his family' eponymous Uruguayan winery, explains the evolution through two Tannat-based blends produced by Deicas.

‘Preludio [Gran Vino de Corte] was born from my father’s urge to produce a fine, classical, Bordeaux-inspired blend,’ he says.

‘With [Extreme Vineyards] Subsuelo Corte Unico, I really want to convey the essence of our vineyards.’

Reclaiming Malbec

The way in which Deicas discusses his wines is symptomatic of the overall change of mindset to which Balbo alluded.

‘Blends change the tone of the conversation,’ Balbo says. ‘They evoke an identity and individual expression. They challenge [the consumer], while creating possibilities and more intrigue. There’s no script. If you can’t talk about the Malbec or the Tannat or the Chardonnay, you’re forced to talk about your feelings and perception.’

This is true for consumers as much as for producers, whose terroir and blending explorations have actually allowed for a better understanding of each variety – not least the mighty, and so often misunderstood, Malbec, which is in many ways being rediscovered through the lenses of terroir on the one hand and stylistic plasticity on the other.

The latter has seen producers experiment with fermentation vessels, ageing regimes and maceration times, focusing less on extraction and power, and instead seeking more purity, focus and drinkability.

In the pursuit of balance, the genetic diversity of old massal selections has proven an invaluable asset, ultimately highlighting the potential of blending – either in the vineyard or in the cellar.

This is arguably allowing for Malbec to be reclaimed as a variety rather than a ‘brand’.

Singular identities

‘The history of South American wine is a history of blends,’ says Jimena López, head winemaker at Bodega Andeluna, Mendoza.

‘It’s the story of settlers and of the different grapes they brought with them.’

It’s also the history of serendipitous crossings, new varieties and pioneering experimentation – creativity led by necessity and opportunity.

Among the most dramatic contributions to the reappreciation of old vineyards and overlooked terroirs has been the revival of Criolla varieties.

This family of grapes encompasses both those initially brought by Spanish settlers (of which País/ Listán Negro/ Criolla Chica and different Moscatels are perhaps the most important) and the different crossings that have originated in South American soil.

Among the latter are Criolla Grande and Torrontés, two very different crossings of País and Moscatel of Alejandría.

Known as ‘the queen of Torrontés’, Balbo has long championed the variety – which is the main component in her Signature White Blend.

‘Finally, we’re seeing these varieties for what they truly are and for all the beautiful wines they can make,’ she says.

She’s currently planting Torrontés on high-elevation sites in the heart of Gualtallary – mirroring what’s being done with Malbec in response to climate change – determined to give it equal, noble standing in the most privileged terroirs.

Playing the field

Across Argentina and Chile, producers are also tapping into old field blends. Once seen as a source of lesser-quality, natural-leaning wines, they are now considered a treasure trove in which nuance and complexity are effortlessly achieved while at the same time facilitating conversations about history, heritage and identity.

As is often the case in South America, contradiction lies at the heart of the ongoing vinous transformation.

It’s both puzzling and fascinating that to truly reclaim its viticultural identity, the continent is having to look back at its colonial past and acknowledge how, in trying to distance itself from it, it promoted a different kind of conquest (the California- and Bordeaux-inspired models) that at the same time built and eroded the continent’s modern viticultural history.

Above all, however, Balbo says that these changes of focus should make wine more fun, for consumers and producers alike.

‘Blending is the art of true expression and creativity in oenology,’ she says. ‘There’s such pleasure in the [blending] exercise.’

Meanwhile, the resulting wines are more dynamic, living entities in which different players playfully fight for centre stage.

‘As the wine evolves – in the glass and in the bottle – different elements and varieties reveal themselves. You never get bored and are often surprised.’

Untangling history

South America is, in its very essence, a continent of mixtures and unexpected encounters, of radically different traditions meeting, clashing and eventually yielding something new, unexpected and at the same time ancestral.

It is, and always has been, a place of intense, at times chaotic but always fascinating, creative energy, catalysed by extreme landscapes and ardent feelings. Its viticultural heritage is no different.

Each of the blends featured here untangles a bit of winemaking history. Meanwhile, Balbo is already working on a new white blend.

‘White blends are the next step of this revolution,’ she says. But which of the many revolutions is she referring to?

Maybe they’re all part of a single quest: claiming the beautiful, creole soul of South America’s fine wines.

South American blends

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The eye traces the Loire from its mouth in Muscadet to Sancerre in the east. Pulled into Burgundy’s current, we’re soon adrift in Beaujolais, forgetting that France’s longest river bends sharply south to its origins in the volcanic heart of the Massif Central.

The Côtes du Forez lies on the slopes of this ancient landscape, almost off the map – yet nearest to where the river begins.

The smallest of the four appellations that make up the Loire Volcanique – a collective whose origins date back to a 2014 tasting entitled Ici Commence La Loire (‘Here the Loire Begins’) – Forez covers just 150ha of vines.

Its vineyards sit above the headwaters at elevations of 400m-600m, on granite and basalt soils derived from volcanic activity millions of years ago.

Narrow river-carved valleys – les gouttes – divide Forez into a patchwork of scattered hillside vineyards, mixed with pasture and forest.

Gamay is the sole grape permitted under the Forez AP, and the 11 domaines within the appellation mostly work with Gamay St Romain, a local biotype adapted to this upland terrain over centuries, producing wines of fine tannins, spiced red fruit, pepper and smoky minerality.

The Gamay connection invites associations with Beaujolais, but Forez’s higher elevation, shorter growing season and St Romain variant make for an edgier, more savoury expression.

Mostly unoaked, the wines manage to be dark yet light, mercifully registering around 12% alcohol.

Beyond Gamay, the vignerons of Forez bottle everything from volcanic Viognier and Chenin to Syrah under the IGP Urfé designation.

From the 1960s until the establishment of the Forez AP in 2000, virtually all local wine came from a single cooperative.

It was a long fall from grace: vines flourished here through the Middle Ages, and by 1883, there were more than 5,000ha under vine, fortifying the local mining industry and sending wine up the river.

Economically decimated by the phylloxera bug and two world wars, Forez was all but forgotten until a few local patriots brought it back from the edge.

Basalt crags and mountain Gamay

I arrived on a green-grey April morning with a cadre of curious Parisian sommeliers and wine merchants.

The vignerons greeted us at Château de Marcoux, perched on a basalt crag above the valley, and we tasted these mountain Gamays over a hearty lunch – charcuterie, Fourme de Montbrison cheese and a steaming pot of potatoes in cheese, cream and butter. I was grateful for the wines’ cleansing acidity and spicy profile.

Forez’s Gamays on granite, I found, tend toward richer, fruit-driven wines, whereas the basalt expressions are more mineral and ethereal.

Among the first to make wine outside the co-op were the Logel family. Today, cousins Maxime Verdier [Gillier] and Julie Logel carry the torch, having returned to Forez – Maxime from city life, Julie from development work in Cambodia.

I heard their colourful story – and those of fellow vignerons Stéphane Réal and Gilles Bonnefoy – over dinner at Château de Goutelas, where the menu was prepared chef Jacques Marcon of Michelin three-star Restaurant Régis & Jacques Marcon in St-Bonnet-le-Froid.

Famous for his use of wild mushrooms – gloriously in season at the time – Marcon served one of the finest meals I’ve had in France, and Forez’s volcanic Gamays rose to every course.

Pulsing with life

It’s easy to assume that places such as Forez – almost off the map – are provincial backwaters. But as I find time and again, there’s both natural beauty and cultural vibrance in forgotten France.

Medieval Château de Goutelas, part hotel, part progressive cultural centre, hosts artist residencies and music events – from raves to baroque ensembles. Perched in a forest among vines on the side of an extinct volcano, it pulses with life.

The Loire, like practically every river, has a hyporheic zone – an underground flow that extends far beyond its visible banks.

When we think we’re standing alongside a river, we are in fact often standing above it, unaware of what moves beneath.

Virginia Woolf, that most deliquescent of writers, put it best: ‘The past only comes back when the present runs so smoothly that it is like the sliding surface of a deep river.’

The eye traces these glistening surfaces, but to go beneath, we must travel to the source.

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If you haven’t experienced the refreshing glory of a chilled Spanish red, you’re yet to fully understand some of the country’s most seductive, drinkable and authentic wines – and to fully discover the multifaceted, energetic essence of the country’s wine culture.

Before Spain’s wine industry was taken over by a necessary, but in some cases destructive, professionalisation, many Spanish reds were far removed from the deep, intense, long-lived, single-varietal examples for which the country has become known.

Crisp, juicy field blends – low in alcohol and full of flavour and energy – abounded.

These were true low-intervention wines, produced with little if any machinery, following the rhythm of the days and the whims of wild yeasts.

Most were wines made for own consumption – quenching pours that provided sustenance and a safe source of hydration throughout the working day, helping to soften the edges of a life of hard labour, poor living conditions and little if any pay.

They were often carried in botas (traditional leather wineskins) by field workers and cosecheros (harvesters), and enjoyed alongside a simple lunch of bread, olives and charcuterie.

And small glasses were poured direct from the barrel (properly chilled at cellar temperature) when neighbours stopped by for an evening chat – before heading next door for more wine and more gossip.

Back to the future

Not merely a style, lighter Spanish reds evoke another time, another pace of life, another way of socialising; one that’s more in tune – financial and social hardship notwithstanding – with the rhythms of nature and of oneself.

They also evoke a scenery that isn’t dominated by large swaths of mono-clonal vineyards, instead formed by a patchwork of co-planted indigenous varieties, where red-, white- and pink-skinned grapes coexisted.

Today, there’s renewed interest in these wines, whose levity appeals to those seeking elegance, freshness, immediate appeal and lower alcohol, as well as a more complete, layered understanding of Spanish wine history, where small growers, old vineyards and maverick producers play central roles.

Discovering the crunchier, quenching side of Spanish reds is an opportunity to engage with a palette of grape varieties and winemaking approaches that preceded the modern understanding of Spanish (commercial) winemaking.

They’re important symbols of the movement that, since the turn of the 20th century, has upended simplistic beliefs of what Spanish wine should be, forming the different swells of ‘New Wave Spain’: from the great Garnacha revival to the fascination with the volcanic-spirited wines of the Canary islands, by way of the recovery of quasi-abandoned, gnarly field blends and the renewed enjoyment of so-called cosechero wines – the carbonic maceration reds that nurtured harvesters and fuelled harvest fests.

What was old is new

More than catering to a different, predominantly younger demographic, these wines also offer clues to the future of Spanish wine from a technical standpoint.

With climate change looming large, the grapes that were once difficult to ripen are now the key for lower-abv, fresher wines; the ancient, low-yielding vines – once neglected in favour of newly planted, mechanised vineyards – are now important assets that offer lessons on drought and virus resistance.

But beyond any historical or scientific arguments, these wines deserve attention (and fridge space) first and foremost because they’re delicious, alluring and extremely versatile.

By playing with serving temperature you’ll get different textures and dominant aromas, with different presentation of tannins suggesting alternative food pairings.

Chillable Spanish reds

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Just south of medieval Chambéry in Savoie, in eastern France, Apremont takes its name from either the Latin asper montis (‘rough mountain’) or the French après mont (‘after the mountain’).

That mountain is Mont Granier, whose imposing limestone wall dominates the Combe de Savoie, a 40km valley that runs southwest to northeast across the centre of the Savoie region.

Granier’s story is one of catastrophe and renewal, and the alpine wines from its slopes express its layered history.

On the night of 24 November 1248, a massive section of Mont Granier’s limestone cliff face collapsed – one of Europe’s largest recorded landslides. Five villages were buried beneath millions of tonnes of rock, with one account from a travelling monk claiming 5,000 perished.

For centuries, the landscape remained a mostly barren pile of rubble. Eventually, Savoyard farmers found that grapes – especially the native white Jacquère – were the only crop that would take root in the stony soil.

Today, Apremont’s vineyards grow atop the remnants of the mountain and the villages buried beneath.

Jacquère, Savoie’s little-known white workhorse, is grown across the region but is the signature grape of Apremont, where it produces pale, crystalline whites with delicate floral notes, a whisper of gunflint minerality and bright citrus and lychee – all carried by an airy, saline freshness.

If you love Muscadet’s oyster-shell minerality or crisp Chablis, Apremont offers something similar but distinctly alpine.

The better expressions taste like melted snow scraped from a mountain crag, with a squeeze of lemon and a scattering of white flowers.

Pale green, they’re light but not watery, with a mineral texture and a clean, salivating finish. Like most Savoie wines, they naturally hover around 11% alcohol.

Time travel

I first fell for Apremont on a summer trip to lake Annecy, a jewel of the French Alps.

After days hiking above and swimming in the turquoise waters (it’s the cleanest lake in Europe), we enjoyed the local whites with Savoie’s signature cheeses: Reblochon, Beaufort and Tomme de Savoie.

I soon developed an affinity for Apremont’s minerally whites, which are very affordable, unpretentious and speak clearly of time and place.

The affinity grew when I returned to visit the hillside vineyards and villages, which feel like stepping back into both old France and geological time. Apremont is Savoie’s largest sub-regional designation, yet it remains little known beyond the region – or even within France.

But that’s changing as wine lovers seek lighter styles and indigenous varieties, with Savoie being touted as ‘the next Jura’.

These wines pair brilliantly with the region’s famous alpine dishes – fondue, raclette, lake fish – but they’re equally at home with oysters and grilled seafood, or simply as an aperitif.

The story of Apremont reminds us that beauty and renewal can emerge from disaster. It also reminds us how fragile everything is – how a mountain can fall, how quickly life can change.

Where catastrophe once struck, vines now thrive, producing some of France’s most delicate and distinctive whites.

Born on a fallen mountain, these are wines shaped by stone and best enjoyed with a feeling of gratitude.

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‘I’m a baby of the climats de Bourgogne,’ says Hombeline Guyon, the third generation, after her father Dominique and uncle Michel, to take the reins at Domaine Antonin Guyon in Savigny-lès-Beaune, just north of Beaune.

It transpires that she was instrumental – alongside Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Aubert de Villaine – in the successful bid to have Burgundy’s climats (its many long-established and specifically defined parcels of vines) inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015, heading up the communications and engaging local stakeholders.

‘It was a truly transformative experience,’ she says. ‘Witnessing the collective effort to protect and recognise our land gave me a profound sense of purpose.’

But she has been deeply shaped by this land in other ways, too.

The Guyon family has 48ha of vineyard holdings in 25 appellations across the Côte d’Or – unusually extensive for a family-owned domaine in Burgundy. She reels them off fluently, from north to south.

Hombeline’s grandfather Antonin built his eponymous domaine in the 1960s. Over 10 years, he amassed impressive holdings, from Gevrey-Chambertin and Chambolle-Musigny down to Corton, Volnay, Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet.

When Dominique joined in the 1970s, he carried out his own remarkable feat – buying up 350 plots, from 80 different owners, to create a single, 22ha block of vines on a south-facing hillside in the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits.

This was the start of an additional domaine, Domaine Dominique Guyon, an early pioneer in what was once an overlooked sub-region.

An uncertain path

As an only child raised by her father, Hombeline spent much of her youth alone with him – at the domaine, out at restaurants, listening deeply and observing intently.

‘He spoke to me all the time, about everything,’ she says. ‘I knew everything about the domaine, everything about what he wanted to do.’

She absorbed it all. She knew that he wanted her to join the domaine eventually, but he didn’t lay down a path for her, or tell her how to go about it; it was never prescriptive. ‘I had to figure it out on my own, and I feel stronger for that,’ she says.

She travelled to Japan, China and the US, working across different areas of the wine business, before returning to Burgundy and eventually joining the domaine in 2014.

Although it was far from easy at the beginning – ‘My father is very smart, elegant, charismatic, with a strong personality, but he didn’t show me how to do things’ – there is now a mutual recognition of each other’s talents and strengths.

Alongside her father and long-time cellar master Vincent Nicot, who retired last year, Hombeline began to draw a more open exchange out of these two smart, sensible, but traditional men.

She says that they began to take much more time for tasting – more frequently and for longer periods – and she feels that the three of them learning (or re-learning) how to taste together, and to listen to each other, made them a stronger team.

Hombeline also feels that she has brought a lightness of touch to the wines, with less extraction (fewer pumpovers and more rack and return).

They’ve reduced the percentage of new oak and are being less formulaic in their vinification and maturation, and more reactive and precise.

Supporting creativity

Despite her entry into the domaine not being completely laid out for her, and despite being a woman in a male-dominated sphere, Hombeline feels that no one should have to fight to find their place.

She says it’s more about recognising each individual’s talents, and that ultimately people want to feel secure and recognised.

She’s also conscious, as a mother of three herself now, of what it meant for her father to raise a daughter alone while running an estate.

She carries her inherited responsibilities lightly, but there might have been another path: being a journalist, drawn from her love of people and sense of justice.

But running the domaine offers something equally enriching, allowing her creative side to bloom, ‘which is good for the wines and the domaine, but also for me – as a woman, a mother and a daughter’.

She feels that this is a job that requires much humanity and humility.

‘You have to be humble with nature; you have to think with your heart,’ she says, embracing and embodying the multifaceted role of daughter, mother, woman – and child of Burgundy.

One Guyon to try

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In general, fine wine prices have continued to stabilise in 2026. ‘Prices have stopped going down and in little niches they have gone up a bit,’ said Geraint Carter, of international merchant Bordeaux Index and the LiveTrade online trading platform.

Major indices at Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, were broadly flat in the four months to 30 April.

Its Fine Wine 50 index, tracking Bordeaux first growths, performed best, rising 0.7%. Miles Davis, market expert at Vinum Fine Wines, with offices in the UK and Asia, reported strong wealthy buyer interest in ‘high octane, rare’ wines, plus resurgent demand in China, despite a ‘dreary’ overall market.

Vinum also sold more Pontet-Canet 2025 than expected as Bordeaux en primeur got underway. Carter characterised the market as ‘challenging’ with bursts of activity.

Top sellers include five-star Bordeaux and middle-aged Champagne (see box, below).

Some LiveTrade bidders have found willing sellers below market prices, yet Bordeaux Index has also sold large format, ex-château stock at surprisingly high prices.

Global consultancy group Knight Frank highlighted a rising thirst for visually appealing, large-format bottles over the past decade.

‘The growing prevalence of glass-fronted wine rooms in prime homes is influencing what collectors buy,’ said its 2026 Wealth Report, citing Liv-ex as a data partner.

Some auction houses have been enjoying a purple patch. Nick Pegna, global head of wines and spirits at Sotheby’s, said: ‘We have really seen a change from September last year onwards. For the year so far globally, we’ve sold 96% of the lots that we’ve offered, which is stronger than we’ve seen for a number of years.’

Collectors are currently seeking out mature, ready-to-drink fine wines at a range of different price levels, he said.

‘There are people happy to buy a £150 bottle of mature Pichon Comtesse, as well as people spending 200,000 [US] dollars on 1870 Lafite, and everything in between.’

However, looking ahead, Pegna echoed other trade members in expressing caution regarding a turbulent geopolitical and macroeconomic environment.

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

First among equals?

Bordeaux’s relative decline in the fine wine market over the past 15-20 years has felt almost inexorable.

In 2010’s China-led buying frenzy, it formed close to 80% of our trade by value; today that figure is nearer 40%.

To traditionalists, this can seem faintly apostatic, but it simply reflects the habits of modern consumers.

The world of fine wine has broadened hugely. Burgundy, Champagne and Tuscany have all improved dramatically in quality, consistency and market prominence.

Consumers now have access to a far wider range of great wines than ever before, and Bordeaux’s dominance was never going to survive unchanged.

Ironically, Bordeaux itself has never been more technically accomplished; the region is producing more delicious and consistent wines across all price levels.

Yet modern tastes aren’t driven solely by quality. Long ageing windows, overt brand orientation and an overall air of seriousness can feel out of step in an age infatuated with immediacy, personality and narratives.

Still, Bordeaux retains unrivalled scale, liquidity and recognition, and a habit of producing extraordinary wines in great vintages. In many respects, it feels less like a fallen empire, more like a ‘first among equals’.

As en primeur rolls on with reduced traction, the challenge is less about reclaiming dominance than showing why the system still deserves consumers’ attention.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and ‘immortal’ Bordeaux lead auction scene

Celebrated composer and musical impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber has auctioned wine cellar treasures via Christie’s in London, raising £517,910 for musical instruments and tuition in schools.

Every lot sold, with a bottle of Château Margaux 1900 fetching £35,000, including buyer’s premium, outpacing a pre-sale high estimate of £7,000. Burgundy’s Domaine de la Romanée-Conti delivered the highest price in the sale, however.

A three-bottle lot of Romanée-Conti Grand Cru 2005 sold for £56,250, including buyer’s premium (high estimate: £45,000).

All hammer proceeds will go to the Andrew Lloyd Webber Programme, which is administered by the Music in Secondary Schools Trust.

It has been another busy period for high-profile auctions generally. In New York, a Sotheby’s auction of ‘immortal’ Bordeaux vintages also saw every lot find a buyer.

Total sales hit $2.1m (£1.55m), $800,000 above the pre-sale high estimate. Flagship lots included two magnums of Lafite Rothschild 1870, a hallowed vintage.

Both came from a well-preserved cellar at Scotland’s Glamis Castle more than 50 years ago. While the first magnum fetched $106,250, including buyer’s premium, the second sold for $200,000 – four times its pre-sale high estimate, Sotheby’s said.

In the UK, Dreweatts auctioned Lord Rothschild’s Stowell Park cellar and again, all lots sold.

A double magnum of Lafite Rothschild 1975 fetched £2,100 (hammer price; high e: £1,500). A six-litre imperial of d’Yquem 1994 fetched £1,250 (hammer price; high e: £800).

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C yril Henschke took the extraordinary step in 1952 of citing the source vineyard on a wine label: Mount Edelstone Shiraz.

It was unheard of in Australia at the time, but Henschke realised that this 16ha site in South Australia’s Eden Valley produced Shiraz grapes that stood apart from its neighbours and deserved to be celebrated as a unique entity.

Mount Edelstone Shiraz, which celebrates 70 vintages in 2026, provides an important landmark for Australian wine by identifying site and terroir as a defining feature.

While other famous wines capture a distinctive Australian character through multi-regional or multi-variety blends – such as Penfolds’ Grange, Yalumba’s The Signature, Hardy’s Eileen Hardy and Wendouree’s wines – the action that Cyril Henschke took to highlight a single vineyard introduced a new, rarefied Australian fine wine story.

Within two years, Henschke had issued a second single-vineyard Shiraz – from the 4ha Hill of Grace Vineyard, planted in 1860 – which commanded a higher price because of its extremely limited production.

It declared a powerful statement that linked prestige to place. By the early 1980s, key vineyards that provided integral components to famous brands were being mentioned on the labels of a number of elite Australian wines – including Orlando’s St Hugo (from Coonawarra), Centenary Hill and Steingarten (both from Barossa), and St Hallett’s Old Block Shiraz (also from Barossa).

It placed great value on a league of century-old vineyards and their specific characteristics.

Singing their praises

By the 2010s, more Australian winemakers believed these deserved to be vinified and issued as single-site wines, rather than being labelled as ‘Reserve’ wines – a movement that underlined growing ambition to earn more plaudits on the world stage.

Talent and ideas matched this ambition, signalling the emergence of a ‘grand cru’ status in Australian wine – an important refocusing on specific sites that highlights the continuing maturity of Australian winemaking and wine marketing.

Recent historical tastings reveal the distinct personalities of superior locations – most notably Yangarra’s examination of all 15 vintages of its High Sands Grenache, vindicating the winery’s decision to reserve this extraordinary parcel, which defines the best of elite Australian Grenache.

Plenty of flagbearers are capturing specific aspects of the best old vineyards to produce wines of specific character.

Beyond the 10 sites listed here, Cullen’s 1971-planted Margaret River vineyard stands as a leading light of biodynamic viticulture. Brokenwood’s Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz provides a definitive Hunter Valley wine expression.

And also in Margaret River, the Vasse Felix home vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec produce the exemplary Tom Cullity.

Sites in the spotlight

More winemakers are being inspired to pursue single-site expressions of excellence, and to place renewed focus on historic sites in prime locations.

Toby Bekkers spent five years reviving a Clarendon vineyard (planted between 1842 and 1848) that had been the initial poster-site of South Australian wine, but since the 1970s had become derelict through neglect.

Now Bekkers Wines is producing single-site Clarendon Vineyard Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache of outstanding quality.

Sites are flourishing after careful research to maximise the potential of superior terroir. Shaw & Smith’s Lenswood Vineyard introduced intensive vine planting (about 4,800 vines per hectare) to naturally reduce crop load, resulting in exceptional Chardonnay.

In Western Australia’s Franklin River region, Swinney’s bush-vine Mourvedre is planted alongside Grenache and Shiraz on an ironstone gravel hilltop at the family’s Powderbark vineyard – and winemaker Rob Mann is producing three single-variety wines of extraordinary finesse.

Such celebrated outcomes don’t happen by accident. Meticulous, intelligent viticulture and vine health and soil restoration programs ensure these vines continue to produce extraordinary fruit that sits in idyllic balance – many in better shape now than ever.

The best is probably still ahead of us.

Henschke Mount Edelstone Vineyard

Eden Valley, South Australia

The 16ha Mount Edelstone Vineyard was an anomaly when pastoralist Ronald Angas planted only Shiraz vines on its rocky red loam soils in 1912, rather than follow the Barossa tradition of mixing several varieties.

His neighbour Cyril Henschke recognised the unique characteristics of this east-facing, 400m-high site when he started making wine from these grapes in the 1950s, and purchased the vineyard in 1974.

Now, viticulturist Prue Henschke nurtures the network of 1,300 old vines with biodynamic practices that have dramatically improved fruit quality from its 11 blocks – with Blocks G and H in the lower southeast portion of the vineyard being the winemakers’ favourite parcels.

From 1989, Prue introduced an upright trellis system to allow more even light onto ripening fruit.

‘This had an immediate effect on the wines,’ she says. ‘It amplified colour and brought great clarity and purity to the fruit flavours and subtle aromas. Vineyard attention led to sharper wine definition.’

This ensures great acid retention in the grapes and promotes an earthy savouriness to the palate, evident during Henschke’s February 2026 tasting event, hosted at the historic cellars in Keyneton, Eden Valley to examine key Mount Edelstone vintages between 1952 and 2022.

Highlights included the sprightly, lean 1958, sustained by the Mount Edelstone vineyard’s characteristic gentle tannins; and the recurring terroir hallmarks that showed off the vineyard’s twin personalities, with warmer vintages showing red earth and red spice as prominent features, and cooler vintages revealing lively sage and bay leaf herbal aromas over lush blackberry and black pepper.

Henschke Hill of Grace

Barossa, South Australia

Success for Mount Edelstone Shiraz inspired Cyril Henschke to elevate another single-site wine, this one produced from an even more precious vineyard resource – the small Hill of Grace Vineyard, with its gnarled Shiraz vines from the 1860s.

Planted on original rootstock, these fragile sentinels are among few surviving ancient relics to have avoided the impact of the destructive vine-root louse phylloxera – and they produce fruit of extraordinary intensity and unique character.

Dry-grown on clay-rich alluvial soils overlain by a layer of fine, sandy-silty loam, Shiraz from a 4ha portion of the Hill of Grace vineyard is treated with reverential care, benefiting from careful organic composting and mulching to ensure maximum microbial activity in the soil and optimal vine health.

Each portion of the vineyard is handpicked at different times around the full moon at Easter (significantly later than neighbouring Eden Valley and Barossa vineyards), yielding only about 2.5 tonnes of tiny berries per hectare, compared to 4 tonnes or so at Jim Barry’s Armagh vineyard, one of South Australia’s elite Shiraz sites.

It provides coiled power in a dark, inky wine that unfurls slowly over time in the cellar to scale monumental peaks.

These include the phenomenal 2010 and 2015 vintages, which best capture characteristic Hill of Grace signatures of dried sage, Chinese five spice and black pepper notes atop vibrant blackberry, dark plum and juicy cranberry.

Tolpuddle Vineyard

Coal River Valley, Tasmania

Soon after Tolpuddle Vineyard in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley was planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines in 1988, it was commanding respect as one of Australia’s elite cool-climate sites, yet Michael Hill Smith MW and Martin Shaw saw potential to do a whole lot more when they purchased the vineyard in 2011.

‘It has that special something,’ says Hill Smith, who is also one of the five Co-Chairs at the Decanter World Wine Awards.

‘Tolpuddle has very deliberate focus – but we felt it could be significantly better.’

The revitalisation programme saw a dam installed to help manage frost, ripping of the soil between vine rows to alleviate compaction of the silica-rich, stony ground, and new clones introduced within more intensive vine plantings to increase diversity and complexity of grape flavours and textures.

Through this focused attention to detail, Tolpuddle Chardonnay won immediate acclaim, but careful patience has also seen Pinot Noir flourish, as the influence of clonal diversity from new vines across the site has reached maturity.

‘Pinot Noir is capricious,’ says Shaw. ‘It reacts so sensitively to vintage and yield differences that it took time for Tolpuddle Pinot Noir to show site familiarity, but we have now arrived at a very strong place.’

Distinctive, prominent acidity comes as a consequence of the site’s typically very cold, very dry ripening season – an asset that gives these wines sharp flavour definition and extraordinary longevity.

Yangarra High Sands

McLaren Vale, South Australia

When Yangarra winemaker, the late Peter Fraser, identified as a result of the 2010 vintage that the specific terroir of this site – with Grenache bush vines planted in 1946 on a 1.7ha block of deep, ancient sand at Blewett Springs – produced a parcel of exceptional fruit with unusual delicacy and intensity, he boldly argued that it should be vinified separately and promoted as an elite, single-location Grenache expression.

No one else in Australia at that time had considered elevating Grenache to such a lofty pedestal, but Fraser’s astute observation set in place a movement that has rightly brought a league of superb McLaren Vale Grenache to international attention.

Yangarra High Sands remains the standard bearer for elite Australian Grenache, and a 15-vintage retrospective tasting demonstrated that its fragile beauty captures vintage variation with keen subtlety.

‘I always knew this block was very special. I had something that everyone else wanted, so I gave it my very best attention,’ said Fraser at the tasting.

The site provides fruit of exquisite purity, but minimal-intervention winemaking deserves praise for exercising poise and bringing every component into ideal balance – a talent amplified in more recent vintages, especially the magnificent 2024 High Sands Grenache.

It’s easy to be immediately seduced by its waft of wild herbs framed by fresh plum and wild raspberry, but it’s the lean muscle of a complex mid-palate that marries beauty with power, with its fine-boned frame carrying extraordinary persistence of pure flavours.

Alkina Estate Vineyard

Barossa, South Australia

When Chilean soil expert Dr Pedro Parra examined Alkina vineyard in the Barossa’s Greenock subregion, soon after Argentina’s Alejandro Bulgheroni bought the site in 2015, he confirmed its excellent pedigree – but also dug pits that identified a series of different soil outcrops within the 43ha vineyard.

These ‘polygons’ became the source of tiny fruit parcels that have been vinified separately and delicately in concrete vessels, with no oak influence, to accentuate their different character.

Polygon 1 Shiraz – sourced from a mere six rows of 70-year-old vines planted in granite-flecked schist and iron-rich clay over limestone – shows Barossa Shiraz in a dazzling fresh light, slender and nimble, yet supported by subtle, supple tannins and a lick of savoury minerality that guides a long palate line of rare finesse and purity.

Polygon 1 shows but one facet of Alkina’s studied Shiraz and Grenache output, as there are now 20 polygons defined within the vineyard’s Old Quarter – and more new sections are being identified to produce a suite of exemplary ‘polygon’ wines.

‘These are all significant micro-sites, all with significantly different geologies that introduce vastly different characteristics in the wine,’ explains Parra, ‘and it would be a crime if they were not identified individually and celebrated.’

Bastard Hill Vineyard

Yarra Valley, Victoria

Surrounded by dense temperate rainforest in the remote upper reaches of Victoria’s Yarra Valley, the 13ha Bastard Hill vineyard earned its harsh nickname from the workers who toiled in the especially difficult terrain.

Planted in the 1980s by the region’s leading cool-climate viticulturist, Ray Guerin, this was regarded as one of the great Chardonnay sites in Australia, being a source for Eileen Hardy Chardonnay.

The clearing is flanked by towering eucalyptus trees and giant tree ferns, and scales up from 300m to 400m above sea level.

With vines planted on gradients of up to 32%, riding farm machinery here is fraught with danger. Such difficulty and high labour expenses saw previous owner Accolade lose interest in maintaining such a gnarly site to the highest standards.

When Giant Steps Wine, owned by Jackson Family Wines, purchased the vineyard in August 2022, extensive vineyard restoration work commenced.

Winemaker Melanie Chester didn’t expect the neglected Bastard Hill site to respond immediately to viticultural attention and produce fruit of a standard befitting Giant Steps’ esteemed suite of single-vineyard wines.

But an exceptional 2023 Bastard Hill Chardonnay won immediate accolades, and the quality keeps improving.

A key factor is a rare soil type – rich red basalt that points back to the region’s volcanic activity of 500 million years ago – which produces fruit with an exciting concentration of flavours without sacrificing strident natural acidity.

Jim Barry Wines Florita Vineyard

Clare Valley, South Australia

Racy, citrus-driven Clare Riesling is now a globally recognised style, built on the historical success of the famed Florita Vineyard.

Pioneer wine merchant Leo Buring bought land at Watervale in 1946 and called the site Florita (Spanish for ‘little flower’) because he initially planted Palomino and Pedro Ximénez grapes to make fino-style ‘sherry’.

He then planted Riesling vines in 1962 and his winemaker John Vickery created a benchmark style, winning 50 trophies and 400 gold medals over subsequent decades.

Jim Barry Wines purchased the 32ha Florita site from corporate owner Philip Morris in 1986, but although the Barrys immediately began making superior wines with this stellar resource, they couldn’t use the trademarked Florita name for another 18 years.

‘It was maddening that we couldn’t use the name for so long, because we wanted to shout from the rooftops that we had the most famous Riesling vineyard in Australia,’ says retired managing director Peter Barry.

Jim Barry Wines finally issued its own Florita Riesling in 2004. In this wine, the site’s shallow, loamy soils provide a delicate floral beauty coupled with a rich citrus line, firm acidity promoting sharp, clean flavours with unusual length and persistence.

It boasts the unusual dichotomy of being both pretty and fragile, yet resolute and sturdy – factors that amplify with age.

To highlight this, Jim Barry has been issuing a 10-year-old cellar release of Florita, with the recently reissued 2015 showing gorgeous, developed honeysuckle, toasted cashew and lime marmalade characteristics, without sacrificing the primary citrus zestiness that defines Watervale Riesling.

Grosset Polish Hill River Vineyard

Clare Valley, South Australia

The single-minded pursuit of purity in Riesling expression is Jeffrey Grosset’s winemaking obsession, which led him to plant three different Riesling clones (two German and one rare local variety) on an 8ha vineyard in the stony, austere Polish Hill River region of Clare in 1996.

The site’s 500 million-year-old bedrock of blue slate produced a distinctive type of Riesling wrapped in dark, pensive flavour tones and spiky minerality – far removed from the neighbouring Watervale district’s lively lemon-lime characteristics.

Its austere personality reflects the struggle endured by such close-planted vines on tough soils, with each producing just two bottles of wine per vine.

‘I saw such particular attributes in the fruit from each site that I saw no point blending them together. I wanted people to see them side by side, so I just went ahead and bottled the Rieslings from both sub-regions separately,’ says Grosset.

This started a new, serious conversation about Riesling in Australia, which Grosset escalated as he honed more fine-chiselled flavour profiles after adopting organic viticulture principles, then achieving biodynamic certification in 2019.

Pursuit of this painstaking vineyard-care model has seen Grosset applauded as an early adopter of sustainability practices, but he simply points to the finished wine, and its extraordinary cellaring life, as his raison d’etre.

‘Quality over quantity,’ he says with an earnest stare, ‘is always the answer.’

Brokenwood Oakey Creek Vineyard

Hunter Valley, New South Wales

Semillon from the Hunter Valley carries unique characteristics that relate directly to site.

As Australia’s most northerly fine wine location, within a sub-tropical zone but also influenced by coastal breezes, the Hunter has produced Semillon for almost 200 years.

Its modern-day expressions of this grape variety combine seemingly disparate elements of bright, citrus-driven fruitiness with steely acidity that allows flavours to develop over time in bottle.

Semillon has thrived thanks to being planted in exactly the right locations – and Oakey Creek Vineyard, from which Brokenwood has sourced Semillon grapes since the early 1990s, ranks among the best.

In 2021 Brokenwood moved decisively to purchase the vineyard from the Drayton family, who planted it in 1982 on free-draining but fertile alluvial soils located close to the creek.

This vineyard is a primary source for Brokenwood’s elite ILR Reserve Semillon (first produced from the 1992 vintage, and released after six years of bottle age) – yet incredibly Brokenwood had never owned a Semillon vineyard.

‘We had always relied on local growers, so to take control of such an important vineyard gives us an opportunity to improve and invest in the vineyard’s future,’ explains chief winemaker Stuart Hordern.

He believes the importance of this vineyard will be more vigorously promoted, suggesting ILR will be labelled as a single-source wine, in addition to the Oakey Creek Semillon as a current-vintage expression.

‘It’s unmistakable where this wine comes from – and that’s rare.’

Giaconda Estate Vineyard

Beechworth, Victoria

The emergence of Giaconda, with its distinctive mineral-driven personality, proved pivotal in shaping the understanding that the best Australian Chardonnay should be defined by site rather than style.

When winemaker Rick Kinzbrunner left Brown Brothers Wines in 1981, he chose to plant his own vineyard on a tiny outcrop of 450 million-year-old granitic loam over clay and decomposed gravel near Beechworth in northern Victoria’s elevated sub-alpine region.

He had a specific goal – to produce rich but balanced Chardonnay in a powerful Burgundian style – but he needed to locate the right geological site. He found exactly what he wanted.

Chardonnay is planted on a relatively cool south-facing slope at more than 400m, providing a slow ripening period, enhanced flavour complexity and elevated natural acid levels.

It provides Giaconda Chardonnay with a robust frame, yet also unique poise and dignity.

Kinzbrunner remains a staunch advocate for a low-intervention winemaking style – pressing the grapes in a basket press, fermenting the must in oak, using no cultured yeasts, and not fining or filtering before bottling.

He believes this ensures the most accurate and authentic representation of his organically managed vineyard.

This supports a confident wine style that hasn’t changed with fashion, showing its personality with pride.

10 great Australian wines from 10 great Australian sites

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Why Cap Rocat is a Decanter dream destination...

Cinematic perspectives and palatial service

Lanterns line the entrance to Cap Rocat, pulling you down labyrinthine paths and passageways with cinematic perspective. That's before you even glimpse the cliffside beach club with loungers catered by waiters who deliver glasses of wine between dips in the sea.

Several of the 30 suites and rooms are former surveillance points carved into the rock face, which gives them an incredible atmosphere. Each one boasts three levels of terraces: the bottom offers privacy and the top – where you’ll likely spend most of your time – is a gazebo overlooking the infinite sea where you can watch the sunrise.

Service is as palatial as you'd expect, from morning when breakfast is delivered in a beautiful basket, to evening when a fresh verbena and honey infusion is left steeping by your bed.

Enthralling tasting experiences

Mallorca's wine scene has evolved dramatically in recent years, with small family wineries producing exceptional expressions, especially from native grapes like Manto Negro and Premsal Blanc, locally known as Moll.

While the hotel's coastal location near Cala Blava isn't in the island's winemaking heartland (which consists of the DOs of Binissalem and Pla i Llevant), it's not far either. Lucky for you, the concierge has backstage passes straight to the vineyards, and not for just any wine tasting.

Get carted off in a Range Rover to a countryside winery where paella cooked over wood fire awaits after tastings with the winemaker at Bodega Oliver Moragues, a 500-year-old wine estate.

Or if you fancy air travel, head to Bodega Ribas – one of the island's oldest and most prestigious wineries – for a tasting of wines paired with local products, before being whisked away by helicopter to soar over the dramatic Tramuntana mountains back to Cap Rocat's helipad.

Exquisite cuisine

La Fortaleza is the hotel's principal restaurant, and the bread service alone (black olive, herbed, and citrus flavoured breads cut tableside) sets the tone for an incredible attention to detail.

The tasting menu starts with variat mallorquí, a take on Mallorcan tapas including fried octopus and anchovy with garlic. The sobrasada, made from heritage Porc Negre pigs, arrives drizzled with honey from the hotel's own bees, and you realise this is the rare hotel restaurant that takes local sourcing seriously.

The wine pairing is no different, highlighting bottles from Mallorca, perfect for getting context on the island's evolving wine scene. Don’t miss the chance to order a bottle from star winemaker Miquel Gelabert, who cultivates 35 different varieties, many native.

Cap Rocat offers a full menu of experiences befitting a bucket-list hotel, so whether your idea of fun is watching the sunset from a vintage luxury car or visiting a blown-glass factory from the 18th century, there's plenty to do.

Spa and gym

Not all is indulgence; a vibey gym is set in its own cave, and the tennis court has an instructor add-on. The spa is luminous and magical, with a saltwater pool sunk 12 metres into the ground.

Cap Rocat is adults-only and closes mid-November to mid-March. For further details, see the hotel's website.

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Leader: Amy Wislocki, Magazine Editor

Freedom to innovate

I love the mental image of Bo Barrett (See: The Man at Montelena), aged 18, flying over California’s cattle ranches, vineyards and citrus groves with his father Jim, who was looking for an agricultural project to invest in.

And so Chateau Montelena was born, just a few years before its 1973 Chardonnay went on to triumph at the Judgement of Paris. It’s partly due to that victory that Napa is where it is today, firmly part of the fine wine establishment.

And yet, as Montelena president Matt Crafton points out, Napa must remain ‘forward-looking, free to innovate, aspirational’. It’s good to be part of a settled community of wine producers, but the danger of that, he says, is ‘groupthink’.

It’s when winemakers have the confidence to plough a different furrow – even (or especially) in regions where regulations are more restrictive – that the real excitement occurs. Château Latour-Martillac’s new white wine, for example (See Editors' Picks). With winemakers showing such open-mindedness in the most established of wine regions, we owe it to them as wine drinkers to be equally open-minded.

In my glass this month

No danger of those profiled in this month’s feature on nomadic winemakers (See: The Nomads) falling victim to groupthink! Among them is Darren Smith, who as well as making wine writes the occasional feature for Decanter. I went along to meet him when he showed some of his wines in London. His old-vine País from Chile’s Itata (£32 tfwath.com) was so individual, so authentic, and so emblematic of freedom to innovate that every sip thrilled.

Inside Decanter magazine's March 2026 issue

In Focus

Interview: The man at Montelena Fifty years after the Judgement of Paris, Jonathan Cristaldi meets Chateau Montelena’s Bo Barrett

20 top buys... Spring whites at £20 and under David Williams’ high street picks for the new season

Bordeaux 2023 in bottle Having retasted the 2023 clarets, Georgie Hindle offers her thoughts on the vintage, along with 30 top tips

Brunello di Montalcino latest releases Michaela Morris reports on the 2021s and 2020 Riservas

The nomads Marianna Hunt meets four travelling winemakers, and discovers why they’re right to roam

North Adriatic: Wine without borders Miquel Hudin looks at what links Italy, Croatia and Slovenia

Tasting: Disrupting the status quo Everyone perceives wine differently. Tim Hanni MW explains why

Spirits

Distilled Spirits news & cocktails

Rise of the Dirty Martini Alicia Miller on an enduring classic

Food & travel

What to pair with Malaysian food David Sly’s matches for bold flavours

Travel: Central Otago: A wine lover’s guide Ash Bhardwaj visits one of New Zealand’s premier wine regions

Learning

Books etc Sophie Thorpe presents a selection of books about sake

Wine wisdom Expert advice to help you on your ongoing wine journey

Buying guide

Introduction

Editors’ picks Decanter staff share highlights from their recent tastings

Panel tasting: Alsace Grand Cru Riesling Two vintages a decade apart serve up two Exceptional and eight Outstanding wines; 98 wines tasted

Panel tasting: South African red blends Combinations of traditional grape varieties shine; 86 wines tasted

Expert’s choice: Light South American reds Ines Salpico looks beyond the region’s big bruisers

Weekday wines Decanter’s tasting team brings you 25 top picks, ready to drink now and priced at £30 or less

Weekend wines Priced £30-£60, seven standout buys to impress

DWWA 2025 Italy for the cellar

Collecting & investing

Marketwatch Auction news and new releases, plus the opportunities offered by Bordeaux’s 2016 vintage

Regulars

Welcome

Writing this month Meet four of the authors who contributed to this issue

News The latest from the wine world

The brief Ideas and inspiration

Andrew Jefford’s column

Guest column Due to climate change, the future of winemaking is white, argues Benjamin Lewin MW

The Ethical Drinker The wine world needs to examine its relationship with water, says Linda Johnson-Bell

On the rack: Daniel Boulud The French chef and restaurateur shares some of his vinous exploits

Subscribe to Decanter print magazine and enjoy great savings today

Get access to this issue and previous issues dating back to 2013 with the Decanter Premium app

It’s certainly not easy to carve a place as a region predominantly of red wines while sitting adjacent to Rioja – whose northeastern edge indeed lies within the autonomous administrative region of Navarra.

But the DO of the same name, its landscape and people all have a dramatically different character to that of its hegemonic neighbour.

Their respective wines and historical frictions will tell you as much.

Today, Navarra is strategically aligning its proposition with a redefined identity forged from those differences, one that has unearthed ancestral viticultural traditions (namely, the dominance of Garnacha), while also leveraging an important (pre-modern) French influence.

Navarra wants to be known as the region of benchmark Garnachas and characterful rosados that it undeniably is.

But it’s also worth exploring – and understanding – some of its other gems, such as characterful red blends and exquisitely balanced sweet Moscatels.

Mountain soul

In a rush to respond to Rioja-driven consumer recognition, Tempranillo plantings in Navarra grew rapidly during the 1990s, making it the most planted variety.

Yet the grape with the longest tradition in the Navarra landscape – and the one known for being best adapted to it – is Garnacha.

In the past decade the region has sought to realign itself with this heritage by carving a place within the ongoing Spanish Garnacha renaissance.

And in an interesting turning of the tables, Rioja producers are now looking at Navarra for clues as to what role Garnacha can play (again) in their own region; the variety was once Rioja’s most-planted variety, too.

As highlighted by the selection that follows, Navarra’s Garnachas have a character very much of their own – earthier and more assertive than the celebrated, more ethereal examples from Gredos in the mountains west of Madrid.

They represent the other end of the spectrum of the variety’s diverse, fascinating potential in Spain – so different in structure and aromatic profile yet equally balanced and world-class.

Most of the Navarra region’s top producers define their expressions as ‘mountain Garnacha’; an apt way to describe the wines’ profile.

Perhaps one could even be more specific: ‘Pyrenean Garnacha’ might be even more accurate.

This applies to both reds and rosés, the latter showing a textural moreishness and aromatic nuance that truly sets them apart (not least in the superb oak-aged iterations).

Beyond Garnacha

Although Navarra expresses itself best through its Garnachas, with their elegant rusticity and tannic poise, other red varieties benefit equally from the region’s rugged sophistication.

The longstanding presence of international varieties might have hindered Navarra’s position in both the domestic and international markets in the late 20th century, but these – and Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in particular – have long been more than a curiosity.

Unlike other regions across the Iberian peninsula, their presence in Navarra in numerous cases pre-dates the craze of the 1970s and ’80s.

Chardonnay, for example, is thought to have arrived in Navarra, from Burgundy, as early as the 1200s.

Some ‘Navarra blends’ bring out the same rustic, textured tannins and mountainous depth in Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot – some hailing from vineyards tended to by the same families for several generations.

This is an interesting if challenging moment for Navarra, against the backdrop of tough market conditions, at a time when bigger retailers are consolidating their portfolios in favour of the ‘usual suspects’.

But this is also a time when opportunities open for the kind of no-nonsense, authentic wines the region’s best producers deliver – wines with a sense of place and a strong Navarrean soul.

A selection of Navarra's finest

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Short and long-term pleasure

Don’t sleep on the Bordeaux 2023 vintage – it’s brilliant.

The best wines display charm, finesse and a lively, juicy core.

It’s a vintage that, on the whole, delights from the very first sip – generous, approachable and so delicious that it feels like the first truly ‘modern’ Bordeaux vintage where the wines are ready to bring joy right now.

You won’t have to wait long, if at all, for most of them, yet ageing won’t be a problem either.

Bordeaux continues to demonstrate the value of variation between vintages.

This isn’t a blockbuster vintage like the powerhouse 2022, and it could be tempting to overlook 2023 in the shadow of its predecessor.

But in its freshness, suavity and elegance, 2023 can absolutely rival 2019 and 2020 – and in several instances, individual wines feel more balanced, more poised and more terroir-transparent than their 2022 counterparts.

You can taste the gravel of the Médoc, the limestone of St-Emilion, the rich clay of Pomerol.

This report reflects sentiments from tasting almost 600 wines now that they’re in the bottle, and showcases a small selection of my personal highlights from a vintage I adore.

Balance and restraint

The season was defined by two halves.

A wet, rainy spring delivered severe mildew pressure – particularly challenging for organic producers – and required rigorous selection and sorting that one winemaker described as having ‘never been more thorough’.

A dry summer, punctuated by a late heatwave, gave way to ideal September conditions that permitted precise, unhurried picking.

Had the weather not shifted decisively to dryness and warmth in the second half of the season, the vintage would have taken a markedly different course – likely leaner and less complete.

As it was, full phenolic maturity was achieved without excess and winemakers responded with restraint and sophistication.

Lessons learned from the preceding years are clearly visible in the gentle extractions, measured oak influence and increased use of concrete containers and amphorae in order to preserve fruit purity.

The result is a vintage in which the winemaker’s hand is present yet unobtrusive, allowing terroir and estate identity to shine with unusual clarity.

Immediate appeal

The reds are medium-bodied, frequently retaining the gloss and shine they showed en primeur.

Bright cassis, raspberry, plum, floral and mineral notes are lifted by mouthwatering acidity. Tannins are fine yet serious – some approaching the firmness of 2010 – yet the pronounced freshness ensures they never feel too austere or overwhelming.

Structure is in place for extended ageing, but the wines are so juicy and mouthwatering that many are already highly enjoyable.

Pomerol’s clay soils deliver flesh, ripeness and plush tannins – Vieux Château Certan and L’Eglise-Clinet (see recommendations) are outstanding.

St-Emilion’s limestone lends crystalline minerality and tension – Château Cheval Blanc is radiant; the Médoc’s gravel brings classic definition and poise – Château Palmer is seamless, Haut-Brion aristocratic and precise.

While there is much variation in style and character, time in barrel does seem to have levelled the playing field somewhat in terms of these wines’ drinkability.

Whites are frequently exceptional. Sauvignon Blanc excelled, producing vibrant, aromatic wines full of citrus, stone fruit, herbs and racy acidity.

On the sweet side, Sauternes and Barsac are bold yet finely balanced, with botrytis concentration offset by freshness.

Above all, the 2023 reds are wines of immediacy and pleasure. They are the kind of bottles that will, I think, be reached for repeatedly and finished without hesitation.

The traditional Bordeaux rule of a decade in the cellar simply doesn’t apply here.

Many are ready now, yet the combination of acidity and tannin ensures they will develop with grace over 15 to 25 years or more.

As one winemaker remarked: ‘In 10 or 20 to 30 years, these may be the wines people opt for in preference to 2022.’

The long-term verdict remains open, but the potential is evident.

A welcome boost

Bordeaux continues to navigate difficult commercial waters.

The broader wine world faces real challenges – market shifts, economic pressure, climatic uncertainty – and few estates have been untouched.

Yet the 2023s stand as a compelling reminder of Bordeaux’s capacity for excellence: thrilling quality, pure enjoyment and genuine excitement.

They offer a welcome note of optimism as we look towards the much-anticipated 2025 en primeur tastings in April.

No appellation claims outright supremacy in 2023, though Pomerol often shows particular generosity, St-Emilion limestone evokes crystalline tension, Margaux floral refinement, St-Julien and Pauillac classical structure, and Pessac-Léognan whites outstanding vibrancy.

Second wines and value-driven bottlings are also successful, especially from the Right Bank satellites.

Prices have moderated since the more exuberant 2022 campaign, so genuine opportunities exist in this year when being selective is critical.

The wines below represent outstanding quality and drinkability, some for near-term enjoyment, others built for the long term.

NB: We’ll be highlighting 10 outstanding ‘value’ wines from the 2023 vintage in this year’s annual Bordeaux guide, to be published alongside the May 2026 issue

The Hindle pick: An early taste of 30 Bordeaux 2023 reds

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Greater positivity pervaded the secondary market in late 2025, following a prolonged downturn.

Several variables have the potential to influence 2026 (see box, below), but stability was the watchword in January, rather than predictions of a fresh bullrun.

‘I don’t think prices will fall in the next year, but I struggle to see them going up meaningfully,’ said Geraint Carter, of international merchant Bordeaux Index and the LiveTrade online trading platform.

There may be exceptions, such as ‘pockets of demand’ pushing prices higher on wines with limited availability, he said. Pricing in some segments looked fragile, notably mid-tier Burgundy, he added.

Will Hargrove, head of fine wine at UK merchant Corney & Barrow, said: ‘I think it should be a year in which the market continues to improve. But I certainly don’t see it doing that in a dramatic or explosive sort of way.’

Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, said that it expected the market to ‘bump along the bottom throughout 2026’.

It described this as an opportunity for new collectors to buy and drink fine wine, which would help with ‘building up sustainable long-term demand’.

Two questions

Carter highlighted Bordeaux wines from the 2009 vintage and before as one particular buying opportunity. ‘Prices look favourable [and] these wines are ready to drink, so they are supported by a consumption market.’

Sophia Gilmour, market analyst at Liv-ex, said: ‘As the possibility of broad market recovery becomes more of a reality, potential buyers should be asking themselves two questions – where have sellers been willing to capitulate, and which wines may provide the highest nominal gains?’

Gilmour added: ‘In terms of capitulation, 2021 Bordeaux [wines] have seen their prices slashed, generally below ex-chȃteau release prices.’

For buyers willing to incur higher risk, Gilmour said legendary producers such as Rayas (Rhône), Jacques Selosse or Salon (Champagne) and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (Burgundy) will be of interest.

Prices for these fell sharply in the recent market downturn – after rising rapidly – and there could be more interesting offers, particularly if merchants need to raise capital.

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

The shape of 2026: The good, the bad and the uncertain

There are several reasons for cautious optimism in our corner of the wine market.

Some wines now look decisively oversold; Bordeaux 2021 is a case in point, as is Lafite, with price reductions re-engaging long-sidelined buyers.

Absolute value also seems to matter more. Super Seconds from solid vintages trading around £60-£70 will appeal to many, particularly when compared with village Burgundy from unproven producers at similar prices.

And categories such as pre-2009 claret, classic Rhône and Super Tuscans with a little age continue to enjoy consumption-driven support.

It’s also worth remembering that consumers typically moderate rather than disappear.

Asia has clearly been in a moderating phase, but there are signs of a gradual re-emergence of demand. But significant headwinds remain.

Investment overhang from the 2000-2020 bull market is still being worked through, with the most heavily speculated regions enduring the deepest corrections.

Finally, structural challenges loom large. An expanding universe of fine wines increases competition, benefiting drinkers but likely diluting returns.

Add climate change, declining consumption and more fragile luxury narratives, and it’s clear some headwinds will persist.

The year ahead feels finely poised. Opportunities will emerge, but a return to dramatic growth still feels some way off.

Latest Power 100 ranking released

St-Emilion powerhouse Château Cheval Blanc, cult Rhône producer Château Rayas and Super Tuscan standard-bearer Sassicaia have been highlighted in a new ranking of fine wine brands.

Cheval Blanc topped the latest Power 100 ranking by Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, with Sassicaia producer Tenuta San Guido in second place.

Based on trading data in the year to 30 September 2025, the ranking offers extra insight into pockets of relative stability in a challenging market.

‘[Cheval Blanc] has not been immune to the downturn of the market,’ said Liv-ex, but a consistent approach to release pricing has helped to build its ‘strong reputation for quality and value’.

Spain’s Vega Sicilia came 16th, after heading the previous Power 100 ranking. While prices remained stable on average, it was particularly affected by US buyer caution in the face of import tariff uncertainty.

Vaunted Châteauneuf-du-Pape producer Rayas was fifth in the new Power 100 ranking, up 49 places on the 2024 edition. Prices rose 2.7% on average, ‘backed by substantial trade’.

The late Emmanuel Reynaud (pictured abvove), owner of Château Rayas in Chateauneuf-du-Pape Rayas wines have long been sought after by in-the-know collectors.

Geraint Carter, of merchant Bordeaux Index and online trading platform LiveTrade, said prices went ‘through the roof’ in the most recent market bull run before dropping sharply – by around 30% – and then rebounding in 2025 to some extent.

In November, inspirational Rayas owner and winemaker Emmanuel Reynaud passed away, prompting widespread tributes, including from Decanter’s Rhône correspondent Matt Walls.

Hark your mind back to February 1991. The Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm dominated the news, Mariah Carey was named best new artist at the Grammys and The Silence of the Lambs spooked us at the cinema.

And, fresh on the newsstand, was Volume 16, issue no6, of Decanter magazine, priced at £2 and boasting 100 pages.

The cover, a glass of red on an Australian flag, promotes the issue’s main feature – ‘The cream of Aussie Cabernets’, alongside new commune Clarets and (intriguingly) paradoxical Ports.

Inside, these were five things that piqued our interest from the Decanter February 1991 issue.

Archive dive in five

1: Aussie accolades

Our cover story for this issue was a panel tasting of 95 Australian Cabernets – ‘one of the most comprehensive tastings of its kind’. Wines ranged from £3.99 to £18, with the judges united in the ‘consistent quality and value’, though less so in the wines’ overt varietal character. South Australian wines dominated the top 13, including five from Coonawarra, but it was the £7.99 Penfolds' Bin 222 1985 from Eden Valley (now a rare collectable bottle) in top spot.

2: Decanter's Bordeaux office

Decanter opened a Bordeaux office on 11 February 1991, on 42 Avenue Emile-Counord (now an Auchan supermarket). The office was headed up by Michael Denton, who joined Decanter in 1980, five years after its launch, and is still our France account manager today, 46 years later – though no longer contactable by Fax or Telex…

3: Napa royalty

Tony Lord, then editor of Decanter, interviewed the ‘cerebral’ Warren Winiarski of Napa’s Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. When Winiarski found out his 1973 Cabernet (from the winery’s first commercial harvest) had beaten four Bordeaux first growths to first place at Steven Spurrier’s now infamous 1976 Judgment of Paris tasting, he was in Chicago trying to sell wine. ‘I thought, that’s nice. I had no idea of the implications…’

4: Prices 35 years ago

In a feature on value buys from UK supermarket Waitrose, a star was the Cave de Lugny Crémant de Bourgogne NV for £5.95. The wine remains a favourite today though inflation now has it at £17. Meanwhile, in her investment column, Serena Sutcliffe MW (newly appointed as global head of Sotheby’s Wine Department – a position she held until 2015) said there’s never been a better time to buy 1985 classed-growth claret at auction, with 12-bottle cases ‘going for a song’. She cited Château Talbot at £99 and Lafite, Ausone and Cheval Blanc between £374 and £396.

5: Wise words

The late great Gerard Basset is the subject for the Bin End back page interview. From drinking ‘watered-down plonk’ as a child, he moved into hospitality and became ‘thirsty for knowledge’, culminating in gaining his Master Sommelier qualification in 1989, the Master of Wine in 1998 and winning the World's Best Sommelier title in 2010 – among so many other accolades, including an OBE. ‘All these things that I do don’t make me a superman,’ he said. ‘They are simply part of my voyage of discovery, and there is so much to learn.’

Is there an issue over the past 50 years you'd like us to look back on? Drop us a line at editor@decanter.com

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Warm autumn sun gently seeps into the dark-panelled tasting room of the Barbadillo offices in Sanlúcar de Barrameda on Spain’s Atlantic coast, north of Cádiz. New-release wines sit alongside bottles of old vintages whose labels are barely legible in the dappled light.

It’s quiet, with the silent energy that only exists in the criaderas (Sherry ‘nurseries’) of the region’s bodegas, where flor – the layer of yeast and other microorganisms that forms on the surface of some Sherries – industriously yet discreetly goes about its work on the wines.

Here in this golden gloom, winemaker Montserrat (Montse) Molina speaks softly and thoughtfully about the wines. The conversation is technical and detailed, as one would expect of someone with her experience and knowledge.

Then something shifts: a spark, a flicker in her eye and Molina grows animated. Why? The subject has turned to yeast.

‘We can’t always explain the “why” – why something tastes the way it does, even though it’s the same wine but in a different barrel,’ Molina explains. ‘It’s the yeast. The manzanillas are old but lively because of the type of yeast that has developed. And once I’m gone, these yeasts will still be here.’

‘More than anything, we have to maintain and defend the wines of the region’

Montserrat Molina

Heading south

Molina arrived in Sanlúcar in 1997 without any previous experience or knowledge of the region. She grew up in Catalonia in the northeast and studied pharmacy in Navarra.

There she was interested in the classes relating to food and so went on to undertake a master’s degree in winemaking and viticulture. Having been introduced to the aromatic and expressive rosé wines of Navarra, Molina had planned to work in the region.

Just then, a newspaper advertisement appeared for a role with the winemaking team at Barbadillo. ‘I didn’t know anything about Sherry wines but I was sure the region would be amazing (my grandparents are from Andalucía). And it combined my interest in chemistry and viticulture.’

When Molina was selected, it was August and she was working in a very busy pharmacy in Girona. ‘I finished work on a Saturday and the next day packed up the car and left.’

After a quick stop at a local tourist office to buy a map (of course, no GPS!), she arrived in Sanlúcar. Molina remembers that it wasn’t easy to adapt, at first living on her own in a room above the winery. ‘I kept my bags packed each night,’ she muses.

But this was simply a period of adjustment to her new life and a different culture. In fact, everyone was very supportive. ‘There was a technical director here and I was assisting him. He was very generous with his time and taught me a lot.’

It was a time when there weren’t a lot of women working in the region’s wineries, but Molina never felt that this was a problem. ‘I remember one of the retired workers coming into the winery one evening to have a drink – a normal occurrence at the time – and he showed some surprise that I was busy working among the barrels. But his comments weren’t directed towards me in a negative way at all.’

A woman’s work

Sherry is often portrayed as a male-dominated region steeped in tradition, so it may surprise some readers that women have occupied key winemaking roles in some of its most established wineries. Some of these include…

• Pilar Aranda was one of Sherry’s first female winemakers and in the mid-20th century owned what is today Bodega Alvaro Domecq

• Ana Cabestrero Ortega started working as the winemaker at El Maestro Sierra in 2004 and is also the bodega’s commercial director

• Reyes Gómez Rubio has been the technical director and winemaker at Sánchez Romate since 2005

• Paola Medina is from the second generation of the owners of Williams & Humbert. She has been working at the winery since 2010 and is now the technical director and winemaker

• Silvia Flores is now assisting her father Antonio Flores as part of the winemaking team at González Byass. She represents the third generation of the Flores family at this well-known Sherry house

Trial and error

As a big company, Barbadillo has had the capacity to invest and experiment, and Molina believes it has been very open to doing new things over the course of its 200-year history.

When she arrived at the winery, she was able to digitalise some of the systems and paperwork with the acquisition of a computer, only the company’s second. ‘Barbadillo has been very ready to adapt to the market, not to copy other people but to do something that adds value.’

She has led her team to create new wines, as she explains, ‘to take people on a journey through Sherry’. The range of still white wines, grown on albariza soils – the chalky soils, rich in calcium carbonate, clay and marine fossils, found only in Jerez – and aged in Sherry casks without flor, is an entry point for many consumers into the world of Sherry.

Mirabrás, a 100% Palomino Fino from old vines, was launched with the 2014 vintage and, in 2020, Molina took the same must and aged it under a fine veil of flor in individual casks to create a light manzanilla as a stepping stone to the winery’s more complex Sherry wines.

Molina saves some of her biggest pride for the red wine that Barbadillo has been producing, classified as Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz (2022, £13.75 Bowland Forest Vintners), since the mid-2000s.

‘A hundred years ago, nobody planted any red varieties and there was no history of reds in the area, so it took a lot of work to make wines that taste of our region, and not to copy others,’ she explains. ‘And they are hard to sell.’

Crafting the future

Despite being in charge of so many historical products and having worked so long for the same company, Molina believes in innovating and adapting to new consumer preferences. ‘I really like working with our sparkling wine Toto,’ Molina explains.

Made mostly from Palomino grown on albariza soils, it’s a traditional-method brut nature. ‘It has a manzanilla-like palate with a lot of salinity, like a base wine for Champagne. Even though it’s sparkling, it reflects the region because of the fruit and structure.’

But of course, we soon return to the topic of yeast and the future of the region’s fortified wines. ‘I am always taking photos of the flor – it is so beautiful. It makes me think of all the generations that came before who contributed to this history.’

And what is her biggest pleasure? ‘Seeing how amazed people are when they taste the yeast’s influence in manzanilla and appreciate its unique taste profile.’ Her final words resonate the strongest.

‘More than anything, we have to maintain and defend the wines of the region, which are culturally really important and unique in the world.’ Molina’s contract with Barbadillo was initially for three months – 28 years later, it looks as though she isn’t going anywhere.

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Beth Willard, Matthew Forster MW and Andrew Johnson tasted 86 wines, with 4 Outstanding and 31 Highly recommended

Spanish Viura/Macabeo: Panel tasting scores

86 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 4

Highly recommended 31

Recommended 46

Commended 5

Fair 0

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their wines produced entirely or predominantly from Viura/Macabeo/Macabeu (maximum 15% of any other varieties) from anywhere in Spain

Scroll down to see the top-scoring wines from our Viura/Macabeo panel tasting

‘These deserve praise’

Some tasting days are better than others and this flight of Viura-based wines started with a highlight: the very first wine turned out to be one of the day’s best, scoring 95 points.

Despite its inherent flavour neutrality, Viura went on to show off its adaptability and ageing potential in this diverse tasting of one of Spain’s most important white varieties.

The majority of the wines in the tasting came from Rioja and the region starred, with solid quality across the board. Eight of the top 10 wines were Riojan in origin and underwent oak ageing, as well as further development in bottle.

These wines displayed appealing palate weight, gaining complexity over time while maintaining the region’s hallmark freshness. Viura’s ageing capacity really thrilled the judges.

Andrew Johnson was struck by the considered winemaking. ‘There are some wonderful examples of aged styles done with care,’ he explained. ‘These deserve praise’

Likewise, Matthew Forster MW was encouraged by the winemakers’ stylistic choices. ‘I was braced for oak, but we found contemporary styles,’ he said. ‘Even with heavy oak, the wines are balanced.’

The joy of divergence

But the wines weren’t limited to a hegemony of style. An interesting point of comparison came by way of low-intervention and skin-contact wines from Catalonia.

A brisat (skin-contact wine) from Montsant featured among the top performers (see recommendations): a wine that shows off its Mediterranean character with ripe stone fruit and dried herbs, such as thyme and rosemary.

And two skin-contact wines from Costers del Segre (Recommended, both scoring well at 89pts, so not featured in this report but available via the link to decanter.com further down), offered up heady aromas of quince and marmalade, supported by vibrant tannic energy.

So, while Rioja, with its cooler, higher-elevation terroir, dominates the list, there are wonderfully characterful whites from Spain’s coastal zones, demonstrating Viura’s quiet plasticity.

Like a dark and broody Scandi noir TV series that slowly unravels but reveals little in the first few episodes, Viura can also deliver a killer punch with time and patience.

What to eat with Viura/Macabeo wines, by Fiona Beckett

Given that we’re mainly talking about white Rioja, many of our suggested pairings are going to be familiar: rich fish such as hake or turbot, shellfish such as seared scallops or grilled lobster, and substantial pork dishes would all sit comfortably with these older, more complex wines.

But the freshness of many of the wines indicates that they could be partnered with lighter fish and vegetable dishes.

As we’re heading towards spring, white asparagus, artichokes, Spanish spring vegetable stews such as menestra and ravioli stuffed with seafood would all be good options.

Some of the wines were quite different, though – the oxidative Panorámico O (see recommendations), for example, which could, like a vin jaune, be partnered with roast chicken and morels, umami-rich Japanese broths and aged cheeses such as Manchego and Comté.

Skin-contact wines, which also featured in this tasting, are more akin to a red wine when it comes to pairing and could take you off in a different direction: Middle Eastern food, tagines, grilled lamb – maybe a typical Valencian paella. Viura, as the judges found, is your flexible friend.

See all notes and scores from the Viura/Macabeo tasting

The judges

Beth Willard is a wine communicator and judge with a particular passion for the wines of Spain. A regular contributor to Decanter and one of the five Co-Chairs of the DWWA, she is also a member of the Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino

Matthew Forster MW is a wine consultant and education specialist, and founder of The Wine Partnership. A former director at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, he has a passion for the wines of Spain, Portugal and South America

Andrew Johnson is managing director of wine merchant WoodWinters and also heads his own project, Veiled Vineyards, which aims to unearth ‘hidden’ wines that might otherwise have missed out on reaching the market

Viura/Macabeo panel tasting results:

Wines were tasted blind

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David Silva – ‘El Mago’ – was an extraordinarily talented footballer: a World Cup and twice European Championship winner with Spain, four times Premier League title winner with Manchester City and one of the first names on the team sheet in the late 2010s when City were, arguably, the best football team in the world.

And now, in glory-coated retirement from the beautiful game, a winemaker? Don’t bet against it.

In 2019, Silva bought the vineyard property on Gran Canaria – the Canary island on which he was born and raised – that is now Bodega Tamerán. Guided by his friend Jonatan García Lima, owner of Suertes del Marqués – the first winery to rise to fine wine prominence in Tenerife – Silva launched Tamerán from the 2020 vintage, with García installed as winemaker.

On the terraces

Surrounded by towering mountains and plunging ravines in a semi-arid volcanic landscape dotted with giant cacti and balsam spurges, Tamerán is located in a rugged valley at 700m in central Gran Canaria.

Indigenous white varieties Baboso Blanco, Listán Blanco, Malvasía Volcánica, Marmajuelo, Verdello and Vijariego Blanco are planted on their own rootstocks in separate terraced parcels for the flagship varietal whites; Listán Negro is sourced from trusted growers at more than 1,200m further north for two recently introduced reds.

García is very much Tamerán’s guiding force for now, but Silva is taking more than a passing interest in the technical side of things. His love of wine developed when he was playing football in England and struck up a friendship with Joan Valencia, owner of Cuvée 3000, Spain’s leading natural and artisan wine distributor.

‘He started to send me different wines and I started to discover different areas – France, Italy, the Canary Islands…’ Silva explains. One of the wines that impressed him the most was the Suertes del Marqués, El Ciruelo Listán Negro 2016 (since renamed Las Suertes).

He contacted García to congratulate him on the wine and they hit it off. Silva’s knowledge developed quickly.

As well as familiarising himself with the best wines and winemakers of the Canary Islands, he loves the whites of Rías Baixas and has learned a lot from winemaker friends in Galicia, including Rodrigo Méndez. He has a particular taste for Burgundy and Barolo – tastes he shares with García.

‘One day I would like to make the wine. Every year I do more in the cellar’

David Silva

A different league

Although Tamerán’s focus is on scintillating local-variety whites, Silva is also excited by the potential of Gran Canaria reds. Tamerán’s two impressively elegant single-vineyard reds use Listán Negro from Vega de San Mateo, a high-elevation vineyard area close to Pico de las Nieves, the stratovolcano that forms the island’s highest peak.

Having now retired from football (forced to in 2023 by an anterior cruciate ligament injury), Silva is fully focused on Tamerán and very much hands-on.

‘Since I retired I’m there all the time,’ he says. ‘One day I would like to make the wine. It’s not easy, but I will try. Every year I am doing more things in the cellar.’

Now having got into their stride with Tamerán, both he and García are particularly excited about recent vintages. They think that cooler years in 2024 and 2025, along with better work in the vineyard and greater precision in the cellar, have produced the best wines yet.

The 2025 vintage was also the first with Burgundy barrels (they started the project with new Stockinger foudres and 500L barrels). It was Silva who suggested they try smaller-format Burgundy oak; the 2025s will be the first for which they’re trialling 300L François Frères.

‘I like whites with a little bit of oak, because in white, for me, with the acidity, it’s nice. But in reds, I don’t like the oak too much. I prefer reds with more fruit, more freshness,’ he says.

‘Now sometimes people do more [to emphasise] the acidity, but then you don’t have the complexity and the volume in the mouth. I prefer that kind of balance [of acidity and volume]. It’s not easy to do it here, but we are trying.’

Bodegas Tamerán: The essential six wines

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Clive Pursehouse speaks for the Willamette Valley in Oregon

As cool-climate Pinot Noir regions go, I think the Willamette Valley in Oregon is without peer in the United States.

I love the wines of the West Sonoma Coast, with their freshness and lift, but the classical elegance of the Willamette, marked by its unmistakable forest floor character and sweet, fresh red fruit, swings it for me.

The Willamette Valley has become a New World answer for lovers of classic Burgundy.

The biggest stigma that the Willamette Valley faces is that it’s not in California. As more than 80% of the country’s wine comes from the Golden State, people often have a hard time imagining American fine wine coming from anywhere else.

While Burgundy aficionados love the region’s Pinot Noirs, the average American wine consumer is still unaware of the Willamette Valley, considering this well-established region, with more than 700 wineries, a sort of ‘Wild West’ outpost.

Despite this, the region that was pioneered in the early 1970s has risen in just 50 years to be recognised as one of the world’s premium Pinot Noir-producing appellations.

American upstarts such as Adelsheim, Coury, Lett and Ponzi have been followed there by French names like Drouhin, Jadot and Lafon.

Unlike the West Sonoma Coast, which I do love for its beautiful wines, the Willamette isn’t a sub-appellation and has a singular identity, known for crafting elegant Pinot Noirs with fresh fruit and a deep, evocative ‘underbrush’ aspect, all while allowing for 11 nested AVAs within it to offer a diversity of expression.

You can’t see the ocean from any of the Willamette Valley’s vineyards – it sits about 65km west as the crow flies – but its maritime influence has a constant impact on the wines of the region.

Earthy richness

The cooling power of the Pacific makes the Willamette Valley the exceptional cool-climate region it is.

As the temperature rises in the valley during the warm summer months, cold air from the Pacific rushes into the Willamette through a gap in the Coast Range, cooling the region in the late-afternoon heat.

The latitude of the Willamette Valley, much farther north than Northern California, also means it has a shorter growing season and lower UV intensity.

The signature of Oregon Pinot Noir for me is the rich, Pacific Northwest forest floor, whether it’s turned soils, undergrowth or mushrooms: what the French call sous bois – the deep evergreen forests blanketed with ferns.

This provides a sense of depth and umami richness that frames the fleshy, bright berry fruits – be they strawberries, raspberries or riper Oregon blackberries – finishing with a saline character deriving from the region’s temperate Mediterranean and maritime climate, crisp and balanced acidity and often a flinty minerality.

Taken together, these elements create an elegance evocative of the Pinot Noirs of Burgundy.

However, in my view, the calibre of the wines, particularly for the price, exceeds what’s available in both Burgundy and the West Sonoma Coast.

Ana Carolina Quintela speaks for the West Sonoma Coast

American wine is no longer aspirational – let’s agree on this much before anything.

Pinot Noir, especially, has been thriving across different regions in the country, comfortably so.

Inevitably, at this point. The only interesting question isn’t whether the US can make great Pinot Noir, but where it speaks most compellingly.

More often than not, the answer circles back to the same two regions: Oregon’s Willamette Valley and the West Sonoma Coast of California.

While these two regions are often grouped together as cool-climate Pinot territory, in practice the resemblance only goes so far.

For me, the California coastal wines pull ahead, and the West Sonoma Coast’s biggest trump card is the Pacific ocean.

The ocean isn’t just a backdrop. The marine fog layer rolling in and out of the vineyards, spilling through winding roads, isn’t a special effect. The sudden rise in elevation isn’t scenery. The wind isn’t occasional, either.

Put it all together and those elements shape the wines that carry that imprint of salinity, etched acidity and a lift that goes beyond freshness.

It reads as energy. I’m comfortable calling it power.

Not ripeness, not weight, not authoritarian force. I mean the power of carrying a unique identity with confidence and a touch of defiance.

A power that doesn’t just sit on top of the wine, but holds it up from underneath. Pinot Noir is, by nature, an elegant grape, but elegance doesn’t have to be polite or appear fragile.

On the West Sonoma Coast, Pinot is elegant and unapologetically powerful.

A sense of scale

Part of what makes the West Sonoma Coast so compelling is also what makes it challenging for consumers to understand. This isn’t a region you cross through casually.

Vineyards are few and far between, because the land resists them with its steep ridges, isolated pockets, thick redwood forests and roads that remind you, pretty quickly, of how demanding it is to grow wine there.

There is a sense of scale: nature, larger than life, that shows in the glass.

I think it’s also fair to say that the Willamette Valley benefits from a built-in point of comparison to Burgundy.

Its geographic position (about 45°N latitude, compared to West Sonoma Coast’s 38.3°N) and climate make that parallel feel intuitive, and over time it has helped give the region a clear, legible identity, especially among collectors.

The West Sonoma Coast hasn’t had the same luxury.

As a younger AVA (American Viticultural Area – it was given TTB approval in May 2022), it has spent years labouring under the generic weight of ‘California Pinot’, or fighting for the visibility it deserves, which says more about how the two regions are framed than about the wines themselves.

I do love many of the wines from the Willamette Valley, but its more inland geography does leave it facing greater pressure as warming trends become harder to ignore.

And the longer you spend thinking about climate change, the more the coast starts to feel like insurance.

If great cool-climate Pinots are the ones that can keep their edge and balance, the appeal of places where the ocean still has a clear say feels obvious.

More top US Pinot Noir? For many more recommendations of top-quality Pinot Noirs from around the US, including Oregon and Sonoma, head to Decanter Premium

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As I sit down to write the first column of 2026, I’ve realised that I never really addressed its title: ‘The ethical drinker’. What does ‘ethical drinking’ actually mean? Does it relate more to the act of drinking alcohol, or to the product itself?

There isn’t really a straight answer to this, as it’s probably a bit of both: an awareness of the way we consume, a curiosity about the wines we choose, their provenance and their wider impact, and acting on this curiosity and awareness in our buying behaviours.

As I reflected on the topics covered over the last year – from labour standards, bees and biochar to the importance of community, the health of the oceans and packaging – I found myself revisiting the wines and people that made me stop and think; wines that challenged assumptions about flavour, or of farming standards; people who prompted me to widen the lens beyond my enjoyment of what’s in the glass.

That is what this column is all about. So here I’m highlighting three bottles – and the experiences that went with them – that made me think, question or act.

Maxime Magnon, La Bégou Corbières Blanc, Languedoc, France 2019 | 98pts

£44.40-£45.25 (2022) Parched, Roberson

France’s largest wildfire in more than 70 years rampaged through the Corbières region in early August 2025, burning more than 17,000ha of land a few weeks before harvest. Residents lost homes, one person lost their life, and many growers suffered catastrophic vineyard losses.

I opened this bottle of Maxime Magnon’s white Corbières in solidarity with those affected. Despite the sombre motivation, the wine was beautiful: fragrant with beeswax and almond oil, linden flowers and honeysuckle, its texture like fine lace, carried by a keen saline bolt through the finish. Drink: 2025-2030. Alcohol: 12.5%

Charlie Herring Wines, Promised Land Riesling, Hampshire, England 2022 | 95pts

£40 The Solent Cellar

I finally managed to visit Tim Phillips at his tiny garage winery in Lymington in southern England, on the one day of the year that he opens his doors. A deeply thoughtful and curious man, Tim treats each vintage – indeed each week – as a precious opportunity to learn, grow and tweak.

Just 4km from the coast, amid orchards, woodland and vegetable gardens, he tends a tiny walled vineyard of Riesling, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. This wine was a real revelation, one that feels like a beautiful tribute to its balanced ecosystem, carrying aromas of lime zest, rye bread, quince paste and crushed rock, and a long, textured finish. It’s quietly compelling and will take many years to unfurl. Drink: 2025-2035. Alc: 11%

Domaine Lissner, Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Altenberg de Wolxheim, Alsace, France 2023 | 95pts

See: lissner.fr

Spending a day with Bruno Schloegel of Domaine Lissner in Wolxheim, Alsace, was eye-opening. His approach (a Masanobu Fukuoka-inspired, ‘do-nothing’ style of farming) is unlike anything I’ve encountered. One way to describe it is simply ‘wild’. But that does a disservice to the intricate interplay of animal, vine, earth, mycorrhizae and, of course, human intention.

It was March, and the vines’ spindly cordons were still unpruned. Some trunks were so covered in ivy that the bark was no longer visible; some vines were trained up fruit trees. Countless plant species thrive under the vines and between the rows, hinting at the vast biodiversity below ground. Bruno readily admits that yields are low – reduced by competition among the plants and losses to disease in some years – but eliminating chemical inputs and a reduced need for labour makes it economically viable.

We picked wild leeks from between the rows, which Bruno later used on the tarte flambée he cooked us for lunch. This Gewurztraminer was electric. Spicy, immediate and precise, with orange blossom, mango and grapefruit-tinged acidity. Drink: 2025-2035. Alc: 13.5%.

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I never really got YouTube. I know that people love it – the way that Instagram absorbs me, others can spend hours flipping from video to video on YouTube.

There are influencers who’ve made their fortunes on the platform, viral personalities of whom I’m entirely unaware. But it’s a whole world I hadn’t really delved into – and especially not for wine. Until now, that is.

I stumbled across The Back Label, a new series from Mackenzie Casey – the creator and host of the Pour Decisions interview series – designed to take you behind the scenes of the world of wine. The first episode features Domaine Dujac’s Jeremy Seysses – a big Burgundy name and a thoughtful, articulate winemaker – and if this initial offering is anything to go by, the series is well worth following.

So, down the rabbit hole I went. And what a warren it leads to: there’s an enormous amount of content on YouTube, targeted at every level of wine knowledge and of wildly varying quality, in terms of production values and accuracy.

In some ways, it’s an amazing resource; in others, there’s an awful lot to pan through for just a few nuggets of gold.

Among those nuggets is the now famous Tom Gilbey. Gilbey is one of YouTube’s most popular wine gurus and it’s easy to see why: he doesn’t take himself too seriously, his jokey style is entertaining but backed up by real knowledge, and the videos are short, sharp and to the point. He’s one of the few to make tasting wine on camera bearable.

And that is, for me, the problem: most videos centre on tasting wine – but watching someone else sip, slurp (and often spit) on screen, then tell you how it tastes, is incredibly dull.

There are, however, a few other exceptions. Sommelier André Mack’s content for Bon Appétit is excellent – slickly produced and interesting, concise without being reductive – but sadly those videos are few and far between.

If you’re an Australian-wine enthusiast, Wine Advocate critic Erin Larkin has a channel that offers the inside track on key new releases and her favourite wines.

There’s some seriously geeky content out there, too – check out the Australian Wine Research Institute’s webinars for a really good nerd-out sesh on pruning, malolactic fermentation or yeast strains.

While nosing around myself, I asked people on Instagram who they liked on YouTube; it seems telling that no one volunteered a name. Mostly, it seems as though the world of wine hasn’t nailed YouTube – or YouTube hasn’t nailed wine – or maybe I still just don’t get it.

Sips and Giggles

Comedians Alan Carr and Lee Peart have launched the new Bottoms Up! podcast, in association with Laithwaites. It’s silly, giggly fun – two friends whiling away time, popping corks and allowing conversation to occasionally stray into the world of wine. If you happen to have a screen to hand, you can watch it on YouTube, too. Will you learn much? No, but that isn’t really the point.

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To make a Riserva, or not to make a Riserva was the question in 2020.

With lower quantities overall and good rather than outstanding quality, the vintage was not an obvious contender in my opinion, especially given the character of the wines.

This isn’t to say that the 2020 Brunello Riserva are without merit.

Some I liked very much, though not necessarily more than their annata counterparts. Indeed, they are surprisingly fresh, fragrant and seductive.

It is the immediate accessibility, modest depth of fruit and gracious structure that made me question the potential for the Riserva category.

Split down the middle

When I polled producers last year, they were split almost equally down the middle. Those for, were enthusiastic; those not, were categorically against.

‘I consider 2020 a vintage for long ageing due to the quality of tannins and freshness,’ asserts Daniela Perino at Fuligni, whose Riserva bottling for the wine’s 50th anniversary was truly merited.

For Il Poggione, the Bindocci family was convinced by the balance of structure and elegance that their old-vine Riserva cru Vigna Paganelli demonstrated. Based on the wine, it is impossible to argue with their decision.

Conversely, Katia Nussbaum at San Polino replied with a capital ‘NO’.

Without denigrating the vintage for Brunello, she explained that it didn’t satisfy either of her criteria for Riserva: ‘greatness beyond compare, or mythology’.

She means of the latter a wine with a compelling narrative – like her unbelievable 2017 Riserva, for example.

A matter of taste

Approximately 50 Riservas were available for preview – about half as many as the 2019s last year.

As a set, they magnify the heterogeneity of the 2020 vintage and the diversity of estate philosophies.

In less successful examples, the vintage’s freshness is lost, without sufficient depth or intrigue to replace it. A number are already oxidised, making me seriously question their ageing potential.

Most of the 2020 Riserva are overshadowed by Le Chiuse and Biondi-Santi’s stellar late-release Riservas – 2016 and 2019 respectively – but my top two picks come from the 2020 vintage, from opposite sides of the region characterised by very different terroirs.

Winemaker Leonardo Berti chose to take Poggio di Sotto’s Riserva out of cask after just 36 months to preserve its freshness and fragrance.

Longer, he explains ‘would have compromised the drinkability of this vintage and robbed it of an essential part of its identity.’

Conversely, Il Marroneto’s Riserva saw a full 54 months in wood. ‘I always try to let the wine be perfect using the barrel, not the bottle’, describes Iacopo Mori.

Affectionally nicknamed ‘The Monster’, one particular cask of Madonna delle Grazie revealed a singularity throughout the entire refinement process and the family couldn’t help but bottle it separately.

It is the estate’s second-ever Riserva (the first was the 2013) – and one of the very few 100-point ratings I have ever awarded.

Brunello Riserva: Top buys

2020 is not a vintage I would categorically recommend paying the extra money for Riserva. However, a few are well worth seeking out.

Of the 20 I chose to recommend (plus late releases from Biondi Santi and Le Chiuse), most are ready or almost ready. In general, 10 to 12 years is a safe drinking bet. Just a small handful really demand more time – such as Conti Costanti, Caprili’s AdAlberto, and Lisini.

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The great Spanish writer Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) got it right when he lyricised about Fuerteventura as ‘this bony land… this red protrusion thirsting for water! Yet how beautiful it is! Yes, beautiful! But only for those seeking the innermost secrets of its shape.’

This ‘keeper of secrets’ is the second-largest island in the volcanic Canary Islands archipelago and was the first to begin rising from the ocean floor, about 20 million years ago. On the west coast at Ajuy, you can actually see the basal geological complex, which once lay just above the Earth’s mantle but has now risen to the surface.

Fuerteventura lies just southwest of Lanzarote. The closest landmass in the archipelago to the African continent, it’s blessed with year-round sunshine, more beaches than any other Canary Island (there are more than 150 of them) and – a lesser-known fact – it’s where the archipelago’s first grapevines were planted. Yes, the story of Canary Islands wine starts here.

Raw volcanic beauty

This rough guide to Fuerteventura is designed to help you appreciate the island’s stark beauty, its rugged coastline and its ancient history, along with the precious few winemakers and -growers working to revitalise its overexploited land – to show you the real island behind mass tourism’s plastic facade.

The basic route described here runs from Isla de Lobos in the north to Cofete in the south. To make the most of the guide, you’ll need a car and that rarest of gems, a designated driver.

Facing Isla de Lobos, Corralejo is the main port in the north and is a lively mix of bustling town and tourist destination. It has changed significantly in the last 10-15 years, with swathes of expats having moved there from sun-starved environs such as England and Ireland but, especially, Italy – such an influx that it has earned the nickname ‘Little Italy’.

It’s a great place to get your bearings and sample from the casual dining, tapas and seafood restaurants clustered around the harbour. For fantastic, no-fuss tapas and pinchos, and a laid-back vibe, try Gilda (@gildacorralejo) on Calle Delfín or, nearby, try lively La Pulperia on Calle Lepanto for lovely octopus tacos and a glass of house vermouth.

Small jewel

Corralejo’s expansive dunes are just 15 minutes’ walk or so from the town centre and offer a welcome escape from the hubbub – the perfect place for a sunset stroll, or to sit gazing over the water. In the near distance sits Montaña de La Caldera, the towering volcanic cone of your next destination: Isla de Lobos. This little islet between Fuerteventura and the southern coast of Lanzarote shouldn’t be missed. Ferries leave the port of Corralejo from around 9.45am for the 2km trip and return to the main island from the late morning to about 5.15pm, so you have the option to spend the full day exploring.

Plunge into the shimmering turquoise waters of the islet’s paradisal lagoons, relax in blissful isolation on its secluded beaches or take signposted hikes to observe the plants, birds, lizards and marine life of Lobos’ protected ecosystems.

Of lava and salt

By now a thirst for wine will no doubt have taken hold. Fortunately, from Corralejo it’s a 15-minute drive to the surfer town of Lajares – home to the most important winery on the island: Conatvs. The first wines released by owner Pedro Antonio Martín were from the 2015 vintage. A decade on, in May 2025, Conatvs (meaning ‘struggle’ or ‘effort’) marked a major milestone with the inauguration of a new, enotourist-ready winery, complete with wine bar and shop. Daily public tours in English last an hour and give you the chance to learn about Fuerteventura’s vinous history, tour the vineyard and stylish cellar – hewn from the lava terrain – and taste three of the estate’s wines, paired with local delicacies (from €35 per person).

Stirred by these sapid, saline wines, you then have the option of heading for the coast to El Cotillo, recently transformed from an anonymous fishing village to a vibrant surf destination. There you’ll find La Concha – the archetypal turquoise lagoon – if you’re still in a salty mood; if not, it’s time to head inland.

From hike to table

Driving south into the island’s more elevated interior, it’s just over 10 minutes from Lajares to the town of Villaverde, home to Hannelore von der Twer (hannelore@caminosano.eu). An always colourfully dressed German travel expert with a love of painter Frida Kahlo, Hannelore has lived on Fuerteventura since 1986. Now in her 70s, she knows more about the island than most natives. ‘Fuerteventura has soul – it’s not just sun, sand and sea,’ she says. ‘I like to show people what’s inside.’ Already respected for her pioneering work to promote responsible hiking on the island, two years ago she became its first unofficial enotourism ambassador.

Hannelore offers guided tours on as many as 28 hiking routes, which are to become part of an official Canary wine route programme. The established routes take in spectacular volcanoes and ravines, historic churches and other sites of interest, several now culminating with a visit to one of the island’s wineries, most of which are small-scale and otherwise not open to the public.

While in Villaverde, refuelling at Casa Marcos (@casamarcos2025) is highly recommended. New-generation Canary Island chef Dani Fajardo manages this rustic restaurant with aplomb. In this locally typical timber-roofed, lava-stone building, with lacquered old bushvine trunks for light fittings, choose from a bold menu created on a ‘zero-kilometre’ model. Dining outside on the terrace beside the kitchen garden is also an option, with the ochre tones of Montaña Escanfraga right in front of you.

To the root

Driving past La Oliva in the island’s centre-west, the next stop is one of the most beautiful towns in any Spanish territory. Founded by and named after the Norman explorer Jean de Béthencourt, who arrived in the Canary Islands in 1402 and claimed them for Spain, Betancuria is a place whose historical importance far exceeds its modest size (it was the island’s capital from 1405 to 1834). Almost hidden within a rugged mountain landscape (its concealed position once served as a defence against pirate raids), Betancuria enchants with its quiet cobbled streets, traditional Canarian houses and the tolling bells of its 17th-century Iglesia de Santa Maria.

While here, be sure to visit the Museo Arqueológico (open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm, entry free). Inaugurated in its present form in 2020 and packed with ancient exhibits, this is the place to learn about Fuerteventura’s indigenous civilisation, the Majos, a people who originated in the Berber territories of North Africa who ruled the island before Betancuria was established. Ancient Majo sites abound across the island and new ones are being uncovered all the time. The most important is Montaña de Tindaya in the island’s central northwest, with more than 300 podomorphs (foot-shaped rock carvings) around the summit attesting to its sacred significance.

Before you head south for the wild, windswept beaches and dunes of the Jandía peninsula, it’s worth a short stop in the island’s capital Puerto del Rosario, to dine at La Puipana. While most of the island’s restaurants are still in thrall to Rioja and Ribera, La Puipana is moving steadfastly against the grain. It’s another ‘zero- kilometre’ venue, with a smart, ingredient-led, Canaries-focused menu and a wine list that, improbably, is 90% Canarian wine.

Beaches and more: the emerging wine land of Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura is central to the history of Canary Island wine: the first grapevines to arrive in the archipelago from mainland Spain were planted in Betancuria in the island’s interior in the early 1400s.

The most important grape variety the European settlers brought was Listán Prieto. Other red varieties found on the island include Listán Negro (locally known as Hoja Moral), Tintilla and Baboso Negro.

White varieties include Malvasía Volcanica, Listán Blanco, Marmajuelo and Moscatel.

For wineries such as Conatvs and La Hubara, crisp, saline whites have the potential to become Fuerteventura’s signature style. Conatvs is also one of the wineries developing the red grape Majorera – a variety unique to Fuerteventura, discovered in 2016 by winemaker Alberto González.

Winemaking renaissance

It should be noted that, despite Fuerteventura’s seminal role in the viticultural history of the islands, there are just three wineries making wines under the Islas Canarias DO (Fuerteventura doesn’t have its own DO) – Conatvs in Lajares, Gavías El Sordo in Tetír and the newly minted Bodegas La Hubara in Toto – and only about 23 producing wine commercially across 26ha of vineyards.

‘It was in the 1950s that viticulture experienced a resurgence,’ notes respected local farmer and viticulturist turned winemaker Jacob Negrín of ARyGA. ‘The area that sustained the vineyards was the west-central part of the island – the Santa Inés valley and the plains of La Concepción. But long periods of drought and uncontrolled livestock grazing ended what could have been a prosperous future. Now, thankfully, it’s receiving a boost.’

Negrín makes a small amount of excellent natural wine from vines interplanted with organic vegetables in the rust-red volcanic soils of Casillas de Morales. He’s in the process of building a new bodega and hopes to be able to accommodate guests within the next 12 months.

As Negrín explains, water preservation is critical to Fuerteventura’s agricultural hopes. Crucial to any restoration is the island’s traditional farming system using gavias – fields with raised boundaries that help to capture the scant rainfall. The local association of wine-growers, Majuelo, is doing its best to educate its 120-plus members about the importance of such regenerative techniques.

One new project benefiting from this knowledge is Bodegas La Hubara in Toto. It now has 6,000 vines planted in gavias in a project started in 2021. Owner Guillermo Franquiz has built a new winery that will open to the public in spring 2026 – an important example of the green shoots emerging on Fuerteventura.

Spectacular scenery

From Toto it’s a short drive through the charming village of Pájara – stop for traditional Canary Island fare at the rural refuge of Casa Isaitas – and up through a majestic mountain landscape to the Mirador de Sicasumbre lookout. Drink in the spectacular scenery southwest towards the coastal town of La Pared and then watch the Atlantic shimmer into view as you descend. La Pared is also the name of the ancient wall that was built across the isthmus from Playa de La Pared to the tidal lagoon adjacent to Playa de Sotavento, remnants of which can still be seen. One theory goes that it originally separated the Majo territories of kings Guize and Ayoze.

Sotavento itself is a 9km-long beach of pale sand that’s definitely worth exploring. Helpfully, given its vastness, it’s split into sections. Playa de la Barca and Playa Risco del Paso are popular for kite- and windsurfers, while Mal Nombre, reachable on foot to the south at low tide, is good for a swim (check tide and conditions on the day), with calm turquoise water, gentle dunes and lava-stone windbreaks.

You’re now in full-on holiday resort territory, so tread with caution. Drive straight through Morro Jable – unless of course you’re dining at Salvaje, Marabú or El Pellizco. The original El Pellizco in Morro Jable was opened six years ago (there’s now also a bigger one in Costa Calma). Chef Rigoberto Almeida is Cuban and his food is a vibrant fusion of Cuban and Canarian influences. Local wines are offered by the glass or bottle.

If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, when you leave Morro Jable, take a swerve right into Jandía natural park, signposted Cofete. It’s a 15-minute drive along an unpaved road with the occasional sheer drop, but the blissfully isolated 14km-long virgin beach at the end of it is worth the effort.

If you’re the kind of traveller who likes a challenge, who is prepared to dig a little deeper, giving the package-holiday crowd a wide berth, Fuerteventura is a place whose innermost secrets are just waiting to be discovered.

How to get there

Easyjet and Ryanair operate regular flights from most major UK airports. From Fuerteventura airport it’s a roughly 35-minute drive to Corralejo in the north and Betancuria in the centre, and about an hour to Jandía in the south.

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Beth Willard, Eugenio Egorov and Matthew Forster MW tasted 98 wines, with 5 Outstanding and 63 Highly recommended

Priorat 2021 vs 2022: Panel tasting scores

98 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 5

Highly recommended 63

Recommended 27

Commended 3

Fair 0

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their dry red wines classified as DOCa/DOQ Priorat from the 2021 and 2022 vintages

Scroll down to see the top-scoring wines from our Priorat 2021 vs 2022 panel tasting

Opposites attract

Vintage variation can be likened to different musical styles.

Taylor Swift, for instance, provides instant gratification, while Rosalía requires more thoughtful consideration, but both are outstanding in their own right.

In this panel tasting we compared the wines of Priorat from the two very different vintages of 2021 and 2022, one subtle and discreet, the other a little more obvious, but each expressing the region through unique interpretations.

In general, the cohort of 2022 wines offered immediate appeal, with bright, juicy fruit and ripe tannins, while the 2021 vintage wines tended to be fresher and more structured, with good ageing potential.

These characteristics seem to correspond to the vintage conditions, which varied greatly.

Drought and extreme heat marked the growing season in 2022, although the older Garnacha and Cariñena vines proved how resilient and adaptable they are when they experience tough conditions.

‘Serious knowhow’

In contrast, 2021 was altogether cooler, with lower temperatures and significantly more rainfall, which lowered alcohol levels appreciably.

Eugenio Egorov noted the ‘fresher and balanced wines from the cooler 2021’, but equally appreciated the approach to the warmer 2022 vintage.

‘The 2022 wines offer great fruit character,’ he explained. ‘There is more winemaking to balance the difficulties experienced in the vineyards, but the approach taken is heading in the right direction, with less over-oaking and more purity of fruit.’

The quality of winemaking was also noted by Matthew Forster MW. ‘Priorat is established – there’s a lot of serious knowhow, and the number of wines scoring 90 points or higher speaks to their credibility and quality.’

In particular, Forster highlighted the personality of the wines. ‘It is great to see stylistic diversity – the region is so much less homogenous than before.’

Certainly, vintage discussions aren’t redundant, but with serious winemaking skill and knowledge, the region’s more problematic years can be tamed and result in delicious wines.

Perhaps one day Rosalía – a native of Catalonia – might not just sing about Sauvignon Blanc but also the outstanding wines of Priorat!

What to eat with Priorat wines, by Fiona Beckett

Should different vintages dictate different wine pairings? I guess it depends how far apart they are. You might well go for a different match with a younger wine than an older one, but should you take into account vintage conditions?

No more so, I’d suggest, than wines from different producers who favour a particular style. It’s also a question of personal taste – is it better to pair a hearty stew with an equally intensely flavoured wine or a lighter wine for refreshing contrast?

That said, Priorat is a wine I would turn to for the last roasts and braises of winter, particularly with dishes such as ox cheek and short rib, and look forward to opening with the first barbecues of spring and summer. They are definitely wines for carnivores.

They’re also good wines to serve with a cheeseboard, especially with stronger cheeses such as vintage cheddar and punchy blues, of which the Spanish have some great examples, such as Picos and Cabrales, although you might turn to the more structured 2021s for those.

So maybe you do need to take account of vintages after all…

See all notes and scores from the Priorat 2021 vs 2022 tasting

The judges

Beth Willard is a wine communicator and judge with a particular passion for the wines of Spain. A regular contributor to Decanter and one of the five Co-Chairs of the DWWA, she is also a member of the Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino

Eugenio Egorov is wine director at Six Senses London hotel & spa. Born in Ukraine, he began his hospitality career in restaurants in Italy and Florida, USA, before moving to London in 2014

Matthew Forster MW is an independent wine consultant and education specialist, and founder of The Wine Partnership. A former director at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, he is particularly passionate about the food and wine cultures of Spain, Portugal and South America

Priorat 2021 vs 2022 panel tasting results:

Wines were tasted blind

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I’m curious. Imagine we’re going to have dinner together: aperitif, white wine with the starter, red wine with the second course and a glass of Port (young, vintage) to finish. As I serve the first course, I mention that tonight’s white is from Bordeaux. What’s your reaction? He’s gone for a cheap option? Maybe. It’ll be a soundly made fresh white without much personality? Perhaps. Wow: an intriguing terroir choice! Doubtful. He’s found an exciting alternative to white Burgundy? Improbable.

That’s Bordeaux’s white problem. We’re hazy about it, we struggle to find benchmarks, it lacks precise origin and few nowadays see it as essential to the gastronomic toolkit. Prediction: this will change. And fact: you could have answered ‘yes’ to all of the deductions above. All.

The backdrop? Our world is heating: we want more chilled white wine. According to OIV figures, white wine accounted for 45.6% of global production between 2000 and 2004; that had risen to 49.3% between 2017 and 2021.

In Bordeaux, white wine helps proprietors escape from a marketing prison of haughty grandeur that fails to engage younger drinkers and leaves sommeliers bored and frustrated. White wine allows proprietors to be creative and intriguing; they can surprise and re-engage with consumers. Margaux second growth Château Durfort-Vivens’ beautifully labelled Blanc de Noir is an example: it’s made from Cabernet Franc and Muscadelle, and almost exclusively aged in amphora.

Bordeaux can produce outstanding white wine. Simple blends of Sauvignon and Semillon with a little Muscadelle fragrance can offer compelling satisfaction and drinkability for their price while, at the top of the ladder, the sensual allure of grand Bordeaux whites can be sublime.

The success of dry white wine is already changing the dire economics of Sauternes: Château Guiraud now devotes half its vineyards to dry white, while Château Suduiraut expects to be two-thirds dry white by 2030. Suduiraut’s dry 2020 Vieilles Vignes (see right) sells for about £40-£50 in the UK at the time of writing; to find a white Burgundy of equivalent quality, you’d need to pay at least three times that price.

The arrival, in August 2025, of a Médoc Blanc appellation marks the moment. It covers the eight Médoc APs (Haut-Médoc, Médoc, Listrac-Médoc, Moulis, Margaux, St-Julien, St-Estèphe and Pauillac) and the rules have been written with more varietal flexibility than the French norm, though three months’ wood ageing for 30% of the blend is mysteriously required.

St-Emilion and its satellites are planning their own appellation extensions for white wines, too. Will it help? Remember that the dry whites of Château d’Yquem (named Y, or ‘Ygrec’ in French) and its Sauternes peers, as well as of Château Margaux (Pavillon Blanc) and Château Mouton Rothschild (Aile d’Argent) all go to market under the plain ‘Bordeaux Blanc’ appellation. This has creative advantages, as does Vin de France (used by Châteaux Palmer and Kirwan for their whites). But it also has consumer disadvantages – notably our inability to tell whether or not the wine in the bottle comes from grapes grown on the stated property, an issue the pan-Médoc Blanc AP won’t solve.

The resurgence of Bordeaux white should, of course, benefit Pessac-Léognan above all. Why ‘should’? The fact that some proprietors here took against Semillon over the last two decades and switched to making Sauvignon-dominated or pure Sauvignon whites was, in my view, a mistake.

The grandeur of white Bordeaux is grounded on a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon: the former for flesh, the latter for brightness, pungency and zest. Take away the flesh, and the wine can be too firm and linear. Plantings take time to resolve, so this situation plays into Sauternes properties’ hands at present. They’re the ones sitting on most of the Semillon – and they have great terroir stories to tell.

In my glass this month

One of my wines of the year for 2025, the Château Suduiraut, Vieilles Vignes Grand Vin Blanc Sec 2020 (AP Bordeaux) is not only a seductive blend (56% Semillon and 44% Sauvignon Blanc, from vines with an average age of 45 years) but also embodies the teasing, creamy richness of a wholly successful oaked white wine. Our family loved its honeyed aromatic allure; its weight and balance; and its seamless leafysmoky complexities. Brilliant with food. You’ll go on sipping once the plates are clean, too.

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During a recent trip to my local wine merchant, a vintage bottle of Chartreuse caught my eye – as did the price tag: US$4,295. This once-obscure French liqueur is having a moment with collectors and bartenders alike.

Crafted in the French Alps by silent Carthusian monks, the spirit’s origin dates to an alchemical recipe for an ‘elixir of long life’ given by Duke François-Annibal d’Estrées to the head of the Carthusian order in 1605. The monks used their knowledge of medicinal plants to fine tune the recipe, which they produced at their headquarters in the Monastery of the Grande Chartreuse outside Grenoble in eastern France. It’s still produced by lay brothers attached to the order, each of whom works on a small part of the elixir; the complete recipe of 130 plant products is known only to two monks.

In fact, there are several types of Chartreuse, the two main ones being green, which is 55% abv and has a pronounced herbal aroma and flavour; and yellow, which is 40% or 43% abv, and has a softer aroma with an edge of honey. Since 1963, the monks have also produced a version of each that’s aged for a longer period, known by the French acronym VEP (Vieillissement Exceptionnellement Prolongé).

Colourful history

Production is now limited by the monks to 1.6 million bottles, although they once sold almost twice this amount. Faced with growing popularity, the monks issued a letter announcing they were setting a limit to allow them to focus on their monastic life, solitude and prayer, and to reduce the environmental impact of production.

The monks were expelled from France in 1903 and relocated the distilling operations from their original base to Tarragona in northern Spain, where production continued until 1989.

The monks returned to the Chartreuse mountains in 1940, having earlier established a new distillery in their ageing cellar in Voiron. This site was used until 2017; some of the liqueur is still aged in Voiron, which has re-opened as a visitor centre. Chartreuse is now produced at a modern facility in Aiguenoire, not far from the monastery.

Bottles of Chartreuse from these different periods can sell for eyewatering sums. At a recent sale at US-based auction house Zachys, a bottle of Yellow Chartreuse from the Tarragona period sold for $11,875.

Perhaps the best way to experience Chartreuse is in a cocktail; the eminently drinkable creation The Last Word is ironically named, given the spirit is distilled by monks who’ve taken a vow of silence.

The Last Word

Ingredients: 25ml Green Chartreuse, 25ml London dry gin, 25ml Maraschino liqueur, 25ml fresh lime juice

Glass: Coupe

Garnish: Maraschino cherry

Method: Put all of the ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into a chilled coupe.

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South Africa on stage

Julie Sheppard

My latest taste of the Cape took place in the heart of London, where House of Sisters Grimm has opened its doors to celebrate South African culture through performance, art and – of course – wine.

The venue is home to an art gallery – displaying works by Ella Spira MBE, inspired by Cape landscapes – and iGoli wine bar, which lists only South African bottles from top names including Restless River, Thorne & Daughters, Scions of Sinai, Vergelegen and Journey’s End.

Favourites included the fresh, mineral Dainty Bess, Cap Classique made by Jane Ferreira-Eedes in Wellington and Ahrens, Black 2021, a characterful blend of Syrah and Carignan from Swartland.

But the star of the show (literally) was a performance of Grammy-nominated musical Inala, an uplifting celebration of African music and contemporary dance that buzzes with the energy of its talented South African performers.

Enóloga 2023: An Ode to creativity and sophistication

Ines Salpico

There’s no shortage of exciting projects producing equally thrilling wines across Portugal – not least from the often overlooked Tejo region, where the last decade has seen producers old and new revive tradition with a progressive slant.

Among the region’s standout ‘new wave’ projects is Ode, helmed by super-talented winemaker Maria Vicente and general manager Jim Cawood. Since it first went into operation in 2021, Ode has built an exciting portfolio that consistently delivers outstanding wines while not taking itself too seriously.

Under the motto ‘Minimal intervention, maximum attention’, Ode’s team is eager to experiment and question assumptions (including their own), creating playful but technically exact takes on different varieties, and with a special focus on Touriga Nacional.

Every year, quality allowing, Vicente selects standout parcels to produce limited-edition Enóloga (‘oenologist’) bottlings. In December, the winery released the Enóloga 2023 edition, a harvest that justified both a white (blending Arinto and Fernão Pires) and a red (Touriga Nacional) bottling. Both aged for 12 months in 500L French oak barrels, the wines are an exercise in expressive exactness, testament to Vicente’s ability and Cawood’s vision.

Swiss Pinots

Sylvia Wu

Swiss wines are rarely seen outside the country, with about 98% of production consumed domestically. That makes the annual London tasting hosted by Swiss Wine Promotion an unmissable opportunity.

At last November’s edition, I was particularly struck by the Pinot Noirs from the German-speaking cantons. Bechtel Weine, based in Eglisau in northern Switzerland, was among my top finds. Its steel-fermented Zurich AOC Pinot Noir 2022 was already appealing, with pure berry fruit and a hint of dried mint.

The Sélection Pinot Noir from the same vintage, aged in used oak, adds herbal spice and greater structure and drive. The top cuvée, Bechtus Pinot Noir 2022, from a low- yielding, old-vine single vineyard and aged for 18 months in 100% new oak, offers a more savoury, mineral expression, layered with berry fruit and a long finish.

From the Stadtberg vineyard, Weingut Pircher’s Sélection Pinot Noir combines old vines and a touch of new oak, delivering spiced, juicy fruit, Earl Grey notes and a fine grip.

Further southeast in Jenins, within the easternmost AOC of Graubünden, Weingut zur Alten Post’s Saliser Grande Sélection Pinot Noir 2021 shows its 80% new oak on the nose, but impresses with a complex, savoury palate of smoky berries and prune, finishing long with mouthwatering strawberry and cranberry.

Oregon’s first name in Riesling

Clive Pursehouse

The name Brooks in the Willamette Valley means Riesling first. In the cellar, after spending years learning and working alongside Chris Williams, Claire Jarreau took over as head winemaker in 2024.

Jarreau makes more Riesling than Pinot Noir at Brooks – it’s what drove the former chemist there more than 10 years ago. While she has a penchant for Austrian Riesling, Jarreau has crafted single-vineyard Rieslings from sites across the Willamette Valley. Perhaps her favourite place to spend time is within the old-vine block of Riesling at Hyland, one of the Willamette’s original plantings, from 1972.

‘Walking among those huge, mossy vines, with a morning cup of coffee, is the closest thing to church for me,’ Jarreau says in her southern accent. The Hyland Vineyard Riesling 2023 comes from those old vines, which reliably see botrytis, and is made in a spätlese style. It’s unctuous, with aromas of sweet peaches and pops of juicy Meyer lemon pulp.

The Ara Riesling 2023 is made in a dry style from the own-rooted Brooks estate planting from 1973, Brooks’ Orchard Fold vineyard and a 1984 planting at Yamhill vineyard. It soars with saline minerality and a wonderful balance of smoky grilled pineapple and chipped flint stone.

Female family legacy at Château du Taillan

Georgie Hindle

It took me far too long to finally visit Château du Taillan, one of Bordeaux’s last urban vineyards, situated just 11km from the city’s heart and a hidden gem that fuses history – medieval cellars and a historical monument château – family spirit and modern energy.

Family-owned by the Cruses since 1896, the estate is led by five dynamic sisters, with oenologist Armelle Cruse at the helm since 1992, guiding it to cru bourgeois exceptionnel status with precision and passion. She’s now joined by her young, vibrant daughter Tatiana, who energises sales and marketing, and manages their lively Instagram account @chateaudutaillan, which brings daily vineyard life, events and food pairings to followers. Taillan excels at tourism, offering guided tours and tastings in the charming boutique.

Two bottles currently on sale and recently tasted include the grand vin Château du Taillan Haut-Médoc CBE 2020 (€21 from the producer), a medium- to full-bodied red (89% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Sauvignon) bursting with black fruit, dark chocolate and firm tannins – rich, savoury and balanced after barrel ageing.

More playful and accessible is the La Rose du Taillan Passionnée Haut-Médoc 2020 (€12; 60% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon), with its violet-floral nose, fresh fruits and soft, easy-drinking palate – perfect for casual midweek meals such as pizza or pasta. The e-shop ships to the UK, or visit next time you’re nearby.

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Tasmania is Australia’s smallest state, a coven of those who seek change from the mainland cities, or a cadence away from the mainstream. There is that rare species, too, that was simply born there.

The bucolic undulations of Tasmania’s north, from the Tamar to Pipers River, are juxtaposed against the salt-bitten ruggedness of the east coast and the drier Derwent and Coal river valleys, where consistency of crop and proximity to the state capital Hobart account for a concentration of wineries.

Further south, sunlight jitters between gum leaves, vineyards and the road’s next bend, revealing silver bays-cum-cobalt tributaries in which fishing boats nestle in the Huon valley.

The Apple Isle has long been secure in its moorings as a spectacular place to grow grapes, traditionally those for sparkling wine and still Pinot Noir. Looking at Tasmania’s landscape today, it’s fascinating to ponder the veracity of empirical barometers such as sunlight hours and latitude – solid, sensible and traditional dictates for planting the likes of Riesling, now increasingly being pulled up or grafted over to more commercially viable options, despite superb examples from the likes of Stargazer and Pooley. Sauvignon Blanc, too, is going the way of the dodo.

Today, Chardonnay makes up just over 26% of Tasmania’s total plantings, while Meunier plantings are growing. These varieties are mostly used for fizz, the state’s most popular wine style, but also for still wines, reflecting global trends favouring whites and friskier reds. Of this lighter idiom, but far from the madding crowd of commercial obviousness, is Stoney Rise, Trousseau 2024. Energetic and eclectic, this delicious wine exhibits notes of distilled cherry, bound by a mandala of sinuous tannins, attesting to Tasmania’s capacity for diversity.

When established trains of thought are challenged, we ask whether there is something else; whether there are alternatives to the status quo. Climate change is shattering preconceptions with a velocity that can make established norms feel anachronistic, forcing us to be open to discovery, or to cling doggedly to that sinking ship of hyperbolic scores, rich wines and Boomer affectations.

Factors including soil structure and geology help determine quality vineyard sites and appropriate plantings, yet alignments once benign are increasingly malignant, as shade and elevation find favour in the quest to obviate heat and UV intensity in warmer regions, while peripatetic weather patterns in Tasmania are sublimated to a search for warmer, protected pockets to ripen grapes. What was once a bane is often a virtue as the environment’s variable nature challenges the vinous establishment.

A recent tasting of still Tasmanian wines did just that. While Pinot Noir was the inevitable focus, attendees expressed unsolicited support for Syrah. The irrefutable quality of many wines suggests that this later-ripening variety represents an exciting new frontier as the climate warms. Yet official figures indicate little statistical enthusiasm. Syrah plantings remain stagnant overall, nudging just under 2% of the state’s total. No wonder, since earlier renditions (then called Shiraz) largely bring recollections of ungenerous wines marked by the bitter astringency of an ill-suited climate.

Misguidedly, certain producers sought to emulate headier South Australian bottlings via extraction and oak. But today, a raft of midweight wines dabbed with lilac, tapenade, blue fruits and smoked meat touch on the cracked-pepper vibrato of the northern Rhône, tempered by Aussie generosity.

Impressive examples come from Stefano Lubiana and hughes & hughes, and a ferrous, almost sinewy expression from Grey Sands, parrying with a svelte, fine-boned one from Marion’s Vineyard. Syrah makes sense, perhaps, if Tasmania is understood through a logic of specific sites that combat coldness, rather than the holistic Pinot-centric narrative of the establishment.

In my glass this month

Claudio Radenti of Freycinet Vineyard crafts fine Syrah. His overall parlance is cool climate, yet he focuses on ‘north- to east- facing warmer slopes, sheltered from winds’. The 2017 Shiraz (yes, that word) has now aged impressively, while the younger-vine Louis Syrah 2021 is electric, taut and redolent of souk spices.

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It’s the Gironde river, where the Garonne and Dordogne meet, that splits the region in half to create its key Right Bank and Left Bank zones. And the third major zone, in between the rivers, is known as Entre-deux-Mers.

With its climate influenced by the Atlantic ocean and its soils rich in gravel, the Left Bank is known for producing wines dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon. With iconic appellations including Margaux, Pauillac and Haut-Médoc, the Left Bank is widely celebrated for wines that can age gracefully for decades.

Discover 14 top-scoring Bordeaux reds from DWWA 2025

On the Right Bank, Merlot finds its finest expressions in places such as Pomerol and St-Emilion. Characterised by smooth tannins, full body and a mix of red and black fruit flavours, these wines are complex yet beautifully balanced.

At Decanter World Wine Awards 2025, the world-famous region impressed the judges, with wines receiving top medals. Two Best in Show accolades were awarded to wines from the outstanding 2022 vintage, underlining its exceptional quality.

Explore the full results from DWWA 2025 at awards.decanter.com

Best in Show

Château de Rochemorin, Pessac-Léognan 2022

97 Best in Show

£20.50-£26.95 (ib) Cru, Vin Cognito

Blend of 65% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc.

This opaque black-red wine is packed with the tender-sweet black fruits and sweet floral seduction typical of the 2022 vintage; secondary complexities lie ahead. On the palate, it is soft, tender and ample, with Merlot turning on the charm. The Petit Verdot brings a little pepper and spice, and even the Cabernet in this wine is affable and unforbidding, lending grandeur and resolve to the Merlot’s charm. This is not a Pessac-Léognan that will demand extensive cellar ageing; its soft textures, balance and charm make it an ideal choice for the first decade following the vintage. Alcohol 14%

Château La Croix Younan, St-Emilion Grand Cru 2022

97 Best in Show

vignoblesyounan.com

One of the biggest treats of the two days in which the DWWA Co-Chairs met to look at our best Platinum medals this year was the chance to sit down with an entire flight of 2022 reds from Bordeaux – a magnificent vintage of untramelled generosity with a long life ahead. This St-Emilion wine, its 70% Merlot balanced by Cabernet Sauvignon, has bright, fresh scents with ample black fruits to the fore. The palate is generous and soft-textured yet shapely and long, with softly cedary complexities shading the dark plum fruits. This will be a 2022 to enjoy relatively soon, though the constitution of the vintage will ensure it holds well as it modulates towards a gentle and open-pored old age. Alc 13.5%

Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux

Château de Haut-Coulon 2023

96 Gold

US$25 Fruit of the Vine

A panorama of ripe blackberry, plum, cherry and violet with earthy, fine-grained tannins and a backdrop of clove and cedar. Generous, ample and long. Alc 14.2%

Haut-Médoc

Barton & Guestier, Château Magnol, Cru Bourgeois 2022

96 Gold

£25 Kingsland Drinks

Ripe cassis, plum and violet fragrances cloaked in a carefully constructed oak frame with succulent acidity, tight-knit tannins and a long mocha finish. Compelling. Alc 13.5%

Château de Malleret, Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel 2022

96 Gold

chateau-malleret.fr

An invigorating core of cassis, damson and Morello cherry melts into the fine toast and vanilla warmth, in harmony with the vital acidity. Long and gravelly. Alc 13.5%

Lalande-de-Pomerol

Château Grand Ormeau 2022

96 Gold

chateaugrandormeau.com

A lovely melange of raspberry and cassis fruit embracing a linear structure and finely crafted tannins. The embodiment of elegance and grace, deceptively long and gratifying. Alc 14.5%

Margaux

Château Haut Breton Larigaudière, Le Créateur Cabernet Sauvignon 2022

95 Gold

chateauhautbretonlarigaudiere.com

Lavish oak overlays cassis fruit and graphite intensity with impeccably fine-tuned tannins and vivacious acidity. One for the long haul but delicious now. Alc 13.8%

Pauillac

Château Haut de la Bécade 2022

97 Platinum

larosepauillac.com

Glossy black cherry and blueberry with a voluptuous smoky quality from lashings of new French oak. The fine pencil-shaving tannins are already starting to melt away, revealing a rewarding freshness. Alc 14%

Pessac-Léognan

Château Brown, Le Colombier de Brown 2022

97 Platinum

£25.50 Hennings

Distinctive cassis, black cherry and graphite flow over the fabulous structure, framed by finely etched tannins and tense saline acidity. Beautifully constructed, with a lingering mocha note at the end. A tour de force. Alc 14%

St-Emilion

Château Coudert, Grand Cru 2022

97 Platinum

vignobles-carles.fr

Irresistible aromas of ripe plum, blueberry and liquorice are woven into an intricate mineral core. Full of power and potential, with muscular tannins, strident acidity and a savoury oak finish. Long and sustaining. Alc 15.5%

Château Tour de Yon, Grand Cru 2022

97 Platinum

passionsaintemilion.com

A marriage of New World-style hedonism with classic Old World structure. Lavish, black cherry and blueberry, polished savoury oak that’s tightly woven into the frame. Sensational, with time on its side. Alc 14%

Château Fonplégade, Grand Cru Classé 2022

96 Gold

£31 (ib)-£60 Cru, House of Townend, Ideal Wine Co, Selection Sommelier, Waud Handford

Taut and youthful, showing toasted cedar, vanilla and cinnamon layered with notes of dark berries and mint. Structured and complete, with a black-olive finish. Alc 15%

Château Le Loup, Grand Cru 2022

96 Gold

passionsaintemilion.com

Raspberry, cherry, cassis and cocoa aromas in abundance with a smooth, rounded generosity on the palate and mineral edges to the tannins. Long and nuanced. Alc 14.5%

Château Tour Baladoz, Grand Cru Classé 2023

96 Gold

£51 Private Cellar

Elegantly built with dark damson and hedgerow fruit layered over a cleansing crushed-stone character. Filigree structure of silky tannins and keen acidity. Alc 13.9%

DWWA 2026 entries are open until 17 March 2026. Learn more at enter.decanter.com

See all DWWA 2025 award winners

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The 4,800ha wine region now known as Rías Baixas first gained appellation status in the early 1980s, as DO Albariño.

However, when Spain joined the EU in 1986, a geographic designation became mandatory and the name Rías Baixas was chosen.

This term refers to the picturesque estuaries that shape Galicia’s west coast, the source of superb fish and other seafood.

The main wine-producing area of Rías Baixas, Salnés, is strategically located between the Arousa and Pontevedra estuaries.

A popular tourist destination, it combines a rich cultural and gastronomic heritage with a landscape of contrasts, where mountains merge with the coastline.

Due to real estate pressure, land is very expensive, so selling vineyards is a lucrative business opportunity.

Nevertheless, according to the DO Rías Baixas 2025 vintage report summary, this area accounted for 65% of the wider region’s grape output in the 2025 harvest.

There are four other sub-zones in Rías Baixas. O Rosal, in the south, is the only one of these that faces the sea, at the mouth of the river Miño, which marks the border with Portugal.

Further inland, upriver, lies Condado do Tea, a warmer, drier area. A little to the north, between Condado do Tea and Salnés, lies the tiny Soutomaior.

And to the north of Salnés, also inland, is Ribeira do Ulla, an emergent area for larger planting operations given the DO’s smallholding area of 4,800ha distributed across about 24,000 plots.

It’s no surprise that, in the past, people made the most of the land by growing vegetables under the vine pergolas.

Albariño explosion

Given there were just over 200ha of Albariño in all of Galicia in 1999 (according to data from the Spain vineyard register, compiled by Madrid’s agricultural research institute IMIDRA), the DO has experienced meteoric growth.

Climate change has certainly helped.

As part of ‘Green Spain’, Rías Baixas remains one of the wettest wine regions in the world, with an annual average rainfall of 1,400mm-1,600mm.

Organic growing is still rare, but summers are drier now. ‘We’ve gone from harvesting in autumn to summer,’ says Eulogio Pomares of Bodegas Zárate. ‘This has solved many issues related to botrytis, poor ripeness and rainfall at harvest time.’

The largest vineyard areas are controlled by the cooperatives in Salnés, such as Martín Códax, Paco & Lola and Condes de Albarei.

The rest is shared among small- to medium-sized local producers and external players, notably from Rioja, which have been setting up in the area since the late 1980s. Most of them buy grapes from local growers.

With consumption of white wines on the rise, the last decade has seen a second wave of investors, including Ribera del Duero’s Vega Sicilia, whose much-anticipated first release from its new Bodegas y Viñedos Deiva project in Crecente (Condado do Tea) is scheduled for 2027.

This has caused an increase in demand for grapes, rising prices and new plantings, which have eventually led to a major correction in grape prices in 2025, when the area harvested a record 47.5 million kilograms.

Another generous harvest will probably challenge wine sales.

Levelling up

A growing number of producers are now focused on premiumisation.

This is usually achieved by either extending ageing of the wine on lees to gain complexity and ageing potential; by introducing vessels other than stainless steel (oak foudres, concrete, granite, amphorae); by focusing on specific soils or areas; or by producing single-vineyard wines.

There’s plenty to choose from. Most vineyards in Rías Baixas are planted on granite soils that have undergone varying degrees of weathering.

This often results in a sandy texture that has preserved small batches of ungrafted and pre-phylloxera vines. Schist veins and alluvial deposits can also be found in most sub-zones.

Other differences can also be brought about by elevation of vineyards, exposure and proximity to the sea and rivers. The drawback of most single-vineyard wines is that they’re produced in limited quantities.

Points of difference

With Albariño accounting for 97% of overall production in Rías Baixas, there’s little room for other varieties.

However, choosing to produce Godello, Treixadura (more common in Condado do Tea) or Caíño Blanco – a variety recovered by Terras Gauda in O Rosal – is a way to stand out.

White blends are more common in Condado do Tea, thanks to the presence of Treixadura, and O Rosal, the sub-zone featuring more varietal diversity, yet this category remains uncharted territory when it comes to high-end wines.

Traditional-method Albariño sparkling wines and reds are the two other small slices of the Rías Baixas pie.

With their vigorous bubbles and relatively high prices, it’s difficult for Albariño to compete with Cava and other Spanish sparkling wines, but extended ageing might help change that.

With alcohol levels of around 11%-12% – probably the lowest in Spain – the Rías Baixas red wines are a small but interesting category.

Climate change, together with some excellent local varieties, such as Espadeiro, Caíño and Brancellao, will undoubtedly boost the category.

Pioneer red wine producer Forjas del Salnés has been perfecting its selection process since 2024, and the winery now harvests grapes at different stages, relying exclusively on fully ripe berries.

This results in wines with more fruit and a slightly higher alcohol content, while retaining the area’s natural acidity.

20 of the best from Rías Baixas (and not just Albariño)

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Despite the wonderful diversity of Spain’s wine regions, only a handful dominate the public consciousness on the international stage. Names such as Ribera del Duero, Priorat and Rioja attract a certain level of recognition, the latter so famous in some markets that it’s arguably more than just a region – it’s a brand.

But next door to some of Spain’s best-known regions, there’s a renaissance in local viticulture taking place, an explosion of dynamic producers, and some truly great wines.

The wine styles may not be a world away from those whose origins you already know and love, but small points of difference make them worth exploring. In some cases, the soils and climate vary just enough to change the structure of the wines; other neighbouring regions offer similar terroir but unique grape varieties.

So, if you regularly buy or cellar wines from the well-known regions listed here, why not look to their neighbours, which can often be a great source of value? Explore these new wines through the safety of something familiar yet different and enjoy their individuality!

Montsant

Next to: Priorat

Spanish retailer Vila Viniteca offers the current release of L’Ermita from Alvaro Palacios at €1,790 per bottle. It’s one of the most expensive wines in the Spanish market and hails from a single parcel of mostly Garnacha planted more than a century ago.

It’s an icon wine from Priorat, only about two hours’ drive southwest of Barcelona.

But the comarca (county/district) of Priorat contains not just one denominación de origen, but two, for it’s also home to the DO Montsant.

In fact, when you look at a map, you can be fooled into thinking that the Montsant region is the more important as it wraps around Priorat, encircling it like a school of greedy sharks.

It also shares its name with the Serra de Montsant, the mountain range that strikingly dominates the region’s skyline. In fact, it’s Priorat that’s the bigger of the two DOs, with 2,196ha of vines, compared to Montsant’s roughly 1,800ha.

With 117 wineries, Priorat has almost double the number of Montsant’s 59, and yet Montsant has just as long a tradition of winemaking.

In the town of Marçà, remnants of Roman amphorae have been found, likely destined for Tarraco, or Tarragona as it’s known today.

Mountain fresh

Montsant, however, didn’t enjoy the same revival as Priorat in the 1990s and 2000s, when some of Spain’s most famous winemaking names started to put the region back on the viticultural map.

As a result, it’s common to find bottles of Priorat that cost more than €50, whereas Montsant is more accessible – often below €15. More than 90% of the production of both regions is red wine, dominated by Garnacha and Cariñena.

In the case of Montsant, wines can also include Cabernet Sauvignon, Garnacha Peluda, Merlot, Monastrell, Picapoll Tinta, Syrah and Tempranillo.

Its whites are mostly Garnacha Blanca and Macabeo, but can also incorporate Chardonnay, Moscatel, Pansal (Xarel.lo) and Parellada.

The wines of Montsant aren’t as defined by the famous llicorella or slate soils found in Priorat, enjoying a variety of soils that bring complexity to their blends.

The climatic influences also vary from the cooler area in the mountainous north around towns such as La Morera de Montsant and La Figuera to the hilly landscape and warmer climate of Marçà and Capçanes, and finally the lower elevations in the south of Montsant around Darmós and Els Guiamets.

Mediterranean in profile, the wines benefit from cool breezes from the sea, which, from its closest point, is only about 35km away.

Approachable when young and capable of improving with time in bottle, wines from Montsant combine generous, ripe fruit with finesse and mountain freshness.

Ribeiro

Next to: Rías Baixas

Of Galicia’s five DOs, Rías Baixas is the largest, with 4,800ha of vineyards, about 97% of which is planted with Albariño.

Forty years ago, the region only counted 237ha of vineyards, but with the growth in popularity of the variety, both domestically and internationally, Rías Baixas has boomed.

In contrast, next-door neighbour Ribeiro extends over just 1,300ha of vineyards, although some historical sources suggest that a century ago there were more than 6,000ha of vines.

The decline in vineyard area can be attributed to several factors, including waves of emigration that saw the area suffer from severe depopulation, as well as the abandonment of low-yielding terraced plots, which became unprofitable as the price of bulk wine couldn’t match production costs.

The dominance of so-called minifundismo (a system of smallholdings) in wine-growing in Ribeiro also resulted in complicated vineyard management (as it still is).

But it’s the oldest DO in Galicia, with an ancient winemaking tradition that current producers are now channelling to make exceptional wines with unique personalities.

True terroir

The region is spread across the valleys formed by the rivers Miño, Avia and Arnoia, whose soils are varied but typically feature sábrego – decomposed granite that resembles sand and silt, and often brings an electric energy to Ribeiro’s wines.

More than 90% of production is white wine, with Treixadura the most widely planted grape (making up just over half of the total vineyard area), usually blended with Loureira, Godello, Albariño, Torrontés or Lado.

Other permitted varieties include Albilla do Avia, Branco Lexítimo, Caíño Blanco and Palomino (from existing plantings only).

Red varieties are also planted in Ribeiro, with blends often including Brancellao, Caíño Longo, Caíño Tinto, Ferrón and Sousón, the most-planted local red grape in the DO.

The white wines marry Atlantic freshness with ripe citrus, pineapple and stone fruit, supported by stony minerality and delicate herbal notes such as fennel and bay leaf. Reds offer vibrancy and tension, with wild strawberry, violet and peppery aromas.

They tend to be medium-bodied. Vibrant and concentrated when young, the wines are satisfying and versatile and can be enjoyed on a terrace in the sun or with Galicia’s rich and varied cuisine.

But like their Albariño neighbours in Rías Baixas, the wines really shine with some bottle age, developing greater complexity and a true expression of the terroir.

Arlanza

Next to: Ribera del Duero

In Spain’s northwestern region of Castilla y León, the town of Lerma is directly south of Burgos and north of the DO Ribera del Duero. It’s rich in history, with striking 17th-century architecture, including the Palacio Ducal, which offers views over the Arlanza valley (pictured).

The river continues east to the pretty medieval village of Covarrubias, known for its half-timbered houses and narrow streets.

It’s the gateway to Sabinares del Arlanza nature park, where ancient juniper trees line the deep river gorges along the Arlanza.

This is the backdrop to the Arlanza wine region, one of Spain’s smallest. Vineyards flourished here until the start of the 20th century, when phylloxera appeared and most of the vines had to be uprooted.

They were replanted, but not to the same extent. Later, waves of depopulation affected the area, as people left the land to work in the cities.

Until late last century, very few wineries remained but, fortunately, pockets of very old vines were left intact.

Rebirth and revival

Slowly, a rebirth of sorts began, with a handful of producers leading a revival.

In 1995, the group successfully petitioned for the classification of Vino de la Tierra Ribera del Arlanza, and eventually, in 2007, they formed the DO Arlanza.

With a profile that’s decidedly Castilla y León, the wines are similar in character to their neighbours in Ribera del Duero, generally displaying the fresher character of Ribera’s Soria sub-zone.

Due to its more northerly latitude and impressive elevation – generally 800m-1,000m, but in some places higher – Arlanza offers intense red wines that are kept fresh by notable acidity.

It’s mostly a region of red wines, dominated by Tempranillo, locally referred to as Tinta del País.

Txakolí

Next to: Rioja

On Spain’s northern coast, the Basque Country (Euskadi in the local language) is one of the most important domestic markets for Rioja wines, which is logical given the gastronomic richness of the Basque region, as well as the fact that it’s right next door.

In fact, part of the Rioja appellation lies within the autonomous community of the Basque Country.

Wine production in the area has a centuries-long history, but disease outbreaks (mainly phylloxera but also powdery mildew) in the late 1800s resulted in a significant loss of vineyards.

As a result, most of the production was reduced to coastal areas, where simple wines with some spritz and low alcohol became something of a local curiosity.

A renaissance began in the 1990s with the arrival of modern technology and a renewed viticultural interest in the region.

In recent years, there has not only been an explosion in the number of producers throughout the three appellations that are dedicated to the production of Txakolí wine, but new styles have also emerged.

White wine revival

The protagonist is still the principal local grape variety Hondarrabi Zuri, but the simple, spritzy whites have now been complemented by single-vineyard wines, richer and aged whites, as well as rosé, red and sparkling wines.

This increase in quality and diversity is part of a revival in white wine production and consumption in the northwest and north of Spain, where Rioja whites have also boomed in popularity.

It’s an important chapter in the story of Spanish gastronomy, of which the Basque Country was an early leading proponent.

Txakolí wines offer racier acidity and a more direct, citrussy palate than their counterparts in Rioja, where Viura dominates and creates white wines of serious weight and ageing potential.

But if you like the freshness and characterful nature of Rioja, it’s worth taking a small stroll to the north to try the wines that play such a central role in the lively bars of Bilbao and San Sebastián.

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The craft of barrel (or, to use the general term, cask) making has been dying out in Britain, after breweries ditched hand-crafted wooden vessels for cheaper metal kegs. But could the booming UK wine industry, and a growing interest in using home-made barrels crafted from home-grown oak, reverse this trend?

‘I started making some casks for a nearby winery in 2006, when I worked for Wadworth Brewery in Wiltshire, but that was with French oak. It was a passion of mine to make some from English oak, but it took time to find someone who could cut the wood in the right way for wine.

‘Since then, we’ve made about a dozen wine casks out of English oak, including for Gusbourne Estate and Chapel Down. At the moment, we’re working on an order for Williams Family Wines in Cambridgeshire.

’It’s understandable that English wineries are wanting to use English oak barrels. Everybody wants things that are local and sustainable. If you’re pulling in wood from all over the world, you have to think carefully about your carbon footprint.

‘We have two suppliers of English oak – one in Staffordshire and the other in east Yorkshire. Both are the same variety of oak (Quercus robur) but they have very different flavours. The Staffordshire oak you could use on white wine, but the Yorkshire would be better for a full-bodied red.

‘The Staffordshire one has notes of very green apple on the front, followed by hedgerow fruit like blackberries and bilberries. It’s similar to French oak but not quite as mouth-drying. We’ve not tried wine from it yet but, for whiskies, it brings out caramel and toffee apple flavours if you give the cask a medium toast.

‘The Yorkshire oak has flavours of green apple but not as fresh as the Staffordshire. It’s subtler, with more pronounced hedgerow fruit, and vanilla notes.

‘The difference is down to the grains, the way it’s grown, and the flavouring we put on the oak when we toast it. Most of the wood we’re using is around 120 years old.

‘I can tell different types of oak by chewing on pieces of them. It’s the first thing I do when we get some new oak. I was with a timber merchant once. They had German, French and English oak but didn’t know which was which, so I tasted them and told them.

‘I don’t know much about wine, though, so it’s like going back to school. We have a French man doing the wine cask sales for us. Being a proper broad Yorkshireman, I need him to translate things into plain English for me – none of this flowery stuff.

‘We do everything by hand, so each cask is unique. Most cooperages in France and America will be using machines now. Very few make them by hand like we do.

‘The cooperage industry in the UK isn’t healthy currently. There are just five of us left working in England and only three master coopers (which means you’ve trained an apprentice). All three of us work for the same company: Kingsborough Coopers. But growth in demand from the English whisky and rum industry has helped, and we think English wine will be next.

‘We also make casks for films. I made about 1,000 for the Moby-Dick film, In the Heart of the Sea. We got to meet Chris Hemsworth too. He was a nice chap. We offered him a beer but he said 10am was a bit early.

‘I started working at age 14 when I got a job at the local brewery sweeping the yard. The cooper wanted a hand and it went from there. The training took four years but you haven’t finished learning by then. I’ve been doing it for 46 years and I’m still learning every day.

‘When you go from being an apprentice to a cooper in England, you go through a trussing ceremony. You make a hogshead (a 54-gallon beer cask), then the four most recently graduated coopers put you in and bend and hammer it into shape while you’re in there. It’s really noisy and you have to hope you made it right so it doesn’t break. Then, they pour in stale ale, yeast, hops, shavings off the shop floor – anything they can find. It used to be the bucket from the toilet, but we’re not allowed to do that anymore.

‘You sit in there and they tip it onto its side and take you for a spin round the yard. They used to throw you in the air and shout “Trusso!” – but they’ve stopped that now too. Since I had my ceremony, I’ve trussed three apprentices myself. While you’re in there, you have to think: “I’ll get my own back one day.”

‘It’s a tough career but I can’t ever see myself retiring. I’ll carry on until I die if I can.’

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Whisky meets wine

The Dalmore has unveiled the third instalment of its Cask Curation Series: The Red Wine Cask Edition (£36,100 The Whisky Exchange, The Whisky Shop).

The set of three whiskies has been created in partnership with winemaker Pierre Fabre of Château Mont-Redon in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Each set consists of a 24 Year Old, 34 Year Old and 43 Year Old signature Dalmore single malt, all finished in casks previously used to age the 2023 vintage of Mont-Redon’s flagship wine, a Grenache-dominant blend that also includes Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Vaccarèse.

‘The layers of flavour from the complex grape blends held inside these Châteauneuf-du-Pape casks have been instrumental in the development of these three unique single malts, which have such richness and complexity,’ explained Richard Paterson OBE, Master Distiller of The Dalmore.

‘Red wine casks have played an integral role in shaping The Dalmore’s success, so it felt fitting to release some very rare expressions, as part of the Cask Curation Series,’ he added.

The three whiskies are presented in a bespoke lapis blue carry case made by Italian luggage maker AB Florence. Only 150 sets have been produced. This new release follows the Sherry Edition, launched in 2023 in collaboration with González Byass, and the Port Edition, produced with Graham’s.

Drink Dictionary: Trub (Noun / ‘trüb / ‘trəb)

In distilling, the leftover solids at the bottom of a fermenter, from which the alcoholic liquid is separated, in order to give a cleaner spirit.

What to drink now: Aquaponie

Little Red Door, Paris, France

Agri/Culture is the latest cocktail menu at Parisian cocktail bar Little Red Door, inspired by the agricultural methods that are helping to shape a sustainable future, from permaculture and aquaponics to agroforestry.

Aquaponie was created by Hyacinthe Lescoët and celebrates aquaponics, a food-production system that combines aquaculture (raising fish) with hydroponics (growing plants without soil) to create a symbiotic, closed-circulation ecosystem.

‘Aquaponie is a Gimlet-style cocktail with a sweet-and- sour structure, but the real deal is the glass and the garnish,’ he says. ‘The beautiful two-part glassware shows the relation between what happens under the water with the fish and the plant that grows from it. On top is a green tea and basil foam to showcase the relation between water and air.’

At home you can use a Martini glass and basil leaf garnish. To make your own basil cordial, mix 1.14L of water with 450g sugar and 18ml citric acid, stir well to dissolve the sugar. Add 150g basil, 150g Thai basil, and leave to infuse in the fridge for 48 hours. Strain and store in the fridge. Alternatively, use Monin basil syrup (£7.25-£10.99/70cl Widely available) and omit the St-Germain.

Ingredients: 25ml Grey Goose Vodka, 25ml Dolin Dry Vermouth, 5ml St-Germain elderflower liqueur, 25ml basil cordial

Glass: Martini

Garnish: Basil leaf

Method: Put all of the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir well to mix. Strain into a chilled Martini glass.

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The stylish Scandi retreat nestled in the Åkulla Beech Forest nature reserve (1.5 hours from Gothenburg Airport and around 2.5 hours from Copenhagen Airport) is a luxury spa resort and sparkling wine estate.

The estate has 54 rooms spanning several categories. From a choice of simple cabin rooms to suites complete with enormous stone-carved baths, all accommodation options are Scandi chic. A collection of Sjöparken rooms has been added recently, each with its own sauna and private bathing jetty: perfect for a dip in the natural pool just outside.

One of Sweden’s largest vineyards

The property is owned by the Carlsson family and now run by third-generation family members. Rooted originally in organic farming, they turned their attention to hospitality and viticulture, planting Solaris vines in 2011, and growing to become one of Sweden’s largest vineyards.

Solaris, a white grape that thrives in a Nordic climate, provides the high acidity needed for sparkling wine and is famed for its aromatic citrus notes. Today the property has around 30,000 Solaris vines situated on both inland and coastal sites, as well as more recent experimental plantings of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Winemaker Claes Bartoldsson heads up the vineyard work and has been a part of the venture since day one, mentored by Swedish expert Lars Torstensson. Along with Claes the team uses the traditional Champagne method and chooses between a first fermentation in steel tanks, French oak barrels, or concrete eggs depending on the harvest, before the second fermentation in bottle for a minimum of 18 months.

Relaxing in the snow

The Sinnenas spa evokes fairy folklore with a combination of historic wooden huts topped with wild flower roofs alongside state-of-the art saunas with mid-century style curved wood.

Move between indoor and outdoor bathing and sauna areas which are simply magical amid the quiet peacefulness of the snow. Take an invigorating dip in the spring-water pond on a winter’s day or relax in the 39°C heated pool, as the snowflakes fall around you.

Particular highlights are the forest bathing room where you can relax in hanging chairs to the sound of bird song, and the underwater sauna where you can watch fish swim by as you unwind.

Entirely new spa and relaxation areas have opened recently, connected to the estate’s new wine bar. In addition to sparkling organic wine from Halland, the bar also offers an excellent selection of carefully chosen European wines. A light lunch is also available at the spa’s Smakbaren (tasting bar).

From rustic bites to Michelin cuisine

As evening falls, dinner is served at one of the estate’s restaurants. For something on the rustic side, try Logen, offering a four-course dinner based on local, seasonal ingredients with dishes such as buttered onion broth with glass-baked cod or roasted venison with cognac gravy.

If you prefer fine dining, a true highlight of the estate is the Michelin one-starred (and one green star for its meticulous work on sustainability) Restaurant ÄNG. At first glance the restaurant appears as a simple glasshouse in a field of sunflowers – we won’t spoil the mystery but the team takes you on a truly world class dining journey not to be missed.

ÄNG was founded by chef-and-sommelier husband and wife team Filip and Ann-Catrine Gemzell who work closely with local producers, hunters and fishermen who share the restaurant’s philosophy on sustainability and organic farming. The wine cellar holds an impressive 3,500 bottles, and they also offer a tasting breakfast – a real treat for the senses.

The hotel offers wine tasting and vineyard packages year round.

For further details see the Ästad Vingård website.

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Caroline Gilby MW, Ana Jackson MW and Igor Luković tasted 128 wines, with 12 Outstanding and 30 Highly recommended

Southeastern European reds: Panel tasting scores

128 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 12

Highly recommended 30

Recommended 63

Commended 23

Fair 0

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their current-release, still, dry red wines made from 100% indigenous grapes and/or traditional regional grapes, including blends, from specified countries in the southeast of Europe

Scroll down to see the top-scoring wines from our southeastern European reds panel tasting

A sea change in style

With 12 Outstanding wines across five countries, involving seven local grapes, this was a fascinating, diverse and high-scoring tasting.

It also provided a strong signal that the whole region of 10 nations – under the broad umbrella of ‘southeastern Europe’ – is coming of age and offers lots of exciting options for adventurous wine drinkers.

The results gave a clear message that indigenous varieties, once written off as plodding workhorses, can deliver both global quality and wines with real personality and distinct differences that reflect each country.

It should give producers a boost, showing they can have real confidence in native varieties and don’t have to rely on adding Merlot or Cabernet.

Ana Jackson MW was impressed by the high quality across the board.

‘It was great to see the versatility of grapes and to see real freshness in some of the Outstanding wines. And where there is oak, it’s good oak, unlike a few years ago,’ she said.

‘Teran was a highlight among the top-scoring wines, and the Kabola amphora wine (see recommendations) deserves a special mention. The Probus grape was a real discovery, too.’

Igor Luković agreed. ‘I was impressed with the consistency of the wines – fewer mistakes and the traditional, rustic, over-oaked styles are disappearing in favour of far more modern and precise winemaking,’ he said.

‘I expected Teran to shine, and it delivered. But I also admired Prokupac, and I think that Frankovka (or Blaufränkisch) has a great future in southeastern Europe and should be planted more widely.’

The judges agreed that the next challenge is how to promote these unfamiliar wines, though the results showed that this region is a treasure trove of exciting and delicious discoveries.

What to eat with southeastern European reds, by Fiona Beckett

The combination of what are likely be unfamiliar grape varieties with the unfamiliar cuisines of their home countries might sound daunting but could prompt some exciting experiments.

Certainly there’s no lack of quality among these wines, particularly Croatia’s Teran, which is traditionally paired with wild boar, venison and other game, rich fatty meats and Paški sir, a salty sheep’s cheese from the island of Pag.

So it should equally work with more familiar, slow-cooked Greek, Turkish and Lebanese meat dishes and salty Greek cheeses such as feta.

Vranac should work with similar dishes, especially braises and stews, while Prokupac lends itself to roasts and grills, being a particularly good pairing, according to Serbian sommelier Vuk Vuletić, for the local ćevapi (skinless minced-meat sausages), served with an ajvar (red pepper) sauce.

Emboldened by that touch of spice, I would be inclined to try Georgian and other Central Asian dishes, and even Indian roasted or grilled meats. These robust reds would pair well with foods cooked over coals.

See all notes and scores from the southeastern European reds tasting

The judges

Caroline Gilby MW is an awarded author, speaker and consultant with a passion for the wines of the Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea. She is DWWA joint Regional Chair across several categories

Ana Jackson MW is head of wine business development for Amathus Drinks and was formerly head buyer at Oddbins for more than 12 years. She is keen to promote less-familiar wine categories and is a DWWA judge for the Southern & Eastern Mediterranean category

Igor Luković is editor in chief at Vino & Fino magazine in Serbia. A wine writer, consultant, judge and events manager, he is a DWWA judge and president of The Balkans International Wine Competition jury

Southeastern European reds panel tasting results:

Wines were tasted blind

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• Expert’s Choice: 18 wines from Lisboa crafted with soul

A lot of freedom (and, as Charles Dickens taught us, a lot of happiness) can come from an absence of expectations. What you do with that freedom – and joy – is another matter.

Winemakers across Lisboa have used it to transform the region from a sleepy source of unremarkable wine dotted with cult-worthy gems to a hotspot of creativity, sustainability and experimentation that has greatly influenced the evolution of Portuguese wine as a whole.

As an ageing millennial born and raised in Lisbon, I’m the first to feel both pride and awe at the speed at which Lisboa wine has become ‘a thing’ – perhaps even a ‘movement’.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for 18 of Lisboa’s finest wines

A slice of the Atlantic

When I was a kid, our parents would frown upon drinking local plonk…

Romain Gonitel, one of the founding partners at UK importer Portuguese Story, has witnessed this transformation first hand: ‘Many [leading] projects started in the early and mid-2010s, and created such momentum. We’re talking about producers that were truly pioneers of the natural wine movement in Portugal and continue to set the agenda.’

Stretching 160km north of the Portuguese capital, along the country’s rugged western Atlantic coast, Lisboa includes nine designations of origin – Alenquer, Arruda, Bucelas, Carcavelos, Colares, Encostas d’Aire, Lourinhã, Obidos and Torres Vedras – in addition to the all-encompassing Lisboa PGI (Protected Geographical Indication).

Most of the wine produced in the region is – almost inevitably – bottled under the generic PGI, allowing for grapes to be blended across the sometimes minuscule appellations, some of which have notably strict requirements.

The boutique Colares, for example, requires local clones of Malvasia de Colares and Ramisco to be planted ungrafted on sandy soils within its small perimeter.

Some notable producers – not least several of the leading figures of the region’s ‘new wave’ – also label some or all of their wines simply as Vinho de Portugal, a sign both of restless experimentation and political dissent.

Working together

One of the greatest assets of the region is the extraordinary sense of community – which includes winemakers but also wine bar owners, restaurateurs and sommeliers – and its dynamic of mutual challenge and support.

The synergic proximity to the capital has been crucial.

‘It’s a very important interaction,’ confirms Gonitel, who splits his time between London and Lisbon. ‘It’s created a joint culture that is very aware of what happens elsewhere and of what makes the region special. And people help each other.’

Mutual support has allowed producers to validate their stylistic choices and pioneering efforts on sustainability and low-intervention winemaking.

But it has also given them energy to recover and preserve winemaking traditions and grape varieties that might otherwise be lost – not least under the pressure of tourism and real estate.

‘What we’re doing is inherently political,’ says winemaker Tiago Teles. ‘Our work shows that the land has a different [symbolic] value and that we must treasure our history and resources.’

Tradition 2.0

The quality, expressiveness and diversity delivered by the region is truly staggering.

I’ve used the selection that follows to try to capture excellence across the exciting spectrum of very different styles and grape varieties.

From ‘unicorn’ classics – such as the Malvasias and Ramiscos of Colares – to crisp takes on Castelão, saline expressions of Arinto and elegant bottlings of the very underestimated Vital, each wine is a nod to Lisboa’s kaleidoscopic wine heritage.

The common denominators? Sophistication, soulfulness, salinity and drinkability.

These are wines from a nearly-lost past that are shaping the future of Portuguese wine while resting their eyes on the Atlantic.

See Ines’s pick of Lisboa wines:

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The last decade has seen an explosion in wine’s ‘other’ side – other grapes, regions, countries, styles – and a tearing up of the vinous rule book. But now, we in the trade are seeing a shift back towards the known, the familiar and, ultimately, the comforting, as people seek out recognisable grape varieties and appellations once again.

When I joined the wine trade in 2012, I did so on the foundations of WSET textbook learning and the pillars of Old World regions and grape varieties. Unbeknown to me, international wine culture and, indeed, my own understanding of wine were on the cusp of a profound change.

Sauvignon Blanc, Nebbiolo and Riesling were going to start rubbing shoulders with Blaufränkisch, Listán Negro and Terret; wine lists would begin to boast myriad new countries; and styles such as orange, pét-nat and the red-white blended blouge were to become more common. Every season seemed to bring some new, dazzling iteration of what wine was capable of.

Jo Radford, wine buyer for Michelin one-star Timberyard in Edinburgh, and I met almost 10 years ago – two sommeliers immersed in this new-wave scene – at a party thrown by natural wine importer Tutto Wines. Jo recalled that time as ‘a push into this more feral, wild, experimentative world’, but noted: ‘Everyone grew up – us, the restaurant, the scene, the winemakers. Naturally, our tastes began to change.’

As the generation now governing wine lists and buying strategies, is this latest shift in part our fault? Perhaps we’re feeling more responsible to the guests we serve and the money they spend. When a glass of wine can typically cost £10 plus service charge, there’s real, justifiable sensitivity to what’s poured. And when prices are so punchy, yet you have no idea what will turn up in the glass, the constant gamble can begin to feel exhausting.

The ‘scene’ feels like it’s being rightly forced to mature. While recent years have opened our minds and taste buds to wine’s incredible diversity, they also opened the floodgates to mediocre wine dressed up as something natural or alternative. Of course, mediocrity isn’t unique to this corner of the wine world. But in this new wave we’re beginning to ride, quality and artisanship have become the new cornerstones.

Justé Karbauskaité, wine director for Morchella and Perilla restaurants in London, argues that the ever-rising cost of wine has seen quality, consistency and recognisability becoming the key factors for guests, as well as buyers themselves. Jo says it has become a joy to ‘dig deep into traditional appellations, exploring the best that these regions can do and the depths the different grape varieties can express, while staying within the boundaries’, all the while appreciating that ‘in regions like this, there is comfort and a clear association of quality and money well spent’.

Across the board, my peers agree that consumers are more knowledgeable and comfortable discussing wine and engaging in the details behind the label. Oliver Fletcher, head sommelier of Climat in Manchester, said that people are more curious about the nitty gritty of the winemakers and their vineyards, ‘because these things all give colour and authenticity to their experience drinking the wine’.

As we turn back to well-trodden paths, I believe it will happen with a renewed demand for excellence and transparency. Our best-loved regions will no longer be able to rest on their laurels. Our swing into the world of natural and alternative wine will leave in its wake a consciousness around sustainable farming, indigenous grape varieties and artisanship that will continue well into the future.

In my glass this month

Many wine professionals have a love-hate relationship with Sauvignon Blanc – which has fallen prey to mass production and perceptions of being a little passé. Yet some producers are revitalising and reimagining it in classic regions. Alexandre Bain in Pouilly-Fumé pushes the variety’s limits. His 2018 L d’Ange Vin de France cuvée (£47 Berry Bros & Rudd), grown on limestone and aged four years before bottling, brings a wine filled with lime, spice and a salty backbone. Seductive and surprising.

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Who would have thought that when six Frenchmen came up with the idea for a fancy dress marathon including 20 stops for wine tasting and nibbles it would result in generations of Zorros, Cleopatras and cowboys throwing up foie gras and oysters in prized Bordeaux vineyards and the instigation of a global phenomenon that today draws thousands of participants each year?

When the Marathon du Médoc was launched in 1985, people thought it was bonkers. At the time, marathons were serious things done by serious people and many local vignerons were unfussed about getting involved, according to Hubert Rocher, who co-founded the race with five friends.

‘In the beginning, the owners of the châteaux said, “We don’t need promotion for Médoc wines.” But now the situation is very different,’ he says. ‘Médoc wines are facing big problems.’

The naysayers were proved wrong and by 1994, 8,000 people were taking part each year. Since then, interest in combining running and wine has accelerated at an Olympic pace.

International flavour

In recent years, wine regions and vineyards around the world have been launching their own signature runs – from Moldova (where you run through underground wine cellars) to Alsace via Prosecco.

Some are booze-laced, while at others the drinking is saved for after. ‘People enjoy wine but they want to be healthy. That’s why these events are so popular,’ says Tamino Simon of Walter Events & Consulting in Ortenberg, Germany, which is throwing down the gauntlet to the Marathon du Médoc by launching a German rival.

The Henkell 0.0% Vinothon will ply runners with Riesling, spundekäs (a spiced cream cheese spread) and other local delicacies as they jog through some of the prettiest estates in the Rheingau region. Unusually, there will be alcohol-free wines, too, courtesy of the event’s sponsor Henkell.

Wine-based running clubs have even begun to crop up to tap into the growing trend. Katie Brook, founder of Run to Wine, organises regular runs around London that end with a guided wine tasting.

She thinks interest has boomed as the tide turns away from uber-serious running clubs. ‘Many have become too strict and competitive,’ Brook says. ‘People enjoy the social element – and wine helps to bring that. I also wanted to break down barriers around wine, the idea that it’s snobby. Running helps with that.’

The pairing has precedent, too. ‘French winemakers used to get their staff to run around the vineyards so they’d be fit for harvest,’ says writer Colin Renton. ‘Historically, French people would have bread and wine for their lunch, so they were most likely running and drinking wine.’

Renton gave up his job as an investment writer just before he turned 60 to fulfil a lifelong dream of running a marathon. Upon discovering just how many wine-based runs there were, he decided to spend a year running a race a month (including one full marathon), each in a different wine region.

His travels took him from Jerez in Spain to Hungary, Switzerland, Slovenia and even Belgium. He published his adventures as a book: The Wine Runner (Polaris Publishing, 2023).

Health benefits

Clearly combining alcohol and running goes against most sane health advice. ‘Don’t be dehydrated, and do try to have an electrolyte afterwards,’ advises Brook. ‘In my runs, we always have a lot of water at the start and end. Plus, we have food and water throughout the wine tasting.’

‘Don’t overdo it,’ Renton suggests. ‘Try not to have more than one glass of wine at each feeding station in a race.’

Four of the original six founders of the Marathon du Médoc were doctors and Rocher (himself an orthopaedic surgeon) says: ‘We think that wine is medicinal. It doesn’t cure diseases, but it can help to prevent them. You just need to avoid abusing it.’

Research has shown that one of the secrets to longevity is staying socially active. Both running and wine consumption are activities that come with strong communities, so combining the two can be a good way to boost your social circle.

‘People often come to my runs alone,’ Brook says. ‘Whereas you wouldn’t normally book a wine tasting alone. Lots are new to the area.’

As for Renton, he had been unsure about travelling to all of those wine regions alone. But, he says: ‘If you are a solo traveller, your hotel will be full of other runners that you can speak to, and on the day of the race, there’s a kind of shared community. You’re never alone if you don’t want to be.’

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The idea of drinking tea with a meal is, of course, nothing new. As a teen I used to do it regularly in Chinese restaurants with my parents – inhaling the sweet, heady scent of jasmine, watching the chrysanthemum flowers unfurl. And tea lists have been common in high-end restaurants for a while, particularly those with an Asian clientele.

But tea pairing, especially as part of a tasting menu, is relatively new and increasing in popularity due to the growing demand for sophisticated no/low alcohol options. One third of diners at London’s Ikoyi restaurant go for the tea pairing, particularly early in the week and at lunch, says head sommelier Federico Quintavalle.

Tea has much to offer the wine lover, with a similarly diverse range of styles and origins. ‘True, it has no acidity, no sweetness and no alcohol, but it compensates in terms of tannins, texture and flavour profile,’ says Quintavalle. Added to that, you can play around with the brewing technique: ‘Each tea has its own temperature and timing.’

There’s a theatre to it, too, if brewed at the table, akin to decanting. While Ikoyi brews tableside and serves in traditional pottery, at Michelin two-star The Clove Club they brew in advance and serve teas at room temperature in elegant bottles. ‘We like the idea of teas served in wine glasses as it allows the non-drinkers to have a grown-up, elegant experience alongside wine drinkers,’ says chef Isaac McHale.

The terroir of tea

The other major plus is that teas often have a fascinating back story. ‘The fact that these leaves come from some of the most remote corners of the Earth, from artisanal growers and their “gardens”, really helps us tell a story on how terroir can have an impact on the end product,’ says Matthew Davison, restaurant director of Michelin three-star Moor Hall in Lancashire, which also offers a tea pairing.

‘It’s just like wine – terroir and craft are every bit as important,’ agrees Henrietta Lovell of The Rare Tea Co. ‘You need really good tea to make a really good pairing.’

The most versatile style of tea is oolong, I’ve found, but green tea has its place, particularly with lighter fish- and vegetable-based dishes. ‘We like serving grassy green teas with fish, and floral white teas with dim sum,’ says Mickael Metayer, head sommelier at Michelin two-star A Wong in London. ‘Pu-er works best at the end of the meal with spicier dishes like our Wagyu beef with chilli.’

Tea beyond tea

There’s also a new generation of tea-derived drinks to explore. Sparkling teas, for example, are a convincing alternative to sparkling wine as an aperitif. One of the best is Saicho – I particularly like the nutty Hojicha (£17.99-£20/75cl Harrods, House of Clarity, Master of Malt, Not Another Bill, saichodrinks.com, The Whisky Exchange), which is brilliantly good with any dish rich in umami.

The other popular ready-to-drink option is kombucha, a fermented beverage made with tea, sugar, bacteria and yeast, which bears more than a passing resemblance to natural wine. ‘Kombuchas work well to replace the acidity often missing when forgoing wine, although we are careful to work with producers, like Ama Brewery, who ferment at low temperatures over a longer period of time to prevent the spike in acetic acid that is common among many shop-bought kombuchas,’ says Honey Spencer, co-owner and sommelier at east London restaurant Sune and author of Natural Wine, No Drama.

As more and more of us focus on moderating our alcohol intake, particularly at this time of year, tea provides a satisfying alternative to wine as a taste experience, certainly much more so than many no/low alcohol wines.

Five winning tea and tea-derived pairings

Roast chicken with toasted hay mayonnaise and horn of plenty mushrooms with Master Xu’s Rou Gui from Wuyishan, China

This richly toasty roasted yancha (rock tea) Oolong chimes perfectly with this umami bomb of a dish, served at The Clove Club.

Shui Lian Dong, £17.95/20g Postcard Teas

Roast Peking duck with Saicho Osmanthus sparkling tea

The rich duck brings out the tea’s fruity apricot notes, the bright acidity cuts through the richness of the meat and the sweet hoisin sauce enhances the tea’s creamy texture, says Charlie Winkworth-Smith of Saicho.

£22/75cl Harrods, saichodrinks.com

Smoked jollof rice with Pu-er

This spicy, smoky dish is of West African origin but is elevated at Ikoyi by a lobster custard. It’s served with an earthy 8582 raw Pu-er tea from Yunnan, China.

Aged beef tartare with a 1998 vintage oolong

The oolong mimics the smoky flavours running through this Moor Hall dish really nicely, without overpowering, nor getting lost in the other flavours.

Mr Jian’s Shan Lin Xi, £252/100g Lalani

Mussels, salsify and pickled chanterelles with kombucha

At Sune, Honey Spencer likes to pair cured and pickled vegetables, and fish such as boquerones (unsalted anchovies), with kombucha.

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For the first of a new series, delving into our bound archives to see what was making the headlines from a particular month over the past 50 years, it seems appropriate to wend our way back to January 1976, the fifth issue of Decanter magazine.

Bunches of black and white grapes with (now) vintage stemware adorn the yellow cover, with headlines for ‘Italian wines – the great names for good value’ and ‘What’s best in 1970 clarets’.

The following are five nods to nostalgia that we enjoyed inside Decanter‘s January 1976 issue.

Archive dive in five

1: From the advertising annals

Costing 40p, this issue has just 54 pages, and the ad on the inside back cover shouts that ‘Suddenly! Italian wines are wonderful!’ It claims that consumption of Italian wine has increased ten fold since 1970, and recommends pairing Orvieto with hors d’ouvres [sic] and Bardolino with light lunches.

2: Lead feature

‘Have an Italian for dinner!’ recommends the main feature. Effusive writer Hugh McKay says Lambrusco is having ‘remarkable success all over the country’, Valpolicella is ‘becoming the most popular wine in Britain’, Vernaccia di San Gimignano ‘compares with the best white wines on earth’ and ‘no wine is superior to Barolo’.

3: Bordeaux (of course!)

In his Bordeaux 1970 article, Clive Coates MW states that after 1945 and 1961, 1970 is ‘probably the best vintage since the war’, rating it 8.5/10. The wine auction column reported on recent 12-bottle case prices of top 1970 clarets, including Haut-Brion (£55), Latour (£66) and Petrus (£86). Ducru-Beaucaillou and Cos d’Estournel were going for £29 a case, with ‘Talbot 1970 fetching a very modest £20’.

4: In the mail

In response to columnist Michael Broadbent MW’s article on tasting in a previous issue, a letter to the editor from Ian Douglas of Brighton suggests Decanter should produce ‘a dozen 35mm Kodak slides’ as references for wine colour. Broadbent replies that he would ‘rise to the challenge’.

5: Past prices

In a segment on wine duty, a diagram compares a £1 and a £2 bottle, showing that paying a little bit more ensured a better quality wine. ‘And you don’t have to pay as much as £2,’ we assured readers. ‘If you generally pay around £1.20 you should get a noticeably better quality wine by paying 30p more.’

Is there an issue over the past 50 years you’d like us to look back on? Drop us a line at editor@decanter.com

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