I did a lot of tasting in March that doesn’t really count towards my own tally.

In one instance, I was backing up our Napa Correspondent, Jonathan Cristaldi, at Heitz Cellars, with an epic vertical of about 45 wines, which you’ll hear more about later this year.

I also helped out our Sonoma Correspondent Ana Carolina Quintela on the Sonoma Coast. We tasted about 85 wines in one day with some of the region’s top producers.

For my own reviewing, I just about hit 150 wines in March. There were some real gems in there, mostly from Oregon and Washington, with a few delightful wines from California showing up as well and a single wildcard from Bolgheri from a virtual tasting I took part in.

March is also Washington wine month, and so I attended Taste Washington in Seattle, where I found a few new names that I’ll be seeking out to share with our readers soon.

Scroll down for scores and reviews of Clive’s selection of wines from his March tastings

An epic day in Napa Valley

My afternoon with Carlton McCoy and Jonathan Cristaldi got off to an early and somewhat auspicious start. My 8:25 am flight from Seattle to Sacramento boarded early, despite the sideways rain in Seattle. I was feeling pretty good about my ability to get into the Valley early and maybe even have a few minutes to gather myself. My airline would have other plans.

We waited 40 minutes for the pilot, who was doing who knows what, and then sat on the runway for another 25 minutes even though we were number one for take off. Despite that we landed only 15 minutes late, and it’s a quick jaunt to the rental car counter.

Surprise! They rented me a car with an expired registration, so that tacked on another 20 minutes to my waiting around, but before too long I was on my way.

If you’re lucky enough to ever visit the Heitz estate, it’s like going back in time to a Napa Valley that’s unrecognisable today. The old stone winery, built in 1898 has withstood many an earthquake, but the modern winery has crafted some of Napa’s most historic and undoubtedly elegant wines.

It was an epic tasting, and I don’t want to give anything away because you’ll be able to read all about it later this year in the Decanter print magazine. But, I’ll say it was a once-in-a-lifetime tasting experience.

Pigs and Pinot Noir

The next day, it was straight to work as I met up with my two fellow judges to taste blind through the 61 entries in Charlie Palmer’s Pigs & Pinot event. The wine side of things for this event, is taken care of by the legendary Bob Cabral.

I got to rub elbows with some of my favourite California Pinot people, including Ashley Holland and the inimitable Greg Brewer from Santa Barbara County.

There was fantastic food and wine, and great storytelling, from Tom Rochioli, Michael Browne and Bob Cabral himself, who apparently knows everyone.

Legendary Sonoma Coast

I was fortunate enough to join our Sonoma correspondent on a big tasting of over 80 wines on the Sonoma Coast. We had a great sit down with Ted Lemon at Littorai and Catherine Kistler at Occidental, who continue to craft delicious wines.

The Freeman wines and their beautiful estate continue to impress, as do some rising stars in the region, like Ernest Vineyards and their talented winemaker Joseph Ryan.

A cheeseburger from Graton’s classic stop, the Underwood Bar and Bistro, made the stop complete.

The cool side of Washington

Perhaps my biggest surprise when it comes to wine in over a year came from a fantastic day tasting with some producers from the Puget Sound AVA hosted at Bayernmoor Cellars in Woodinville, Washington.

This appellation is often forgotten as it is a complete departure from the rest of Washington state, with a focus on outside-the-box aromatic whites like Siegerebbe and Iskorka and, more and more, Pinot Noir.

I tasted delightful wines made in the very wet, and most of the year, equally cool region where I live. It was an exercise in open-mindedness for me that paid real dividends, and you’ll read more about it later this month. There were impressive wines made by people with a pioneering spirit right on the climatic edge.

The wine that was a complete shock to the system, which wholly reframed the region for me, came from a tiny producer in Snoqualmie, Washington, a place I associate with hiking and mountain biking called Chateau NoElle.

Its 2018 Revelation Pinot Noir from Devorah Creek Vineyard in the Seattle suburb of Auburn nearly knocked me out of my chair. In an age where terms like ‘awesome’ or ‘iconic’ are often overused, the word ‘revelation’ here is apt.

I took the wine home with me that evening to share with a few friends, and it got better over the course of the evening. It shows, for me, the future of Pinot Noir and perhaps Washington viticulture in this region next to the mighty Puget Sound. Winemaker Tom Wilson and his wife Lorrie are doing amazing things in very unexpected places.

In addition, there was a fantastic Washington state Sauvignon Blanc from Trothe, a great San Luis Obispo Chardonnay and the Gamine wines. They come from one half of Portland’s Division Winemaking Co duo, Kate Norris.

These beautiful Syrahs speak to the old world elegance that many love from the northern reaches of the Rhône Valley; these are worth seeking out for lovers of Syrah that goes beyond fruit and bombast.

You can see all the wines we taste in our Decanter database.

If you don’t subscribe to our weekly US newsletter, you can do so here.

Clive’s selection of top wines from March

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Buy tickets to Decanter Fine Wine Encounter New York

As you can no doubt imagine, our editorial team receive lots of wines for review.

It was a banner February for me. With very little travel, I found myself tasting a lot of wine – nearly 250 different wines from the West Coast in fact, the vast majority of which were from Washington and Oregon.

In addition to the virtual tastings, including an Instagram live with Ross Cobb of Sonoma Coast’s Cobb Wines and countless bottles opened at home, I was able to make a few visits to vineyards and cellars from Red Mountain, to Walla Walla and a couple of stops in the Willamette Valley.

Scroll down for scores and reviews of Clive’s selection of wines from his February tastings

One of the most iconic wine growers in the Pacific Northwest is Dick Boushey, and I paid him a visit in the Yakima Valley.

Over dinner we tasted a variety of Boushey Vineyard designates, showing the tremendous terroir and remarkable Syrah that comes from those hallowed vines in Grandview, Washington.

In Walla Walla, I was able to check in with Chris Figgins of the region’s stalwart brand, Leonetti. I also managed cellar visits to Valdemar Estates, which is doing exciting things with new vineyards, and Grosgrain, a wildly popular Walla Walla brand that’s thinking a bit outside the box.

Grosgrain has brought Washington wine drinkers Lemberger Pét Nat, the state’s first Ribolla and a delicious skin contact Sémillon bottling, which I really enjoyed. You’ll see more below.

Meeting a legend

In the Willamette Valley, I finally connected with living legend David Adelsheim, who has been vital to the region’s success since he first put down roots at his original vineyard in 1972. We talked about the early days of the Oregon wine industry and if he ever imagined what it has become.

I also tasted with several winemakers, including stops at Willakenzie Estate, Penner-Ash and Open Claim, as well as an exciting chance to meet with Junichi Fujita, who has a fascinating vineyard project in the works in the McMinnville AVA.

Below, you’ll find a selection of 10 of the most interesting wines I’ve tasted in February, with their reviews and scores.

I was bowled over by the Crowley Chardonnay ‘Phoebe’ from the Four Winds estate. This was my first experience with the wine, and it is an impressive expression of site and continues to show the capacity of the Willamette Valley to make some of the world’s greatest Chardonnay. I said what I said.

From Red Mountain, the Domaine Magdalena Cabernet Sauvignon from the biodynamic estate is a deliciously fresh and balanced bottle from the very hot appellation.

The wines of Delmas continue to impress me, and The Peddler in magnum only from the 2021 vintage was showing The Rocks District terroir at its finest, balancing savoury and umami depth with great freshness.

You can see all the wines we taste in our Decanter database.

If you don’t subscribe to our weekly US newsletter, you can do so here.

Clive’s selection of top wines from February

Related articles

Decanter’s Top 50 US wines: Part three – the top 10

Oregon vintage report: Tricky Willamette Valley 2022 sticks the landing

Cristaldi: The evolution of Silver Oak

Looking for inspiration? Here are the best things to read, watch and listen to for wine lovers. We’ve picked out some of the top wine-related books, TV shows, podcasts and more for your enjoyment!

Read

Climbing the Vines in Burgundy

by Alex Gambal

Subtitled How an American came to own a legendary vineyard in France, this memoir tells the tale of Gambal’s journey from Washington DC to Burgundy. It reveals how he managed to acquire some of the most coveted vineyard land in the region (the first non-Frenchman to own Montrachet grand cru vines) and set up a boutique winery that he went on to sell to Burgundy’s Boisset family in 2019.

Oz Clarke’s Story of Wine

This updated version of Oz’s 2015 book The History of Wine in 100 Bottles charts the history of wine and winemaking through 100 specific, significant bottles. New chapters cover phenomena that have had a significant impact over the last decade: climate change (and how it has transformed grape-growing in the UK), orange wines, natural wines, alternative packaging and wildfires.

Wine Witch on Fire

Or to give it its full title, Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation and Drinking Too Much. It’s an honest memoir, written by award-winning US wine writer Natalie MacLean, charting how she overcame struggles in her life, personal and professional. She gives an insight into what it’s like to work as a woman in the male-dominated wine industry, and recommends some of her favourite wines along the way. It’s honest, raw and inspirational.

The World in a Wineglass

Written in US wine editor Ray Isle’s usual engaging style, this guide sets out to help readers choose more delicious, interesting and environmentally friendly wines that won’t

break the bank. After outlining how organic / biodynamic/ sustainable/ regenerative wines are made, and why it matters, Isle introduces his favourite independent wineries around the world who ‘work in ways that benefit the planet, rather than screw it up’.

Watch

The Most Expensive Wine in the World

The wines of Bordeaux’s Liber Pater can command prices of US$30,000 a bottle. This documentary shines a light on Loïc Pasquet, the man behind the label, who spent time in prison for failing to comply with Bordeaux’s agricultural laws and practices, giving a rare insight into why he feels so strongly about doing things his own way. (Apple TV, £8.99 or Winemasters.tv, $7.99 to rent for one week)

Street Somm

Streaming in the US on the Tastemade channel, and produced in partnership with Constellation Brands, Street Somm features hip-hop entrepreneur and self-taught wine

expert Jermaine Stone, as he explores six culinary hubs across the US – from New York to San Francisco – with numerous stops in between. Each episode sees Stone pair up

with a different food expert, and highlights signature dishes, unexpected wine pairings and the stories behind both.

The Mega Trade

Wine educator Sam Povey set himself a challenge this summer: to trade his way, with his followers on social media, from a bottle of Yellowtail Shiraz all the way up to a bottle

of one of the world’s most expensive wines, Domaine de la Romanée Conti’s Romanée Conti. It’s all taking place on his entertaining and informative @sampovey.wine Instagram page. As Decanter‘s November issue went to press, he had worked his way up to Domaine Coffinet-Duvernay, Bâtard-Montrachet GC 2018.

Stefan Neumann’s Blind Tasting Course

Hosted by Master Sommelier Stefan Neumann, this online video course is aimed at anyone sitting wine exams that involve blind tasting, but will be useful to any wine lover looking to hone their skills. Fifty bite-sized videos lasting three hours in total are divided into nine modules, covering not only how to identify grape variety, region and vintage blind, but also how to sharpen your senses, build a taste profile and expand your vocabulary.

Download

Decanter Know Your Wine app

Available for iOS (iPhone) – Android coming soon – the popular learning and quiz app has been updated. The app delivers learning material in bite-sized chunks, with modules on major vineyard regions, growing grapes, winemaking and wine styles. A new daily two-minute quiz, with leaderboards, sees users answer the same 10 questions to test their knowledge. Free to download, with an annual (£20) subscription unlocking all 1,500 questions across 82 modules.

Listen

The Four Top Podcast

Oregon-based wine writer and journalist Katherine Cole is executive producer and host of this James Beard Award-winning podcast, which sees weekly episodes distil down wine-related news stories of the moment in a chatty and instructive way. It’s a mix of more serious and lighter stories, and the bite-sized length of the episodes (typically 20 minutes) make them ideal for staying informed on the move, or during coffee breaks.

Spanish Wine Experience

Produced by the owners of Madrid wine shop and tasting space Madrid & Darracott, this podcast devoted entirely to Spanish wine has a back catalogue of about 180 episodes, and Series 3 has just started. Find deep dives into popular regions and styles such as Rioja and Cava, plus plenty for those looking to discover Spanish wine’s more obscure side – anyone for a glass of Tostado do Ribeiro? Listen on Apple Podcasts

Alcohol, wine and health podcasts

Search for ‘Professor David Nutt’ wherever you look for your podcasts, and you’ll find many individual episodes of different series featuring the neuropsychopharmacologist and former UK Government advisor. He details the science of alcohol consumption in a fascinating way. Meanwhile, over at Wine Blast (S4, E13) Susie Barrie MW and Peter Richards MW talk to Professor Tim Spector about wine and the microbiome, highlighting how red wine drunk in moderation can boost gut health.

Looking Into Wine

What’s it like being the editor of Decanter magazine? Find out in a special 30-minute ‘Careers in Wine’ episode of Italian sommelier Mattia Scarpazza’s Looking Into Wine podcast. The interview with Amy Wislocki, who has been at the helm of the magazine for 23 years, touches on topics such as how Decanter has changed during that time, how to succeed as a wine writer, and how the magazine coped during the pandemic.

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• Helsinki for wine lovers
• Family values in Cognac and Armagnac

Tina Gellie, Content Manager and Regional Editor (Australia, South Africa, New Zealand & Canada)

It was a big year of Decanter travel for me, heading to Napa and New York in June, South Africa in October and most recently a week each in Margaret River and South Australia. These trips have formed the basis of my festive selections.

Christmas lunch on North Stradbroke Island (reunited with my family after four years, no thanks to Covid) always starts with oysters, followed by a bucket of prawns. Cue elbowing away a dozen others to peel and eat the biggest ones as fast as possible before diving in for more.

Only a fool would pause to take a sip of wine during this melee, but after the shells have been cleared, it’s time to savour a glass or two. I’m thinking of a blanc de blancs sparkling from DAOSA in the Adelaide Hills, a Polish Hill Riesling from Jeffrey Grosset in the Clare Valley or one of the outstanding single-site Chenin Blancs from David & Nadia Sadie or Alheit Vineyards in South Africa’s Swartland.

Classy Chardonnay always works a treat with my sister’s gravadlax. Maybe a Margaret River option like Cullen’s Kevin John or McHenry Hohnen’s Calgardup Brook? Or something from Ataraxia or Creation in Hemel-en-Aarde?

Temperatures are unusually moderate in Queensland this December, so perfect to enjoy a big red with the barbecued joint of meat. Too many choices here. Will it be a Napa Cabernet from Corison, Favia or Gallica? A Barossa Shiraz from Yalumba, Henschke or Rockford, or even Donovan Rall’s super Ava Syrah from Swartland? Then again, who can go past a McLaren Vale Grenache – particularly in tribute to the late D’Arry Osborn of D’Arenberg.

Whatever the eventual bottles, toasts will be made in thanks to so many wonderful producers around the world whose wines have seen us through yet another eventful year. Here’s to 2023!

Amy Wislocki, Magazine Editor

This is the first Christmas since my beloved mother died in February, and so will be a low-key affair for my family. Usually we spend the holiday on the north Devon coast, but we all wanted a change in routine this year so will be staying local. One advantage of that is not having to transport all the wines for the holidays down to Devon – that’s a lot of planning and a lot of wine when it comes to my family.

On Christmas Day this year we’ll be raising a glass in my mother’s memory, with the wines that she loved the most, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (Elephant Hill in Hawkes Bay is a favourite) and blanc de blanc Champagne – as it’s Christmas, we might push the boat out with the recently launched Taittinger Comte de Champagne 2012. She loved Champagne so much that she even accompanied me to record a guest slot for BBC Radio 2 – it was me, fellow wine expert Susy Atkins, and my mother, as the interested consumer. Just one of many special memories.

Clive Pursehouse, US Editor

Finally, after two years of difficulty, Christmas and New Year’s seem to be returning to a sense of normalcy. I am flying my mother across the country to see her granddaughter, realising that since she was born, I’ve been a distant second fiddle.

I like to think of this stretch of time visiting with friends and family as a key opportunity to open those wines I’ve been holding onto or new discoveries I really want my wine-curious friends and family members to try.

When it comes to new wine discoveries, I’ve got two Oregon producers in mind that will allow me to show my friends and family new wines and unknown names.

For bubbles, I’ll be popping a cork from a little-known producer of Oregon sparkling wines, Kramer Vineyards. Kim Kramer may just be one of the most underrated winemakers in Oregon and is particularly deft with bubbles. Her Kramer Vineyards 2017 Brut Blanc de Blancs with 47 months of tirage is wildly delicious, both fresh and opulent. Were it from France; it would cost two to three times its price.

A Syrah, typically from Washington State, is a go-to at my household any time we’re preparing a serious meal. This Christmas, though, I’ll be surprising folks with a Syrah from the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge, a region that includes sites from both states. The Hundred Suns 2019 Columbia Gorge Syrah was a highlight when I tasted it with Charles Curtis MW at the winery in September. It’s loaded with a savoury and mineral character and tons of fresh fruit, and it will make for a perfect pairing with any heavy holiday cuisine.

The main course this year for Christmas dinner will be a prime rib roast, and I have the proper wine for it, one I’ve been cellaring for a few years. I plan on popping a 2013 Beaulieu Vineyards Georges de Latour. An iconic wine from one of America’s wine icons. It’s prime rib; no reason to mess around.

To end the evening, I’m opening a Ramos Pinto Quinta de Bom Retiro 20-Year-Old Tawny Port. Yes, I do, in fact, recognise that it’s not from the United States. I may be the US Editor, but I do love Port. It pairs well with cheese, sweets or even just contemplation of life’s larger questions: What is the meaning of life? How is Santa Claus able to be at all those malls at once, and did I really need a second helping of everything?

Merry Christmas, everyone.

James Button, Regional Editor (Italy)

The centrepiece for the day’s activities this year will focus around a twin South African attack in magnum format: Blank Bottle’s Little William Syrah and David & Nadia’s Chenin Blanc. I’m not too hung up on food and wine matching so the idea is that everybody can dip in and out as they choose.

I have had a case of Vilmart’s Grand Cellier NV Champagne in storage for the last few years, so a bottle this Christmas Day will be a good excuse to enjoy this doughy, lemony treat. Likewise, it’s about time to pull out another bottle of Vega Sicilia’s Valbuena 5 2008; last time I tried it a few years ago it was still tight and unyielding – here’s hoping it has finally begun to relax, just as I intend to do!

My first visit to Piedmont involved a stay at Guido Porro in Serralunga, and drinking a wine from the vineyard our balcony overlooked, in the Lazzarito cru, brings back fond memories, so the estate’s Vigna Santa Caterina 2010 will be a very welcome addition to the table this Christmas. Guido Porro is a winery on the up and I thoroughly recommend its traditionally-styled Nebbiolos. Yum!

Natalie Earl, Regional Editor (France, excluding Bordeaux & Burgundy)

Christmas at the in-laws this year… but thankfully this notion is less terrifying knowing that I’ll have a glass of sweet pink bubbles in my hand on Christmas morning. I tasted Philippe Balivet’s Récolte Cécile Bugey Cerdon 2020 earlier in the year and I knew I’d need to get my hands on a bottle for Christmas aperitifs. Bugey Cerdon is a rosé sparkling wine from France’s eastern border, near Savoie, made from the Gamay and Poulsard varieties in the méthode ancestrale. This results in some residual sweetness and fairly low alcohol, making it the perfect late breakfast tipple: vibrant, grapey and delicious.

I have a 1999 Savennières Roches aux Moines lurking in the cellar that needs drinking now, and to temper the rich characters I’m expecting from that wine I’ll find a fresh South African Chenin to crack open too. On the red front, I’m excited to open the Scar of the Sea Syrah from San Luis Obispo in California, alongside a red Crozes-Hermitage for a compelling comparison. As much as I’d enjoy a liquid lunch, there will of course be the entire works on the food front, with a mix of meat and vegetarian options, and I’m banking on these bottles pairing well enough with most dishes. A recently-gifted bottle of Tokaji, a favourite of the mother-in-law, will almost certainly be polished off with the cheese board, and a snifter of 2004 Michel Huard Calvados paired with mince pies will bring the indulgence to a fine close.

Alex Layton, Head of Marketing

This year will be a mix of the classic and off-the-beaten track, with plenty of inspiration taken from these very pages.

To kickstart proceedings will be the supremely decadent Frerejean Frères, Cuvée des Hussards, Premier Cru, Champagne 2012 – a Platinum medal winner from the 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards and a Champagne that has developed further luxurious layers and complexity over the past three years.

The first white of the day will be the sensational Gutter&Stars Bacchus 2021 – skilfully produced by Decanter contributor Chris Wilson in an urban winery located in a Cambridge windmill, no less. This 100% Bacchus has real zing and verve alongside the textured and layered palate. Lip-smackingly delicious and definitely something a bit different alongside smoked salmon or a classic prawn cocktail.

Turkey will be the main centrepiece once again this year, but the vinous partner will be a little different from our usual new world Pinot Noir…

In steps the beautifully light, bright and crunchy Riccitelli, Old Vine Bastardo from Patagonia. It has plenty of pure red cherry fruit flavours, a wonderful purity and vibrancy and silky smooth tannins which should match sensationally.

And something a little stronger for the evening rounds of games and quizzes?

I’ve had a real penchant for North American rye whiskey over the past 12 months – and the Whistlepig 15 Year Old is a truly sublime example – showing hallmark peppery notes over hints of honey-roasted nuts and maple. A very special fireside sipper or luxurious base for a Manhattan.

Julie Sheppard, Regional Editor (Spain, Portugal & South America)

I’ll be hosting the family for Christmas this year and to get celebrations started, I’m planning to open a few bottles of English fizz. Hope & Glory The Blend 2017 is a Chardonnay-Pinot Meunier sparkler made by Hattingley Valley with wine writers Susie Barrie MW and Peter Richards MW. I’ve known these two for years and they’re huge fans of English wines. But this bottle does good as well as tasting good, with profits of sales going to the Marine Conservation Society. Bottles are still available to buy if you feel like raising a glass for a charity…

I’ll have a glass of Hope & Glory in hand while I’m in the kitchen… Despite having a small family, everyone has different tastes, so I’ll be cooking nut roast for the vegetarians, roast turkey for the traditionalists and roast beef for my father-in-law. Thankfully everyone agrees that they love roast potatoes…

This means there will be a few different bottles on the table for food pairing. As Regional Editor for Spain, Portugal and South America, I’ve tasted some great wines from all of those regions this year and have chosen a few food-friendly favourites.

First up, a classic choice: Bodegas Pujanza’s Finca Valdepoleo 2018, an elegant single-vineyard Rioja. Alongside Borja Pérez Viticultor Artifice Tinto 2018, a thrilling volcanic wine from Tenerife made from Listán Negro – one of the stars of our Indigenous Spanish Reds Panel Tasting.

After the main event, I’ll be raiding my Port collection for a few special bottles. I’m a particular fan of tawny Ports, as they work well with both cheeses and desserts – they’re great with Christmas pudding and mince pies. A favourite is Sandeman 20 Year Old Tawny. Perfect to sip on Christmas evening!

Ines Salpico, Special Projects Editor

Christmas is usually a time of joyous excess, a happy excuse to have a fun battle of wine discovery. I’m lucky enough to live with a fellow wine geek and have been raised by another, so each year we plunge into a few days of vinous exploration, celebrating above all, the opportunity of spending time together on the same side of the channel (I was born and raised in Portugal, where my parents live).

Unfortunately, my father is battling cancer and therefore unable to indulge. So this year will be about mindful choices – that one bottle that can justify the reluctant medical dispensation for one cheeky glass. We will go for something unpretentious and elegant, almost certainly from either Filipa Pato & William Wouters or Luis Seabra. It’s an interesting if cruel exercise: when each sip is borrowed from a diagnosis, how to make each sip count?

Back in London, we will throw caution and woes to the wind and hold a post-Christmas do with some of our friends and neighbours. The wine lineup will include some personal favourites currently in our stash. Pietradolce, Arianna Occhipinti, Paul Weltner, Bründlmayer, Dermot Sugrue, Niepoort, Raúl Pérez, Gramona, Thymiopoulos and Denizot will be some of the top names on the wine list.

Here’s to the end of a surreal and tough year and to a fantastic 2023!

Sylvia Wu, Decanter China and Regional Editor (Asia, Northern & Eastern Europe)

As always, I will be hosting our usual end-of-the-year gathering of friends at home. This year, thanks to lifted travel restrictions, I have had more opportunities to explore the fascinating wine scene of my ‘Rest of the World’ regions of responsibility, so the expectations are high for me to show something they’ve never tried before.

I have put aside an English fizz, the Brut Rosé 2018 from Balfour Winery as the welcome apéritif to go with snacks such as rice crackers and roast sunflower seeds. The relatively lower acidity level from a ripe vintage combined with the vibrant red berry notes should impress even those who are less keen on high-acid fizz.

For the BBQ, a single-vineyard dry Furmint, such as Royal Tokaji’s Nyulászó 2018 should do the trick; the acacia honey on the nose is instantly charming, while the alluring, textured palate of yellow fruits and the mineral acidity would pair nicely with almost everything on the grill – from roasted abalone to ox tongue, beef galbi and the soy sauce-based Asian dressing.

With a savoury nose and a smooth, plummy palate, the Saperavi Qvevri 2019 by Koncho & Co is my top candidate for the finely-cut lamb and beef slices – to be cooked with vegetables and mushrooms in the simmering hot pot broth. Here’s also my opportunity to show off a video of myself trying to punch down the grape must into a qvevri, the traditional oval-shaped amphora buried underground, during my visit to the fascinating Kakheti region of Georgia.

Finally, as the temperature drops and my guests are ready to head home, it’s time for an old-school PX Sherry, or indeed a simple glass of mulled wine – nothing exquisite but just what we need to warm up this winter.

Related articles

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First past the post in a race for the world’s first biodynamic whisky release was Waterford Distillery’s Luna 1.1, made with biodynamic barley from three Irish farms.

Matured in used and new American oak, French oak and vin doux naturel casks, the single malt joins Waterford’s Arcadian Series heritage range.

Released towards the end of 2021 and priced at £89.95 per 70cl at Master of Malt and The Whisky Exchange, Waterford Luna 1.1 (Alc 50%) is fruity with mellow cereal and rye notes.

The smooth palate is tinged with clove, ginger, almond chocolate, toffee and red earth, along with lighter notes of lemon balm and mint.

Mark Reynier, Waterford Distillery’s CEO, said he took inspiration from a shift towards biodynamic methods in some vineyards, as part of broader efforts to make winemaking more sustainable and enhance expressions of terroir in the glass.

‘During my career I’ve had the fortune to taste the world’s greatest wines,’ he said. ‘It’s no surprise to see the ever-increasing adoption of biodynamics in the search for intensity and purity of flavour. If for the grape, why not the grain?’. 

Meanwhile, Scotland’s Bruichladdich Distillery has been working with Yatesbury House Farm, using biodynamic English barley to produce The Biodynamic Project.

An unpeated single malt distilled in 2011 and matured on Islay for 10 years, it follows in the footsteps of The Organic Barley 2010 and Bere Barley 2011.

The Biodynamic Project (Alc 50%) has notes of stone fruit and orange citrus, with gingerbread, white pepper, pineapple and salted caramel. It was available at £100 per 70cl bottle via bruichladdich.com.

On our cocktail menu this month: Espresso Martini

A modern classic, the Espresso Martini was invented by legendary London bartender Dick Bradsell in 1983, at the Soho Brasserie.

Allegedly supermodel Kate Moss asked him for a drink to ‘wake me up’. It’s certainly tricky to sleep after tasting this combo of espresso, coffee liqueur and vodka.

Try using creamy Black Cow (Alc 40%), a zero-waste vodka made from milk, with notes of vanilla pod, coconut and sweet liquorice. It’s priced at £25-£30 per 70cl bottle and is widely available, including via Amazon.

How to make an Espresso Martini

Ingredients:

• Martini glass
• 45ml vodka
• 30ml hot, freshly made espresso coffee
• 20ml coffee liqueur
• Coffee beans (for the garnish)

Method:

• Pour all of the ingredients into a shaker with ice
• Shake until your hands are cold
• Fine strain into a Martini glass
• Add the garnish

Know your spirits: Eau-de-Vie

Literally meaning ‘water of life’, eau de vie is a clear and light fruit brandy produced by double distillation.

It’s distinct from brandies such as Cognac that are made with grapes.

You will find types of eaux de vie (the plural) made all around the world – from the classic poire william (pear) in France and Germany’s peach schnapps to banana and mango versions in the Caribbean and coconut arrack in Sri Lanka.

Eaux de vie are usually served at the end of a meal as a digestif.

No-alcohol spirits

If you’re attempting dry January, or if you’re looking to mix things up in general, see our newly published guide to no-alcohol spirits with 12 recommendations on bottles to try.

Editing for Decanter.com by Chris Mercer.

Out now: Decanter magazine latest issue: February 2022

More guides from our spirits section

Best no-alcohol spirits for dry January

Best single malt whiskies to try

Best rums for sipping: Eight to try

If you’re still on the hunt for presents, see these great wine gifts selected by the Decanter team for Christmas 2021, covering a wide range of budgets and options.

Best wine gifts for Christmas 2021 

Waste Cork Wine Cooler

• Price: £75

• Available at: Very Good & Proper 

During the production of wine corks, some 25% of the raw material is wasted. This innovative wine cooler, designed in collaboration with London-based architecture practice Mowat & Company, repurposes the cork waste by shaping and sealing cork particles with natural oils – without affecting the insulating properties of the cork.

Christmas In a Can Taster Kit

• Price: £14.99

• Available at: The Copper Crew

The perfect stocking filler for those concerned about the carbon footprint of heavy wine bottles. Packs include one 250ml can each of South African Chenin Blanc, rosé and Merlot. Alternatively, customers can build their own box full of their favourite cans. Cans, delivery box and tape are all completely recyclable.

Personalised Grapevine Crate

• Price: £52

• Available at: The Gluttonous Gardener

Presented in a smart, personalised crate, there are two varieties of vine – one white (usually Phoenix) and one red (usually Muscat Bleu) – specially chosen for their ability to thrive in the unpredictable British climate, and to produce a harvest within a few seasons, the company says. The vines may be grown in large pots, and full care instructions are included.

Decanter At Home – Masterclass tickets selling fast

Book now for:

Vérité: The evolution of a decade

Château Angelus: A philosophy of excellence

Bonneau du Martray: One site, two Grands Crus 

Gusbourne Estate wine tour

• Price: £95

• Available at: Gusbourne

Kent-based English sparkling estate Gusbourne offers a range of vineyard tours and tastings at different price levels. The Estate Tour offers an afternoon at the estate and includes a tasting of rare releases and limited-edition bottlings, paired with a seasonal three-course lunch.

Home Cocktail Bible, by Olly Smith

• Price: £20 (Kindle Edition: £6.99)

• Available at: Amazon.co.uk (Quadrille Publishing) 

Beautifully designed, and written in Olly Smith’s usual bright and breezy style, this contains more than 200 cocktail recipes, divided by type of spirit. You’ll also find information on essential spirits, syrups, mixers and kit.

Wine ‘Condom’ stoppers

• Price: £22.33 for a set of six

• Available at: Amazon.co.uk | Also available on in the US Amazon.com 

Protect your Pinot! These reusable Wine Condoms are certainly a different take on the traditional wine stopper. Simply open the package and roll it over the top of the bottle. This would make a funny novelty addition to the gift of a bottle.

British Kir Royale Gift Set

• Price: £48

• Available at: Harvey Nichols

Mix your own version of this classic cocktail, invented by the French, and refined by the British. The gift box contains a bottle of Harvey Nichols English Sparkling Brut – made for the retailer by Digby Fine English – and a bottle of Harvey Nichols Crème de Cassis.

The Original Pick-Me-Up Hangover Cure

• Price: £6.50-£19.95

• Available at: The Original Pick-Me-Up

DR Harris & Co, renowned chemist and perfumer on St James’s Street since 1790, has released a newly formulated version of The Original Pick-Me-Up, reputedly a tried and tested hangover cure, in partnership with Bob’s Bitters. The bitters can be used to prepare the classic hangover cure or added to a wide variety of cocktails and long drinks.

Key flavours include gentian, clove and cardamom, along with new ingredients, such as ginger, milk thistle, ginseng, calamus root and Regent’s Park honey. Also available in gift sets.

Le Creuset Wine Cooler Sleeve

• Price: £21

• Available at: John Lewis |  Also available in US on Amazon.com

Store this in the freezer, and it will chill a bottle from room temperature in 20 minutes. Or if the wine was chilled to start, this should keep it cold for hours. A great addition to a backpack for picnics. It’s available in black or volcanic orange at John Lewis in the UK, or in several colours via Amazon in the US.

The gift of a cellar

• Price: From £2,500

• Available at: Berry Bros & Rudd

Looking to go big this Christmas? Gift the oenophile in your life an experience they’ll never forget. Fine wine and spirits merchant Berry Bros & Rudd’s package comes in three tiers, at £2,500, £5,000 or £10,000. The recipient will receive a bottle of mature wine in a wooden case to open on Christmas Day, along with an invitation to meet a fine wine specialist at Berry’s historic home on London’s St James’s Street.

Over a glass of fine wine amid three centuries of vinous history, the recipient will discuss their cellar and wines to include in their new collection. With a portfolio of world-class producers and access to both mature and en primeur fine wine, this is a gift that will set recipients on a journey that could last them a lifetime.

Wine Cork Letters

• Price: £26-£40

• Available at: Uncommon Goods

Stumped about what to do with your wine corks from favourite bottles? Why not turn them into a personalised display? Select a letter, a pair of initials, or even spell a word. This gift comes with custom supports for mounting.

Dom Perignon Rosé 2006 – Lady Gaga limited edition

• Price: £350

• Available at: The Champagne Company

A collaboration between Lady Gaga and Dom Pérignon, this signed limited-edition release celebrates creative freedom. Dom Pérignon Rosé 2006 was rated 96 points by expert Yohan Castaing, who recently tasted it for Decanter Premium. DP Blanc de Blancs 2010 is also available in the same series.

Le Nez du Vin Masterkit 54

• Price: €300 (£256)

• Available at: Lenez.com  

A brilliant educational tool for any wine lover looking to develop their tasting expertise, this 54-aroma kit with a guide book will help train your sense of smell. An extra €20 gets the games, too: Aroma Race and Wine Route challenge players’ ability to identify and memorise aromas, and match them with world wines.

Quinta do Vesuvio Private Visit

• Price: €250-€300 (£210-£255) per person; children €50

• Available at: Quinta do Vesuvio

Iconic Douro: for the first time, Symington Family Estates is offering a private day visit to this working estate. Tour the winery, cellars and vineyards, before enjoying a tutored tasting and lunch on the river-view terrace.

California Wine Jigsaw Puzzle

• Price: £35

• Available at: Water & Wines

The Golden State’s main wine-producing regions and grape varieties, in 1,000 pieces. The range of puzzles available also includes Italy, France, Spain, South Africa, Portugal and Scotland (for whisky). For every item sold, the company plants one tree and makes a donation to improve global access to safe drinking water.

The World of Wine Quiz Book

Price: £11.99

Available at: Amazon.co.uk |  Also available on Amazon.com ($16.91)

Test, then boost, your wine knowledge with this clever book. Dip into the 100 quizzes (10 questions each), then refer to the amplified answers section for a ‘mini wine course’. Published by Fairbanks King Books.

Decanter at Home event tickets

• Price: Masterclass tickets start from £45

• Available exclusively at: Decanter

Join Decanter any time that suits you until 10 January 2022 for our exciting new virtual event, featuring masterclasses from leading producers in Bordeaux, Burgundy, Piedmont, California and more.

Masterclass tickets come with wine samples so you can taste along at home. You can also buy a view-only ticket that will include all masterclasses, as well as specially curated videos, including interviews, insider tips and behind-the-scenes content.

Riedel ‘O’ Wine Tumbler for Pinot Noir / Nebbiolo

• Price: £27.50 for a set of two (excluding shipping)

• Available: Riedel 

Bring out the complex, aromatic flavours of your Pinot or Nebbiolo with these innovative stemless glasses. Crafted from fine crystal, they are easy to use, wash and store.

Coravin Sparkling System

• Price: £399

• Available at: Coravin UK | Also available via Coravin in the US

Are you hoping to make that Christmas fizz last until New Year? Launched in October, the Coravin Sparkling Wine Preservation System is the only universal solution to preserve sparkling wines for two weeks, the company says.

The system pairs a secure, universal-fit stopper with a handheld charging unit to maintain sparkling wine’s carbonation level between pours.

The Wine Society Membership

• Price: £40

• Available at: The Wine Society

This lifetime membership is the gift that keeps on giving. The Wine Society was recently named Outstanding Retailer of the Year at the Decanter Retailer Awards 2021, but you can’t buy wine from The Wine Society without being a member.

The one-off cost of £40 includes a voucher for £20 towards the recipient’s first order.

The contents of this gift guide first appeared in Decanter magazine’s December 2021 issue.

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A couple of years ago, my eight-year-old grandson asked, ‘Grandpa, why are you famous?’ And all I needed to do was to show him a copy of George Taber’s book, Judgement of Paris – California vs France and the historic 1976 tasting that revolutionized wine.

I’d always thought of writing a slim volume to tell the grandchildren about my life, and bit by bit it grew into something bigger. However, Wine – A Way of Life remains a memoir, not an autobiography. For my 21st birthday, my maternal grandmother gave me membership to The Wine Society and a 12-bottle wine rack.

While these presents added to my enjoyment of life, my paternal grandfather had lit the flame eight years before after a Christmas Eve dinner at the family house in Derbyshire, saying I was old enough for a glass of Port.

It was quite amazing. ‘What’s this, Grandpa?’ ‘Cockburn’s 1908, my boy.’

In the 1950s my parents took me and my elder brother abroad with them to France and Italy, where the bistros and trattorias epitomised the ‘conviviality’ of wine drinking, leaving a colourful impression compared to grey, post-war Britain.

At the London School of Economics I joined the Wine Club, but already, thanks to my family, there was never any doubt that wine would become my profession.

From joining Christopher & Co, London’s oldest wine merchant, in 1964, moving to Provence on my wedding day in 1968, relocating to Paris two years later to purchase a wine shop in the city (‘Your wine merchant speaks English’ ran my ad in the International Herald Tribune), founding the first private wine school in France, creating the Paris Tasting, expanding into restaurants and warehousing, and then losing it all in the late 1980s, it has been a rocky ride.

The chapter on my return to London in 1990 is entitled ‘The Road Back’, which began with a brief spell running the Harrods wine department and then meeting Sarah Kemp in 1993 and joining the Decanter team.

The next chapter –‘Life with Decanter’ – sets the scene for what is still my main focus after a quarter of a century, and while my 300th column will be in the October issue, I cannot hope to match the 430 columns of my mentor Michael Broadbent MW.

The last roll of the Spurrier wine dice has been Bride Valley Vineyard in Dorset – a risky step that caused Eric de Rothschild to say with sympathy, ‘Welcome to the Club’, which is covered in the final chapter, ‘Poacher turned Gamekeeper’.

My attitude to wine – apart from my mantra ‘drink for mood and not for food’ – is based on the Three Ps: Place – where the vineyards are, generally very nice to visit; People – those who produce wine, who are generally good, and if they are bad they will make bad wine; Product – the result of P1 and P2.

Looking back over a lifetime around the Three Ps, I am still totally in love with it all. I have been very fortunate indeed, for wine has brought me more than I ever could have imagined.

Wine – A Way of Life (£20, Adelphi, May 2018)

Buy it here

What I’ve been drinking

Château Haut-Bailly, Pessac-Léognan CC 2009

The cover of Decanter’s June 2010 issue, which covered the 2009 Bordeaux en primeur tastings, carried a quote from me: ‘The best vintage of my lifetime’. The vintage brought ripeness to the Cabernets, allowing them to blend with the more earthy Merlots to produce wines of elegance and vigour.

Haut-Bailly is one of my very favourite clarets, as much for the charm of the owners: first Daniel Sanders, then from 1979 his son Jean and especially his granddaughter Véronique Sanders, the current CEO under the ownership of Robert G Wilmers. I remember the 1955 in London in the 1960s and Haut-Bailly was always in my shop in Paris in the 1970s and 1980s.

There are bottles in my Dorset cellar from 2012 to 1998, including this superb 2009, which I placed third in the en primeur tastings in Pessac-Léognan, just after Haut-Brion and La Mission, noting its ‘undeniable beauty and class’.

Château d’Yquem, Sauternes 1CS 1988 in jeroboam

This was served at a lunch to open the splendid new Cheval Blanc cellar designed by 1994 Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner Christian de Portzamparc in 2011. Dom Pérignon flowed as we arrived and the red wines included the 2000 and 1990 Cheval Blanc.

Perfect though the Yquem was, I refused a second glass and after coffee got into my car to head to Bordeaux. For no reason I was stopped by the police and asked if I’d been drinking. Their breathalyser put me over 50mg/l and they took me to Libourne police station for an official test, which showed 54mg/l. A 10% excess being allowed, I was free to go.

That evening I attended a dinner at Haut-Brion, safe in the knowledge that when one encounters a perfect wine, one does not need a second glass.

Domaine de Chevalier, Graves 1941*

*unclassified, as before 1953

This was served at a lunch by Olivier Bernard, of Domaine de Chevalier. He didn’t know it was my birth year, so he unwittingly provided me with a rare pleasure, for 1941 was almost as poor a vintage as my wife’s – 1946.

Bernard noted that it was part of a batch acquired from a cousin of the estate’s previous owner, all re-corked at the château in 1994.

I remember it being still fresh in colour, no oxidation either on the nose or the palate, quite fully flavoured with good length and balance, despite being quite high in acidity. But it was Bernard’s faith in such a poor vintage to re-condition it and present it in its (and my) 60th year that I remember most.

Château Margaux, Margaux 1GCC 1985

Served from magnums for the opening of the Lord Foster-designed new chais at Château Margaux in 2015, this is the greatest claret I have drunk in recent years.

Although the 1982s launched Bordeaux into the modern world and are still superb, 1985 was almost as good (but less acclaimed), and I have never had a poor bottle from right across the Gironde.

But the memory here is Château Margaux itself, the perfect grandeur of the château among its vineyards, the old and new chais, past vintages such as 1953 and 1961.

In particular, from 1977, the dedication of the Mentzelopoulous family through three generations – André’s widow Laure and her daughter Corinne were Decanter Women of the Year in 1985 – and the skills and charm of the late Paul Pontallier, head winemaker from 1985 to 2015. If wine is art, it is Château Margaux.

Château Léoville Barton, St-Julien 2CC 1989

In my mind, Bordeaux is inseparable from the Barton family. Langoa and Léoville Barton are the only châteaux from the 1855 Classification, along with Mouton-Rothschild, that remain in the hands of the same family.

I enjoyed many visits at vintage time in the early 1970s under Ronald Barton, many more under his nephew Anthony and continuing, I hope, into the future with Anthony’s daughter Lilian.

To say that Léoville Barton is ‘benchmark St-Julien’ is inadequate, for it is the family’s expression of their vineyards, through thick and thin, since 1826 – and this is what shows. The 1989 was served at a dinner I gave in March 2004 for 40 people, to celebrate 40 years in the wine trade.

I had the 1986, 1988 and 1989 in my cellar – I’d already finished the 1985 – and asked Anthony Barton which vintage he would recommend. He unhestitatingly went for the 1989 from the heatwave year, a wine that warmed our hearts then and still would today.

Château Figeac, St-Emilion 1GCC 1970

Figeac joins Haut-Bailly and Léoville Barton as my three favourite Bordeaux châteaux for the buildings – Langoa’s classic 18th-century chartreuse, Figeac’s 18th-century manoir and Haut-Bailly’s 19th-century gentleman’s residence – as well as for the family, in this case the Manoncourts, owners of Figeac since 1892.

Thierry Manoncourt, one of Bordeaux’s true heroes, inherited the château in 1947 and fathered over 60 vintages, one of the greatest being the 1970.

At L’Académie du Vin we held a comparative tasting of Figeac and Cheval Blanc from 1966 to 1971, and for me the dense 1970 and the exuberant 1971 took the palm.

For Michael Broadbent it is a ‘glorious 1970’. I love Figeac because it is so different from its neighbour (and once part of the same estate) across the road, made with 35% Cabernet Sauvignon to match the 35% Cabernet Franc grown on its fine gravelly croupes (banks). Like the château itself, it’s a marvellous example of discreet power.

The oldest Figeac in my cellar is the splendid 2001, but the 1970 still resonates in my mind.

Château Latour, Pauillac 1CC 1964

Starting out in the wine trade that year, I knew Latour as ‘the English château’, following its sale by the de Beaumont family to the Pearson Group and Harveys of Bristol in 1962.

President Charles de Gaulle was asked to prevent this prestigious estate falling to ‘Le Perfide Albion’, but merely stated that ‘they can’t take the land with them’.

Much-needed replanting began and stainless steel fermentation tanks were installed in time for the 1964 vintage, with picking starting on 25 September and finishing the day before the rains came to wreck the vintage for the more northerly Pauillacs.

Decanter’s Stephen Brook states that ‘no other Médoc wine can match Latour for power, depth of flavour and grandeur’ – and it is easy to agree.

My connections with Latour, first through the manager Jean-Paul Gardère in the 1970s, then Hugh Johnson as a director, David Orr as the last manager before the estate was sold to François Pinault, and since then Frédéric Engerer, have kept the château very much in my life, if not in my cellar. The 1964 is a monument.

Vieux Château Certan, Pomerol 1961

Going through my memory, two wines stand out with personal family connections. The first is Château Pape Clément 1953, the wine I took from my London cellar to go with the packed supper that my mother had prepared for Bella and I to enjoy on our Golden Arrow train to Paris on the evening of our wedding, ahead of a life in France.

The second is Vieux Château Certan 1961, about which Bella’s father, who was staying with us in Paris in the mid-1970s, remarked, ‘I never knew wine could be this good’. So VCC it is – a château I have known through generations of the Thienpont family, the 1961 being made by the ebullient Georges Thienpont, who thought that ‘a magnum of claret is perfect for two gentlemen dining together, provided they have had a bottle of Champagne beforehand’.

VCC is my favourite Pomerol, the 1998 being a star in my Dorset cellar. The 1961 came from the reserves of Nicolas, the dominant Parisian wine merchant, at a very affordable price, and is a wonderful blend of elegance and power, as the marvellous VCCs still are today.

Château Mouton Rothschild, Pauillac 2CC* 1959

*until 1973, then promoted to 1CC

The greatest wine collector in Brazil (and one of the nicest possible people) is a gentleman named Célio Pinto de Almeida, who, with his wife Sonia, holds annual vertical tastings over two or three days from the greatest vineyards in the world. I was fortunate enough to be his guest on 6 and 7 May 2005 to taste 61 vintages of every single Art Label from 1924 to 1926 and 1945 to 2002.

We were 35 guests at the Locanda della Mimosa restaurant in Petropolis, once an imperial country estate outside Rio de Janeiro.

The first day covered 30 vintages, beginning with 2001 and ending with 1924. The 1959 was my only perfect score and the average of the group was a pure 100/100, with 1989 coming second on 97.5, while 1949, 1924, 1983 and 1982 were all equal on 92.5.

On the second day, with vintages from 2002 back to 1925, the famous 1945 topped the bill at 97.5, with 1986, 2000 and 1953 equal on 95, and 1985, 1996, 1950 and 1961 following on with 92.5. I described it as possessing ‘exotic robustness’; Michael Broadbent, as usual, goes one better, with ‘magnificence piled upon magnificence’.

Château Lafite Rothschild*, Pauillac* 1806

*unclassified, as before 1855

**Known as simply ‘Lafite’. Baron James Mayer Rothschild did not buy the château until 1868.  

This wine completes the Pauillac triumvirate in my selection and is always my answer to the question: ‘What is the most memorable wine you have ever drunk?’

The restaurant Darroze in southwest France had one of the greatest cellars in the country, much of which I packed up in the early 1980s for sale at Christie’s.

The 1806 had been re-corked at the château in 1953 and six bottles each sold to Darroze, Le Chapon Fin in Bordeaux, Le Coq Hardi at Bougival and Le Taillevent in Paris. The occasion was September 1969, the host a close friend and (mostly) Burgundy lover, David Fromkin, and the guests Martin Bamford MW (we were all staying at Château Loudenne which he managed for IDV), my wife Bella and two others.

After Dom Pérignon and Marquis de Laguiche’s Montrachet, this was the first red wine, not decanted to avoid oxidation, but poured directly into the glass.

The colour was a fading but clear red, the nose delicate with red fruits present, the finish firm and fragrant and then, after 30 minutes, it died away, but its memory did not.

• This article first appeared in Decanter magazine’s 2017 Bordeaux supplement. Subscribe to Decanter here. 

Séverine Frerson has worked in Champagne for 20 years, but this is her first year as chef de cave at Perrier-Jouët without the guidance of Hervé Deschamps, her predecessor. She joined in October 2018, and spent two years working alongside Deschamps, preparing to take the reins on his retirement. Her appointment was one of a series of announcements in the region that ‘put female talent in the spotlight, to an extent never seen before,’ as Anne Krebiehl MW observed last year. 

The eighth cellarmaster at Perrier-Jouët since it was founded more than 200 years ago, Frerson is at home here and undaunted. Born in the Champagne region, she graduated from Reims University, and then worked her way up the ladder at Maisons Piper-Heidsieck and Charles Heidsieck, becoming cellarmaster there in 2016.

The move to ‘Perrier-Jouët thrilled her. ‘The house has always been close to my heart,’ she says, ‘and it’s a good fit with my personality. It has a long and distinguished history, of course, but it also has a lot of soul.’

Charting progress

At this time of year, it’s Champagne blending that is keeping her and her team busy. Séverine explains where this vital step falls in the winemaking process: ‘After the harvest, we carry out the first alcoholic fermentation, and taste all the wines after this (last September for the 2020 harvest). We taste them all again after the malolactic fermentation (in October), then again in December, to see how they’re opening up.

‘In January we start to decide the orientation of each wine – that is, where each vat will end up. Then in February, we taste through every wine and group them together for each blend. You’re talking about 300 or so wines this year – 100 different Chardonnays – some floral in character, others more fruity – around the same number of Pinot Noirs, and 50 or so lots of Pinot Meunier. Plus we’re tasting around 100 reserve wines that will be included in the blends, so about 400 wines in total.’

The skill of tasting

The wine samples – which have not yet undergone the secondary fermentation in bottle and so are still wines at this stage, known as vins clairs – are tasted and blended in the laboratory using a large test tube. ‘First we look at the colour, including the brightness, before moving on to describe the aromas and flavours,’ Séverine explains. ‘But it’s not all about whether individual wines are floral or fruity or spicy. We’re also looking at the structure, and the texture. Texture is very important in all the components.’

Séverine and her team taste in 90-minute sessions, always in the morning. ‘I eat a little beforehand, as it helps protect the stomach – usually just bread, which is neutral.’ It’s a very intense process, she says, and ‘it requires a great deal of concentration and precision.’ To be successful, a blender must have passion, intuition – and a phenomenal memory: of vintages, of plots, of the characteristics of the reserve wines. ‘I have a library in my head!’

House style

The goal is consistency. And the preservation of the house style. ‘We’re looking for complexity, finesse and texture in the final cuvées,’ says Séverine, who describes the house style of Perrier-Jouët as ‘intricate and floral, with Chardonnay the pillar.’

The decision around picking dates is as important as blending here, she adds: ‘We monitor the maturity of the grapes very closely, so that when we pick, we achieve the florality we’re looking for – we need the right balance of fruitiness, florality and structure in the raw materials.’

2020 is a beautiful year, and excellent quality, especially for Chardonnay, according to Séverine – Perrier-Jouët had brought in all its Chardonnay by the end of August. ‘The wines have a great precision, and marked florality of aroma: peony and honeysuckle, and especially rose in 2020.’

The wines

Séverine talked through three of the house’s main cuvées:

Grand Brut is the DNA of Perrier-Jouët. A blend of around 35% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir and 25% Meunier, the style majors on florality of aroma. The Pinots Noir and Meunier are built around the Chardonnay to best express the white grape, adding structure. No Meunier reserve wines are used, because the Meunier component is all about adding richness of fruit aroma.

Perrier-Jouët’s Blanc de Blancs is the most recent addition to the range, introduced in 2017. Look out for the typical floral aromas of the house, says Séverine – honeysuckle, peony – with some apricot and mirabelle plum, then spice later on (cumin, white pepper). Perfect as an aperitif or with white fish carpaccio.

Belle Epoque: the vintage wine should be very precise, complex and refined. The current release (2012) is a blend of 50% Chardonnay and 45% Pinot Noir, with a dash (5%) of Meunier. In this cuvée, look for florality, spice, minerality and salinity. You should find richness, delicacy and precision. Séverine suggests pairing with langoustine or lobster – or a hard cheese with some salinity (old Comté, or Parmesan, for instance). The 2012 vintage is still adolescent, she says, and could be cellared for another 10 years.

Wine IQ

Who has the highest Wine IQ? This wine quiz has 400 multiple choice questions on the cards, which should see you through a few games.

In the second round, questions are then read out with only a few of the words, making this more than your regular q&a game.

Teams score positive or negative IQ points and scores are marked on the ‘IQ charts’. Although this is a game for teams, rules can also be adapted for groups of just two to three players.

Questions include, ‘Which country has the highest rate of wine consumption per capita?’, and, ‘Why is there no Chianti in the cellar of the Elysée Palace?’.

Buy: UK – £34.99 Amazon UK

The wine Game

Next up on this list of wine games is one simply called ‘the wine game’. It involves two decks of cards – one for red wines and one for white wines – both beautifully illustrated. They cover the major wine-producing regions, plus a few lesser-known ones.

Almost like the ‘Happy Families’ card game, the aim is to get four cards of a ‘wine family’, such as from the same country or region. The winner is the one with the most ‘families’ at the end.

The accompanying booklet gives descriptions of wines and regions, helping you learn more as you play.

Buy: UK – £17.99 Amazon UK / Laurence King £19.99 / US $24.99 Amazon US

Somm Blinders

Of the wine games listed here, this is the one that involves blind tasting wine and it is from the makers of the SOMM films.

A reference list is provided to help you buy the right bottles, although the game’s inventors advise pouring small measures and using spittoons.

The main aim is to collect cards that correctly describe the wine, although its identity is hidden to everyone except the dealer for that round. Things are kept interesting with elements like ‘Steal cards’, which can be used to take a random card from another player.

Choose from the original deck, or versions focused on white or red wines. This could be a good game for anyone who has tasting exams coming up. It’s also another game with beautiful illustrations, which you can also buy as prints or other gifts. 

Buy: US $35 a deck

World of Wine trivia game

You could be a fount of wine knowledge after playing this trivia game. There are more than 320 cards, with questions on wine styles, key grapes and regions, plus other interesting wine facts.

If you get through all of the questions, you can buy an additional card pack with even more questions. Test your knowledge with some of its questions in our quiz. 

Buy: UK – Wine School of Excellence £47.96

Corks

It’s not a wine game as such, and wine doesn’t even have to be mentioned, but Corks is described as ‘fast and furious’ and looks more than capable of adding a bit of fun to your afternoon or evening.

Players must try to get a set of four matching cork cards, and then can grab a cork from the middle of the table. Other players must also then try to take a cork from the middle, but there won’t be enough for everyone…

Buy: UK – £14.98 Amazon UK / US – $19.95 Amazon US

Best wine gifts

Best spirits gifts

Best wine books: Latest releases to read

Best wine gifts under £15

Wine tree decorations

For a fun stocking filler, these drinks-themed Christmas tree decorations are now on sale and under £10. Alternatively, divide them up and give one to each person at the dinner table alongside their cracker.

Buy: UK – Marks & Spencer £7.50

Wine glass letterpress cards

Some reports suggest 2020 has made many of us fall back in love with the art of sending hand-written notes, so how about treating someone to these wine glass-themed letterpress correspondence cards? There are eight cards and envelopes with a choice of blue or red ribbon.

Buy: UK – Topnote Design £12.99

Champagne stopper

Every household needs (at least) one Champagne stopper – using a spoon or fork won’t cut it – and these can also make a great stocking filler. These ones come in a fun choice of gold or rose gold, to match your Champagne or rosé perfectly.

Buy: UK – £8.99 for two Amazon UK / US – $12.49 for two Amazon US

Wine glass charms

This year more than ever it’s essential not to lose track of which wine glass is yours. These wine charms from John Lewis help everyone know which is their own – and the wine-themed design means they can be used all-year-round, not just at Christmas.

Buy: UK – £7.50 John Lewis

Best wine gifts under £50

Moët Christmas crackers

Great for a stocking, or to upgrade the Christmas crackers – for the grown-ups at the table, that is. These Moët crackers contain a 20cl bottle of Moët & Chandon Moët Impérial Champagne. You can also get the rosé version.

Buy: UK – £20 John Lewis 

Decanter magazine subscription

A Decanter magazine subscription makes a great present for those tricky-to-buy-for people. As well as hundreds of wine recommendations each month, the latest issue will also come straight to their door, or digital device. Purchase a subscription now and save at least 35%. If you purchase before 13 December, get an Amazon £5 giftcard (UK) or a further 5% off.

Buy: UK £45.59 / US – $68.99

Riedel Vinum Chianti glasses

A set of Riedel wine glasses will always be a welcome and well-used present. Although you could choose a specific glass for a wine style – there are more than 150 options – a good all-rounder from the range is the Chianti glass, also used by Decanter across DWWA judging and our tastings. Decanter‘s Georgie Hindle went behind the scenes at Riedel earlier this year.

Buy: UK – £40.94 Amazon UK / US – $59 Amazon US

Best wine gifts under £100

Decanter Premium subscription

A Decanter Premium subscription gives access to thousands of tasting notes every month and in-depth vintage reports; recent ones include Rhône 2019, Napa Cabernet 2018 and Chablis 2019, while reviews of recently bottled Bordeaux 2018 wines are just around the corner.

Subscriber benefits include early access to Decanter Events tickets, including our new virtual tastings, such as the recent sold-out masterclass with Château Palmer, plus exclusive in-depth collector’s reports.

Buy: UK – £75 / US – $100

Veuve Clicquot Champagne and personalised arrow

Clos19, the online retail platform launched by LVMH in 2017, has released a Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Champagne in a gift tin that can be emblazoned with the recipient’s name. Shaped liked an arrow and with a design inspired by grape seeds, the tin can also include the distance of your chosen address to Reims in Champagne.

Buy: UK – £69 Clos19

Best wine gifts under £300

Coravin Model Six

If you’re working with a bigger budget, why not treat a wine collector to a Coravin this Christmas? The device enables you to pour a glass of wine without opening the entire bottle. There are several designs, but the ‘Mica’ version is currently half-price on Amazon in the UK and US. It’s available in a range of colours.

Buy: UK – £164 Amazon UK / US – $199 Amazon US 

Armand de Brignac & Harrods Champagne gift

For the ultimate luxury gift, Harrods has released a limited number of Armand de Brignac Champagnes in a special Harrods-green gift box. All the bottles are numbered and only 300 of the Harrods Édition Spéciale Brut Gold has been made.

Buy: UK – £295 Harrods

Hawksmoor guide to Christmas drinking hamper

A great gift if you’re away from loved ones this year, or just want to sort all of your Christmas wines in one swoop, steak restaurant Hawksmoor has released a ‘Guide to Christmas drinking’ hamper.

It includes:

• Two bottles of Palmer & Co Brut Reserve Champagnes;
• One bottle of Nicolas Choblet, ‘Pavillon’ Muscadet 2018;
• Domaine Berthenet, Montagny 1er Cru 2014;
• Pulenta Estate, ‘Hawksmoor Blend’ Malbec 2018;
• ‘Viña Tondonia’ Reserva Rioja 2005;
• Quinta de la Rosa LBV Port 2014;
• A bottle of Hepple Gin;
• Six Hawksmoor lagers and a 500ml bottle of Fuller-Fat Old Fashioned.

Buy: UK – £200 Hawksmoor

Cuvée Privée Adopt a vine

Cuvée Privée’s unique gifting concept gives the chance to ‘adopt a vine’ and receive the wine made from it! Vines can be selected from a range of prominent estates spanning exceptional vineyard locations including Champagne, the Loire Valley, Bordeaux and Burgundy and a recent tasting of six wines showcased the quality of production. Membership options range from one to three years and all come with a beautiful welcome box containing either one or six bottles of the current vintage, introductory words from the winemaker, a personalised certificate and a medallion placed above your vine. During the year of your adoption, you will be invited to visit the property (and your vines) to taste their wines and meet the winemaker and at the end of the subscription Cuvée Privée members will receive six or twelve bottles of the next vintage personalised with their name.

This Christmas, Cuvée Privée is offering a £10 voucher code for every Decanter reader using the code DECANTER10. Valid until 21st December 2020.

Buy: UK – prices from £140 Cuvée Privée

See also: 

Best spirits gifts to give this Christmas

Best wines to have with turkey

Best wine books: Latest releases to read

Best wine books: Latest releases 2020

Inside Bordeaux, Jane Anson

As any regular readers of her Decanter columns will know, Jane Anson has incredible knowledge and access to Bordeaux.

Her highly anticipated book, Inside Bordeaux, profiles 600 châteaux across the region in exceptional detail, and examines both the history of the region and modern trends.

UK – £60 BBR.com / US – $80 Sotheby’s Wine

Big Macs + Burgundy, Vanessa Price

For a fun, light-hearted guide to wine pairing, Big Macs + Burgundy is from sommelier Vanessa Price, who writes for New York magazine’s Grub Street blog.

From fried chicken and brut Champagne to pairing wines with a Big Mac, Price argues that exceptional matches can be found everywhere and that ‘you don’t need truffle-dusted sunchokes or sous-vide pheasant loins to unlock the joys of an exceptional or even just-plain-good bottle of wine’.

UK – £13.51 Amazon / US – $19.99 Amazon

Noble Rot: Wines from another galaxy, Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew

From the duo behind the two London sites of Noble Rot, and the magazine by the same name, Wines from another galaxy sets out to demystify parts of the wine world. A definitive guide to ordering wines, talking about wines and knowing how to find what you like.

UK – £30 Amazon / UK – £30 Waterstones / US – $45 Amazon

The pocket wine guide 2021, Hugh Johnson

Always a great choice for a stocking filler, Decanter columnist Hugh Johnson’s ever popular annual pocket wine guide is back. In its 44th year of publication, it’s a practical guide for wherever you’re buying wine, including what to drink in 2021 and what vintages to hold on to.

For a heartier read, look out for Johnson’s new edition of The Story of Wine: From Noah to now, which examines how wine became the global phenomenon it is today. It’s available from the Académie du Vin Library.

UK – £8.99 Amazon / UK – £12.99 Waterstones / US – $15.75 Amazon

Tasting Victory: The Life and Wines of the World’s Favourite Sommelier, Gerard Basset

This is the fascinating memoir of the late Gerard Basset OBE MW MS, the world-renowned sommelier who also founded the Hotel du Vin. The book provides a rich insight into an extraordinary career, during a period of significant change on the UK culinary scene. Decanter’s Amy Wislocki also notes that, when reading this book, ‘it is striking just how much work went into the preparation for all of the many sommelier competitions that Gérard entered.’

UK – £17.23 Amazon UK / UK – £25 Foyles / US – $30 Amazon US

Château Lafite: The Almanac, Saskia de Rothschild

Released in December 2020, this book charts 150 years of vintages at the First Growth estate from 2018 back to the Rothschild family’s arrival in 1868.

It includes tasting notes, information on vintage conditions and blends, as well as historical documents, and has been written by Saskia de Rothschild, a former journalist who succeeded her father, Baron Eric de Rothschild, at the helm of Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) in 2018.

DBR (Lafite) has also announced that it will release 300 cases containing a numbered magnum of Lafite Rothschild 2018 and a copy of The Almanac. Stockists for the book only are listed below:

UK – £125 Waterstones / UK – £93 Amazon / US – $118.48 (List price $175) Amazon US

Wine and Food: The perfect match, Ronan Sayburn MS and Marcus Verberne

Another food and wine pairing choice, Wine and Food: The perfect match, is from 67 Pall Mall’s head of wine, Ronan Sayburn MS, and head chef Marcus Verberne. This coffee table book includes food and wine pairing advice, plus guidance on wine service. Read an extract on pairing wine with tricky ingredients. The book’s guide to canapé and wine matching can also be found in the current Decanter magazine (January issue).

UK – £40 / RoW £50 – 67 Pall Mall

On Bordeaux: Tales of the Unexpected from the World’s Greatest Wine Region, Various authors.

A guide to all things Bordeaux, Jane Anson wrote the introduction to this, and some of the chapters. Other wine experts offering insights include Decanter contributors James Lawther MW and Fiona Beckett.

Chapters cover a range of topics, including the history of the region, the châteaux and the rivalries – from Left vs Right Bank to Mouton vs Lafite – plus Bordeaux in the modern world.

UK – £25 Amazon / UK – £30 Académie du Vin Library / US – $46 Amazon

A Life in Wine, Steven Spurrier

Steven Spurrier has updated his 2018 memoir (Wine a way of life), revamping the original and also including two new chapters, with one on the value of a life in wine. A fascinating look back over a significant wine career – and the changes across the industry in that time.

UK – £30 Académie du Vin Library

Steven Spurrier’s top wine memories

Great wine books to read while in self-isolation – something for every kind of reader

Written March 2020

If you want a memoir… ‘Cork Dork’, Bianca Bosker

For an insight into the life of working in the New York wine scene, settle in to Bianca Bosker’s Cork Dork. A ‘high-octane account of her year in the New York wine scene’, Bosker was previously an editor at Huffington Post before pursuing a career in wine. As a New York Times bestseller, it’s got a broad appeal, for both the beginner and the seasoned oenophile.

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US

If you want to laugh and learn… ‘Red and White: An unquenchable thirst for wine’, Oz Clarke

Oz Clarke’s Red and White marks a slight departure from his previous books. Not just a technical reference book, it’s part autobiographical, including Clarke’s first venture into the world of wine, but also includes plenty of serious wine content. It’s ‘full of joie de vivre, wit, opinion and anecdotes,’ and it’s laugh-out-loud funny at times, said the Decanter review.

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US

If you’re improving your knowledge… ‘The World Atlas of Wine’, Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson MW

The eighth edition of the World Atlas of Wine was released at the end of 2019, and is an essential item on the book shelf of any self-proclaimed wine lover. Written by Jancis Robinson MW and Hugh Johnson, this is the longest edition yet, with 230 maps, 22 of which are new – showing how much the wine world is evolving.

See our interview with Robinson and Johnson, on what’s changed over the years of producing the Atlas. 

Buy Amazon UK / Amazon US

If you want some light relief from the news… ‘Monsieur Pamplemousse’ series, Michael Bond

Best known for creating Paddington Bear, Michael Bond also wrote a series of novels for adults, around a character called Monsieur Pamplemousse – a Michelin inspector who also solved crime, with his canine sidekick ‘Pommes Frites’.

A series of culinary adventures are set in France, continually referencing fine wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône and more… Read a taster of the books here. 

Buy Waterstones UK / Amazon US

If you’re looking for a novel…. ‘My Italian Bulldozer’, Alexander McCall Smith

Jane Anson shared some of her favourite novels that manage to effortlessly weave wine into the main story. My Italian Bulldozer is a romantic novel set in Tuscany, about a food writer who is travelling to get over a breakup.

See Jane Anson’s other wine novel suggestions here. 

Buy Amazon UK / Amazon US

If you want a visual guide to wine… ‘Wine Folly: The essential guide to wine’, Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack

Online publication Wine Folly made a name for itself with its easy to understand graphics that help you get to grips with learning about wine. This book, which offers a visual guide to wine, was published in 2016 and covers major grapes and regions, as well as food pairing, glassware and methods of production. It may be particularly useful for anyone using this time to revise for future WSET exams.

Buy Amazon UK / Amazon US

See also

Top wine shows to stream while in self-isolation

Chianti with The Sopranos? Top TV shows and wine pairing ideas

The paper wine bottle, known as the ‘Frugal bottle’, has been pitched as a lighter and more environmentally friendly alternative to glass.

At 83g, Frugalpac said its bottle is up to five times lighter than a regular glass wine bottle and that major supermarkets in the UK were ‘actively considering’ the idea.

It added that the overall carbon footprint is up to six times lower than glass bottles, based on analysis by the Intertek group. 

The bottle’s debut is the latest in a series of initiatives designed to shrink the wine industry’s impact on the environment, from recycled plastic bottles to lighter-weight glass and shipping more wine in bulk.

How can a paper wine bottle work?

Frugal bottle is made from 94% recycled paperboard, with a plastic food-grade liner to contain the wine or spirits within, similar in concept to a bag-in-box.

While there is some plastic involved, the company said that its Frugal bottle uses ‘up to 77% less’ than a plastic bottle and that the plastic lining is recyclable.

There is ’15g compared to a 64g bottle made from 100% recycled plastic’, it said.

In terms of recycling, either the whole bottle can be placed in your bin, or you can separate to two parts.

First release

The first wine released with the Frugal bottle is Cantina Goccia, 3Q 2017, a Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet blend. Previous vintages have won medals in the Decanter World Wine Awards.

‘We’ve had fantastic feedback from people who’ve trialled the Frugal Bottle,’ Malcolm Waugh, Frugalpac’s CEO.

‘As well as the superior environmental benefits, it looks and feels like no other bottle you have ever seen.’

Testing out the Frugal bottle

Testing out a Frugal bottle sample, one certainly notices that it’s much lighter to hold than glass.

It would make a good conversation starter, and the advantage of the good insulation and weight makes it an ideal picnic wine; plus no clinking of glass in your bag, or when you put your recycling out.

It does make me think of the bag-in-box principle, although the 75cl size of the Frugal bottle is better for two people sharing. The other similarity to a bag-in-box, however, is that it’s hard to tell how much you’ve had, because you can’t see through the packaging.

See also: 

Andrew Jefford column: The trouble with bottles (2018)

How good is canned wine? 

When the late Gérard Basset OBE MW MS was crowned World’s Best Sommelier in Santiago in 2010, on his sixth attempt, his son Romané and wife Nina were there to share in the celebration of an achievement that was the culmination of years of hard work and study. Romané, who was aged 11 at the time, remembers that his father was convinced he hadn’t made the final round, and when his number was called, there was a frantic search to find Gérard and get him back on stage. That wasn’t the only hitch. ‘I remember dropping the trophy in the hotel lobby, in front of the world’s wine press. It still has a dent in it today.’

Tasting Victory

Gérard, Decanter’s Hall of Fame Award recipient in 2013, describes this episode in Tasting Victory, the book he wrote during his illness with cancer of the oesophagus. He was diagnosed in 2017 and died in January 2019, aged 61.

‘It was hard sometimes, writing when he was unwell, but I think he was grateful to have a project that he could focus on when he couldn’t get out to tastings,’ remembers Romané. ‘When he wrote his previous book about tasting, The Wine Experience, he would agonise over every sentence. This time, Mum urged him just to sit down and write, and refine it afterwards. He could sometimes be overly self-critical.’ Indeed, he didn’t see the book as an autobiography, according to Romané: ‘For him, it was more about showing people how to be competitive, to be the best that you can.’

Reading the book, it is striking just how much work went into the preparation for all of the many sommelier competitions that Gérard entered. ‘There is a three-year gap between the World’s Best Sommelier competitions, and about halfway through that cycle, the books would start piling up on the dining room table,’ says Romané. ‘As the competition approached, he would spend longer and longer studying. I’d help Mum prepare blind tastings for him, using black glasses. Generally, it would be very nice wines that we poured, but we sometimes went to the off-licence and picked up a bottle of Echo Falls or something similar, to throw him off the scent.’

Introducing wine

Romané got a taste of Gérard’s thorough approach while studying for his own wine qualifications, WSET Levels 1 and 2, during the university summer holiday in 2019. ‘By this time, Papa was unwell and was undergoing chemotherapy. But we’d walk the dog together and he’d quiz me: “Name all of Bordeaux’s Left Bank appellations, from north to south”, that kind of thing!’

Despite Gérard’s career success and work ethic, Romané never felt that he came second best. ‘ By the time I was born, he’d done his time working the restaurant floor every night. And he didn’t compromise on being a father because of the competitions.’ Naturally, Gérard was eager to pass on his love of wine. ‘I can’t remember a definitive time when I was introduced to wine,’ says Romané. ‘I’d be given perhaps a couple of tiny sips from a young age, and as I grew older, Papa would encourage me to articulate what I thought of the wine.’

Father and son shared a love in particular of Champagne, Sherry and Madeira. ‘We holidayed in wine regions often, especially in Jerez and Madeira,’ says Romané. ‘Sipping on a Madeira with local food, looking out to sea, is a special experience.’

The last trip that Romané took with his father was to Valpolicella in late 2018, when Gérard was among five winners of the 37th Masi Prize. ‘While he was there, he forgot he was ill. He enjoyed spending time with friends in the industry, and we had a very special evening at a restaurant on Lake Garda, drinking Amarone with friends. Actually, I didn’t quite realise how deeply he was loved in the sommelier community until after he’d passed away.’

Romané may end up following in his father’s footsteps. This autumn he starts his final year of a French degree at King’s College University, London – where, naturally, he has spent some time as president of the wine society. He is considering studying for the WSET Diploma, and has completed work experience in the wine industry in the UK, Spain and France, including a four-month stage at Moët & Chandon.

‘I’m still not 100% sure whether wine will be my career,’ he says. Whatever direction his path eventually takes, Romané has been influenced by Gérard’s attitude to work.

‘He believed in always going above and beyond what’s being asked of you, for one – if I had to write a one-page essay, he’d urge me to write a page-and-a-half. He believed in the importance of finding your passion – and following it. And he always learned from past failures. All his competition experience came together in that moment when he lifted the trophy in Santiago, 10 years ago.’

Read more about Gérard’s life and career in Tasting Victory: The Life and Wines of the World’s Favourite Sommelier (Unbound, £25). The book will be published in the US soon. 

See also: Which wine persona does your dad have?

German photographer David Weimann has won the Errazuriz Wine Photographer of the Year, a category of the Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year 2020.

Weimann won the People section for his portrait of Meike and Dorte Näkel, winemakers at Meyer Näkel in Ahr, Germany. He then triumphed over the winners of the Places and Produce sections for the overall wine prize.

US-based wine writer Tom Hyland, who has contributed to Decanter on Italian wines, won the Places category with his winterscape of Castiglione Falletto in Piedmont’s Langhe region.

French photographer Patrick Desgraupes won the Produce category for his image of a worker at Clos St-Patrice in Châteauneuf du Pape.

The awards ceremony was held online for the first time since the competition’s inception in 2011, with winners announced in a live-streamed event on the evening of 28 April.

Renowned food photographer David Loftus was the chair of judges, whose panel included Decanter contributor and wine writer Joanna Simon, as well as winery representatives Magui Chadwiz of Viña Errazuriz and Vitalie Taittinger of Champagne Taittinger.

How Decanter’s art editor judges a photo

Things were very different when I started life as a lowly junior designer more than 30 years ago.

My main responsibilities then seemed to be making tea, collecting the art editor’s dry-cleaning and designing the letters or horoscope pages.

There have been many changes in magazines since but the one constant has been, and always will be, great photography.

When the organisers of the Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year competition asked me to be a judge, I jumped at the chance. But, as I looked at the many different images in each category, I realised how difficult it is to assess a great photo. To be honest I found it quite daunting.

The first thing to do when judging is to remove any personal preference or objection. I once submitted a front cover design to my editor who instantly hated it, even though the photo was impactful. It transpired he didn’t like yellow, so when I changed the design to orange he loved it!

A good photograph needs a focal point, whether it is a sun-drenched dewdrop on a grape, the concentrated stare of a vineyard worker or a distant château amid a misty landscape. The viewer needs to be drawn into the image.

Colour is another important element; whether vibrant or subdued, it can be used to create a mood. In the same way light can transform a subject by highlighting the focal point or creating contrasting shadows.

Technical details

I am acutely aware of modern technology used in digital photography. I prefer an image that looks natural without many hours of post-production PhotoShop applied to it. However, this technology can also enhance an image without being intrusive.

It’s when it oversteps this mark that it no longer becomes an aid but an obstacle. Colour can be enhanced, or altered to the point where it looks false. A great photo is an image that captivates you and makes you believe in it.

And while a great camera helps, you don’t need expensive equipment to take a great photograph. David Weimann’s winning photo was shot using a Hasselblad, but LM Archer’s third in the Places section was taken on an iphone.

Nearing the end of our judging process, we were asked to order the final entries into order of preference; it took me close to an hour to complete.

When I returned to the task the following morning with a fresh mind, I realised that while I was happy to swap around some entries, the top ones in each category always remained the same. A great photo stands out above the rest.

My last consideration when judging a photograph is, ‘Could I have taken that?’

I have looked at thousands of images during my time as an art editor and have learnt many things from excellent photographers. But it comes down to that innate ability (or luck) to capture a particular 1/100^th of a second in time that separates a great photo from a good one.

A photograph should tell the whole story in a single frame.

Wine Photographer of the Year: runners up

Chapter 7 in my memoirs, Wine – a Way of Life, carries the title ‘Bonjour Paris’ and Chapter 12, set 19 years later, is titled ‘Au Revoir Paris’. My commercial life in Paris had been very up in the 1970s and progressively down in the ’80s, so, returning in straitened circumstances to London in 1990 to look for employment in a city from which I had essentially been absent for two decades, Chapter 13 is inevitably titled ‘The Road Back’– the shortest in the book, followed by ‘Life with Decanter’, which is the longest.

I knew Decanter well as a magazine. The first edition in June 1975 for the modest price of 40p had a cover line: ‘How to buy good Bordeaux and keep your bank manager happy’ and an inside story, ‘Confessions of a Lady Wine Bar Proprietress’. Both could be columns today. The founders – Colin Parnell, a bookish and talented musician, and Tony Lord, a hard-drinking Australian journalist – had created Decanter following the demise of Katie Bourke’s much-loved Wine Magazine, and in late 1985 had employed Sarah Kemp to head the commercial side.

I was invited to the occasional tasting, and in early 1993 found myself seated next to Sarah, with Michael Broadbent being on her other side, at a charity dinner for the wine trade Benevolent, and told her of the demise of my six-month stint managing the Harrods wine department. ‘You’re well out of that,’ she said; ‘come and work for Decanter’ – of which she had become the publisher on Parnell’s retirement.

My first column appeared that September and continued without a break until last month’s issue, a total of 320 – not bad, but still unapproachably far from my hero and mentor Michael Broadbent’s 433.

Competitive element

Working alongside Sarah and her team was a joy. Every idea was considered and many used with success. Over the years, Decanter has been like a family to me, and early on I stopped using my ‘Steven Spurrier, Wine Consultant’ business cards in favour of the more recognisable Decanter ones. Sarah was a great captain of the Good Ship Decanter, which sails on under Robin McMillan, and many of the old hands are still on board, with unsurprising continuity.

Shortly after joining Decanter, I was asked to take over the Japan Wine Challenge, a wine competition backed by Tokyo-based entrepreneur Ronald Brown. A branch of my Paris Académie du Vin had opened in Tokyo in 1987, and I could combine this with my annual masterclass at the school. I was also a regular judge on the International Wine Challenge, based in London and run by Decanter’s competitors at Wine magazine, and from around the turn of the century had been pushing Sarah to create a Decanter wine competition. She always pushed back, saying ‘Decanter does events, not competitions’. Then, in about Easter 2003, she said: ‘Steven, the time is right: you set the rules and we’ll present it at the Bordeaux Vinexpo in June.’

The rules were those that I had imposed on the JWC: tasting sitting down at tables of four with a senior judge per table, flights of not more than 12 wines, taste like with like in price brackets with full information except the name of the wine, and elect a Regional Chair for each country or major wine region. These rules were simple and, while expanded and refined to take account of the 17,000 entries to what quickly became the world’s largest and most respected wine competition, have remained in place for the Decanter World Wine Awards.

See also: Steven Spurrier’s top wine memories

Good reading

I am often asked what, in my life in wine, I am most proud of and I always reply that it was the creation of L’Académie du Vin, France’s first private wine school, in 1973. The Judgement of Paris tasting held in May 1976 of course made L’Académie famous and cemented its reputation, but in terms of pride, the DWWA would run it pretty close.

So why, after nearly three decades of interactive pleasure, am I leaving Decanter? I think I can lay a fraction of the blame on Hugh Johnson, Decanter’s longest-serving contributor. In summer 2018, I had managed to retrieve the rights to the name and brand L’Académie du Vin and was considering how it might be revived.

Lunching with Hugh that autumn, I was bemoaning the fact that wine books today were either hefty reference books or buying guides and asked what had happened to all the ‘literature’ on wine, on people and places, that we had been brought up with. ‘All gone,’ he replied; ‘someone should recreate it.’

Within six months, the Académie du Vin Library had been formed, the force behind it being the brilliant Simon McMurtrie who, as managing director of Mitchell Beazley in his mid-20s, had published both Hugh Johnson and Michael Broadbent.

Our first book was the commemorative edition of Michael’s seminal Wine Tasting, launched to great acclaim on 30 April 2019 – 50 years since its original publication and two days before Michael’s 92nd birthday – followed by Fiona Morrison MW’s 10 Great Wine Families, Ben Howkins’ Sherry: Maligned, Misunderstood, Magnificent, and my particular baby, In Vino Veritas, a recreation of Cyril Ray’s The Compleat Imbiber, an anthology with the best writing from the past and the present on all aspects of wine. This year we have another five books in the pipeline, and for this reason what is left of my brain cells will be devoted to nurturing the development of the Académie du Vin Library.

But it is ‘Au revoir’ and not ‘Goodbye’, as I cannot truly leave Decanter, and I look forward to all the Fine Wine Encounter events in the future. The only difference now is that I will be buying my own tickets and not getting a free lunch…

Decanter consultant editor Steven Spurrier has been a columnist for the magazine since September 1993, and was the Decanter Hall of Fame Award recipient in 2017. This is his final column.

Lessons in wine appreciation – back to basics

The approach of September reminds me that exactly half a century ago I began my part-time professional wine writing. That is to say, I got paid. I still have the receipted invoice for £5, a welcome addition to my modest wine trade stipend, for my first monthly column on wine in Cheshire Life. Appropriately, for though at the time I was working for Harveys in Manchester, in the mid 1970s we lived in Cheshire.

Each column was headed by one of my drawings, an appropriate vignette, foreshadowing the illustrated wine maps to come, currently being promoted by Decanter. It was also around the same time that I began ‘tutored’ tastings – a term I detest – first for local organisations ranging from the Women’s Institute to the Wine and Food Society.

Was all this seminal wine lecturing of any use whatsoever? I think it was, because I realised that, faced with a glass of wine, the vast majority of my audience had not the foggiest idea how to start: the significance of the appearance of wine, particularly its nose, and the components of taste. Worse still, in the early 1960s, having been transferred to Bristol, I found that Harveys ‘reps’ and sales staff in the retail shops were almost as ignorant, relying entirely on brief wine list notes – and prices.

Which brings me to another appropriate and significant anniversary, coinciding with the time the reader will receive the advance October issue of Decanter – the 25th anniversary of the first Christie’s wine course, which Steven Spurrier and I based on the classes at his successful Académie du Vin in Paris.

They say that ‘those who can, do; those who can’t, teach’. But the more one teaches, the more one learns, not only helping to better master the subject but – and this is important – to take note of what the participants, of all ages, want to learn about wine.

For the past quarter-century, my part in the five-course sessions has alternated between the introduction to wine and the Bordeaux session, helping to identify regional and cépage variations. What do beginners need to know?

First of all, what one can learn from the appearance of wine: the whites ranging from almost colourless to more pronounced yellow, its clarity, its viscosity, and any signs of oxidation; then the extra dimensions of the reds, the significance of depth of colour, the actual hue, the intensity or weakness of the rim.

The question of whether and when to decant crops up at every tasting. Timing is not crucial. My short answer is that it matters little though I do advocate decanting red wines. At home I invariably pour young wines into an open jug an hour or so before serving. If a mature wine, then over a strong light – I prefer an upturned torch or table lamp to the traditional candle – to spot any sediment as it approaches the shoulder of the bottle. Glasses are important too. Riedel has all the answers, perhaps too many!

After ‘appearance’ comes the next natural progression, raising the glass to the nose. First, though, I advocate swirling the wine in the glass to rouse, aerate and maximise the surface area of wine.

Much has been said about the importance of the first impression, the first sniff. It is important, up to a point, but I always stress that unless the taster concentrates, undistractedly, on that first elusive sniff, the significance is missed. In practice, the professional, experienced taster will be on the look-out for typicity, perhaps its varietal aroma, cleanliness, possible faults including corkiness.

It is the next stage which is vastly more important and I always recommend a steady, not too deep inhalation, for it is then that the component parts can be identified, and, of course, its fragrance, its depth; if red, the not-always-identifiable sweaty leathery tannin, the ‘hot’ prickle of high alcohol and, that latter-day scourge, oak – new oak, with its spicy cinnamon scent.

In the case of a young red Bordeaux, whether it is dumb or forthcoming, the former needing time. Also, most importantly, to realise that the identification of major facets, particularly in a young red, is irrelevant in a fine mature wine, for the purpose of giving such a wine bottle age is for all the component parts to blend, resulting in a harmonious, seamless, bouquet.

In short, it is pointless to attempt to identify the same characteristics of a young wine in an old wine; for example, with the 1955 Latour or 1953 Lafite (should you be so lucky), one just luxuriates in the unravelling layers of delectable scents.

What about maturing whites? Sauternes for example? Starting off life a palish yellow-gold, the wines become a deeper amber-gold; and the fresh, sweet aroma develops into a richer, more honeyed, crème brûleé when fully matured.

To quote the late Professor Peynaud, the appearance – depth of colour and hue – and nose of the wine will tell you all you need to know about its quality and maturity. The third stage, the taste, merely acts as confirmation. He was of course referring mainly to red Bordeaux.

See also: Andrew Jefford’s guide to writing wine tasting notes

Obituary: Wine world great Michael Broadbent MW dies

With millions of people now staying at home, or practicing voluntary social distancing, streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime provide a great way of passing time and ticking off items on your must-watch lists.

There’s an almost endless source of educational and entertaining programmes out there but when it comes to wine the following list, comprising acclaimed documentaries and Hollywood hits, is a few of our favourites…

Sour Grapes, 2016

If you recognise the name Rudy Kurniawan, the now-infamous wine fraudster, you may have already seen this, if not it’s definitely one to watch.

The dizzying documentary, about the fine and rare wine auction market, chronicles the activities of Rudy’s counterfeiting as well as his relationships with the rich and powerful that helped him sell millions of pounds worth of fraudulent wine through top auction houses.

The scale of his deception is staggeringly large and at times unbelievable. This is addictive viewing about the often hidden, darker side of the fine wine world.

Available on Netflix.

Bottle Shock, 2008

This American comedy-drama has it all – a famous wine competition that revolutionised the industry, stunning Napa Valley scenery and the excellent Alan Rickman.

Based on the Judgement of Paris wine tasting in 1976, in which Californian wines defeated top bottles from France in a blind tasting, the film follows wine legend Steven Spurrier, played by Rickman, who organised the contest alongside winemakers Jim and Bo Barrett of Chateau Montelena (Bill Pullman and Chris Pine).

While the film is only loosely historically accurate it does a great job of capturing the sense of the occasion at the time and showcasing the excitement and atmosphere of winemaking in California in the 70s.

Available to rent on Amazon.

SOMM, 2012

Do you know what it takes to become a Master Sommelier? If not, this in-depth documentary will almost certainly surprise you detailing the notoriously tough process to be able to join an elite group of people worldwide (currently just 269) who have received the prestigious title.

Released in 2012, the film follows four hopeful and determined candidates on their intense MS journey. It delves into their history and backgrounds and the various methods they use to prepare themselves – from flashcards to a personal tasting trainer – for the final Master Sommelier exam, one of the toughest in the wine industry.

It’s a people-focussed documentary but with enough interest to sustain its run time, plus there’s a thought-provoking twist at the end…we won’t spoil it.

Available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Somm: Into the Bottle, 2015

If you enjoyed SOMM (and there’s two more follow-up films in that series), you might also like In The Bottle which focusses more on wine as opposed to the somms themselves.

Through a series of interviews with sommeliers and winemakers from around the world the film tells the story of wine answering the question ‘What is wine and why does it matter?’.

Ten mini documentaries cover different facets of the wine industry from its history in the old world to modern methods of production and marketing.

Journey through ‘the winemaker’, ‘the vintage’, ‘the wars’, ‘the cost’ and ‘the point scores’ to name a few and look out for the opening of some extremely rare bottles of wine including; Penfolds Bin 60A 1962, Dom Ruinart 1969, Clos Sainte Hume 1962 and Mondavi 1966 – the first wine Robert Mondavi produced.

Available to stream on Amazon Prime.

The Wine Show – Series 2, 2017/8

If you’re looking for a series to get stuck into then this might be the one. Presented by Matthew Goode of Downton Abbey fame and fellow-actor James Purefoy, the enthusiastic wine novice duo give a fresh, informative and engaging take on the world of wine.

From their villa in the Italian countryside, the pair face a different challenge each week while also exploring the best wines Italy has to offer.

Former series 1 presenter Matthew Rhys joins for a recurring section on wine gadgets including ways to keep wine fresh, transporting wine and taking your wine to go.

The show also features international segments from wine experts Joe Fattorini and Amelia Singer as well as special correspondent chef Gizzi Erskine who reports from Napa Valley and Arizona.

If you want, you can start from the beginning with series one featuring 12 episodes plus a finale featuring all the best bits while series two has seven episodes. That’s just 1,000 minutes of escapist wine watching to schedule in then…

Available to stream on Amazon Prime.

A Year in Burgundy, 2013

Experience a year in the life of a bottle of Burgundy in this 90-minute documentary from 2011.

With sweeping cinematography and unprecedented access to some of the most renowned winemaking families in Burgundy – including the inimitable Madame Lalou-Bize Leroy owner of Domaine Leroy and formerly co-manager of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, this is a great way to spend an hour and a half.

The film follows seven illustrious families in the region over the course of a year, delving into the cultural and creative process of making some of the world’s most highly prized, and valuable wines.

It’s played out in four season sections covering various weather factors affecting the grapes and style of the year’s resulting wines – heat, drought, showers, hail, storms and winter cold.

The film is sentimental and Burgundy is affectionately portrayed. It also successfully manages to encapsulate the history and family bonds in the region. Glass of premier cru anyone?

Available to stream on Amazon Prime.

A Year in Champagne, 2014

From the same makers as A Year in Burgundy, director David Kennard is this time uncorking Champagne.

It’s not often illustrious champagne houses open their doors so filmmakers can get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes but this documentary offers just that and more.

From small independent producers to Grand Marques Gosset and Bollinger, the film guides viewers through the full spectrum of the winemaking process and showcases the vintners who create the magic in the bottle (and reveal the science behind how it gets there).

It’s informative and entertaining and pairs particularly well with a cold glass of Champagne, naturally.

Oh, and expect plenty of Kennard’s signature spectacular photography showcasing the region in all its glory.

Available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Red Obsession, 2013

Narrated by Russel Crowe, this documentary centres around the global Bordeaux phenomenon and the rise of unprecedented demand from Asian buyers.

The film journeys from Bordeaux to Beijing exploring the background of the wine-producing capital – its history and modern-day challenges as well as the notorious counterfeit market in the Far East.

Through interviews with winemakers and chateaux owners – including director Francis Ford Coppola and Chateau Haut-Brion’s Prince Robert of Luxembourg, the film presents the ins and outs of the business, the pressure to produce top-class wines despite vintage conditions and the role of fine wine investment.

Some of Decanter staff even make small background cameos during footage of en primeur week in Bordeaux.

To rent on Amazon.

Mondovino, 2004

For something a little more hard-hitting is the documentary by Jonathan Nossiter that presents a damming, full-bodied examination of the international wine industry.

At 2hr 15mins it’s not the shortest documentary on the list – a 10-part series of the same name has been made for more in depth single episodes, but it’s still worth persevering with as long as you don’t mind the hand-held camera shots.

Covering five continents, the film questions the business practices of big players in the wine industry, at looks at the effect of globalisation on producers in various wine regions around the world.

The film also includes rare interviews with wine critic Robert Parker and famed consultant Michel Rolland.

Available to rent on Amazon.

Decanted, 2016

Ever thought of starting your own winery? This feature-length documentary might make you think twice.

Decanted shows the process of creating a new winery in California from the ground up and what it takes to break into the highly competitive industry, with no history or credibility.

The film successfully captures the small production, small yields and precision vineyard work taking place at Napa’s top estates and gives an insight into the people who are trying to make their dream a reality.

It’s quite a niche topic, with a specific focus on the plight of a few individuals but if you’re still interested it’s worth a watch.

Available to stream on Amazon Prime.

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The Crown (2016-), Netflix (UK/US)

The jewel in Netflix’s, ahem, crown, Peter Morgan’s peek at life inside Buckingham Palace is luxurious viewing. Charting the long and sometimes turbulent reign of Elizabeth II (Claire Foy in seasons one and two, Olivia Colman in the brand new season three), it’s perfect for royal watchers and high-class soap fans alike.

What to drink: English sparkling wine

Princess Margaret may have been partial to a Vodka Martini at midday, but bubbles make a more celebratory match for this award-winning show – and it has to be English sparkling wine of course. Camel Valley in Cornwall has a Royal Warrant, while Chapel Down was served at Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding.

Camel Valley, Reserve Brut, Cornwall 2015

Chapel Down, Brut, Kent NV

Call My Agent! (2004-) Netflix (UK/US)

Love Entourage and Extras? Then try this French showbiz send-up which, three seasons in – and a fourth on the way – has become a cult favourite. Set in the offices of Agence Samuel Kerr, each episode hooks around one guest star, as the likes of Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Huppert riotously send themselves up.

What to drink: Bordeaux Premier Cru

French A-listers are lining up to star in this hilarious comedy, which calls for an equally stellar list of big names from France’s top wine region: Bordeaux. The 1855 classification ensured fame and celebrity for the chosen châteaux, which are still delivering a vintage performance.

Château Latour, Pauillac, 1er Cru Classé 2006

Château Margaux, Margaux, 1er Cru Classé 2008

The Sopranos (1999-2007), Now TV (UK), HBO (US)

Recently voted the best TV show of the 21st Century by The Guardian, David Chase’s New Jersey-set saga of Italian-American gangsters – led by James Gandolfini’s inimitable Tony Soprano – is landmark television. Never seen it? Now is the time as next year the movie prequel The Many Saints of Newark hits the big screen.

What to drink: Chianti Classico

Despite sun-kissed Sicily’s Mafia credentials, this classic show calls for an equally classic Italian wine style. Step up Chianti Classico, delightfully drinkable reds made from the Sangiovese grape in central Tuscany.

Fèlsina, Rancia Riserva, Chianti Classico 2010

Castello di Monsanto, Il Poggio, Chianti Classico 1999

Succession (2018-), Sky Atlantic/Now TV (UK), HBO (US)

The ‘are you watching?’ show of the past 18 months, this satire about a global media empire, Waystar Royco, and the fight for its control by the four grown-up children of owner Logan Roy (Brian Cox) was created by Peep Show’s Jesse Armstrong. Any likeness to the Murdoch family is, of course, purely coincidental.

What to drink: Barossa Valley Shiraz

Yes, any similarity to Rupert Murdoch is entirely coincidental, but the Australian roots of this media mogul give us an excuse to reach for a bottle of the country’s finest Barossa Valley Shiraz. As rich, complex and characterful as the man himself, but thankfully much more palatable.

Chris Ringland, Dimchurch Shiraz, Barossa Valley 2010

Rockford, Basket Press Shiraz, Barossa Valley 2008

The Bridge (2011-2018), Amazon Prime (UK/US)

Don’t bother with the American re-make. Instead, treat yourself to some classic Scandi noir, which begins when a mutilated corpse is found in the centre of the Øresund Bridge, inspiring a joint investigation between Danish and Swedish authorities. Sofia Helin and Kim Bodnia – recently seen in Killing Eve – lead the charge.

What to drink: Rioja Gran Reserva

Beautifully shot and cleverly scripted, a show like The Bridge deserves a wine that has been carefully crafted over time and will open up in the glass, just like revelations unfolding in the plot. Rioja’s gran reservas are aged for five years with at least two years in barrel and two in bottle.

López de Heredía, Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva, Rioja, 1994

CVNE, Imperial, Rioja 2009

The Morning Show (2019-) , Apple TV+ (UK/US)

The centerpiece of 2019’s Apple TV+ launch, this slick drama is an on-the-nose examination of sexual misconduct behind-the-scenes at an American breakfast TV show. Jennifer Aniston, in her first small-screen outing since Friends, and Reese Witherspoon head a glitzy cast in a story inspired by real-life scandal.

What to drink: Canadian Icewine

Relationships between the main characters get decidedly frosty in this of-the-moment drama. The same can be said about the grapes used to make Icewine in Canada’s wine-growing provinces, where bunches are left on the vine as temperatures drop to -7°C or -8ºC. Freezing concentrates the flavours in the grapes, producing wines as sweet as Reese Witherspoon’s smile.

Pillitteri Estate, Vidal Icewine, Niagara Peninsula 2016

Lakeview Cellars, Icewine, Ontario NV

Billions (2016-), Sky Atlantic/Now TV (UK), Showtime (US)

Single-handedly turning the world of hedge funds into sexy, compulsive TV, Billions is a masterful look at the dual aphrodisiacs of money and power. The rivalry between Damian Lewis’ financial kingpin and Paul Giamatti’s attorney… Well it hasn’t been this juicy since JR and Cliff Barnes went head-to-head in Dallas.

What to drink: Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Make like the power-players of this compelling show and invest in some seriously complex Cabernets from California’s Napa Valley. Home to icon wines such as Screaming Eagle Napa is a natural fit for high-rollers.

Eisele Vineyard, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 2016

Frog’s Leap, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 2012

Big Little Lies (2017-), Sky Atlantic/Now TV (UK), HBO (US)

A box-set that oozes class. Created by Ally McBeal’s David E Kelley, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman head a gorgeous A-List cast for this addictive murder-mystery set amid the upwardly-mobile folk of Monterey. Dreamy Pacific Ocean locations mask heaps of domestic troubles as friendships and family fray at the seams.

What to drink: Monterey County wines

Pretend you’re a Monterey local and opt for a bottle from scenic Californian wine country. Located just 24km south of Monterey Bay, the Santa Lucia Highlands is one of the top regions in the US for cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Morgan, Morgan Double L Vineyard Chardonnay 2015

Amuse Bouche, Richard G Peterson Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands 2014

Homeland (2011-2020), All 4 (UK), Showtime (US)

Forget Jack Ryan or 24… Homeland is the best spy show on TV. Powered by Claire Danes’ troubled agent, this post-9/11 depiction of a world soaked in the war on terror has shaken itself up in every year. The eighth and final season launches in February 2020, so you’d better get ready for what’s to come.

What to drink: German Riesling

Season Five of Homeland sees lead character Carrie Mathison working in Germany’s capital, Berlin. The nervy acidity and taut palate of dry German Riesling perfectly mirrors the show’s on-screen tension and nail-biting drama. Pour yourself a large glass… you’ll need it.

Van Volxem, Altenberg Alte Reben, Grosses Gewächs 2016

Reheimer Rat Dr von Bassermann-Jordan, Forster Pechstein, Grosses Gewächs 2018

Orange is the New Black (2013-2019), Netflix (UK/US)

This Netflix Original about life in the women-only Litchfield Penitentiary – think HBO’s Oz with more estrogen – was one of the streaming giant’s most-watched shows. It wrapped it all up in 2019 with a seventh season, making now the perfect time to binge-watch all 91 episodes (!) of this gender-redefining groundbreaker.

What to drink: Orange wines

If breaking with convention is your thing, reach for a bottle of orange: white wine that’s been fermented on its skins to create a distinctive orange hue and bags of personality. Orange wines are hugely food-friendly too, if you fancy a snack while you view.

Gravner, Ribolla, Friuli-Venezia Giulia 2007

Lumiére, Prestige Class Orange Fuefuki Koshu 2017

Need to put a wine order in? Our guide to buying wine online

Will you be following any New Year’s resolutions around wine? Let us know on social media @Decanter.

New Year’s resolutions for wine lovers:

Less is more

Dry January is a fad that seemed to be at its peak last year. It appeals to people’s health conscience, which has taken a battering over Christmas and New Year.

For a wine lover, all this can be miserable reading. January is a long, dark month that certainly does not need wine taken away from it. In my opinion, there is a way to strike a vinous balance:

First, calculate your weekly wine spend. For an example, let’s use £60 or $90 on 6 bottles – £10 ($15) a bottle. My new year’s resolution is to spend exactly the same amount but buy better quality wine. As the sayings go, less is more, quality over quantity. This will give some excellent results:

1. We’ll be halving our alcohol consumption during January. This goes a long way towards balance rather than having to endure a “dry January”. Of course, we’d have at least two days off during the week – UK government guidelines.
2. We’ll be halving our calorie intake (in my opinion, a form of a wine lover’s diet).
3. After a long week at work, we can look forward to Friday safe in the knowing that we’ll be pulling a cork, or turning the screwcap, on a £20 bottle of wine rather than our everyday £10. This could be the difference between a producer entry level wine and their top cuvee.
4. We’ll be trying wines that we would not normally buy and therefore learning more about what we like.
5. In the knowledge that we will be drinking better quality wine, less often, this will make us consider what we are cooking. This extra effort always has the knock-on effect of purchasing better quality ingredients, eating healthier food and enjoying food and wine more.

If you want something for your ‘days off’, read about the rise of alcohol free wines in the February 2020 issue of Decanter, on sale now. 

Use your holidays to explore

‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.’

Although this quote is taken from Atticus in To Kill A Mockingbird, the same quote could not be truer than when applied to a winemaker and his wine grapes. Hence, when we look for our annual holiday in January, we are going to try and fit in a vineyard trip with our booking. It is the best way to get to know a wine and why it is how it is.

There are so many options. Skiing in February in the Dolomites? There’s the whole of Verona, the Alto Adige and Friuli to explore on your drive up into the mountains. A trip to the Trulli of Puglia – discover the Negroamaro grape. A gîte in the Languedoc-Roussillon – stop by St-Chinian AOC. Renting an apartment in San Francisco – the Napa Valley is well worth a trip.

Trying to watch your air miles in 2020? There are plenty of wine regions you can visit by train.

This list could go on, so a Decanter.com New Year’s resolution will be to continue to expand our travel section. Look out for the travel special in the February 2020 issue of Decanter.

• Decanter’s Wine Travel

Try more wine

We’re lucky enough to try many different wines, from many different regions. Some are wonderful whilst others are instantly forgettable. Each year there is always a grape which captures the popular imagination. Some go on to be staple wines, such as Pinot Grigio then Marlborough Sauvignon, whilst others fade away. In the UK, Spain is leading the charge in bringing to our attention new wines. In 2013-2014, it was the white wine Albariño, from the Rías Baixas region in the north west of Spain that was first on bar list and is now in the supermarkets. In 2019 it was Grenache blanc taking off with fine examples being found not just in Spain but also in places like South Africa – the Foundry’s Grenache blanc from Paarl is a lovely example.

Every wine lover’s New Year’s resolution should be to try new wines and find new producers, regions and grapes they like – then be evangelical about them. With any luck, you may find it in a good restaurant, then in a wine merchant and finally in a supermarket. However, by the time it is there, you will have found another wine to tell your friends about.

How to spot a possible trend:

1. The wine over delivers at £10-£15 $15-$25 price point
2. It can be pronounced in English – sad but true in most cases
3. The region can produce enough for the mass market for under £15

In our predictions for 2020, Austrian wine looks to be on the rise, as well as appassimento wines and oaked Chardonnays.

A great opportunity for trying new wines is at a Decanter Fine Wine Encounter. Our Spain and Portugal tasting is on the 29th February 2020. 

Alternatively, you could expand your wine knowledge by enrolling on a wine course, or downloading the Decanter Know Your Wine app. 

Support Local Merchants

Supermarkets have a lot of power in the wine business and do a fine job at delivering for the everyday consumer. That is simply not enough for us wine lovers, especially when our New Year’s resolutions are to:

• buy less but better wine
• find wine regions we can visit
• to try more wine

We need a good wine merchant who will be invaluable to us through 2020. Without our support, the numbers will fall and we could end up with much with less interesting wine available to us. Unthinkable.

Here’s to a year of good wine.

Tina Gellie, Regional editor and content manager

I recently sorted through my wine collection and – in the dark depths of the back of my wine fridge – unearthed a few gems I’d long forgotten about.

A few of them have probably passed their best, but thankfully many more should now hitting their sweet spot, and I’m looking forward to sharing them with my in-laws in Lincolnshire over Christmas.

For the whites, I have several 2008 Puligny- and Chassagne-Montrachets that might be nice to broach, but I’ve been eyeing up a bottle of Mt Pleasant’s Lovedale Semillon 2011 from Australia’s Hunter Valley – or perhaps a fresh Alheit, Cartology 2018? So many delicious options…

For the big Cabs to go with the roast, one of my forgotten discoveries was a Château Langoa-Barton 2005 to vie with Corison’s Kronos Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 – though having recently tasted Te Mata’s Coleraine 2015 from Hawke’s Bay in New Zealand, I’m tempted to buy a bottle of that too.

Then it will be the usual assortment of Sherry and Port for the enormous variety of cheeses and sweet treats that will appear, but I might also bring out Lakeview Cellars’ Vidal Icewine 2017 from Canada’ Niagara Peninsula. It’s just a half bottle, but a little of this luscious liquid goes a long way.

Harry Fawkes, Digital publisher

On a normal Christmas day, I’d be telling you that the theme is Pinot Noir and Chardonnay – either in a bottle of Champagne or in a Burgundian style as a perfect match with turkey. But this year, we’re travelling to Somerset – and the hosts are lucky enough to also own a house near Cahors, the home of Malbec, in central France.

Malbec is known for being dark, tannic and high in alcohol – everything you should avoid with Christmas dinner! Yet after a trip to Château de Haute-Serre for lunch over the summer, which I’d recommend to anyone visiting that part of France, I rediscovered Cahors with bottle age. The tannins had softened and integrated, the alcohol was much less noticeable, the powerful fruit had made way for velvety, subtle, secondary characters – all of which accompanied our food stupendously.

The deal was done; won over we brought back a magnum of the Château de Haute-Serre 2000 for Christmas and a few bottles of Le Cèdre, Cahors 2005. Perhaps we were easily won over by a spectacular summer lunch in beautiful surroundings. But if we can recreate or get close to that at Christmas; I will be extremely happy, and a little merry. And in case you’re wondering, I’ll still be waking up to Champagne…

James Button, Regional editor

I’m skiing in Austria over Christmas week with my wife’s family and our six-month-old daughter, so I will be eyeing up the wine lists for some delicious Austrian Rieslings and indigenous red blends while the in-laws try their hands with some babysitting.

As we are away on the 25th, we are having a pre-Christmas celebration with my family in Hampshire and so I have pulled out three delicious wines to take. I love Vilmart’s Grand Cellier NV Champagne for its bright, saline, lemony character, and it gains elegant weight with age. This NV is three years old now, so should be spot on. Incidentally, I’d also strongly recommend Agrapart’s Terroirs Blanc de Blancs NV – something for next year perhaps?

Mac Forbes’ RS19 Riesling 2017 was a success with my family last year and so another bottle will be coming with us in 2019. Named after the 19g/l of residual sugar, this Aussie Riesling is so fresh and well balanced it’s barely noticeable. It’s a completely different style to the Austrian examples too, so there’s no chance of Riesling fatigue this Christmas.

I couldn’t resist buying some of Gaja’s 2016 Barbaresco recently, a wine from a leading Piedmont producer in what is looking like a very impressive vintage. I thought it would be apt to taste a bottle from a decade earlier this Christmas, so the estate’s 2006 Barbaresco will grace the table for the main course – in a decanter, of course!

Julie Sheppard, Regional editor

Christmas in our house is a coming together of two family traditions, which involves double roasts to keep everyone happy: turkey AND beef. Thankfully that’s an excuse to open several different bottles in search of perfect pairings…

But first, festivities always kick off with a glass of fizz and this year I’ll be serving the gorgeous House of Arras Grand Vintage 2008, an elegant Tasmanian sparkler that I fell in love with on my last trip to Australia.

The turkey fans in the household can choose from white Burgundy or a fresh and fruity New World Pinot Noir – this year it’s The First Paddock Pinot Noir 2016 from Gibbston in New Zealand, produced by Two Paddocks Winery, which is owned by actor Sam Neill.

The beef-lovers will be enjoying a Spanish duo: a biodynamic Tempranillo from Ribera del Duero and a gloriously old school Rioja. Dominio de Atauta 2016 is made from 60- to 120-year-old vines, grown at high altitude, giving a ripe and brambly red with a real sense of place. Meanwhile R Lopez de Heredia Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva Rioja 1995 is a simply stunning wine, made by one of my all-time favourite Rioja producers.

As a finishing touch I’ll be serving Les Vignerons de Maury Solera 1928 Cask No.849, which I discovered at the Berry Bros & Rudd Autumn/Winter Tasting. This fortified Grenache is made using a solera system started way back in 1928 and has a luscious figgy palate with complex dried fruit and nut notes, but also incredible freshness. Like a fine old Maderia – and I think it’s tremendous value for money. Bring on the Christmas pudding and the cheese board!

Amy Wislocki, Regional editor and print publisher

Last Christmas the bombshell was that we were having beef instead of turkey, immediately rendering the delicious magnum of white Vacqueyras that I’d lined up redundant – well until Boxing Day, in any case. This year, I have been appraised of another, different disruption to the usual routine: the whole family will be decamping for Christmas lunch to a hotel, nearby in north Devon.

I think as fellow wine lovers you will appreciate how alarming this is. One of the highlights of Christmas is planning which treasured bottles to open with lunch, a procession of special-occasion wines to match each course. Now I’m sure the food will be delicious at the hotel, but what about the wine? I have been tasked with the wine selection, naturally, and suddenly, instead of a top red Burgundy lovingly put aside with Christmas Day in mind, I’m looking at the Nuits-St-Georges on their wine list: £79, with no mention of producer or vintage. And one bottle won’t go far in my family.

I’m consoling myself with the thought of the magnum of Thymiopoulos Jeunes Vines Xinomavro that I’ll open on Boxing Day. I love this wine: fresh, crunchy red fruit, unoaked, perfect served very lightly chilled with the traditional gammon.

Now, I wonder if the hotel would consider corkage…

Ellie Douglas, Digital editor

This year my parents are hosting Christmas, so I’ll be making sure we’re getting everything chilled at the right time; important to think about when space is limited in the fridge! Once siblings, nephews and in laws have arrived on the day, we’ll have nibbles and open some fizz. I’ve got a bottle of the Nyetimber, 1086 Rosé 2010, which is waiting for a special occasion, and Christmas may just be it – but I’m sure some Champagne will be in the mix too.

For lunch, we keep things traditional with turkey and all the trimmings – apart from one vegan, who may want some inspiration from our nut roast and wine pairing guide. It could be Chardonnay for the white wine, although I’ve also got a bottle of McGuigan, The Shortlist, Hunter Valley Semillion 2007 that could be one to open. For red, we’ve been drinking Bordeaux for the past few years – and Christmas is a time for tradition, after all – so this year it will be a magnum of Château Labegorce Zede, Margaux 2002. Pudding-wise, I think I’ll provide both a Sauternes and a Canadian ice wine for people to try, and there are a few whisky lovers in my family who I’m sure will take the opportunity to sample some.

After opening presents and a walk, soon enough it’ll be time for eating some leftovers. My parents have stocked up on plenty of Crémant de Loire when they were last in France, which I think could mean whipping up some Kir Royales…

Alex Layton, Head of Marketing

Christmas this year will be spent at home in east London for the first time, but there will be plenty of opportunities to open a few special bottles.

First up must be fizz – and it’ll be between two glorious but very different bottles. Wiston Estate’s superb Blanc de Blancs Brut 2011 scooped a Best in Show in this year’s DWWA, so will certainly be making an aperitif appearance on Christmas Eve. This will be followed by a bottle of Bollinger La Grande Année Brut 2002 that I have patiently cellared for the best part of a decade now – definitely one for the smoked salmon brunch on Christmas Day morning.

We’re breaking from tradition this year and heading to a neighbourhood pub for lunch – who have kindly allowed me to bring a special bottle or two with me. So it’s back to the cellar to pluck out two 2009s – Château Léoville-Barton, St-Julien and Château des Jacques Moulin-à-Vent Clos de Rochegrès. 2009 was renowned for being a ripe and somewhat flamboyant year, but I have faith both will be in a good drinking place right now.

Finally, it isn’t Christmas without a fine Cognac. This year I was lucky enough to try some of the truly sensational offerings from Hermitage– so I couldn’t think of anything better to finish the day than with one of their special, old single vintage Grand Champagne bottlings.

Natalie Earl, Awards Competition Manager

Let’s be honest, the main worries at Christmas centre around wine: which bottles are going to be opened, which course will they be drunk with and do we have enough (never a problem in my house I might add). This is coupled with the pressure of finding wines that please everyone but that also offer something exciting, special and – for me – off the beaten track. It seems that this year we have gone for Old World, but in a new sense.

We will be eating our breakfast panettone with a 1988 Riesling Sekt from Peter Lauer in the Mosel. Disgorged in 2016, so with 28 years sur latte, the thought of the toasty nuttiness and racy acidity this is bound to provide is already making my mouth water.

Keeping with the bubbles as the morning progresses, we’ll move (much too) swiftly onto a bottle I received as a birthday present this year, “Sextant Pet Nat Foufounette 2018”: a sparkling Aligoté from Burgundy, made in the pétillant naturel method, macerated with apricot pits! A bit of fun, which is very much needed on Christmas day.

The main event divides the party into two opposing teams: the veggies and the carnivores. But we will all be drinking the same wines with lunch since they should pair so well with both turkey and vegetarian wellington: a Sextant Bourgogne Blanc, a Bourgogne Rouge from J.J Morel, a Sylvaner from Domaine Roland Schmitt in Alsace, and the Cybille Kuntz Riesling Spatlese 2014.

No heavy reds on the table you will notice, mainly because they don’t prove too popular with my crowd, but we will see how the day progresses because I might be tempted to open some rich and opulent Napa Cabernet Sauvignon later in the afternoon.

Ines Salpico, Digital wine editor

Christmas is usually spent with family in Portugal and therefore drinking is all about a nice (and uninterrupted) line-up of Portuguese wines.

Festivities kick-off on the afternoon of the 24th with some Port & Tonic, while the cod sizzles in the oven. Once it’s ready, everyone gathers around the table with different bottles open. Opinions on what to pair with salted cod are strong and divisive: some will want a structured white wine (Filipa Pato & William Wouter’s ‘Nossa Calcário’ and Vale da Capucha ‘Arinto’ are always favourites); others will jump straight into reds (maybe some Tiago Teles ‘Gilda’, Paulo Laureano ‘Premium Tinto’ or Casa de Mouraz ‘Private Selection’).

The evening wraps up with Vintage Port (Niepoort or Dona Antonia), aged Aguardente (Brandy) and/or homemade Licor de Poejo (Pennyroyal Liqueur) along with the spread of festive desserts and the unwrapping of presents at midnight.

Christmas day ‘tis the time for a big, endless lunch. Seafood starters are paired with a couple of bottles of fizz – Luis Pato Brut NV. Then it’s on to the meat with a selection of Alentejo reds. Ideal to keep family tensions at bay…

By the time all bottles are empty it’s December 26th already!

Sylvia Wu, Decanter China and regional editor

My parents are joining me for the holiday season this year, and we plan to celebrate it China-style – by having a Christmas hot pot.

A Chapel Down Kit’s Coty Chardonnay should give them a nice taste of English wines without scaring them off with too much acidity. We will pair the hot pot with a fruity New Zealand Pinot Noir – the plum juice-like sweet fruits will be much appreciated as we throw lots of vegetable, mushrooms and thin lamb and beef slices into the rich-flavoured savoury soup.

For dessert I kept a half-bottle Château Suduiraut from a house warming party with my Decanter colleagues. Sweet wines are always appreciated on our dinner table, though my parents are not entirely convinced by the crisp acidity in the off-dry German Riesling, and are getting slightly bored of the luscious Icewines, which they bought too many of during their visit to Canada. I think Sauternes will be a nice exploration for them this year for more complexity and sugar-acidity balance

What will you be drinking on Christmas day? Tag @decanter in your photos and share with #myChristmaswine

Forget about the best wine match for cranberry sauce. The important question over the coming holidays should be what to charge your glass with while you listen to all those classic Christmas tunes. We’re here to help with some vinous inspiration.

White Christmas, Bing Crosby

Those of you who live somewhere where you can look outside to a blanket of snow on Christmas Day, lucky you! The rest of us will have to make do with this golden oldie, paired with – well, what else? – blanc de blancs of course. Take your pick of your favourite Chardonnay-based Champagne. Ruinart’s NV Blanc de Blancs is a treat.

Driving Home for Christmas, Chris Rea

We’re all resigned to crawling along in traffic as we make our way along clogged motorways to celebrate with friends and family. And even worse, you have to stay sober to do it. Thankfully, the low- and no-alcohol wine category is booming – we’re not pretending it’s a substitute for the blanc de blancs Ruinart, but needs must. Freixenet’s 0% sparkling wines are widely available from UK supermarkets.

Baby It’s Cold Outside, Dean Martin

What could be a better match than an ice wine, made by leaving the grapes to freeze on the vine and extracting the concentrated juice. Germany and Canada are the most famous ice-wine producing countries, and this example from Canada’s Niagara Peninsula won Gold at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards.

Sussex Carol, John Rutter

The English wine industry has made incredible strides in the last couple of decades, meaning that today you can enjoy this beautiful carol by one of England’s most famous choral composers, while sipping on a sparkling wine from the county of Sussex that rivals Champagne for quality. Nyetimber’s Classic Cuvée earned 91 points in a recent Decanter panel tasting of English sparkling wines. Other top names in Sussex sparkling include Ridgeview and Ambriel.

I Saw Three Ships

It’s a traditional English carol, but we’re off to Bordeaux for this one. St-Julien fourth growth Château Beychevelle, like many top estates in the Médoc, lies close to the Gironde river.

In the early 17th century it was owned by the Duke of Epernon, a man of great political influence and power who became Admiral of France. The label portrays a sailing ship with a griffin prow, in reference to the story – which may or may not be true – that ships travelling up and down the Gironde were ordered to lower their sails to affirm loyalty to the duke. That may also explain the name of the château, a corruption into Gascon dialect of baisse-voile, or ‘lowered sails’. There’s only one ship on the label, so you might need to line up a few bottles for this one… Jane Anson, Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent scored the 2016 vintage at 94 points last October.

But, if you’re struggling to find that perfect something for the wine lover in your life, we’ve hand-picked some of this year’s favourites.

Many were tried and tested first hand, some at this year’s Spirit of Christmas Fair in London others at the Decanter’s HQ.

They cover a range of budgets with a few stocking fillers to surprise and delight on Christmas day..

Eto wine preserver, £125, Etowine.com

Christmas celebrations are the perfect time to open lots of wine but what do you do with only half-finished bottles? Introducing Eto’s new stylish wine preserver system designed to keep wine as fresh as newly opened, even after five days. We tested it first-hand at the Decanter offices and were blown away with the results. The wine was still aromatic, fruity and extremely drinkable after five days compared to the same wine left in the bottle with the cork which was completely spoiled, as expected. With this handy gadget there’s no need to finish each bottle or throw any leftover wine away. A five-star wine lover’s Christmas gift. Also comes in a sleek copper and gold finish. For an exclusive discount use the code: DECANTER at the checkout.

Bespoke labelled Champagne, prices start from £35, Rupert Forsythe

Upgrade your Christmas Champagne present this year with a bespoke label. Choose from a range of pre-designed labels such as ‘Merry Fizzmas’ or ‘Festive Fizz’ or create a completely new one to include names or well wishes or your favourite phrase. Start with one of four different types including; Blanc de Blancs, Premier Cru NV, Grand Réserve or Rosé NV in half-bottle, standard, magnum or a hamper of six. A thoughtful and delicious gift.

Jigsaw puzzles, £18.99-£39.99, Bamboozled

Wondering what to buy the wine and puzzle loving person in your life? Look no further than this range of beautifully illustrated, 500-piece themed jigsaws that are not only fun to do but educational too. Created by Master of Wine and Decanter contributor Rebecca Gibb, you can choose whether to complete the famed appellations of Bordeaux or Champagne on their own or go for the gift box option that includes a small bottle of each region’s wine – a glass of which will no doubt helpfully assist the completion process. There is also a new Whiskies of Scotland puzzle broadening the range for spirit fans.

Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Personalised City Arrow, £59, Selfridges

You may have seen these bright yellow boxes on your Christmas shopping trips before but this year you can get your hands on the limited-edition ‘personalisable’ arrows in a new metallic finish which can feature up to 14 characters. These fun tins, which are exclusive to Selfridges, offer a 750ml bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne for celebrating over the festive period and a nice keepsake box for all year round.

Wine Cellar Record Book, £35, Top Note Design

Ever wish there was an easy way of keeping wine tasting notes together that wasn’t on your phone? This handy, and well put together book is just what you need. It has great sections for keeping track of wine purchases – allowing you to write multiple tasting notes for bottles from the same case of wine, as well as memories of occasions or meals and one-off individual wines you try. It comes beautifully finished in two colours of linen and is made in England.

Adopt a vine, prices start from £121, Cuvée Privée

If buying a vineyard is out of your price range this year, how about ‘adopting’ some vines and drinking the wine made from them? Membership with Cuvée Privée allows you to select from a range of exceptional vineyard sites from around France (Bourgogne, Bordeaux, Rhône, Champagne, Loire, Alsace, Languedoc) from which you will receive a welcome box with 1 or 6 bottles from that plot. Your final box will contain six bottles from the harvested fruit of your adoption year. During the year of your adoption, you will also be invited to visit the property (and your vines) to taste their wines and meet the winemaker. Subscription periods range from one to three years.

Decanter Premium App Subscription, from £50, Decanter

Did you know Decanter has just launched its Premium App – a brand new way to access wine content with unlimited viewing of Decanter.com and Premium articles as well as 1,000+ new wine tasting notes and scores each month. With a usual Decanter Premium subscription you get priority bookings to all Decanter events, access to ‘My Wines’ and CellarTracker integration, but with the app you can also bookmark articles to read later, download the latest issue as soon as it goes on sale and browse through the vast archive of Decanter magazines dating back to 2013. For new subscribers you’ll need to subscribe before 31st December 2019 and you’ll get app for free for 12 months. Simply select the Premium Digital + Free App Trial to claim this offer. Click here to sign up now.

Decanter’s Spain and Portugal Fine Wine Encounter, Grand tasting tickets £55, Decanter

Know someone who loves Spanish or Portuguese wine? Our bi-annual event covering the wonderful wines of Spain and Portugal is back in 2020. As well as having the exclusive chance to meet more than 50 of the best winemakers from both countries, and taste their wines in person, there will be three expertly led masterclasses including top wines from La Rioja Alta, S.A. – The Art of Ageing, The New Classification of DOQ Priorat and Rare Museum Wines from Portuguese Icons. The event takes place on the 29th February at The Landmark London from 11am – 5pm. Book quickly to avoid disappointment.

Riedel Vinum Riesling Grand Cru/ Zinfandel glasses, £45, Riedel

Decanter’s wine glass brand of choice for all its expert panel tastings, the World Wine Awards and consumer events around the world – using a combined total of more than 70,000 Riedel glasses a year! This one is simply a great all-rounder for still or sparkling wines and makes a brilliant gift for the glasses cupboard.

The Five Regions Whisky Pack with Glencairn nosing glass, £35 (down from £59.99), Really Good Whisky

A non-wine option here for whisky fans. This tasting set offers the chance to sample five different premium single malts from producing regions around Scotland. They come in a presentation gift box with a special glass for detecting aroma and flavour nuance, tasting notes, Whisky facts and information and instructions to carry out your own tasting. You can also add a gift note for online postal orders.

Stocking fillers

24K Gold Champagne Bears, £9.95, Ask Mummy & Daddy

Made with real vintage Champagne and finished with 24k gold leaf, these delicious little chewy sweets make a fun gift for the sweet tooth in your life. The range also includes handmade mojito, pina colada, cuba libre and prosecco flavours.

Mini Moët & Chandon Christmas Cracker 2019, £20.99, Selfridges

This is no ordinary Christmas cracker, inside hides a mini 200ml bottle of Brut Imperial Champagne. Perfect as a luxe treat on the Christmas dinner table or a surprise stocking filler. There’s a Rosé version too for fans of pink fizz.

Wine Folly: A Visual Guide to the World of Wine, £12.78, Amazon.co.uk / $25 WineFolly.com

A great gift to welcome someone into the wine world. Using an array of colourful and informative info-graphics and flowcharts, this book provides a host of wine fundamentals covering tips on which glasses to use and flavour characteristics of grapes as well as food and wine pairing advice.

You may also like

Wine with turkey – Food pairingSupermarket of the year 2019: Best Waitrose wines to try this ChristmasThe best non-vintage Champagnes to buy this ChristmasTen of the best whiskies for Christmas

It won’t surprise you to hear that Jancis Robinson MW and Hugh Johnson have tried some of the world’s rarest wines.

But here are the names and vintages they picked out from an already-enviable list, in a special Decanter interview to mark the eighth edition of the World Atlas of Wine.

Jancis Robinson MW

Cheval Blanc 1947

‘When asked about the best wine I’ve tasted, my stock answer is Cheval Blanc 1947, which is a wonderful wine – so much so that it has been counterfeited multiple times.

‘I’ve been luckily enough to taste 12 different bottles and magnums with Cheval Blanc ’47 on the label and I am confident that only two were, actually, the real thing. But they were absolutely marvellous. A taste of absolute heaven.

‘One bottle was shared by a great wine lover, [who is also] known to British television watchers – Phillip Schofield – which was very kind of him. He treated us to a lovely dinner, with multiple vintages of Cheval Blanc, and ’47 was the star.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape

‘Rayas 1998 is completely stunning, and I’ve been lucky enough to taste it twice recently. I think this is now tasting even better than the famous ’78 and ’89. This is just magical.’

Dom Pérignon 2002 vs Cristal 2008

‘Some really top bottles of Dom Pérignon have hit the spot I must say, [such as] 2002 even when it was launched, and now it’s in its P2 late release stage – and that is stunning.

‘I think I have to put a Cristal in there – 2008 will be completely mind-blowing, but probably not there quite yet.’

And finally…

‘Well perhaps the last one, it’s a funny one, and not by any means a ‘grand’ wine, but utterly memorable. When we had just two children and they were very, very young, we were flying to New Zealand, via Tahiti. We were stopped in Tahiti and the Air New Zealand air hostess perhaps was sorry for me travelling with two such young children.

‘There was a leftover bottle of Charles Heidsieck Champagne, before Charles Heidsieck was really good, and she very kindly gave me that for our time there. I just remember looking at that amazing southern sky, sipping this pretty ordinary, but wonderful bottle of Champagne.’

View the video below to hear all of Jancis’s memorable wines, and the stories behind them. 

Interview: Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson on the 8th edition of The World Atlas of Wine

Hugh Johnson

Wine made before Shakespeare was born

‘These wines are memorable because of their rarity and because I have been lucky enough to taste really, really old wines.

‘I was one of the lucky people to taste the 1540, which was a steinwein from Würzburg in Bavaria. And by some miracle two bottles of the 1540 survived, and they were opened when I was but a lad, in 1963 I think it was.

‘For a moment, this little brown liquid was alive. It was actually wine; it was uncorrupted. Within a minute or two it was gone, it had turned upside down and it was complete vinegar. But I thought it was incredible that I had ingested something that had ripened more than 300 years ago – I mean, before Shakespeare was born.

‘That gave me such a respect for wine. It is the only foodstuff that could possibly, possibly do that.

Tokaji

‘I’ve tasted some other ancient wines which set me on my passion for Tokaji. This was one great wine region stuck behind the Iron Curtain but I knew how great it was because I had tasted some. I don’t remember the vintage exactly of the first great ancient one I tasted.

‘But later I did taste some from the Imperial Cellar in Vienna, and all we knew was that they were pre-1750. And they were black, and intense to a degree that I couldn’t believe.’

Burgundy

‘On occasions when Burgundy shippers have opened really old bottles, I remember a Meursault, from 1864, which was just breathtaking.

‘It didn’t really matter if it was Meursault or Volnay or Chambertin. This was an incredibly fine antique. It had the lustre of a lovely antique, and still potent and still wine-y.

‘It’s things like that that can give you great faith in what wine is and what wine can be.’

Champagne 1911 vintage

‘The greatest Champagne as such, that I remember, was the famous Perrier-Jouët 1911.

‘I remember my old patron, André Simon, telling me that as far as he was concerned “1911 was the last great Champagne vintage”.’

See also: Hugh Johnson – When bottles surprise you 

View the video below to hear all of Hugh’s memorable wines, and the stories behind them. See more videos with Jancis and Hugh on Decanter’s Youtube account. 

Read a full interview with Robinson and Johnson here.

See also: Steven Spurrier’s top 10 Bordeaux wines of all time

England’s answer to the Médoc Marathon is tackled by a team from the UK trade including Decanter

On Sunday 8 September, a group of 30 runners from the wine trade, including Decanter staff and contributors, took part in this year’s Bacchus Half Marathon. The teams all tackled this challenging and (surprisingly) hilly course through the North Downs in aid of The Benevolent charity.

Runners from Decanter included DWWA Regional Chair and regular contributor Peter Richards MW, regular contributor Susie Barrie MW plus staff members Alex Layton, Bella Callaghan and Cesar Soler.

The course starts and finishes at Denbies Wine Estate, near Dorking, Surrey with half of the course running through the hilly vineyards and estate. The other half covers National Trust countryside and woodlands along the Pilgrims and North Downs Way.

Similar to the Médoc Marathon, the course provided numerous refreshment opportunities, which naturally included wine stops to sample a selection of different wines from Denbies.

Wines that were tasted along the way included;

• Ikon of London
• Whitedowns Brut
• Flint Valley
• Surrey Gold
• Rose Hill
• Redlands
• Sparkling Bacchus

Live bands at each stop also contributed to a festival-feel along the 13.1 mile course. Fancy dress is also heavily encouraged with numerous creative costumes including superheroes, roman soldiers and a certain Peter Richards MW impressively running in a full Egyptian king outfit.

Some very impressive times came in including Susie Barrie MW who came 23^rd and was the 4^th fastest female.

Commenting on the race and fundraising support for The Benevolent, Peter Richards MW said, “Susie and I are so proud of all our team, each of whom took on a significant personal challenge to support the excellent work of The Benevolent. This was a fun day but with a serious purpose. Huge thanks to everyone who ran or who came along on the day. We are very grateful for, and appreciative of all the wonderful support. This kind of supportive, collaborative, constructive spirit is exactly what the Benevolent, and #NotAlone campaign is all about.”

Donations are still being collected and can be made via the team justgiving page.

Alas, this is my last column for Decanter. After five fantastic years as Decanter’s content director, I am moving on to vineyards new.

As you can imagine, it’s quite a wrench. Not least, because Decanter has been part of my life since I became a loyal subscriber 30 years ago. It is no exaggeration to say that this has been my dream job.

When I first started writing for the title, John Major was still in Number 10 and Bill Clinton occupied the White House. Back then, the wine world was also a very different place. Bordeaux ruled the roost, dominating cellars and salerooms. In contrast, Burgundy and Barolo remained minority sports.

Meanwhile, China, English fizz, natural wine and Coravin were yet to make an impact.

There was no internet to speak of. So no email alerts on what to buy, or price comparison sites. Buying fine wine was a more opaque, personal and paper-based process – and does anyone remember mail order?

In the UK, the supermarkets reigned supreme – as they still do on volume – except that some ranges are actually more risk-averse now. We had a vibrant high street, led by the likes of Oddbins, where budding aficionados could browse, experiment and learn. Fortunately, the thriving independent sector has taken up much of the slack.

In the nineties, benign global warming was regarded as a positive by many regions. With it came a fashion for over-oaked Chardonnay and fruit-bomb Merlots, which pleased some critics. Not ours, though.

Wine also went through an unfortunate phase when the cellar was regarded as more important than the vineyard. Manipulation in the winery was then almost de rigueur, whereas today’s mantra is ‘less is more’.

Happily, chemicals are out and sustainability, organic and biodynamic viticulture are in. And there’s no doubt that great wine is very much made in the vineyard.

The last quarter of a century has been a fascinating time to witness and document all these dramatic changes. I am also drinking a very different range of wines today compared to 25 years ago. That’s partly due to my own palate preferences. (These days, I often prefer youth to age.)

But it’s also down to the simple fact that there are so many more exciting wines to choose from.

During my time, Decanter has also developed immeasurably from UK publication to powerhouse global brand.

Back in 1997, it had just launched the first Fine Wine Encounter in London. Today we run consumer events around the world.

Our online content offering continues to grow and prosper. Decanter.com (2000) was joined by DecanterChina.com in 2012 and, most recently, by Decanter Premium in 2017.

The Decanter World Wine Awards remains the world’s biggest and best wine competition – by a country mile.

Importantly, I believe that Decanter has played a crucial role in the ongoing democratisation of wine by explaining and opining on the seismic changes that have transpired.

It has been a huge a privilege to be a part of Decanter for so many years. I have met and interviewed many of my wine heroes, from Miguel Torres and Angelo Gaja to Serge Hochar and Paul Pontallier. Equally, it has been my undiluted pleasure to work with an astonishing array of writers, editors and experts.

Moreover, Decanter has taken me all over the world. Invariably, people have been extraordinarily kind and generous with their time, knowledge and hospitality. Without question, I have tasted and enjoyed more than my fair share of great wines.

For all of the above, I would therefore like to thank and pay tribute to everyone who has helped me along my way. They include my Decanter colleagues (past and present) as well as numerous winemakers, merchants, PRs, agents and sommeliers who make up the great global wine trade.

Finally, I’d like to express my gratitude to you, dear reader – as I am about to rejoin your ranks. Thank you for your loyalty, criticism and support.

But above all, I’d like to toast you for your unrelenting enthusiasm for this wonderful, mind-boggling beverage, which we all love so much. Long may it continue.

Every two years Decanter hosts an evening of sparkling wine, live music and canapés. The biannual event brings together over 40 top sparkling wine producers from across the globe to share more than 200 of their wines.

Decanter’s content director highlights the wines that he’s looking forward to tasting…

There was a time when I would have turned up my nose at any sparkling wine that wasn’t Champagne. This obviously doesn’t reflect well on me. But in my defence, it was a very long while ago. Since then, both I and the entire world of sparkling wine have changed immeasurably – and for the better.

If you share the same current view about sparkling wine, you will probably take little persuasion to join me and over 200 sparkling wines from more than 40 top producers at the next Decanter Sparkling Wine Event at Church House on Thursday 20 June.

Book your Great Sparkling Exploration tickets today

And if you don’t share the same view, can I politely suggest that this is even more reason to attend.

In particular, because it will open your eyes and palate to some of the most exciting, cutting edge wines in the world. For instance, you can experience great Cavas from Gramona, Cordoniu, Recaredo, Lopart and Freixenet. And you can try the most fabulous Italian fizz from Ferrari (now one of my all time favourite producers) Giusti, Bisol, Ruggeri, Villa Sandi, Bellavista, Nino Franco and Merotto

The New World has also dazzled for decades now. And the results are there to taste and marvel at from Graham Beck in South Africa, the magnificent, multi-award winning House of Arras in Australia and Nautilus in New Zealand.

And let’s not forget the now rampant Brit-pack. On show in June will be some of best in the business; Bride Valley, Gusborne, Fox & Fox. And let’s not forget France. So take your pick from Champagne to some of its finest Crémants.

I’d also recommend that you taste the wines of both Bernard-Massard from Luxembourg and J’Noon from India. I promise that you will be more than pleasantly surprised by both.

Therefore, if you are or aren’t a fan of fizz made beyond the borders of Reims and Epernay, there’s only one place to be on June 20 – Church House in London from 17.30 sharp. I hope to see you there.

How is the wine world shaping up in 2019? Here are some trends to watch, and we've not mentioned Brexit once...

Wine trends 2019

Tastes are broadening

This depends on who you ask. Majestic confirmed this week that big, bold Chardonnay still has a market, and there is no apparent slowdown for Prosecco and rosé – in fact quite the opposite if the two are combined as planned to create a mind-altering, monumental megatrend. But the choice of wines on offer to many consumers in the UK and US has arguably never been more diverse.

Majestic in the UK has repeatedly touted growth of wines from lesser-known areas of Eastern Europe. Major wine supplier Bibendum recently tipped indigenous Italian grapes for strong growth in 2019. Several commentators have also predicted a resurgence in demand for Greek wines.

Waitrose wine buyer Becky Hull MW said recently that the retailer expects Crémant sparkling wines to continue growing as alternatives to Champagne. While for New World sparkling Tasmania is one to watch.

Wines from cooler-climate vineyards in the UK and Canada have performed well in the Decanter World Wine Awards in recent years and will be areas to watch. Look out for the first UK-made still wines from the lauded 2018 vintage.

Vegan wines and disclosure

Vegan wines are now a thing, if only because more retailers have understood that they are well placed to capitalise on rising consumer demand for all things plant-based.

Waitrose Cellar, The Wine Society, Corney & Barrow and Majestic all have ‘vegan wine’ sections on their websites, for example.

And Bibendum said that more premium wine bars and restaurants are seeking vegan-friendly wines for their lists. This trend will expand in 2019 and you can expect to see more vegan symbols.

Whether this will be followed by more specific disclosure of processes and additives for certain wines remains to be seen. Andrew Jefford once wrote of full disclosure, ‘One day it will come, and like smoking bans and hybrid vehicles, we’ll wonder what took us so long.’

It may not come in 2019, but interest in what makes a wine vegan may add to the debate in a world where the concepts of ‘natural’, organic and biodynamic wines are increasingly topics for discussion.

Technology

By November, you’ll be sipping test-tube Merlot recommended by a robot sommelier named Dan, who lives in your smart watch and can analyse your DNA for wine preferences.

Well, perhaps not. But, at the very least we can expect more technological advances in the wine world in 2019, from gadgets designed to help you store and serve wine to apps offering wine-pairing advice. Google, Amazon et al might even teach their respective home assistants how to pronounce grape varieties properly.

We’ve also seen the rise of on-demand delivery in major cities, via apps such as Uber and Deliveroo, and this will likely expand.

If you’ll allow us a little bias, we’ll add a plug here for our wine-learning app, Know Your Wine.

Visiting wineries: experiences and tourism

Investment in wine tourism facilities around the world has been a hallmark of recent years. Just witness the €80 million Cité du Vin towering next to Bordeaux city centre or the Rubik’s Cube-inspired d’Arenberg Cube in McLaren Vale, South Australia.

In Europe alone, food and wine tourism was the main motive for 600,000 trips annually, said the UN’s World Tourism Organisation in 2017, adding it was the secondary motivation for around 20 million trips.

While economic uncertainty might have some effect, it is hard to see this general trend being knocked off course in 2019; barring global catastrophe. Expect to see more winery restaurant openings, as well as growth in ‘experiences’ offered to tourists – from vineyard yoga to wine-and-food pairing sessions on location.

See also: Great wineries to visit in 2019 – travel inspiration

Decanter's online audience is up 20% year-on-year in a period that saw the launch of Decanter Premium and a new learning app. Here are some more changes coming in 2019, including a new website...

We very much enjoyed 2018, from the thousands of entries and winners at the Decanter World Wine Awards to the many happy tasters at our fine wine tasting events. Yet, perhaps a little under the radar, we also changed how the website is run.

Namely, we launched Decanter Premium, the third string to our subscription bow; offering all magazine articles online plus exclusive vertical tasting reports of top producers’ wines and in-depth coverage of Rhône 2016, Burgundy 2017, Bordeaux 2017, Piedmont new releases, Tuscany new releases and many more.

We also launched a learning app, Know Your Wine, to help wine lovers understand more about what happens from grape to glass.

All of this meant that, in June 2018, Decanter.com was awarded Best Online Media Property / Brand at the Association of Online Publishers awards 2018.

None of this means anything without those who read our articles, attended our events or entered our awards. We thank all of you for your support.

What does that mean for 2019?

To build on this success, and with Decanter.com’s reader base up 20% year-on-year, we’ll be making more exciting changes to Decanter online throughout 2019.

And the first is coming very soon…

Website Upgrade

Our dedicated developers abstained from opening a second bottle at Christmas in order to continue work on a new website for us.

Simple and elegant, we think it will help to de-clutter the site and make advertising less intrusive. This should make articles easier to read, especially on mobiles and tablets. We hope to have the new site live by the end of the January, so keep your eyes peeled.

In the background, we will continue to make improvements to our wine database in order to make our reviews section quicker and easier to use.

One of our most recent improvements allows you to link your Premium subscription to your Cellar Tracker account, to help track all your wines and scores.

Words, wines and wisdom

Our 2018 wouldn’t have been as good as it was without some of our top online editors and contributors.

Our in-house team of Chris Mercer and Ellie Douglas planned, commissioned, wrote, re-worked and edited articles daily, and our social media following eclipsed 100,000 on both Instagram and Facebook in 2018.

In the reviews engine room, Jim Button somehow found time to taste wines as well as managing to get 12,000 fresh wine reviews onto the Decanter Premium database.

After Chris went freelance in November, following a move away from London to the West Country, the team is very much looking to keep up momentum in 2019.

Jane Anson tasted more wines for Decanter than anyone else in 2018, including many verticals of top châteaux plus taking on the mammoth job of Bordeaux 2017 en primeur for the second year.

Jane’s weekly column shifted to include tastings for Decanter Premium, as well as free-to-air commentary on Decanter.com. We are looking forward to reading much more of Jane’s reviews in 2019.

Andrew Jefford has been omnipresent on Decanter.com since 2011, forging a connection with readers via his ‘Jefford On Monday’ columns.

As Decanter.com adapts, we are delighted that Andrew’s intellectual weight, writing ability and excellent palate will be moving to Decanter Premium to cover tastings across a variety of regions.

Andrew’s final ‘Jefford On Monday’ column appeared on 31 December 2018, and you can read it here. Follow Andrew Jefford’s fortnightly articles on Decanter Premium from 14 January 2019.

And of course, there will be more to come from our other regional experts, including Matt Walls, Michaela Morris, Stephen Brook, Tim Atkin MW and more.

A Happy New Year to all, and thank you again for your feedback and support in the past year. We’re looking forward to all things decanted in 2019.

After 40 years working for the family firm, Symington Family Estates CEO Paul Symington retires this month. At a recent tasting of vintage Ports and aged tawnies, and in a follow-up phone conversation with Amy Wislocki, he explained passionately why the Douro must change...

On the face of it, the Port houses and farmers of the Douro have much to celebrate this Christmas. Vintage Port is enjoying a renaissance, with the excellent 2016s selling out within a few months of release earlier this year, and the 2007 and 2011 vintages fetching high prices on the secondary market. The popularity of tawny Port is also booming – worldwide sales grew by €21.3m between 2010 and 2017, according to Port Wine Institute figures.

Yet there is a chill wind blowing. Vintage Port accounts for just 6% of sales by value, with tawnies adding little more; and the fortified wine category as a whole is in decline. The industry faces unprecedented challenges, outlined by Symington in a compelling article he wrote for Portuguese national newspaper Público last autumn.

‘The Douro is the largest area of mountain vineyard on the planet, and is entirely hand picked due to the steep inclines, at very low yields,’ he explains. ‘It costs around 90 cents to grow a kilo of grapes in the Douro, compared to around 30 cents per kilo in Chile, 40 cents in France, and 29 cents in Spain. And yet you can find a good bottle of Douro table wine on UK supermarket shelves for around £7. This is because grapes for table wine are being sold below the cost of production. We have to educate consumers that these extraordinary wines from the Douro are worth paying a higher price for – otherwise it’s not sustainable. Real costs have to be reflected.’

Strict quotas and yields

The law is also at fault, argues Symington, who is hopeful that the Government has listened to the case for change and will work to address the severe distortions that have arisen from having two great wines – Port and Douro table wines – with very different regulatory systems. The production of grapes for Port is governed by strict quotas and yields, and so farmers typically receive around €1.40 per kilo, whereas the production of grapes for table wine is not subject to the same limitations, with price determined by the free market. As a result, the typical price per kilo received by farmers for table wine grapes is around €0.25 to €0.40, well below the cost of production.

‘There are currently 21,426 farmers in the Douro, 43% of whom own less than 0.5ha of vines,’ says Symington. ‘Despite owning two times more vineyard than any other shipper, we work ourselves with 969 farmers. The viability of their businesses is crucial, or the Douro will revert to scrub.’

In a perfect storm of circumstances, the farmers’ livelihood is complicated by other factors, too. Their number is declining drastically and their average age is growing. Many smallholdings are underequipped and their future is increasingly doubtful as the younger generation flocks to the cities or coast to find easier work. The growing hospitality and tourism industries are attracting many young workers, thereby creating a severe labour shortage in the same vineyards that visitors to the Douro so admire.

One of the largest European wine-growing areas

It’s also worth noting that the Douro is one of the largest wine-growing areas in Europe, with 43,479ha of vineyard – almost half of the vineyard area of the whole of Germany. ‘The region certainly has too many vineyards to be managed by hand, so we need a natural reduction in the vineyard area,’ Symington states. He recommends a slow reduction of the area farmed by around 5,000ha over the next decade, with a system whereby elderly farmers who have no successors and/or do not wish to continue can be adequately compensated for abandoning their vineyard.

As Symington steps down to spend more time in his own vineyards, it’s clear that this beautiful wine region is at a crossroads. ‘For too long too many people have viewed the Douro as a mysterious, remote but beautiful time warp where Port and table wine can be made cheaply. The last two harvests have shown that change is imperative if the unique wines from our low-yielding indigenous vines and extraordinary schist soils can continue to be made.’

10 and 20 year old tawny Ports – panel tasting results

Had a busy weekend but still want to enjoy excellent wine? Here are some highlights from the wine reviews published online exclusively for Decanter Premium subscribers in the past week, from a full review of Médoc 2016 wines in the bottle to a California great that Pinot lovers shouldn't miss...

For the cellar

Decanter Premium celebrated its first birthday in style with the first part of Jane Anson’s in-depth look at the Bordeaux 2016 vintage now that most of the wines have been bottled.

We began with the Left Bank and reviews of classified estates in the Médoc, which had a particularly strong year. That is partially thanks to a long ripening season playing to the advantage of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Léoville-Las-Cases 2016 and Lafite Rothschild 2016 earned 100-point ‘perfect scores’, but high scores for second and third wines were telling; suggesting an abundance of good quality fruit. Anson praised ‘one of the best Moulin de Duhart wines I can remember’, for example.

In terms of prices, we suggest sticking to Anson’s advice of comparing the 2014, 2015 and 2016 wines as a trio. That said, on the Left Bank, the prospective longevity of the Médoc 2016s is especially promising, according to Anson. Read her full report so far.

Anson’s in-bottle report on the Right Bank is coming later this week. We’re afraid that you’ll have to wait a bit longer for Pessac, coming up in December, to know whether Médoc’s success is reflected across the Left Bank.

Over in California, Pinot fans should take a look at what Domaine de la Côte has done with its Blooms Field Pinot Noir 2015. Rated as 95 points by Ronan Sayburn MS at a recent tasting in London, this wine sailed into our collection of top scoring Pinot Noir wines.

For the dinner table

Fans of the Northern Rhône might also be interested in Sayburn’s top Sonoma red wines, in which he picked out Radio-Coteau’s Harrison Grade Syrah 2013 for special praise. It will last, but you could just as easily drink it now; a great time of year for all that warming black pepper spice paired with hearty food.

If you’re in the mood to go all-out then Simon Field MW had extremely kind words for the Krug Clos du Mesnil 2004; a name that needs little introduction to wine lovers but from a year which benefited from a strong Chardonnay vintage in the Champagne region.

As a counter-point, the upcoming December 2018 issue of Decanter magazine will highlight top Champagnes at less than £40-a-bottle – and Premium subscribers will be able to find these online over next weekend.

Looking for a great bottle of mature Bordeaux to decorate the dinner table this autumn?

You could do a lot worse than Léoville Barton 1990, priced at around £150-a-bottle and still going strong, said Jane Anson after re-tasting a host of Bordeaux 1989 and 1990 wines side-by-side.

If you’ve got a bottle of Figeac 1989 in the cellar, then you might want to consider drinking up fairly soon, while the top wine in this tasting was Cheval Blanc 1990.

Five fine wines to watch:

Playing catch-up? Read last week’s post below

Fine wines of the week: 14 to 21 October

For the dinner table…or a quiet afternoon by the fire

Jane Anson’s 21-vintage vertical tasting of La Conseillante in Pomerol threw up some fascinating results. As is so often the case, several so-called lesser vintages were found to be tasting extremely well; the 2008 being a case in point. But we’ve picked out La Conseillante 1998 below. It was a particularly good vintage in Pomerol and a ‘stunning wine’, according to Anson. A centrepiece for the Christmas or Thanksgiving table? The 2001 would also be a strong bet.

Napa Cabernet comes with a bold reputation, but Ronan Sayburn MS picked out the ‘dense and multilayered’ 2011 vintage of Joseph Phelps’ lauded Insignia wine as worthy of closer attention.

California experienced a cooler vintage in 2011 – a year since eclipsed by the heights hit in 2012 and 2013 in particular. This has produced a lighter and more refined style of Insignia ‘than one might expect’, wrote Sayburn. See more of his Napa Cabernet ratings here.

Yalumba’s new flagship The Caley is now in its second vintage of release and the wine understandably dominated attention at the launch of the Yalumba’s new top-end collection.

But we found it just as interesting to read Sarah Ahmed’s write-up of Yalumba’s brilliant Virgilius Viognier 2016, from Eden Valley. At £31 per bottle – $42 in the US – this looks like a relative bargain, too.

For the cellar

Looking for an anniversary or birth year wine? There has been a lot of noise about the Port 2016 vintage, the first widespread declaration since the vaunted 2011s – albeit several houses declared at least a portion of their crop in 2015.

Quantities in 2016 are relatively small in many cases, but our expert Richard Mayson wrote, ‘Some wines are alarmingly attractive already, but have the poise and presence to last. I will hazard more than a guess to say that many 2016s will be good to drink relatively early (perhaps from the mid-2020s) but the best have the balance to keep for decades.’

Graham’s ‘The Stone Terraces’ 2016  and Quinta do Noval Nacional 2016 topped Mayson’s list.

At the other end of the wine spectrum, Tim Atkin MW has picked out some excellent Chablis 2017 wines, although yields are constrained; some of you may remember the dramatic photos of icicle-encased vine shoots following spring frosts in that year’s growing season.

Atkin identified Domaine François Raveneau’s Les Clos Grand Cru 2017 as one of the wines of the vintage. ‘It would be a crime to drink it young,’ he wrote. You’ll have to make your own mind up about that, and you can see more Chablis 2017 top scorers here.

See all of the latest articles published for Premium subscribers

As Decanter Premium celebrates its first birthday this week, we look back at some of the highlights of the past 12 months.

How quickly a year goes; as we prepare to publish Jane Anson’s verdict on hundreds of recently-bottled Bordeaux 2016 wines, it hardly seems nearly 12 months since our Bordeaux 2015 in-bottle ratings became one of the first major reports available exclusively to Decanter Premium subscribers.

Since then, we’ve published thousands of fresh reviews of some of the world’s most sought-after wines, from Jane Anson’s 150 years of Lafite Rothschild to Michaela Morris’ comparison of Tignanello and Solaia and Matt Walls’ mature Rhône wines for Christmas.

There are also first tastes of newly released wines – such as Clos des Goisses 2009 Champagne.

Outside of Europe, highlights include Sarah Ahmed’s favourite Australian wines in the Langton’s top 40, as well as our full panel tasting report on California Pinot Noir.

It’s not all about the current stars, or necessarily the big names. We’ve also tried to help you go below the radar, with reports on a potential Bolgheri superstar and Tim Atkin MW’s recent Decanter magazine article on 32 good value red Burgundy wines to seek out. Back in February, Premium subscribers were also able to read Sarah Jane Evans MW’s guide to Txakoli wines from north-west Spain.

Thank you to everybody who has signed up so far and we look forward to bringing you more great tasting reports from our experts in the year to come.

A selection of vintage reports published in the last 12 months:

• Southern Rhône 2016: ‘Unmissable’ wines and full report

• Burgundy 2016: The top scorers 

• Krug Grand Cuvée: Latest releases

• Top Brunello 2012 Riserva wines

• Jane Anson’s Bordeaux 2017 vintage overview and en primeur ratings

• Best white Burgundy: Top rated and top value

• Our favourite California 2015 wines and vintage review

• Piedmont new releases: Our latest reviews

• Chablis 2017: How the vintage is shaping up and wines to watch

Premium subscribers can also read Decanter magazine articles in full and online.

Search all Decanter wine reviews here

With less than four weeks to go until our flagship event, Decanter’s content director, John Stimpfig, shares his tasting wish list and top wines to look out for.

I am already eagerly looking ahead to next month’s massive Decanter Fine Wine Encounter weekend at the Landmark Hotel on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th November. I will be there for both days of serious tasting. Yet again, we’re wonderfully spoiled for choice but I have picked out a few must-taste producers and wines.

Last few tickets available – Book today

So what has caught my attention this year?

First up is the redoubtable CVNE. This year I will most certainly be stopping by to sample its benchmark Riojas and especially the Contino Reserva 2012 and the Contino Gran Reserva 2010, with the latter being poured from magnum.

Great champagne is always welcome and happily Taittinger are back with us once again. Do look out for the lovely Folie de la Marguetterie NV, whose grapes come from the Côte des Blancs around a historic property which the family own. And under no circumstances should anyone miss the delectably delicious Comtes de Champagnes 2006.

Recently, I was in Bordeaux and visited the exquisite boutique hotel at Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey in Sauternes, which has just been opened by owner Silvio Denz. They are making truly top class wine these days, including an exceptional dry white blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. You can taste the 2015 vintage of this white as well as the lusciously sweet grand vin from 2005 and 2013. Also look out for Denz’s right bank estates, Château Faugères and Péby Faugères.

Northern Italy may seem like an unlikely place to produce truly world class Bordeaux blends, but San Leonardo have been making elegant Cabernet blends for decades. If you have never tried their wines, don’t miss out. I will certainly be re-acquainting myself with their exciting line up, which also includes their 2015 Riesling.

Chile remains one of the most exciting countries and Vina Ventisquero is one of the reasons why. Check out its Tara White Wine 1 and Tara Red Wine 2, both from the Atacama Desert.

Elin McCoy recently profiled the California winemaking legend David Ramey. He’s an absolute magician and this year he is bringing a sublime trio of cool, terroir-infused Chardonnays from the Russian River Valley and Carneros.

Happy hunting and see you in November!

Grand Tasting tickets are only £80 – book today

Event Details:

Date and time: 3&4 November 2018, 11am – 5pm

Location: The Landmark Hotel, London, NW1

The 34th Cape Winemakers Guild Auction takes place on Saturday 29 September 2018. Following a preview tasting of the wines in Berry Bros & Rudd's Sussex Cellar in London, here are 10 wines worth watching out for...

The 2018 Cape Winemakers Guild Auction, sponsored by Nedbank, will be held on Saturday 29 September at Spier Wine Estate in Stellenbosch.

The Cape Winemakers Guild (CWG) was founded in 1982 in an effort to increase knowledge sharing. The Guild’s ‘Protégé Programme’ is designed to help winemakers and viticulturalists from disadvantaged backgrounds to pursue their ambitions.

Scroll down to see the top 10 picks from the 2018 auction

A maximum of 100 cases of each member’s wine can be sold in the annual Guild auction. Wines are selected for inclusion via a blind tasting held by the CWG panel.

The line-up of 48 wines includes 31 red wines, 14 white wines, two Méthode Cap Classique wines and a port-style wine.

Last year, buyers spent a record R22,300,000 (about £1.3m) at the auction.

Below, we bring you tasting notes and ratings on 10 wines that stood out at the recent pre-auction tasting, hosted by Berry Bros & Rudd in London.

Update – see the results from the auction

‘Overall the auction offered exceptional value across the board, which was good news for the large contingent of private buyers,’ says Boela Gerber, Chairman of the Cape Winemakers Guild.

The highest average prices per case for red wine went to Kanonkop CWG Paul Sauer 2015 (R20,580)

The top achieving white wine, based on an average price per case, was Mullineux ‘The Gris’ Semillon 2017 (R5,657).

The hospitality industry was well-represented amongst the top buyers, with Singita Tsogo Sun and Marble Restaurant snapping up just over R2 million worth of auction wines.

123 buyers attended the 2018 auction, comprising 102 local and 21 foreign buyers. In total, 2,012 cases (6 x 750ml equivalent) were sold.

79% of the wine on offer at the auction was purchased by local buyers, with 21% bought by foreign bidders. The countries represented included the United Kingdom, Denmark, Hong Kong, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, USA, Namibia, Luxembourg, Czech Republic and France.

Top 10 Cape Winemakers Guild auction picks:

Please note: Tasting notes and ratings below do no necessarily constitute buying recommendations, given that prices for the wines will only be determined at auction.

For the full list of wines on offer visit www.capewinemakersguild.com

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Decanter’s long-standing consultant editor reports on a re-visiting of the fabled Judgement of Paris, as well as recommending fine wines for drinking now and others to lay down.

Re-visiting the Judgement of Paris

A dinner held at London wine club 67 Pall Mall, hosted by Alan Davies under the theme ‘Revisting the 1976 Judgement of Paris’, produced a stunning range of wines.

As aperitif, an elegantly fresh Schramsberg, Blanc de Blancs NV preceded a rich…

J Schram 2000 of great complexity.With the lobster thermidor pot pie came four magnificent Chardonnays:

• El Molino, Rutherford 2001 still very much there;
• Mayacamas, Mt Veeder 2007 showing its high-elevation origins;
• Aubert, CIX Vineyard, Sonoma Coast 2012 elegantly crafted;
• and Hanzell, Ambassador’s 1953 Vineyard, Sonoma 2013 with great precision and grip.

To match fillet of venison and haggis dauphinoise, a superb range of Cabernets appeared, all but one from the 1976 tasting:

• Mayacamas 1971 still fragrant and firm;
• Clos du Val, Stags Leap District 1972, whose rich colour belied the vintage, fruit and tannins in perfect harmony – the wine of the night;
• Heitz, Martha’s Vineyard, Oakville 1970 with dense colour and mint flavours;
• Ridge, Monte Bello, Santa Cruz 1984 with a great future;
• then Mouton Rothschild 1970 and Haut-Brion 1970, this time the latter taking the palm.

With cheese, Cain Five, Spring Mountain 1994 and Diamond Creek, Calistoga 1994 added to Napa’s reputation.

Fine wines for the cellar: Weingut Bercher

Weingut Bercher, based in the Kaiserstuhl village of Burkheim south of Baden, between the Rhine river and the Black Forest, can look back on 10 generations of winemaking since Franz-Michael Bercher built the cellar in 1756.

The estate’s primarily volcanic soil is planted to Chardonnay, Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) and Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) in two of Burkheim’s VDP Erste Lage (premier cru) and three Grosse Lage (grand cru), producing wines of the highest quality.

While the whites were excellent, the reds were even more impressive.

As in Burgundy, three levels of wine are offered, beginning with a characterful QbA Burkheimer village wine.

The Erste Lage Sasbacher Limburg 2014 had great clarity and depth (92/100, £27.60, The Wine Barn).

The Grosse Lage Feuerberg Kesselberg 2015 stood out for its full colour, pronounced florality on the nose and a very fine expression of velvety-textured fruit on the palate – a wine of great purity and presence that reminded me of a top premier cru Vosne-Romanée, with a decade or two in front of it from 2020 (95, £46.20, The Wine Barn – or 40 euros from the winery’s own website). Another German Spätburgunder with star status.

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We've searched the web for some of the best wine waistcoats, inspired by England manager Gareth Southgate.

Best wine waistcoats for the World Cup 2018

England manager Gareth Southgate has brought the waistcoat back in to fashion, after being seen on the touchline wearing a navy blue one from Marks & Spencer for each of the World Cup 2018 England matches.

If you want to follow suit for the England vs Croatia match this evening, we’ve rounded up our favourite wine-themed ones – for either yourself, or your bottle…

Why not wear a waistcoat inspired by some of the wine classics, while you watch the match this evening?

US$ 19.99 eBay

A sharp waistcoat with a matching bow-tie, packed with a pattern of wine bottles and glasses.

US$ 139.50 eBay

If you don’t fancy wearing the waistcoat yourself, find one for your bottle instead.

£6.50 eBay

Another smart look for your favourite bottle of wine – also available in navy blue to match Southgate’s style.

£7.95 eBay

For a more subtle nod to your love of wine, go for this Burgundy-coloured option from Southgate-approved, Marks & Spencer.

£29.50 Marks & Spencer

If you’re from the UK, will you be drinking English wine to support the team? Or perhaps you’d rather have a Croatian Plavac Mali or a French rosé. Let us know what your world cup wine is…

See also: Decanter’s World Cup wine quiz

This curiously geeky and arcane question was posed at a magnificent and memorable dinner at the Pauillac First Growth held earlier this month to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the purchase of Lafite by Baron James de Rothschild in 1868.

Lafite, comprising 74ha in 1868, had been put under public sale earlier that year.

Baron James, from the French branch of the family, had to bid against a powerful group of negociants, who pushed him to pay a very high price for Lafite.

Sadly though, he had little opportunity enjoy his acquisition. He died less than three months later and the property passed to his three children, Alphonse, Gustave and Edmond.

The story of the purchase was told by James’ great-great grandson, the current Baron Eric de Rothschild who has overseen Lafite with great distinction since 1973.

Significantly, Baron Eric co-hosted the dinner for 350 in Lafite’s imposing barrel cellar, with his daughter Saskia who at 31, has just taken over as the chatelaine of Lafite and as chairman of its portfolio of wine estates – in France, Chile and China, Domaines de Barons Rothschild (Lafite).

As previously reported by Decanter.com, her succession marks a major generational changing of the guard at DBR.

A couple of years ago Eric Kohler took over from long time winemaker Charles Chevalier. And most recently, Jean-Guillaume Prats (formerly of Cos d’Estournel and LVMH’s wine estates group) now occupies the post previously held by Christophe Salin.

At the celebratory dinner, we didn’t taste anything like the number of library vintages which my colleague Jane Anson enjoyed, and subsequently wrote up for Decanter Premium members.

But we did enjoy some truly glorious Lafites, beginning with a trio of classics ending in ‘9’.

First up was a sumptuously elegant 2009 vintage, followed by a powerfully structured and still youthful 1989.

Then came the star of the show in the form of the truffley thoroughbred 1959, still firmly in its pomp. And just to prove Lafite’s legendary ageability, we finished with a centenarian from the cellar – the 1918 no less.

Intriguingly though, that wasn’t the final wine. Instead, that honour fell to a mystery wine which was served blind.

‘What I’d like each table to do,’ said the Baron, ‘is to try and identify what the wine is. All I will tell you is that it isn’t a Lafite.’

The wine was clearly ancient – certainly much older than the 1918.

My random guess was an 1890 Duhart Milon. But in the end our table plumped for an 1868 Cos d’Estournel by virtue of the fact that Cos is Lafite’s neigbour and because it certainly looked 150 years of age.

Of course, it was neither.

Instead, Baron Eric finally revealed that it was an 1875 Carruades, explaining that the plots of vines on the Carruades plateau to the west of the Château had been acquired by Lafite in 1845.

However, the vines were not incorporated into the estate until the beginning of the 20th century, making it a Carruades that didn’t come from Lafite.

Did anyone get remotely close? Yes, they did. Incredibly, one table managed to nail both the wine and vintage. But quite how they managed it, I still have no idea….

Carruades de Lafite Rothschild at a glance

Average production: 20,000 cases

Ageing: 18 to 20 months, 80% in oak, with 10% new oak

Composition: 50 to 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30 to 50% Merlot and Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot 0 to 5%, depending on the vintage

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Find more wine questions answered at our ‘ask Decanter’ homepage

When, a decade and a half ago, I wrote The New France, I found myself repeatedly using one phrase in chapter after chapter: ‘non-interventionism’. Which was strange: it has no French equivalent. I wouldn’t even know how to translate it into French.

Books are written for their readers, which in this case meant English-language wine lovers and wine-creators. France was out of favour at the time, criticised for its legislative rigidity and qualitative inconsistency. The southern hemisphere and California, by contrast, were in the ascendant, and their ‘reliable’ and sometimes interventionist wines widely acclaimed. But everyone in both hemispheres was claiming that they wanted to make terroir wine. That was, quite correctly, seen as the future of fine wine.

I could see an anomaly – so my use of ‘non-interventionism’ was to underline a fundamental truth of terroir, one so widely accepted in France that no one ever bothered to mention it. Which is this: if you want to make a ‘wine of place’, you have to respect the place and what it delivers to you in terms of raw materials. Place, variety and season are all inscribed in the chemical constituents of the must. Intervene and adjust them if you wish, but do so knowing that you will efface the sense of place and season as a consequence.

A decade and a half later this is widely understood. If I was writing the book again, I doubt that I’d even mention this rather awkward phrase. But we’ve all gone much further now – beyond where the buses stop, and on into the dark forests and craggy uplands of ‘natural’ wine. Sometimes the sun sweeps across the uplands, to thrilling effect; sometimes the forests are drenched in rain, and are thoroughly miserable. The natural wine premise is absolute non-interventionism: nature in all its glory.

Comment: The rise of natural wine

There is, though, another anomaly here, and it’s one that Australia’s Brian Croser has recently pointed out: non-interventionism should not mean non-winemaking. Nature needs help to be glorious. The analogy of winemaker-as-midwife is apt. If midwives do nothing and let nature take its unimpeded course, the levels of death in childbirth will soar to tragic effect. Fundamentalist ‘non-interventionism’ is, like all other forms of fundamentalism, a disaster.

‘Paradoxically,’ says Croser, ‘it takes a high degree of knowledge, a power of informed observation and large capital investment to be truly and successfully “non-interventionist” in growing grapes and making fine wine.’ He’s right – though smaller wine-growers might hope to replicate the large capital investment with unreasonable doses of hard work.

How about coming up with a definition of successful non-interventionism? The two key points would be, as Croser suggests, ‘knowledge’ and ‘observation’. Growers need knowledge to understand what is happening in a vineyard or a fermenting tank at every moment, which in turn implies constant scrutiny. A wine-grower is on sentry duty from budbreak to bottling, and you can never have enough knowledge or experience to inform what you are observing. Non-interventionist winemaking means proactive inactivity: maximum respect for raw materials combined with minimum tolerance of deviations.

To harvest the very best grapes that place and season permit, at the perfect cusp of ripeness, will often mean a summer of incessant work. To ferment the juice of those grapes in a limpid and translucent manner means close-focus analysis, patience, spotless hygiene, restrained oak use, and often the sage use of sulphur in order to avert the chronic spoilage or homogenising faults that will efface terroir even more comprehensively than winemaking adjustments.

It’s our great good fortune as drinkers that almost every fine wine from both hemispheres is now made in this way. Hipster wines, by contrast, are often proudly confrontational; for you to decide if they’re delivering purity and profundity, or abusing your trust. Like winemakers, drinkers too need to be on sentry duty, to call out fundamentalism for what it is: the perversion of a high ideal.

Where to buy Andrew Jefford’s ‘The New France’

This column was first published in the Decanter magazine May 2018 issue. Join Decanter Premium to get more Decanter magazine articles online.

Scotland may be better known for its whisky than wine, but that hasn’t stopped these Scots venturing to more reliable wine regions down through the centuries. Read more below and find a wine for the night itself…

As Julian Hitner writes in ‘How Britain Shaped the Wine World’, Scottish entrepreneurs were strongly involved in the Bordeaux wine trade.

Early négociants such as Scottish-born William Johnston played a key role in promulgating many of the most important technological advances of the 18th century, most of which are still in use today, says Hitner.

These include the use of sulphur as a disinfectant (a Dutch invention), topping up, racking, using egg whites as a fining agent and using barriques for top wines. Only later did winegrowers in the region adopt these advancements directly.

Below, we look at more examples of Scottish influence on winemaking.

See also: Wines and whiskies to match with haggis on Burns Night

Château Smith Haut Lafitte

Bordeaux and Scotland have deep historical links. The Graves estate Château Smith Haut Laffite was purchased by Scottish man George Smith in 1720 – where the ‘Smith’ in the name comes from – and he is credited with developing the estate.

• Will we be drinking Scottish Pinot Grigio by 2100? 

Cockburn’s Port

Cockburn’s Port was founded in 1815 by Scotsman Robert Cockburn and his brother John, who were already wine merchants in Leith, Scotland. The Cockburn family continued to run the company for many years, and it is now owned by the Symington family.

MacLaren Wine

Steve Law is making Syrah in Sonoma. Law is originally from Scotland, but he lived in France and learnt about wine. He took his inspiration to California in 2007 and started making Northern Rhône-style Syrah.

El Escocés Volante

Born and bred in Scotland, Norrel Robertson MW moved to Spain in 2003 to produce his own wine – aptly named El Escocés Volante; ‘The Flying Scot’ in Spanish.

• Scotland’s ‘undrinkable’ wine has promise – producer

Gladstone Vineyard

Christine Kernohan set up Gladstone Vineyard in Wairapara, New Zealand, in 1996, producing the ‘12,000 Miles’ range – named for her distance from her home of Glasgow, with a luggage label as part of the design.

McCulloch Wines

Scottish winemaker and oenologist, Jamie S. McCulloch, moved to Valais in Switzerland to start making wine in 2007. He makes a range of six wines.

Wines from Scottish pioneers:

Updated in January 2018 with wines to try.

Have you dropped your New Year's resolutions yet? See the wine goals that several Decanter team members have set for themselves for 2018, from 'drinking smarter' to visiting the wine regions of China and Georgia...

Do you have any wine-related New Year’s resolutions? Let us know in the comment section below this article.

Decanter team’s New Year’s resolutions

John Stimpfig Editorial

My main wine resolutions for 2018 are probably not that dissimilar to 2017 – namely to be more disciplined in pulling corks on mature wines in my cellar and to drink more sweet wines generally.

Most recently I had two stunning stickies – both DWWA Golds in the form of Domaine Tourbillon from Swizterland and Baileys Liqueur Muscat from Glenrowan. This year, I’d love to visit Bierzo and certainly plan to drink a lot more Mencía, which has really come onto my radar in the last couple of years. I’d also like to spend some time in Piedmont, as it has been far too long since I was last there.

Vahan Agulian Tastings team

This year, like every year, maintaining good health is on the top of my list of resolutions. Dry January is all the rage in our current clime, but I’m going to drink smarter and look out for lower alcohol wines instead!  An 8% German Riesling can be as much as half the ABV in comparison to some big bold reds.

On top of that, I’ve been itching to go to Georgia for years, because it’s been labelled the birthplace of wine! Tasting the platinum DWWA award-winning MaranuliI Otskhanuri Sapere leapfrogged any other plans to go and explore their unique wines and grape varieties. Furthermore, I’ll be able to fulfil my penchant for Khachapuri, a cheesy style pizza that has a beautiful affinity to this wine.

Natalie Earl Tastings team

I would like to discover the enticing wines coming out of the Champagne region – that aren’t sparkling! Having recently tasted Olivier Horiot’s stony, briny, beguiling Coteaux Champenois Riceys Blanc En Valingrain 2010, it made me realise Champagne is not just about bubbles.

I’m going to be looking out for some real gems both from the rare Rosé de Riceys appellation and Champagne’s other still wine appellation, Coteaux Champenois, which can be red, white or rosé.

James Button Digital editorial & tastings

My 2018 resolution is to diversify my wine drinking. Not only do I want to buy more wines from exciting producers — such as David & Nadia Sadie in Swartland and Mac Forbes in Victoria — but also to enjoy older bottles in my collection, which I might otherwise be tempted to leave indefinitely or forget about. There’s no time like the present!

• When should I open my NV Champagne? – ask Decanter

Simon Wright Tastings team

Taking my cue from the title of our venerable publication, in 2018 I will be making a concerted effort to decant more wines. I was reminded over Christmas how useful this can be, particularly with younger wines, when a 2014 Coonawarra Cabernet really started to express itself after some rather vigorous back-and-forth decanting. The added complexity and vibrancy you can achieve is easily worth the couple of minutes it takes to get results.

What’s more, I won’t even need to dust off the fancy vessel hiding in the back of my cupboard, using any old jug does the trick equally as well and saves on the (impossible) task of trying to clean/dry an actual decanter.

Ellie Douglas Digital editorial

One of my resolutions for 2018 is to eat out less, but better – and take better advantage of the exciting food scene in London. I tend to read all the restaurant reviews, and make an ongoing list in my head of ‘places I need to try’, but ultimately I never get round to trying them.

This year the list will be a physical one, so that I can tick them off, or just set myself a monthly target.

SEE ALSO

• Top London wine bars and restaurants recommended by the experts

Sylvia Wu DecanterChina.com

Over the past two years, my studies towards the WSET Diploma have introduced me to a universe of alcohol styles, including fortified wines and spirits, which I had hardly encountered before. In the new year I’d like to gain more in-depth knowledge on these high alcohol beverages.

I would also love to explore more New World regions in California and Australia — and of course the up-and-coming wine regions of China. In 2017 I had a fascinating trip to Ningxia with our columnist Jane Anson; Xinjiang will be the next on my list!

Related articles:

• Is dry January beneficial?

• Wine holidays: Most read travel guides of 2017

• The science of two alcohol free days per week

• Is wine gluten free? – ask Decanter

Here is what several of our editorial and tasting team members will be eating and drinking on Christmas Day.

Breakfast

Ellie Douglas, Digital editorial

After opening stockings first thing, we’ll be getting in the car and driving down to my eldest brother’s home in Kent for Christmas – it will be a total of eight adults plus my two nephews, both under seven.

To start the festivities, we’ll be drinking a magnum of Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV, which my dad was given earlier this year.

Luckily, we thought ahead and already passed the magnum over to them, so it will be perfectly chilled for our arrival – not something to leave as an afterthought at Christmas!

We’ll be enjoying it alongside olives, smoked salmon blinis and other nibbles.

Natalie Earl, Tastings team

This year we will be heading to a log cabin in the heart of a forest for the Christmas period. But don’t worry, we won’t be foraging in the cold for our Christmas dinner; think wood burning stove, jacuzzi under the stars and snowy picture-postcard view.

To whet our appetite, I’ll be opening a bottle of Bodegas Hidalgo la Gitana, Manzanilla En Rama. This dry Sherry is intensely aromatic, with toasty, yeasty, hazelnut flavours and a bracing, tangy salinity that should have us longing for this year’s nut roast and all its trimmings.

But this style of wine should not just be reserved for aperitifs; it is so versatile that I will no doubt be bringing it out again in the evening to enjoy with walnuts and mince pies in front of the roaring log fire.

Amy Wislocki, Editorial

I’m looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home this year, for the first time ever! The atmosphere may be low-key, but certainly not the wines. I’ll be starting the day’s festivities with one of the standout wines from Decanter’s November Fine Wine Encounter in London.

Villa Sandi’s Vigna La Rivetta is one of the finest Proseccos around, and sells at Champagne prices – unsurpising, as it hails from Cartizze, Prosecco’s ‘grand cru’, where vineyard land costs more on average than it does in Champagne. It’s a beautiful wine – bursting with golden apple and pear fruit, white floral scents, and with a hint of fresh leafiness.

It has a lovely linear style, and contains less residual sugar than most Cartizze wines (around 11g), so will perfectly match our Christmas Day breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled egg.

On the menu this year: Villa Sandi, Vigna La Rivetta, Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene Superiore di Cartizze 2016

Christmas dinner

Tina Gellie, Editorial

I’m always on the lookout for interesting alternatives for reds to grace the Christmas table for the main event. I’m never particularly bothered about perfect food and wine matching for this meal – whether it is turkey or goose, beef or lamb, all the lovely side dishes like pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce, red cabbage, gravy makes that too much of a challenge.

Much better (and far less stressful) to enjoy the food and the wine in their own right. My in-laws love their Rioja, so I imagine there will be at least one bottle of that centre stage, along with a bit of Champagne or white Burgundy from the previous course.

But this year I will be seeking out a bottle of Gattinara. For those not familiar – and you should be – this Piedmont DOCG is a Nebbiolo-based wine (locally called Spanna), whose elegance, structure and longevity rivals Barolo and Barbaresco.

See also: Great value Piedmont Nebbiolo wines – Under £25-a-bottle

A recent bottle I enjoyed was Cantine Nervi’s Vigne Molsino 2011, from a 13ha single vineyard at about 400m. Nervi is the oldest winery in the DOCG, and this is its top wine, made only in the best years. The 2011 (just 10,000 bottles made) is the current vintage, as the wine spends four years in oak, time in concrete tanks and then a year in bottle before release.

It has a gorgeous dusty-textured palate, mouthwatering acidity and lifted aromas and flavours of wild cherry, violets and sweet spices with earthy, savoury notes on the finish.

The 2009 is available in the UK from Christopher Keiler for £46, which might be a nice comparison with the 2011, otherwise there’s the more affordable bottling – a blend of three vineyards; a magnum of the 2008 is £44, or I could splash out on a double magnum for £91.

John Stimpfig, Editorial

This year, I am looking forward to pulling the corks on some of my older and most precious bottles along with some more youthful vintages. In particular, I am definitely planning to drink my remaining bottle of 1989 Sori San Lorenzo. Having enjoyed the ’89 Barolo Sperss earlier this year in Scotland, I have high hopes for the Barbaresco.

Naturally, there will be good Champagne from the likes of Deutz, Taittinger and Charles Heidsieck. Following Olivier Krug’s fabulous Decanter masterclass in November, I’ve earmarked a bottle of 1996 Krug for December 25.

Claret will also feature over the course of the festive season. I’ve still managed to hang onto one or two ’96s and I have plenty of 2000s which are just hitting their stride. So I’ll be raiding the cellar for a few of those.

On the white front, I’ll be drinking lots of lovely Aussie Rieslings (Grosset, Jim Barry and Pewsey Vale), white Burgundy (Roulot and Hubert Lamy) and New World Chardonnays from South Africa, Chile And Australia. I’m sure I’ll also find room for a bit of St-Jospeh and the occasional Pinot Noir.

Stickies and fortifieds will also come into play. On the dry front, I’m looking forward to the Tres Palmas Fino from Gonzalez Byass. For the stickies, I’ve got some Sauternes, Tawny Port and a couple of Kracher TBAs from the mid 90s which will also see the light of day. Bring it on!

Vahan Agulian, Tastings team

For my Christmas dinner, I plan on opening a bottle of Mount Eden Chardonnay. The estate overlooks Silicon Valley in California’s Santa Cruz appellation and was founded in 1945, focusing on small lots of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Led by Jeffrey Patterson, his emphasis is on grape growing rather than winemaking, which is noted in the sheer quality of fruit.

Eight hectares (20 acres) are devoted to the Chardonnay grape.

Between 1,200 and 2,000 cases of this wine are produced of this wine per year, and it’s a beautiful example of a Burgundian style in California.

It can be typical to have something heavier, or even a red wine, but I don’t want to overpower the light white meat, which if cooked perfectly will be juicy and moist. This should be an unmatched combination with the wine’s rich apple, peach and lees notes, finishing with some cleansing acidity.

Christmas desserts

Chris Mercer, Digital editorial

Much of the Christmas meal is a warm-up for the cheese, in my opinion. This year, I’m going to show a couple of sceptical family members that blue cheese really can be enhanced by some sweet wines. So there will be Sauternes ready to go, plus both Stilton and Roquefort. I also want to get some ‘Cornish Gouda’, if I can find it.

There will also be Christmas pudding, a dish that no one in attendance particularly enjoys but is nevertheless considered central to the festivities. A small glass of Pedro Ximenez Sherry should liven it up.

Does anyone else out there understand the reasoning behind eating Christmas cake and crumbly cow’s milk cheese? At some point later in the day, we will briefly re-enact the Wars of the Roses as debate rages on whether this is a Yorkshire or Lancashire phenomenon in the UK. It’s probably neither, in the end.

However, Aberlour Scotch whisky, with its rich fruit and spice, should be a good bet for the Christmas cake, and for those in need of more fortification by this stage of the day.

Jim Button, Digital editorial & tastings

Dessert on Christmas day for us varies, from the traditional Christmas pud to apple strudel and other concoctions.

By this point we’ve usually had our fill, so choosing something too unctuous like a Sauternes can be dangerous. Our favourite option is often a Port, and this year we will be looking forward to a bottle of Graham’s 30 Year Old Tawny.

It has a beautiful concentration of rich, nutty notes with a lift of dried orange peel, cinnamon and caramel, which makes it an incredibly delicious and flexible choice. All of those wonderful festive flavours can be found in this wine – it’s a stonker!

Evening drinks

Harry Fawkes, Digital editorial

The aftermath of any Fawkes family Christmas lunch is always a quiz.

Now this seems like a quaint family tradition, but after three hours of canapes and lunch, with accompanying wines, the “quiz” is a high volume, tennis rally of shouting across the lunch table, with 25 players – none of whom have realised we’ve used the same questions for the last 15 years.

‘Who is the current UK Prime Minister?’ Tony Blair is not the answer, despite what it says on the card, uncle Richard. So one must fortify oneself for such debates, mainly with a glass of the decanted vintage Port which you’ve been eyeing up throughout lunch. This year, I’m going to try out a bottle of the Taylor’s 2000 – a wonderful year and full of power; yet in my heart I know too young. I just like to taste it on its journey.

If you are not a Port fan, Amontillado Sherry is a great after-lunch sipper that will give you Christmassy flavours throughout. If, by any slim chance, the family has left a bottle of Champagne untouched – a lighter Champagne cocktail is also a great palate cleanser. Last year, a little Briottet Creme de Chataigne and ground chestnuts made a perfect winter twist on Kir Royale.

Simon Wright, Tastings team

This festive season I’ll continue to work my way through a case of 2010 Puligny-Montrachet from Jean-Marc Boillot. I bought it back in 2013 and each subsequent Christmas I’ve opened a bottle to track its evolution (and to enjoy with family of course!).

It has been an annual treat to witness the wine evolve from a tense, mineral-driven youngster to really hitting its stride last year with a delicious honeyed richness starting to appear.

As well as vinous pleasures I’ll also be working on my Dry Martini recipe, trying to find the perfect ratio of Gin to Vermouth.

Sylvia Wu, DecanterChina.com

I’ll be preparing a bottle of London Dry Gin, a variety of tonic waters, plus a bag of mint before our Christmas movie night in the house.

The citrusy, coriander scented cocktail is the most favoured drink among my friends, even for those who don’t usually drink alcohol. The sweetness would match nicely with our spicy hot pot; a classic.

For dessert, if I have any leftover pancakes in my fridge, I’d chop them up in a cup, infuse them with some Jack Daniel’s Bourbon, and top up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. If I have any mint left, I’d garnish the dish with it.

The classic sweetcorn, cereal and caramel aromas of the spirit gives a bitter, sophisticated tone to the dessert, and shouldn’t alarm my friends who don’t usually favour spirits.

Compiled by Laura Seal. Edited by Chris Mercer.

More Christmas articles on Decanter.com

This week sees the online launch of our Decanter Premium membership offer, bringing you regular and exclusive ratings and tastings on hundreds of fine wines for your cellar plus advice on what to drink now, exciting discoveries and where to buy them. Find out more below...

• Decanter Premium offers access to over 1,000 new wine reviews every month

• Fine wine tastings exclusively available online

• Full Decanter magazine articles online

• Priority booking for Decanter events 

Decanter Premium is something we have been working on for a long time and are very excited about. Mainly, because we believe it will add considerable value to anyone who loves and buys fine wine.

So why sign up?

The main reason is because each month, Premium members will get access to over 1,000 new, fine wine tasting notes – all written and curated by our expert team of tasters and editors.

This includes exclusive vertical tastings, such as Jane Anson’s report on Château Figeac going back to 1949 published this week, plus a regular mix of new releases, producer profiles, regional horizontals, vintage reports and the magazine’s latest Panel Tastings.

We’ll also provide a selected blend of classical, well-known names alongside more eclectic, exciting discovery wines. You’ll find longer tasting notes with more context and technical information in our Premium section, as well as UK and US stockist links where possible.

Alongside tasting notes, you can read full articles from the latest issue of Decanter magazine. Plus, you’ll be first in the queue when it comes to booking tickets at Decanter tasting events with some of the world’s top producers – like the upcoming, sold-out masterclass with Krug at our November Fine Wine Encounter.

If you’re already a magazine subscriber, you’ll get a discount code for Premium membership in the December 2017 issue – which will be hot off the press in the next few days.

Premium articles published this week so far include:

• Top Brunelli wines: A Brunello di Montalcino vertical

• Napa 1997: How the wines from this landmark vintage are shaping up

• Mouton Rothschild: The next generation – Interview and tasting

Because the wines have just been tasted and rated by our independent experts, they’ll provide an ever-increasing database helping you to make the most informed decisions on what to buy, drink and cellar.

Coming up, we have a selection of just-bottled Bordeaux 2015 wines, starting with those at Cru Bourgeois and ‘value’ level before following up with the top classified estates next month.

We will also be featuring a stellar and exclusive tasting of 21 Comtes de Champagne vintages by our international tastings director, Christelle Guibert, which would add panache to most Christmas dinner tables and New Year gatherings.

You’ll also be able find William Kelley’s extensive ratings on Oregon Pinot Noir, before he produces a major report on Burgundy 2016 en primeur.

Meanwhile, Matt Walls has been busy tasting up and down the Rhône Valley and will be writing about the region’s best 2016 wines from North to South.

In addition to all that, you’ll be able to see the latest in-depth notes and magazine articles from all your favourite Decanter writers, including Andrew Jefford, Sarah Jane Evans MW, Steven Spurrier, Patricio Tapia, Peter Richards MW, Richard Baudains, Stephen Brook and Sarah Ahmed.

Signing up is simple and easy to do. Moreover, if you do it today, you will receive an early bird discount.

I really hope you’ll join us and give Decanter Premium a try.

John Stimpfig is Decanter’s content director.

See all Decanter Premium articles

Looking through the archives of Confessions of a Sommelier from Decanter magazine, we picked out some of the funniest stories…

Funniest moments on the job – Sommelier mistakes

‘I was once flown to Sardinia for a 50th birthday. One of the host’s presents was a custom-made decanter. I was asked to use it, so took it away and seconds later it was on the floor in a million pieces.

‘No one laughed, but looking back now, I can raise a smile,’ Gal Zohar, speaking to Decanter when wine buyer for the Ottolenghi restaurants.

‘Before I became a sommelier I worked in a bar in Munich. I was trying to open a bottle that had a plastic cork, finally putting it between my knees to get a better grip. But I lost control and most of the wine ended up on my customer’s face,’ said Ali Rasouli Nia, speaking when he was head sommelier at Michael Wignall at The Latymer, Pennyhill Park Hotel.

SEE ALSO: Worst customer habits in restaurants – from the sommeliers

Entertaining customers

‘On Valentine’s Day, a couple bought the most expensive bottles on our wine list. We naturally assumed they were in love. In reality they were celebrating their separation… Each to their own!’ said Stéphane Morand, sommelier at Le Cercle à Bourges.

‘We once had a table of financial crooks seated next to a table of investigative policemen. It got very exciting, very rapidly,’ said Christian Thorsholt Jacobsen, speaking when head sommelier at MASH in London. He is now sommelier at Restaurant Anarki in Copenhagen.

Marinela Ivanova, beverage manager on-board The World, Residences at Sea, said, ‘A guest read my name tag and saw the word ‘sommelier’. He thought I came from Somalia!’

SEE ALSO: Nightmare food and wine matches – from the sommeliers

‘I had a very confident customer wanted to impress,’ said Stefano Petta, who was working at Hotel Schweizerhof Bern in Switzerland. ‘He ordered Roero Arneis from Piedmont. I brought the bottle and he started laughing at me: ‘…and why are you serving the red wine in an ice bucket?’

‘He was very embarrassed to discover it was a white wine that he had ordered.’

SEE ALSO: ‘My biggest faux pas’ – from the sommeliers

‘People often forget what their alcohol tolerance is,’ said Wayve Kolevsohn, talking to Decanter while sommelier at The Test Kitchen.

‘Once I served a man who couldn’t remember eating the last half of his tasting menu and demanded the last four courses again.’ She is now head sommelier at Cheval Blanc in the Maldives.

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Nightmare food and wine matches – From the sommeliers

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And the Best Sommelier in the World competition winnner is…

Read on to see who has won...

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Champagne house Perrier-Jouët has re-opened the Maison Belle Epoque after years of renovation – housing one of the largest private collections of French heritage Art Nouveau in Europe....

Inside the Perrier-Jouët Maison Belle Epoque

Around 150 guests were invited to celebrate the re-opening of the house in Epernay, Champagne, on 5 July.

The house has always been linked with the Art Nouveau movement, thanks to the founders, Pierre-Nicolas Perrier and Rose-Adélaïde Jouët, who both loved art and nature.

Art Nouveau pieces in the house include ones from painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, plus Hector Guimard – who designed the Paris Métro stations – and Emile Gallé, who designed the floral motif on the Belle Epoque bottles.

Some features of the house were completely renovated; it took 1,100 metres of fabric to restore the curtains, for example.

Members of the Perrier-Jouët team were keen to stress that the house is not meant to feel ‘like a museum’ and is to be enjoyed.

The art

One non-Art Nouveau piece is Auguste Rodin’s L’Eternel Printemps, which was a gift to celebrate the first centenary of Perrier-Jouët, in 1911.

Pieces of modern art are included as well, inspired by the Art Nouveau movement, including an installation from mischer’traxler, originally commissioned for London Design Week by Perrier-Jouët.

In ‘Curiosity Cloud’, light bulbs hang from the ceiling, each with an insect inside. As someone approaches, the bulbs light up and the insects come to life.

Even the cellar includes a piece from Glithero, originally commissioned by Perrier-Jouët for the Design Miami festival. Called ‘Lost Time’, it mimics the shape of Champagne flutes and hangs over a shallow pool of water.

Over the Perrier-Jouët bar in the house is an installation from Japanese artist Ritsue Mishima, with discs of Venetian glass hanging from the ceiling, also commissioned by the Champagne house for Miami Design Week.

All’ombra della luce – or ‘In the shadow of the light’ – is inspired by the darkness of cellars contrasted against the brightness of the vineyards. The discs are also a nod to the bubbles in Champagne.

The Perrier-Jouët cellar

Maison Belle Epoque also leads to the Perrier-Jouët cellars, one of which is specifically for some of the oldest vintages.

There are two bottles of the Perrier-Jouët Sillery 1825 vintage, believed to be the oldest vintage Champagne left in the world.

It also contains the 1874 vintage Champagne, believed to be one of the most expensive bottles of Champagne from the 19th century, when sold at Christie’s in 1888.

Vintages as old as 1911 would likely still have a slight sparkle if opened today.

The Maison Belle Epoque will be available to exclusive guests to stay in and experience. Online virtual tours of the cellars can be found here.

Decanter.com was invited by Perrier-Jouët, owned by Pernod Ricard, to the re-opening of the Maison Belle Epoque.

More Champagne and art:

Eight of the best Champagne art collaborations

Gallery: Inside the Champagne Ruinart cellars

Newly commissioned artwork shows off UNESCO cellars...

David Lynch reveals Dom Pérignon design

Twin Peaks director David Lynch, one of Hollywood's most renowned film makers, has revealed his new design for Dom Pérignon.

Perrier-Jouet moves early with 2007 release

Pernod Ricard is seeking to capitalise on strong consumer demand for vintage Champagne with an early limited-edition release from the

“Veggie”, NASA's space cultivation department, talks about the feasibility of making wine in space...

Space Wine?

When we humans – and any other interplanetary species reading – explore new frontiers, one of the first things we’ve taken with us throughout history is vines to make our favourite tipple, wine.

The Chinese have already given the first part some thought when, in 2016, they flew Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir vines into space to study them under space conditions.

The great minds at NASA have already looked into growing crops in space, with their Vegetable Production System department called “Veggie”. This department already grows an array of crops on the International Space Station including a variety of salad-type crops for astronauts to enjoy.

This week Gioia Massa, Veggie principal investigator, spoke to Gizmodo about vine and wine cultivation in space.

‘Wine grapes would be an interesting challenge,’ Massa told Gizmodo. ‘We have been working with some dwarf fruit trees that the USDA developed, and I have heard that they also have some dwarf grape vines, so if the plants were small enough or could be trained around, for example, lights, it would certainly be possible to grow them.’

Although NASA is not currently working on growing wine vines in space, Massa added, ‘most plants for space are super compact, but if you had vines that you could coil or clip, a larger plant might be an option, getting light to a sprawling vine is definitely a challenge… you would want very compact varieties.’

Even pollinating the vines have been thought of with Veggie experimenting with pollinating tomatoes by spraying the flowers.

But can you make wine?

‘For the actual process of wine making I am really not sure, but I would suspect a microbial bioreactor could be developed which would allow the fermentation and other processes to occur in microgravity,’ she said.

‘Fermentation is an anaerobic process so the fact that fluids and gasses don’t mix well in space might not be a problem… You might have to inoculate with the right types of microorganisms but I think it would definitely be possible.’

Space for space wine

Whilst growing vines in space might be possible, free of disease and pests, space and yield would be an obvious problem to any budding astronaut winemakers reading.

With the current space on the ISS, there would be enough yield to create approximately one bottle of wine per year.

• Animals eating grapes – five most wanted

That said, at Decanter.com, we couldn’t help but wonder how much would be paid for the first single bottle of wine made in space; and would it have a vintage?

Gallery: Vineyard animals – Unlikely helpers

As growing numbers of wineries around the world consider the merits of organic and biodynamic principles, many are deploying vineyard

China grows wine in space to beat harsh climate

China blasts Cabernet, Merlot and Pinot Noir vines into orbit...

Undersea cellaring service preparing to launch

The world's first undersea wine cellaring service 1,000m deep and 150km off the Atlantic Coast will open next year.

Divers recover 300 year old shipwrecked cheese

It smells like Roquefort, say divers...

Veuve Clicquot to age Champagne in Baltic Sea

Veuve Clicquot has buried 300 bottles and 50 magnums of its Champagne in the Baltic Sea in an ageing experiment

Author Michael Bond is best known for creating Paddington Bear. But one of his other characters, Monsieur Pamplemousse, and his pet dog, Pommes Frites, knew their wine...

Michael Bond: Top wine quotes from the Monsieur Pamplemousse stories

Monsieur Pamplemousse was both a food inspector and a detective. The stories were a series of culinary adventures, with many references to the fine wines of France – particularly Bordeaux and Burgundy – perhaps reflecting Michael Bond’s own wine preferences.

Here are some of our favourite wine quotes from the stories…

Monsieur Pamplemousse

‘He slipped the cork under the table for Pommes Frites to examine.

An approving sniff came from somewhere below the folds of the cloth. Given the choice, Pommes Frites much preferred Bordeaux, but he was no mean judge of Burgundy either.

If it were possible to translate a sniff into oenological terms, then Pommes Frites’ verdict was: “If you must have a Côtes du Rhône instead of a decent Pauillac – and seeing we are more or less in the area, why not – then what better than a ’73 Hermitage?”’

Monsieur Pamplemousse and the French Solution

‘As you have so often pointed out in the past, monsieur, “good wine is never expensive, only bad wine”.’

In this story, Monsieur Pamplemousse also recalls being in a restaurant in Lyon and sharing some Montrachet with Pommes Frites.

Monsieur Pamplemousse Afloat

On a coach tour driving through Burgundy.

‘Dijon was dismissed by Boniface with a wave of the hand. “The suburbs are now all built up. The only wine left is from Montre-Cul. You know why it is called Montre-Cul?”

There were no takers.

“Because the vineyards are on the side of the mountain and during grape-picking time people used to stop and admire the women’s bottoms.”’

Monsieur Pamplemousse and the secret mission

‘He opened the cartes des vins and as he did his spirits rose slightly… What was surprising was the fact that although none of the entries had been accorded a vintage there were some very familiar names; mouth-watering names. The Bordeaux section in particular sported some highly respected representatives of the 1855 classification.

He hesitated, trying to decided whether to choose a local wine as he’d intended or something more exotic…’

Monsieur Pamplemousse rests his case

‘“I congratulate you on the Lafite. It is a great coup,” said Monsieur Pamplemousse.

“I read somewhere that it was the favourite drink of Queen Victoria. The cellar book at Windsor Castle lists the 1862 vintage as being the house wine.”

“She has gone up in my estimation,” said Monsieur Pamplemousse. “I had always pictured her as being a little formidable.”’

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English wine should be in every restaurant, according to Ronan Sayburn MS. Read more about what our expert panel identified as interesting sparkling wine trends at a recent Decanter tasting in London.

Sparkling wine trends

More like Grower Champagne

Sparkling wine will become more site-focused in the future, emulating Grower Champagne, predicted Justin Howard-Sneyd MW in the sparkling wine trends masterclass at the Decanter Great Sparkling Exploration in London, where 75 producers showed their wines to trade and consumers.

‘In the way that Grower Champagne is focused on terroir, I think this will become a wider trend across fizz-making – becoming more vineyard- and site-driven.’

Whereas the main Champagne houses focus on the blend and house style, meaning grapes can be from wider areas, this looks more at vineyard specific styles.

This point was reinforced by Nino Franco Prosecco, which showed its Grave di Stecca Brut, sparkling wine 2012 – deliberately named ‘sparkling wine’ rather than Prosecco.

‘More about the vineyard – this one is on limestone soil,’ said Tim McLaughlin-Green, UK representative of Nino Franco.

‘We want to get the message about the producer out, rather than just all being ‘Prosecco.’’

Premium Classifications

Producers also voiced the need for promotion of premium classifications in appellations like Prosecco and Cava.

‘Cava is a strange beast,’ said Ronan Sayburn MS in the masterclass.

‘You can go from very high poor to very high quality – so some producers want to pull away from the Cava name.’

Similarly, Marta Sanvicente, from Pere Ventura Cava, said, ‘There are no margins in premium, so if it gets too small, it just won’t last.’

A new premium Cava classification was agreed by producers in 2016.

In August 2016, Torres deliberately didn’t release its latest sparkling wine as a Cava.

And Cava producer Freixenet this month launched its first Prosecco.

English sparkling wine ‘must-have for every wine list’

‘The American market – especially sommeliers – are really excited by English sparkling wine,’ said Sayburn MS.

‘I think English wines will be a must-have for every wine list in the world.’

Whilst the he and Howard-Sneyd MW acknowledged the growth in popularity of English wine over the past 10 years, they attributed the summers of 2011 and 2012 as a real turning point, with occasions like the London Olympics, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Royal Wedding.

‘During the Olympics nearly every restaurant was serving some English sparkling,’ said Sayburn.

‘It was a real changing point from that ‘behind the hand sniggering’ for English wine,’ said Howard-Sneyd MW. ‘And they’ve hit the price point well – above Prosecco, above Cava and right below Champagne.’

Prosecco may be helping all sparkling wines

‘Prosecco has become very popular all over the world – post-economic crisis – over the past 10 years.’ Sayburn MS.

‘You’re taking sparkling wine and making it an everyday event – so people can’t afford a £30 Champagne every time.’

Some producers attribute the success of sparkling wine as a whole to the Prosecco boom.

‘Prosecco means people drink bubbles over beer,’ said Alexandre Duffieux from Maison Antech, which makes Crémant de Limoux.

Some UK supermarkets have started to stock more Crémant wines from around France, in a sign that this could be a new growth area in the next few years.

Data from Vinexpo and IWSR predicted that the overall sparkling wine market in the UK is to grow by 18.8% to 15.2 million cases by 2020.

The Decanter Great Sparkling Exploration took place at Church House, London on 8th June 2017, with 75 wine producers from 27 regions. Special thanks to our sponsors Riedel for providing the glasses, and Belu for providing the water.

Book tickets to your next Decanter event here.

Find our Grower Champagne panel tasting in the July issue of Decanter, on sale now. 

In tribute one of the best known James Bond actors, Sir Roger Moore, we have updated this post and look back on famous '007' tipples both on the big screen and in Ian Fleming's original novels. Clue: it wasn't just Bollinger and Dry Martinis.

Sir Roger Moore died this week aged 89, his family announced on Tuesday 23 May 2017.

He was best-known for playing James Bond, which quickly became a global film franchise based on books by Ian Fleming. It is thought Fleming might have based Bond on Wing Commander Forest Frederick Edward Yeo-Thomas, a real-life secret agent in the Second World War.

The Dry Martini, shaken not stirred, is often considered the James Bond drink of choice, but Ian Fleming’s Bond certainly also had a taste for fine wines and Champagne.

Moore pointed out to The Telegraph in 2014 that it was Sir Sean Connery’s Bond that ordered Dry Martini in the films, not his. Moore’s Bond preferred Champagne.

Below are some Bond favourites from the books, as well as a few from the films.

Champagne

Bond declared Taittinger Blanc de Blancs Brut 1943 as ‘probably the finest Champagne in the world’ in Casino Royale, the original James Bond novel first published in 1953. But, his taste proved somewhat fickle. In the book Moonraker, later turned into a film with Sir Roger Moore playing the secret agent hero, Bond says that Taittinger was ‘only a fad of mine’. He drank Dom Pérignon instead.

• READ: The Decanter interview: Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger

Bollinger, certainly a firm favourite in the films, did not feature quite so prominently in the books, but did appear in Diamonds are Forever and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Veuve Clicquot, Krug and Pommery also make appearances in the novels.

Bordeaux

Goldfinger helps to widen Bond’s drinking taste when it comes to wine by serving him the Pommery 1950 vintage Champagne. He also introduces 007 to Château Mouton Rothschild 1947 and Piesporter Goldtropfchen 1953, Riesling from Germany’s Mosel area. Bond develops a taste for Mouton Rothschild, drinking the 1953 in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

• NEWS: South Korean artist designs new Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2013 label

Chianti

Fleming’s James Bond also enjoys drinking Chianti on trains across Europe; in From Russia with Love he drinks it on the Orient Express. He then drinks it on the Laguna Express to Venice in For Your Eyes Only, where he spills it on the tablecloth.

• DEBATE: Does Chianti wine have an image problem?

Liebfraumilch

It’s not all fine wines for the British spy; in Live and Let Die Bond drinks Liebfraumilch, the semi-sweet German wine that has gone from hero to zero for some wine drinkers in the UK and US.

In the book, Fleming’s second and published in 1954, Bond and his friends enjoyed Liebfraumilch, declaring at one point that the contents of their glasses was ‘as good a Liebfraumilch as you can get in America’.

Original article by Hannah Seaton. Updated by decanter.com staff. 

John Stimpfig attended a special birthday party for retired Decanter columnist Michael Broadbent.

Former Decanter Man of the Year and stalwart columnist and contributor to the magazine, Michael Broadbent celebrated his 90th birthday this week at a special party held at Vintners Hall in London.

Attending the party were friends and family as well as journalists, fellow MWs, merchants and numerous former Christie’s and Decanter colleagues, some of whom had flown in from the US and Europe to attend the celebrations.

As befitted the occasion, there were speeches from Jancis Robinson MW, Bartholomew Broadbent (Michael’s son) and the auctioneer Fritz Hatton who also presented Michael with a bouquet of flowers from the Napa Valley Vintners Association.

Remarkably, this was the second consecutive party given by Broadbent. The night before he had hosted and given a dinner at Brooks Private members club.

Michael Broadbent wrote more than 400 columns in Decanter spanning five decades.

In so doing, Broadbent charted the history of the modern wine era as a multi-award winning writer and author.

Yet Broadbent also made history as the head of the Christie’s Wine Department, which he set up in 1966.

A brilliant writer, communicator, educator and taster, Broadbent wrote one of the definitive books on wine tasting. Published in the late 1960s, How To Taste Wine, is still in print and has been translated into eight languages.

His thousands of recorded tasting notes formed both the Vintage Wine Books and the award winning tome Vintage Wine.

The toast to Michael was made with Pol Roger Champagne.

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Voting figures showed strong support for Marine Le Pen in some wine regions after the French presidential election first-round, but unions hope their members will steer clear in the run-off with Emmanuel Macron.

Why would winemakers or vineyard workers vote for Marine Le Pen, the anti-EU, anti-immigration candidate who until recently headed the country’s far-right National Front?

The simple answer is that plenty wouldn’t, and do not intend to.

But the more prickly reality is that while Le Pen goes into this Sunday’s run-off vote as the underdog to Emmanuel Macron, she topped the first-round polls in some key wine areas.

She beat her rivals across Languedoc-Roussillon, for example, gaining more than 25% of the vote in some areas, and was particularly successful in the Aude department. She also enjoyed strong pockets of support in small parts of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur wine country, according to analysis by Le Monde newspaper.

Languedoc wasn’t a huge shock. Local newspaper Midi-Libre ran with the headline ‘Le Pen ahead: no surprise’ on 24 April.

She cannot claim to represent the region or its wines, and plenty of wine community members will have voted for the hard-left Mélenchon in an area with strong socialist traditions, plus also Macron and Fillon.

But, observers point out that the National Front has been building support in some of France’s poorer agricultural areas for several years.

Most recently in Languedoc-Roussillon, still France’s largest wine producing region, the National Front has tried to take advantage of tension over cheap Spanish wine imports.

Winemakers claiming allegiance to a long-standing militant group named CRAV – or CAV – have attacked supermarkets and hijacked lorries crossing the Spanish border in the past 15 months.

Unions have condemned the violence, yet warned of a financial crisis facing small-scale producers, despite some laudable efforts to improve the quality and image of Languedoc wines in recent years.

‘The situation [for winemakers] is intolerable,’ said the National Front in a statement released in support of thousands of producers who marched through the streets of Narbonne in March this year.

It has blamed the European Union and linked the problems to an increasingly familiar tale of dispossession by political, social and economic globalisation propagated by an un-caring, wealthy elite.

It’s hard to know how much of this rhetoric translated into votes. One local wine official, who did not wish to be named, believes that the policy had an impact.

‘People want to try someone else,’ he told Decanter.com. There is a feeling that Le Pen would be more effective in controlling Spanish imports than Macron, he added.

Long-term trends of declining wine consumption in France and stronger competition in global markets have produced sustained, underlying pressure on a certain section of France’s wine industry.

Macron used a televised debate this week to accuse Le Pen of telling lies about the economic realities facing France and its workforce.

Not everyone who dislikes Le Pen will vote for Macron, but on this point he strikes a chord with farming sector leaders.

‘I don’t think Le Pen has the solutions to winemakers’ problems,’ said Olivier Lozat, of the Aude branch of the farmers’ union Confedération Paysanne.

For Lozat, the situation in Languedoc is complex and cannot be solved by simply shutting borders and punishing small-scale producers in other countries by depriving them of export markets.

However, he said the struggle was real for many in the area. ‘It really is about putting food on the table,’ he said.

He blamed the policies of some merchants in the area and added that a lack of insurance options against natural disasters left small-scale growers badly exposed to risk.

The Confedération Paysanne issued a national rebuke to Le Pen on Thursday 4 May.

‘We will always view the National Front as an enemy,’ it said, warning farmers not to be seduced.

Another farming union, the FNSEA, also waded into the election run-off. ‘We believe in Europe,’ it said, in a thinly veiled attack on Le Pen’s promise to hold an in-out ‘Frexit’ referendum if she becomes president.

But, the FNSEA also pulled no punches on the challenges ahead for whoever enters the Elysée palace.

One agricultural worker in three earns less than 354 euros per month in France, it claimed. It warned of the ‘silent’ decline of French agriculture, including wine, compared to the greater publicity given to factory closures.

One winemaker in Nièvre, on Burgundy’s western flank, told France 2 television this week that he would be voting for Macron and that others should do likewise.

‘I think that if we boycott foreign products, then others will boycott our products,’ he said. ‘The extremes are never the answer; just look at history.’

Extra reporting by Yohan Castaing.

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