It's the hope that kills you. Every time.

French and English hopes dashed and broken after two confounding, astounding and upending semi-finals.

Flashy France disarmed and despatched by a clinical Spain. Dogged England discouraged and diminished by a no-holds-barred Argentina.

While France and England will face off for the third-place match on Saturday we've decided not to give wine pairings for what is a rather flat and unloved affair.

All the focus, rightfully, is on just two teams – our finalists, and brilliant wine producing nations both.

It's also an all hispanophone final, something that hasn't happened since the very first World Cup final in 1930 when Uruguay played Argentina (and Uruguay won 4-2).

In these circumstances, only the very best will do. Ines and Julie, our last editors standing, have selected two World Cup final-worthy wines from each country.

Whoever you're cheering on come Sunday, make sure you have a glass of something suitably epic to go with it.

¡Vamos!

Ines: Spain

Spain: If you, like me, grew up with the brilliant Asterix comic books you’ll be familiar with the ‘Ils sont fous, ces Romains!’ exclamation and Obelix’s larger-than-life strength.

Well, well, well… seems like it was the Spanish players’ turn to fall into the Getafix's potion and ward off the French invasion.

La Roja unearthed all the precision and effectiveness it needed to neutralise France’s Napoleonic luck.

Unlike other World Cup contenders, it is a team that hasn't relied on blinding star power alone.

Meanwhile, the French were stunned when confronted with the realisation that – excusez-moi – the whole thing ain’t that easy.

Spain now needs to muster even more strength and presence of mind as it prepares to face an archenemy, Argentina, in the final. Popcorn out fellas!

It’s the tender-fleshed Lamine Yamal against veteran Lionel Messi. It’s the former empire against the former colony. Yikes.

Argentina’s grit – perhaps even more so than its technique – is something to be reckoned with.

Spanish players might want to look at Rioja’s own Obelix-like Arturo and Kike de Miguel, the brothers – big in both size and talent – behind Artuke.

Their wines were the highest-scoring at this year’s Rioja Report.

Among them, La Condenada (the condemned) is a show of elegant rusticity from a nearly forgotten, abandoned old vine that shows that excellence needs perseverance and focus and can often be found when and where you least expect it.

Julie: Argentina

Argentina: Can anything stop the reigning champions? Following a dramatic and politically charged semi-final against England, Argentina meets Spain for the final showdown of the tournament.

Surprisingly, for two teams that regularly qualify for the latter stages of the World Cup, they haven’t played each other in a tournament match since 1966.

That was in a group game at Villa Park, when England was the host nation, and Argentina won the match 2-1.

Whether history will repeat itself remains to be seen. If it does, Argentina will become the first back-to-back World Cup winner since fellow South Americans Brazil took the 1958 and 1962 titles.

Previously only Italy had achieved a similar double, winning in 1934 and 1938. The history books are waiting…

The final showdown of the tournament calls for an award-winning wine: step forward Argentina’s Best in Show at Decanter World Wine Awards 2026.

Rutini Wines Single Vineyard Malbec 2023 comes from high-altitude Gualltallary, close to Tupungato in the Uco Valley.

Judges loved the way it ‘expressed the wild nature of Gualltallary’, with an intense palate packed with ‘high-drama fresh fruits which seethe and cascade across the palate in best mountain style’.

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On 14 July 1789, a mob of Parisian citizens stormed the Bastille, a prison that had become a symbol of the oppression of the ruling monarchy.

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

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

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

Quick-fire history of wine in France

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Five French wines to toast to Bastille Day

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Italian cuisine has long been a world favourite for its authentic flavours and guileless recipes rooted in simplicity and quality.

In fact, the country's cooking was officially granted Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity status by UNESCO last year.

While pasta is a mainstay of Italy's mealtimes and a symbol of the country's culinary traditions (54% of Italians eat pasta daily (Nextplora [2024]), it's also a paragon of versatility and inclusion.

From celebrated fine dining restaurants to community kitchens run by volunteers, pasta always has a place on Italian tables.

One of the world's top chefs, Massimo Bottura, who played an influential role in the UNESCO candidacy – which was conceived by Maddalena Fossati, editor of La Cucina Italiana magazine – runs the gamut, from his triple-Michelin-starred Osteria Francescana to the international Food for Soul network of refectories, where nourishing meals are created from surplus foods for those in need.

Just say pasta

Although it's easy to just say pasta, when it comes to shapes, sauces, techniques and wine pairings, there is a universe of complexities.

Officially, over 300 pasta shapes exist, with more invented almost daily. Thanks to 3D printing, you can even order special occasion pasta to resemble anything from Easter bunnies to Christmas trees.

Ingredients for pasta are simple: flour and water. While in southern Italy durum wheat flour (semola or semolina) for dry pasta is most common, soft wheat is the typical flour of the north, where fresh pasta is more widespread; as it's lower in gluten, egg is often added for greater structure.

For hand-rolled pasta, a board and rolling pin (preferably beechwood) are essential, while cutter rollers are handy for getting the dimensions right. Pasta machines use teflon or bronze dies, the latter preferable for porous pasta that catches more of whichever delicious sauce it's served with.

Other tools include guitar-like frames for spaghetti alla chitarra, and gnocchi boards resembling butter pats for ridged pasta and gnocchi, again aimed at increasing sauce-clinging power.

Pasta heartlands

While every region has its must-try specialities, Emilia Romagna is considered the heartland of fresh egg pasta. Here, dishes are taken so seriously that official recipes are stored at Bologna's Chamber of Commerce, along with a golden sample representing the perfect width of tagliatelle (8mm).

It's hard to overstate the visceral attachment to certain specialities, and traditions are defended passionately: in a move to put a lid on one of the world's (but not Bologna's) favourite pasta dishes, the city mayor even led a 2019 campaign stating that ‘spaghetti bolognese does not exist’, in favour of authentic tagliatelle with ragout. Bolognese (beef and pork) ragout, that is.

Wherever you go you'll find a variation on the ragout theme, from duck in Veneto (with thick spaghetti-like bigoli) to wild boar, popular with pappardelle (wide ribbon pasta) and Chianti Classico or Montefalco Sagrantino in Tuscany and Umbria.

Emilia Romagna is most famous for its filled pasta. Dainty tortellini (weighing just 5g each, filled with mortadella, prosciutto, pork, Parmigiano Reggiano and nutmeg) are supposedly inspired by Venus's perfect navel, and served in a steaming broth suitable for any celebration.

One of chef Bottura's initiatives in his hometown, Modena, is Tortellante, a non-profit association centred on tortellini-making for people with autism (including his own son); the results are served at the on-site Bottega with Lambrusco that's often added to the broth.

Neighbouring cities Bologna and Modena have long disputed paternity of tortellini but generally agree on Castelfranco Emilia, a half-way house with a dedicated festival each September.

Filled delights

Whether they recall hats, crescents or body parts, the various crimped-edged shapes of filled pasta are conceived with the aim of keeping what's inside in.

In recent years pumpkin-filled pasta, originally from Mantua and Ferrara, has risen in popularity for its sweet and savoury flavours.

Exact recipes vary and are a closely guarded secret for cjarsons, another sweet-savoury pasta from Friuli in north-east Italy; common ingredients include dried fruit, herbs, spices, cocoa and jam with potato and ricotta. A structured Collio Bianco is ideal with such intense flavours.

In Sardinia, the closure of typical culurgiones (with potato, pecorino cheese, mint and garlic) is auspicious, resembling an ear of wheat for prosperity, while Piedmont speciality, agnolotti del plin (with roast meats) is purely practical, named after the pinching action used to seal them.

Curiously, agnolotti are sometimes served dry, in a linen napkin, and dunked into a cup of Barbera wine.

Long stories

Serving pasta in linen isn't limited to Piedmont: Rome restaurant La Ciambella serves cacio e pepe pasta (with pecorino romano cheese and black pepper) in a napkin. It's drier than usual, aimed at evoking the farmers of yesteryear who would eat while out in the fields.

Cacio e pepe is considered the mother of Rome's most famous pasta specialities, pecorino cheese and pepper being common to all. Add guanciale for alla gricia, and egg too for carbonara, or tomato for amatriciana.

Each sauce has its appropriate long pasta: tonnarelli (square-sectioned) for cacio e pepe, bucatini (hollow) with amatriciana, and spaghetti for carbonara. All work well with a structured regional white such as Frascati Superiore or Bellone.

Spaghetti (from ‘spago’, meaning string) is the tasty choice for midnight feasts and impromptu gatherings throughout Italy. In Naples and around the coast it's classically paired with clams; add mullet roe for a Sardinian favourite.

Spaghetti capital, Gragnano – the historic heart of dried pasta production south of Naples – is nowadays home to pasta-themed museums and experiences.

Pici and strangozzi are the preferred long pasta of central Italy, respectively round and square-sectioned, while Abruzzo on the east coast is home to fresh egg spaghetti alla chitarra, typically with delicious tiny meatballs.

Green pasta parties

Many Italian pasta recipes are vegetarian, incorporating pulses and seasonal vegetables. Another Abruzzo speciality, virtù teramane, traditionally eaten on 1 May, is like a culinary spring clean, with a huge variety of pulses, vegetables and pastas; whatever's left in the larder after winter. A cherry-coloured Cerasuolo, the archetypical all-rounder wine, is ideal.

Travelling south to Puglia, orecchiette alle cime di rapa (ear-shaped pasta with turnip greens) is a firm favourite on Italy's pasta map. Although turnips are a winter veg, the dish is a year-round mainstay here, as are Ligurian crowd-pleaser trofie al pesto and Sicily's pasta alla Norma (tomato, aubergine, ricotta salata and basil) – named after the opera by Catania-born composer Vincenzo Bellini.

Ultimate comfort food

Scientific research (including Barilla's 2025 study) has regularly found a correlation between pasta and emotional well-being, more so than other carbs.

There's no denying that whether its lasagne, Italy's traditional Sunday comfort food, or another of the many pasta dishes, it most certainly does have a built in feel-good factor – especially when enjoyed with a local wine.

Buon appetito!

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José Pizarro's seven days of food pairings for high street Rioja

We grabbed seven great everyday Rioja wines of different styles from the shelves, put them in the trolley, checked out and headed to Bermondsey in London, just south of the river Thames near Tower Bridge.

Waiting for us was celebrity chef José Pizarro, described by many as the Godfather of Spanish cooking and owner of a successful group of restaurants and eateries in London, southern Spain and Abu Dhabi, including three in Bermondsey Street SE1 alone (Lolo, José Tapas and Pizarro at Nos 102, 104 and 194 respectively).

He was ready to pair our high street selection with some of the signature dishes from his restaurants and career.

We hope these pairings will inspire you to buy a few bottles and get creative in the kitchen – Monday to Sunday.

Grab a copy of Pizarro’s most recent book, The Spanish Pantry: 12 Ingredients, 100 Simple Recipes (Quadrille, June 2025 – £28 via José Pizarro's website) and have a go at some Spanish classics.

A bit of flavour and comfort to get you through the week – without breaking the bank.

Monday

Tortilla from José Tapas

Red wine pairing: CVNE, Asúa Reserva 2020

Start the week with a classic dish paired with a classic bottle. The unctuous core of the tortilla de patatas – with or without the caramelised onions – that has been an all-time favourite of patrons at Pizarro’s tapas bar (and first venue), this year celebrating its 15th anniversary, has a perfect, effortless match in CVNE’s modern, everyday-classic oak-aged red.

An easy yet sophisticated pairing that’s all about no- nonsense, guaranteed satisfaction.

CVNE, Asúa Reserva 2020 | 93pts

£19-£21.75 Drinks Direct, Goedhuis Waddesdon, ND John, The Wine Society

Produced exclusively with grapes from estate-owned vineyards above 500m in Haro, this 100% Tempranillo lures you in with its seductive nose of violets, dried rose petals and tarragon.

The palate follows with structure but also freshness, balancing vivid acidity, juicy cherry and plum fruit, and broody touches of dark chocolate and coffee. Drink 2026-2030. Alcohol 14%.

Tuesday

Courgette carpaccio from Lolo

Rosé wine pairing: Ramón Bilbao, Rosado 2025

Affordability doesn’t need to translate into lack of flavour. One of the favourite dishes at Lolo by José Pizarro, the smoothly lit latest Bermondsey haunt of the Spanish chef, is based on the humble courgette, given a fancy carpaccio treatment and topped with buttery pine nuts, slow-roasted tomatoes and edible flowers.

It has been on the menu since Lolo opened in 2024 (currently £10 on the à la carte menu) and is going nowhere. It’s the same simple yet sophisticated simplicity in Ramón Bilbao’s Garnacha-based rosado – great value and refreshing allure, without loss of structure or texture.

Ramón Bilbao, Rosado 2025 | 89pts

£9.50 Co-op

Hands-down one of the best-value Spanish rosés on the high street: crisp and refreshing, superbly enjoyable yet structured enough for food.

Crunchy and well-defined cranberry, rhubarb, wild strawberry and white peach fruit mingle on the palate, outlined by an appetising saline rim. Drink 2026-2027 Alc 12%.

Wednesday

Gamba blanca al ajillo con huevos rotos from Pizarro

White wine pairing: Cosme Palacio, Glorioso Blanco 2024

What do you need on a Wednesday? A wholesome midweek dinner paired with a wine that’s easy but fine, fluid yet complex, sophisticated in a laidback kind of way.

You need a pairing that provides sustenance, is authentic and just reminds you that life is made of simple yet delicious things. By combining two Spanish basics – gambas al ajillo (prawns fried with garlic) and huevos rotos (runny fried eggs on a bed of french fries) – Pizarro created one of the signature dishes at his eponymous flagship restaurant and delivers just that hearty comfort.

A glass of Glorioso Blanco answers with invigorating freshness and salinity.

Cosme Palacio, Glorioso Blanco 2024 | 90pts

£11.50-£15 Reserve Wines, The Wine Society

A lovely blend of Viura with a touch of Tempranillo Blanco, in which crispy pear and clementine peel dominate the structured, vibrant palate.

There’s a salty turn of toasted almonds and preserved lemon, and it’s a touch unctuous and very juicy at the core. Gentle florality (hay, camomile) in the background. Lovely presence on the mid-palate, with width and a pleasant saline richness. Drink 2026-2027 Alc 12.5%.

Thursday

Mediterranean red prawn carpaccio from Lolo

Rosé wine pairing: Muga, Rosado 2025

With the weekend just around the corner you’ll want to keep things simple and fresh. Start getting into relaxation mode with this prawn carpaccio – seemingly easy to make, but a dish that will require patience and precision.

The secret is using the best ingredients only: super- fresh red prawns, juicy oranges and chilli. Or just head to Lolo to have it prepared for you! This is off the menu at this stage of the year (it’s not citrus season after all) but it will be back before long.

Pair with the rosado from Muga, a nuanced Garnacha- based pink that will pair perfectly both with the delicate flesh of the prawns and the pre-weekend mood.

Muga, Rosado 2025 | 91pts

£11.95-£16.99 Majestic, Martinez Wines, Waitrose Cellar, Waud Handford, The Wine Society

Delicate floral and herbal touches dance over cranberry, wild strawberry and pomegranate fruit. Top notes of rose and orange blossom are echoed on the palate, lifting the fleshy yellow and pink orchard fruit.

Voluminous and unctuous, yet with a zesty pep throughout. A blend of Garnacha with about 30% Viura. Drink 2026-2027 Alc 13.5%.

Friday

Clams & fino Sherry from José Tapas

White wine pairing: Montecillo, On the QT Bin 37 2024

Clams cooked in a fino-based sauce? Yes, please. Just the kind of simple-yet-special combination that will ease you into the weekend and it’s on rotation at Pizarro’s tapas bar.

The dish calls for a structured, poised white and the On the QT Bin 37 definitely meets the brief. It’s also, unquestionably, a special wine of which not many bottles are left. Grab yours while you can.

Montecillo, On the QT Bin 37 2024 | 93pts

£21.25 Waitrose Cellar

This delicious, rather unique expression of Garnacha Blanca hails from a single barrel selected by winemaker Mercedes García Rupérez and Waitrose buyer Xenia Ruscombe-King MW.

Structured and delightfully complex, the fleshy loquat, apricot and peach fruit is deftly topped by orange zest, acacia and almond blossom. There’s a peppery, tingling vibrancy to the finish. Drink 2026-2028 Alc 13%.

Saturday

Carabinero rice from Pizarro

Red wine pairing: La Rioja Alta, Viña Alberdi Selección Especial 2021

Wake up (not too early) on Saturday morning and head to the fishmonger. Saturday is the perfect day to indulge and splurge on top produce – such as some meaty, red-hued carabineros, wild-caught large deep-sea prawns prized for a meat that’s lobster-like in consistency but elevated in flavour.

Served with a rich, creamy rice accompaniment – as was once the case at Pizarro – it makes for a sophisticated yet filling dish that calls for a finely structured red with refreshing acidity at its core.

Go for La Rioja Alta’s Viña Alberdi Selección Especial, a wine that punches well above its weight (without ever getting tired) and delivers structure, finesse and drinkability in equal measures.

La Rioja Alta, Viña Alberdi Selección Especial Reserva 2021 | 93pts

£20 Waitrose Cellar

A beautiful expression of classical Rioja, 100% Tempranillo, perfect for elevated everyday drinking. The ripe cranberry, cherry and plum fruit is laced with notes of vanilla, cardamom, sage and powdered coffee.

The tannins are assertive but rounded and pave the way for the elegant and brightly spicy finish. Drink 2026-2031 Alc 14%.

Sunday

Marinated pork fillet from Lolo

Red wine pairing: Faustino, I Gran Reserva 2016

The marinated pork fillet now on the menu at Lolo is a special dish created to celebrate the 15th anniversary of José Pizarro’s first opening on Bermondsey Street in 2011.

It’s a rightful celebration of persistence and time, hallmarks of that cooking method – marinating – that requires foresight and patience. So think in advance if you want your perfectly marinated meat on Sunday.

The Faustino I has also greatly benefited from all of the time it has spent in the bottle and will work as a fine, savoury, earthy counterpoint to the meat and marinade. Sit back and get ready for another week ahead.

Faustino, I Gran Reserva 2016 | 93pts

£18.47-£25.95 Asda, Drinks Direct, Secret Bottle Shop, T Wright

While still a bit tightly coiled, even at 10 years old, this well-recognised Gran Reserva – a blend of Tempranillo with 8% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo – is already showing well-honed layering of dried tobacco leaf, coffee bean, liquorice root, prune and caramel.

Elegantly fragrant Earl Grey and Assam notes play in the background and linger on the savoury finish. Drink 2026-2036 Alc 14%.

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It's the semi-finals. Four teams, two games, one final match to decide it all.

And all four teams that have made it this far are from winemaking nations.

Whatever the results over these final games, the record of a winemaking country always winning the World Cup is guaranteed.

But who will be in that final game? France look like the best team overall. Spain feel like dark horses who could win in a closely-fought slugging match.

England and Argentina both have shown flashes of brilliance but also fraught, rather flawed performances from which they somehow emerge victorious.

And the potential finals are ripe with historic firsts. Will it be a third back-to-back final for France? A rematch against Argentina? A first-time clash against England who would be in their first final in 60 years.

Or maybe a rematch of 2024's Euros final? Spain vs England. Or, even, a first World Cup meeting between Spain and Argentina since (incredibly) 1966.

All to play for – here's what we're pairing with each match...

And if you feel the need for some... actual football analysis during this World Cup, do check in on our friends and colleagues over at FourFourTwo for all their updates and coverage.

Izzy: England

England (vs Argentina): The final four! After a rather nervy win over the Vikings on Saturday, England are through to the semi-finals for only the fourth time since 1966.

They’ll be meeting current title-holders Argentina in Atlanta, where both teams have previously pulled back from a losing position to overcome their rivals (England against DR Congo and Argentina in their dramatic win over Egypt last week).

Argentina have a particular habit of clawing back a win from the jaws of defeat, so England will need to show real grit and persistence to keep Lionel Messi at bay.

In this spirit, let’s continue to plumb the Decanter World Wine Awards for bottles that showcase the best of England winemaking, and try this platinum-winning sparkling rosé from Berkshire.

From a winery established less than 15 years ago – younger than Messi’s World Cup career – this is an extremely impressive wine, which shows the value of hard work and determination in the vineyard (as on the pitch!)

A wine that is delightfully English with rose garden, strawberry and red apple notes, it is described as an ‘allegory of national intent’ – a fitting choice for the team’s toughest match yet.

Rupert: France

France (vs Spain): Two European football and winemaking giants going head-to-head, and on Bastille Day no-less.

For two such famous footballing nations, it’s surprising that France and Spain haven’t clashed more often in major tournaments.

Spain has had the better of the most recent encounters in the Euros – beating France in the quarter-finals in 2012 and semi-finals in 2024 (going on to win those tournaments on both occasions).

The last – and in fact only – World Cup clash between the two was 20 years ago in 2006, the final hurrah of Zidane, Henry, Viera & co, and which France won (before losing in the final).*

In such circumstances it’s time to throw caution to the wind and lavish some money on a special bottle. It should be something ‘very French’ and is there anything more French than old Bordeaux?

Perhaps something from the 2006 vintage in honour of the last time these countries met.

An underrated vintage that, at 20 years old (and like this French team), is still revealing its charms, try snagging something like this Château Cos d’Estournel which continues to boast ‘abundant blackcurrant fruit and subtle hints of pepper, cedar, and smoke’.

*There was also the 5-4 Spanish victory in the semi-finals of the UEFA Nations League in 2025, but, honestly, who remembers/cares about that?

Ines: Spain

Spain (vs France): Would Spain have won its quarter-final duel if Belgium's goalie, Thibaut Courtois, hadn’t left the game injured? We’ll never know.

The road to victory is paved with unfair casualties and (a lot of) luck.

However, luck seems to often fail those who face France… La Roja needs, more than ever, to rely only on itself.

This semi-final calls for consistency, poise, nerve and resilience – the attributes of a good Ribera del Duero, such as the Finca las Dueñas Reserva from charismatic producer Francisco Barona, himself a great source of inspiration for Spanish players.

Barona's passion, work ethic and hands-on knowledge produce some of Ribera’s most exciting modern classics.

A recipe for champions?

Julie: Argentina

Argentina (vs England): A classic football rivalry – Maradona’s hand of God, David Beckham’s red card – when it comes to Argentina vs England in the World Cup heartbreak is just around the corner.

But the two sides haven’t met since Japan in 2002 (which England won) and, incredible, though it may seem, Lionel Messi has never played against England in his career.

Well, that all ends in Atlanta on Wednesday evening with two teams that have both flirted with brilliance and disaster on their tournament journeys so far.

As we’re rekindling an old footballing beef let’s keep it straightforward; a pure expression of high altitude Argentine Malbec.

Catena Zapata’s ‘Malbec Argentino’ is not only about as on-the-nose as it gets name-wise but also a wine that displays all the ‘dynamism, character and typicity’ we've come to expect from the country's wines – and their football team.

Expect, ‘juicy ripe cherry, plum, pink peach, pomegranate’ and possibly some more Messi magic.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jeffrey Chilcott

Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy, Piedmont

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

David Fletcher

Fletcher Wines, Piedmont

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zoe Johnson

JG Benda, Montalcino, Tuscany

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trish Nelson

Gazzetta Wines, Lazio

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anna Martens

Vino di Anna, Etna

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Italian wines made by Antipodeans

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Krug is a Champagne house keen to remind us that it does things differently.

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

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

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

Absolutely not.

Equal footing

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

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

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

Grande Cuvée 174th Édition

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

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

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

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

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

The 2013 vintage

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

If so, then 2013 steps out boldly.

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

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

Clos d’Ambonnay 2008

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

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

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

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

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

New Krug releases not to miss

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Occasionally people ask me if I can recommend a light Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

It’s a bit like asking a zookeeper if he has any slim hippos or short-necked giraffes.

What I usually do in this situation is direct them towards wines from naturally slimmer and more athletic nearby appellations.

After all, the very best Châteauneufs tend to be those that embrace its natural plus-size magnificence.

But thanks to the appellation’s liberal rulebook and the diversity of its soils, Châteauneuf can be a broad church.

And occasionally I do come across excellent wines that, while not exactly light, are at the lighter end of the spectrum.

Wines with drinkability and a lightness of touch, but – crucially – still taste and act like Châteauneuf.

One estate that embodies this style is Domaine Juliette Avril.

The outer fringes

Stephan Brun-Avril has an infectious energy, a broad smile and is never short of something to say.

He finds it hard to concentrate but has plenty of ideas. ‘I’m like an upside-down tree,’ he says, ‘with roots that go all over the place up in the sky.’

He says his staff help keep him grounded.

I asked if we could visit the vineyards – of course, he says. He proceeded to jump-start a (long-)retired French army Jeep, and in we hopped.

As we rumbled through the pebbly vineyards, Stephan says: ‘I’m not a typical winemaker – I’m not from Châteauneuf.’

Many top Châteauneuf winemakers went to the village school and all grew up together. But not Stephan.

He’s half Italian, and grew up in Italy. It was only after completing his studies, that he travelled to France and joined the family estate.

It can’t be easy moving from a foreign country to this tight-knit community of 2,500 people and trying to fit in.

Perhaps that’s one reason Stephan is happy to make wines that don’t follow the local template.

New estate, ancient roots

The Avril name, however, is deeply embedded here – Stephan says that members of the Avril family lived in Châteauneuf before the French Revolution (1789–1799).

Different branches of the family have long been part of the winemaking scene; Maurice Avril owned Domaine le Père Caler (now closed), and Vincent Avril owns Clos des Papes.

In 1982, local landholder Jean Avril bequeathed 20ha of Châteauneuf vineyards to his daughter Juliette Avril, and in doing so, she established her own estate.

Juliette’s daughter, Marie Lucille Brun, started working at the estate in 1988. Marie Lucille was joined by her son Stephan in 2002.

Their holdings have grown since Stephan arrived; he bought land in Cairanne, Plan de Dieu and Côtes du Rhône. But the family’s heart, and winery, remains in Châteauneuf.

‘There are really two climates in Châteauneuf-du-Pape,’ says Stephan, ‘south and north.’

They have holdings in both – half in the hot, dry lands of lieux-dits Les Gallimardes, Les Serres and Les Plagnes to the south; the other half in the higher, slightly fresher terroirs of lieux-dits of Farguerol, Coteau de l’Ange and Pied de Baud to the north.

Towards the light

In other hands, these parts of Châteauneuf make powerful wines. But Stephan creates a style that is less potent and muscular. He achieves it through a combination of methods.

Firstly, he picks relatively early to preserve acidity and keep alcohol levels in check.

Secondly, he keeps maceration times short (around 12 days) in order to preserve freshness and not to extract too much tannin. He doesn’t age the wines for very long, and he only uses larger barrels.

Thirdly, he’s beginning to coferment his Grenache with a little Cinsault and Counoise.

‘We use them for juice,’ he says, and ‘they help to temper the Grenache and naturally reduce the alcohol’.

‘What made our reputation is balance,’ he says, and he aims to make a wine that he enjoys drinking himself.

Light, but authentic

Successfully producing a lighter style of Châteauneuf isn’t easy. It’s a terroir that naturally wants to make generous, ageworthy bottles.

Picking early is a dangerous game; if your grapes aren’t fully ripe, you risk making something puny or unconvincing – a toothless crocodile or a three-legged cheetah.

But Stephan treads carefully, managing to capture a high-toned floral expression of Grenache without sacrificing the gravitas of a genuine Châteauneuf.

Most Châteauneufs find their way to the dinner table in winter months. But that’s another rule that Stephan’s wines gleefully break.

A lightly chilled, summer Châteauneuf? Look no further.

Domaine Juliette Avril wines to try

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bordeaux 2025 vs 2019: A pricing snapshot

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

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

DATA SUPPLIED BY BORDEAUX INDEX/LIVETRADE

The Bordeaux Index view

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

En primeur own goals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now, did someone mention price?

Leroy leads Burgundy mega-sale

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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I’m not a Sauvignon Blanc denier, but I am all too often disappointed with thin, one-dimensional examples.

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

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

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

Organic Sauvignon Blanc – not an easy task

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

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

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

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

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

My Sauvignon Blanc moment

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

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

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

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

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

Has the grape’s cultural moment peaked?

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

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

Seven Sauvignon for summer sipping

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

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

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

New headliners

Last year was not merely a token landmark anniversary.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creative tension

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

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

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

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

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

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

Explore the full 2026 Rioja Report

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

World-class potential

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

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

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

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

White Rioja: highlights from the 2026 Report

Full score table coming soon

More from the report

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

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

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

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

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

Advancing the region

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

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

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

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

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

Full score table coming soon

More from the report

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

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

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

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

Core identity, renewed flair

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crianza & Reserva: Highlights from the 2026 Report

Crianza

Reserva

Full score table coming soon

More from the report

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

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

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

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

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

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

Freedom of expression

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

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

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

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

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

Always complex, never boring.

Highlights from the 'Generic' category: 2026 Report

Full score table coming soon

More from the report

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

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

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

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

Nuance & precision

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Garnacha & friends: Highlights from the 2026 Rioja Report

Garnacha

Mazuelo

Maturana Tinta

Full score table coming soon

More from the report

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

These are producers whose wines invite further engagement and discovery.

Arturo & Kike de Miguel

Artuke
Baños de Ebro, Rioja Alavesa

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

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

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

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

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

Carlos Mazo Gutiérrez

Vinos en Voz Baja
Aldeanueva de Ebro, Rioja Oriental

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sandra Bravo

Sierra de Toloño
Villabuena de Álava, Rioja Alavesa

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Victor Ausejo

Alberite, Rioja Oriental

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

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

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

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

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

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

Muga

Rioja Alta

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More from the report

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

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

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

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

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

Rosados and Claretes: Highlights from the 2026 Report

Full score table coming soon

More from the report

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Staying relevant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rooted in change

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

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

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

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

A paler shade of Rioja

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beyond barrels

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

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

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

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

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

The new classics

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

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

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

Regions evolve and adapt to changing circumstances.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Basalt crags and mountain Gamay

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pulsing with life

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

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

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

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

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

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

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If there's one cuvée every Champagne lover dreams of tasting at least once in their life, it's Salon. So imagine the chance to taste not one, but five vintages of this legendary wine, produced only 45 times since the house was founded in 1905.

And what an opportunity to enjoy these five wines alongside five more Blanc de Blancs cuvées from Champagne Delamotte, Salon's sister house.

This was the exclusive opportunity afforded some 80 lucky attendees who got tickets to this sold-out masterclass – the first one of the day at the 2026 Decanter Fine Wine Encounter New York City, held on Saturday 6 June in the beautiful surrounds of the Manhatta on the 60th floor.

Scroll down for notes and scores of the 10 Salon and Delamotte Champagnes at the DFWE NYC 2026 masterclass

Delamotte, Blanc de Blancs NV (magnum)

Delamotte, Blanc de Blancs 2018 (magnum)

Delamotte, Blanc de Blancs 2014 (magnum)

Delamotte, Blanc de Blancs 2012 (magnum)

Delamotte, Collection Blanc de Blancs 2008 (magnum)

Salon, Cuvée S, Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs 2015

Salon, Cuvée S, Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs 2013

Salon, Cuvée S, Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs 2012

Salon, Cuvée S, Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs 2007

Salon, Cuvée S, Edition 2020, Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs 1997

Sister houses with distinct identities

Hosted by Cristian Rimoldi, the export director for both Delamotte and Salon, which have been part of the Laurent-Perrier group since 1988, this rare and exceptional tasting was a deep-dive into the complex and nuanced language of Chardonnay and the grands crus of the Côte des Blancs through the lens of these iconic sister houses

Through 10 remarkable and defining expressions of these outstanding terroirs, Rimoldi illustrated the commonalities between the two house’s approaches, as well as their distinct identities.

As background for the attendees, Rimoldi explained that the same technical teams are in charge of both houses, from viticulture to marketing. This allows for a nuanced understanding of the Chardonnay profile – from both owned and purchased vineyard plots – and subsequent decisions, particularly regarding the decision to release vintage cuvées.

For both houses, the wines are vinified in stainless steel tanks, but each has a different regimen regarding malolactic fermentation. It is done at Delamotte, while it is not encouraged – indeed prevented – at Salon, in order to preserve the delicate tension of the grape variety and terroir.

The dosage, made with cane sugar, is determined on a case-by-case basis, yet ranges between five grams per litre and 7.5g/L, with the exception of late disgorgements (Delamotte's Collection cuvée, and the ‘editions’ for Salon), which are brut nature, the extended bottling time providing the desired balance on the palate without the addition of sugar.

Champagne Delamotte

The first part of the tasting focused on Delamotte. One of the oldest houses in the Champagne region, founded in 1760, it specialises in Chardonnay, the grape variety at the heart of its four cuvées, where the average age of the vines is 40 years.

Champagne Delamotte also has HVE certification, which verifies its commitment to sustainable viticulture, and is moving towards organic farming trials

While it draws on the exceptional terroir of Mesnil-sur-Oger, Delamotte's philosophy, as Rimoldi told his audience, is the blending of the great crus of the Côte des Blancs. For the Blanc de Blancs NV, Avize and Oger are added to Mesnil, and for the pair of Blanc de Blancs Vintage cuvées, it is the three aforementioned crus plus Chouilly, Oiry, and Cramant.

‘We are the only house offering a blend of all six crus of the Côte,’ he emphasised. Added from 2008 onwards, Chouilly and Oiry ‘bring acidity, but also a structure similar to that of a Pinot Noir’.

The Blanc de Blancs NV is designed to be approachable, with the base vintage joined by 30% of reserve wine from the two preceding vintages, a 48-month aging period, and a more ‘inclusive’ dosage of around 7g/L.

The vintage cuvées, meanwhile, are crafted for complexity and ageing potential, and are undoubtedly the flagship of the house – albeit a discreet flagship, noted Rimoldi, often overlooked or little known by Côte des Blancs enthusiasts.

Contrasting vintage profiles

This was confirmed by comparative tastings of the 2018, 2014, and 2012 vintages. Their distinct identities were clearly identifiable – the ripeness of the 2018, the cool tension of the 2014, and the robust structure of the 2012 – especially since they were tasted in magnums. (They, like all 10 wines in the tasting, were aged under screwcap).

‘In terms of pH and ripeness, 2018 is similar to 1982,’ said Rimoldi when the topic of climate change was raised, along with its potential impact on a style as intense as Delamotte and Salon.

‘We need to take a step back and look at cycles,’ he explained. ‘We are obviously very aware of this issue. One advantage, however, is the improved health of the grapes compared to harvests that were previously very late and more complicated.

‘And we are fortunate to be on exceptional chalky terroirs with their water reserves, which are so important for the vines.’

The fact that the 2014 and 2012 were also in a period of post-disgorgement development highlighted the contrasting profiles of these vintages, both in terms of volume and aromas.

The comparison became even more interesting with the 2008 Collection. Delamotte offers late disgorgements for its Brut Vintage (dating back to 1964) as well as its Blanc de Blancs (1970, 1985, 1988, 1991, 1999, 2000, 2008).

Disgorged and then aged for barely a year, with no added dosage, the 2008 had the aromatic profile of a great Chardonnay, but with surprising power and density for a Côte des Blancs wine. A wine showing that Delamotte's vintage Blanc de Blancs is a benchmark, offering real value for money.

Champagne Salon

The second part of the tasting was devoted to the truly unique Salon Champagne. While its aesthetic – a single terroir (Le Mesnil-sur-Oger), a single vintage, a single grape variety – is no longer particularly striking today, Rimoldi reminded attendees that ‘Aimé Salon, a great lover of Burgundy, had this idea in 1905!’

Moving from the magnum format of the five Delamotte wines to the 75cl format for Salon – as well as going from the mature, brut nature 2008 Delamotte Collection to a young 2015 Salon, required particular concentration from the guests and was a true exercise for the palate.

But Rimoldi started with this latest vintage release followed by 2013, 2012, 2007, and 1997 in its 'second edition' version from 2020.

‘There is only one disgorgement when we release a vintage, and we do not indicate the date on the bottle,’ he told the masterclass.

‘However, we have decided to offer late disgorgements which we call Editions, in which case the disgorgement dates are mentioned. In terms of dosage, we are still around 5g/L to 7g/L grams, as for Delamotte, except for these late disgorgements, which are brut nature, as for Delamotte Collection.’

Making history

Only 45 vintages of Salon have been released since 1905 – 37 during the 20th century, but already eight since 2000.

Symbolic of the climatic consequences, 2015 was a sunny vintage so required less bottling time than 2014. This vintage has needed a longer time on the lees (tirage) and is still ageing ‘at a glacial pace’.

This is only the second time in Salon’s history it has made a non-chronological release. And once 2014 is out, it will also be only the second time that four consecutive Salon vintages (2012-13-14-15) will have been made, after the quadrilogy of 1946-47-48-49.Undoubtedly, the 2015 benefited from the water-retaining quality of the Mesnil chalk, mitigating the stress experienced by the vines in other Champagne areas, which can lead to vegetal bitterness on the palate.

The 2013 and 2012 vintages were remarkable examples of the Salon style, but very different profiles: 2012 with its mature, slightly more evolved structure, and 2013 with its crisp, chiselled freshness.

Salon has a reputation for closing up after a few years in the bottle and then reopening. This seems to be more the case with 2012 than 2013. The 2007, with a profile similar to the 2014, also benefited from a longer tirage period (11 years compared to the average of nine), and is now at its peak, deserving its nickname of ‘shining light’.

The masterclass concluded with a truly great 1997 (edition 2020), aged for 23 years and with no added dosage. Confirming again the importance of lees in defining texture and revealing density, the wine is surprisingly expressive.

Champagne Delamotte and Salon masterclass: 10 Blanc de Blancs cuvées

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Top medals for English producers at Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) 2026 show there has never been a better time to dive into the country’s rapidly developing vinous landscape, from vintage fizz to terroir-driven still wines.

Newly released results add a fresh chapter to UK winemakers’ blossoming success story. For the second consecutive year, a magnum of English sparkling featured in the top 50 Best in Show selection, which at DWWA 2026 represents just 0.3% of all wines tasted.

Meanwhile, still wines continue to assert themselves on the global stage. Chardonnay led the way at DWWA 2026, including via a coveted Platinum medal.

Simon Field MW, encouraged wine drinkers to ‘be adventurous’. DWWA’s rigorous judging process, involving many world-leading experts, means buyers can explore with the utmost confidence.

Top awarded English wines at DWWA 2026

Balfour, Blanc de Blancs, Kent, England 2018 (magnum)

Best in Show, 97 points
£120/magnum Balfour Winery
For the second year in a row, the sparkling wine that most impressed our GB & Ireland panel was one bottled in magnum. In contrast to last year’s Sussex blend, though, the 2026 laureate was a blanc de blancs wine from Kent. It was a much younger wine, too – a 2018 rather than last year’s 2009. A youthful style, then, with a see the of fine-beaded bubbles and incision to the fore in its sensual profile? Absolutely. But remember what a generous summer the UK enjoyed in 2018. The aromas of this pale sparkler sing: poised lemon cream, sourdough and cut stone tease and linger in the glass. While the palate is bracing, mouthwatering and impactful, that splendid season is evident in its length and resonance. The extra-dry style throws the spotlight on the wine’s fruit qualities (orchard fruits as well as lemony citrus) and the quality of its acidity (dominant, taut yet unquestionably ripe – as you can detect in the wine’s latent aromatics). This is an English wine magnum with a long future ahead if well stored. Alcohol 12%

Winding Wood, Rosé Brut, Berkshire, England 2022

Platinum, 97 points
£38 (ib)-£42.50 Carte Blanche Wines, Winding Wood Vineyard
Rose garden and strawberry aromatics with red apple notes. A plush, toasted brioche core. Beautifully fresh with a gentle mousse and a long finish. Alc 12%

Tidebrook, Staddle Stone Chardonnay, Sussex, England 2023

Platinum, 97 points
£34-£36 George Hill Grocers, Mousehall, The Whisky Exchange
Lush lemon curd and stone fruit underscored by the cool-climate tension of chalky minerals. Racy acidity ripples through a sheen of creamy oak complexity and garnishes the long finish. Alc 12.5%

Chapel Down, Kit’s Coty Coeur de Cuvée Extra Brut, Kent, England 2016

Gold, 96 points
£120-£130 Chapel Down, Hedonism, The English Wine Collection, The Whisky Exchange
Deliciously evolving aromas of ripe apple, quince, caramel and bread fill out the plump structure and settled mousse, quenched by the tapering, lemon tonic acidity. Alc 12%

Hundred Hills, Hillside No3, Oxfordshire, England 2019

Gold, 96 points
£116.34/magnum Hundred Hills
In magnum. Vivid citrus, biscuit and chalky mineral elegance harmonise with the ample texture and plush, creamy mousse. Very complete, long and sizzling with energy. Alc 12%

Wiston, Blanc de Blancs Brut, South Downs, England 2018

Gold, 96 points
£54-£65 All About Wine, Hedonism, London End Wines, Must & Lees, Wiston Estate

Tropical fruit and floral aromas over frothy, mouthfilling bubbles. Subtle acidity brings the fine-tuning. Savoury, creamy notes gather at the end. Alc 12%

Bluestone, Premier Reserve Brut, England 2018

Gold, 95 points
Bluestone Vineyards
Smouldering smoky matchstick characters pair admirably with a fine veneer of lemon tart, brioche and apricot jam. A plush opulence cushions the pervading acidity. Exceptional. Alc 12%

Hambledon, Blanc de Blancs Brut, Hampshire, England NV

Gold, 95 points
£54-£62 Berry Bros & Rudd, Hambledon Vineyard, The Champagne Co, Vinvm
Exemplary English character: floral, green cow parsley and vanilla cream aromas fold into the exuberant lemon-pith mousse and racy acidity. Very long and compelling. Alc 12%

Hambledon, Classic Cuvée Brut, Hampshire, England NV

Gold, 95 points
£95/magnum Hambledon Vineyard
In magnum. Splendid golden apple, pear and zingy lemon fragrance softly draped over a backdrop of baked caramel biscuit. Poised and stirring, with silky bubbles and mineral length. Alc 12%

Sugrue South Downs, Cuvée Dr Brendan O’Regan Brut, Sussex, England NV

Gold, 95 points
£125-£135 Grape Britannia, Hennings, Indigo Wine
Layers of apple, citrus and floral notes grace the refined effervescence and gentle acidity. A delightful honeyed, bready character unfolds towards the end. Alc 12%

Wiston, Blanc de Noirs Brut, South Downs, England 2018

Gold, 95 points
£58-£68 All about wine, Drinks Direct, Fortnum & Mason, Hedonism, The Wine Engine, Wiston Estate
Dark berry and toffee apple notes weave into the generous texture and bright, elevating acidity. Well crafted and pure. Alc 12%

Coolhurst Vineyards, Lady Elizabeth Rosé, Sussex, England 2018

Gold, 95 points
£45 Coolhurst Vineyards
Attractively composed fresh strawberry, raspberry, cherry and red apple allied with sumptuous brioche and savoury saline charm. Weighty and structured with supple mousse. Alc 12%

Gusbourne, Boot Hill Vineyard Chardonnay, Kent, England 2022

Gold, 95 points
£55 Gusbourne
Assertive aromas of baked apple, pear and creamy oak sit regally over the luxuriant structure and ease gently towards a deceptively long finish. Perfectly expressed Chardonnay. Alc 13%

Harrow & Hope, No10 Reserve Brut, Buckinghamshire, England NV

Silver, 94 points
£33-£35 Abingdon Fine Wine, Grape Britannia, Jeroboams, Laithwaites, The English Wine Collection, The Oxford Wine Co
Toasted hazelnut, walnut and honeysuckle aromas. Concentrated lemon curd and pastry notes. Alc 12%

English Oak, San Gabriel Blanc de Blancs Chardonnay Brut, Dorset, England 2019

Silver, 93 points
£60 English Oak Vineyard
Nougat, fig and spice on the nose. Creamy pear and stewed apple flavours, bright acidity and hints of toffee apple. Alc 12%

Search all DWWA 2026 winners

Sunny summer days mean it’s time for seafood, but which wine to choose? Here are some golden rules – and refreshingly offbeat pairing suggestions.

How to choose a wine to pair with seafood: Advice from sommeliers

Remember the sauce

Chablis with fish, claret with meat – haven’t we come a long way since then? The seafood and wine pairings on offer from sommeliers these days range from Junmai Daiginjo sake to fino Sherry and from Georgian orange wines to bright, cherry-packed Sicilian Frappato.

There’s method in their madness, of course, with tried and tested matches adding another layer of complexity and flavour to your seafood feast, each enhancing the other – or at least that’s the theory.

There are some rules to follow, of course. There’s no point ruining a fine white Burgundy with a fat Hebridean scallop dressed with a vinegar-spiked beurre blanc when an off-dry Riesling will deliver just the right zingy balance, the sweetness riffing with the sauce.

So, there’s rule number one: match the wine with the sauce rather than the protein.

Think about acidity, weight and texture

Riffing with wine and food is something Fabio De Nicola embraces. The sommelier at Italian seafood restaurant Baccalà near London Bridge often likes to create balance through contrast.

‘For example, using high acidity to cut through richer or oily fish, or saline and mineral notes to highlight freshness and natural sweetness,’ he says, while pairing a vibrant yet creamy 2020 Verdicchio di Matelica Riserva from Casa Lucciola with a main of grilled prawns and squid with black lime and bitter greens.

Charlie Edwards agrees. Until recently the food and beverage director at Tom Brown at The Capital in London’s Knightsbridge, which was awarded its first Michelin star this year for its creative menu, Edwards believes you should always consider acidity when it comes to matching seafood and wine.

‘Acidity keeps things clean and bright,’ he says. ‘Shellfish and meatier fish often sit beautifully with wines that have a bit more body and mineral tension, like a Chardonnay from Burgundy, whereas lean white fish really shines alongside crisp, aromatic styles.

‘And look at the weight and texture of the dish,’ he adds. ‘Lighter, delicately cooked seafood tends to work best with fresh, precise wines that won’t overwhelm it, while richer dishes – whether that richness comes from the fish or the sauce – can take something with more depth.’

How has your seafood been cooked?

Another thing to consider is the cooking technique, says Marcello Colletti, sommelier at London’s swankiest new seafood restaurant opening, Lilibet’s in Mayfair.

‘If your fish is grilled, that introduces a smoky element, so think light reds such as Chilean País, Jura Poulsard or Oregon Pinot Noir. Or if the fish is pan-fried in butter, then look at rich Chardonnay or Chenin Blanc.’

Seafood with sake

And when you’re struggling to find that perfect match for your seafood dish? Consider sake, suggests Michele Orbolato head of wine and sake at London Japanese fine dining restaurant Luna Omakase.

‘Certain styles of sake contain umami, which gives them broader and more flexible pairing options with seafood,’ he says. ‘This allows sake to complement textures and flavours that can sometimes challenge wine.’

The preferred pairing for Luna’s ambrosial signature dish O-Toro tartare – bluefin tuna belly tartare, aged wasabi and caviar? A sparkling sake. ‘Masumi’s Origarami works beautifully with the dish, offering delicacy, freshness and gentle palate-cleansing qualities,’ enthuses Orbolato.

Keeping it simple

Want to keep it simple? Then stick to the well-trodden path of pairing coastal wines with seafood dishes – hello, Txakoli and the like. And if you’re stuck with what’s on offer at the local supermarket, there’s always good old Albariño – it works every time.

Five great wine and seafood pairings to try

Native oysters with vintage blanc de blanc Champagne

The richness of the Chardonnay matches the meatiness of the oyster, while the oxidative qualities of the ageing contrast with the salinity.

Fish & chips with manzanilla Sherry

You can’t beat a light, fresh manzanilla Sherry with fish and chips – served chilled, its bone-dry, salty, zesty profile cuts through the rich batter and even stands up to the vinegar

Grilled sardines with Assyrtiko

A punchy fish, especially when barbecued and doused in lemon, needs a punchy coastal wine with lots of citrussy acidity to cut through the oiliness and smoke – step forward Santorini Assyrtiko.

Turbot pil-pil with Godello

A recent discovery – high-acidity, minerally, aromatic Galician Godello easily stands up to the now-popular rich, garlicky Basque sauce.

Seafood platter with English sparkling wine

With its racy acidity and distinctive flinty minerality, English fizz shines served with towering tiers of simply cooked seafood.

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The 2009 Bordeaux vintage has lost none of its power to charm and captivate.

A recent tasting in Atlanta showed that most of these wines are still in their first blush of youth, and the best will live for decades.

The intervening years have only confirmed what we suspected even on release – this is among the epochal vintages from Bordeaux.

It represents a turning point in the wines of Bordeaux in so many ways – the warming climate, the changing styles, the fashion for the wines – yet 2009 stands alone.

The chance to revisit these wines was exciting for all the tasters. Michael Davis, principal at Hart Davis Hart auction house in the US, expressed it best when he said that for him 2009 was 'joyful and expressive'.

The alluring 2009 style

There were several top-flight vintages in the first decade of the new century, beginning with superb millennial vintage, the almost unbearably hot 2003 that delivered sybaritic delights; the monumental 2005, still tannic and not yet ready to drink, with the charming 2006 and 2008 just behind.

There are many wine lovers, however, who would argue that the finest vintage of the decade was 2009. The wines are voluptuous, accessible, and hedonistic, yet structured enough to last.

It occurred to me while tasting through these two dozen wines that 2009 resembles the wines from 1982, and I began to think of 2009 as an updated version of 1982 – almost a ‘1982.2’.

The wines in general are substantial and have abundant extract; lots of tannin yet no astringency; enough acidity to give definition but not so much as to make them hard or unyielding; and a sweet, ripe character to the fruit with no sense of it being baked or over-ripe.

The secret to the seductive nature of the fruit in 2009 is that the vines never shut down during the growing season, as they do in the face of excessive heat or drought.

There was just enough water in July and August to keep the vines ripening the fruit throughout the season, and while there were hot days (and plenty of sunshine), the grapes did not suffer the excessive heat spikes that they saw in 2000 or 2003.

The weather behind the magic

The year got off to an appropriate start with a cold, wet winter that plunged the vines into dormancy, refilled the water table, ensuring that budbreak didn't start too early.

There was no hint of spring frost, and although there was a hail storm on 11 May, it did not damage the best vines.

Flowering happened early and finished quickly, setting a large crop on the vines. Crucially, the growing season was hot and sunny, but not so much as to interrupt the grapes gentle ripening.

The region saw moderate rainfall on 18, 19, and 20 September, but there was no further rain until the harvest was complete.

The key to success was to wait until after the rain to pick the Merlot, and to wait until the Cabernet was fully ripe, beginning in mid-October.

Because of the gentle nature of the growing season, the vines ripened to levels not often seen in Bordeaux – mostly over 14% on the Left Bank and up to (and sometimes beyond) 15% on the Right Bank.

If picked at the right time, both Cabernet and Merlot were successful.

Because of the lush, forward character these conditions delivered, these powerful wines are beginning to open up now.

While it is not too early to pull some corks, the best of these wines should continue to improve for decades to come.

From boom to bargain: The market context

When the 2009 vintage came to market, the world was in love with Bordeaux wine. Demand was booming in Asia, and the 2008 financial crisis was disappearing in the rear window.

With consumers in the UK, US, and Hong Kong all avidly chasing top Bordeaux wines, the 2009 primeurs offers were optimistic, and prices seemed dear indeed.

In the intervening 15 years since this primeurs campaign, however, much has changed – Bordeaux wines have lost some of their shine, the global wine market is depressed, and producers are sitting on significant stocks.

As a consequence, prices for these sumptuous wines have not increased greatly, and are, in some cases, lower today than they were upon release.

For a buyer looking for immediate pleasure, long-term cellaring potential, and perhaps smart appreciation, the 2009 vintage represents a wonderful opportunity.

Standout performers

Among the delights of the tasting were second growths that were drinking like firsts, particularly Léoville-Las Cases, Léoville-Poyferré, Pichon-Baron and Gruaud-Larose (as well as perennial overachieving fifth growth Pontet-Canet).

There were also strong performances further down the price ladder like Poujeaux and Malescot-Saint-Exupéry.

Although were some disappointments – I felt that both Lynch-Bages and Pavie should have done better given the conditions – the best wines of the vintage are classics that will long outlive most of us, particularly Margaux and Lafite, with Cheval, Mouton, and La Mission Haut-Brion not far behind.

Bordeaux 2009: 24 top wines from this epochal vintage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to the future

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

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

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

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

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

What was old is new

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

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

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

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

Chillable Spanish reds

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Old-school or contemporary? Chianti Classico’s wineries argue that 2024 is both.

‘They recall the Chianti Classicos produced in vintages of yesteryear,’ says Monteraponi’s Alessandra Deiana, who describes them as elegant, fine boned and lively.

At the same time, wineries are hopeful that these chillable, chuggable reds will appeal to today’s tastes. ‘It’s what wine drinkers are looking for now’, asserts Paolo Paffi at Casa Emma.

What is the 2024 style?

Stylistically, the 2024 Chianti Classico annatas are slender and frisky, with modest alcohols typically hovering between 12-13%.

Quality, however, is mixed. Those that shone are vivacious, agile and refreshing, exhibiting lovely perfumes and extraordinary lightness with satisfying flavour.

Some are less charming, even a bit angular, while the weakest examples reveal lean and diluted wines with green, unripe tannins.

Embodying the beauty of 2024, Badia a Coltibuono is my top annata. Other highlights include Monteraponi, Jurij Fiore & Figlia’s unoaked Sonocosì, and Principe Corsini’s Villa Le Corti for value.

Viticcio spent less time in wood to allow for an earlier release and is all the better for it. Both San Giusto a Rentennano and Poggerino show a bit more density and structure relative to their counterparts without forsaking the identity of the vintage.

While the annata category is often a treasure trove of wines that overdeliver, this is less prevalent in 2024. Even so, most sit comfortably and modishly within their station.

I am less inclined to put away a few bottles ‘for science’ as I often do; instead, it is a vintage for immediate and uninhibited drinking.

For those – like me – who love lithe sprightly reds, the vintage’s successes are worth buying. Who knows when a profile like 2024 will come around again?

Clinging on to organics

Chianti Classico 2024: Vintage in depth

The 2024 vintage of Chianti Classico is certainly unlike any other in the last decade. A wet spring, followed by the dry and progressively hot summer somewhat resembled 2023.

September and October, however, were marked by cool temperatures and unremitting rain, the likes of which growers had not seen in years.

‘That extended ripening cycle gave us lower alcohol, brighter acidity, and a freshness and luminosity in the wines that I find genuinely exciting,’ raves Roberto Stucchi at Badia a Coltibuono.

While many echo his enthusiasm, others are less convinced. Matteo Buccerelli at Antico Podere Casanova decided against bottling a Chianti Classico altogether, claiming that the wine is ‘too thin’.

By all accounts, the growing season was gruelling. The wet spring brought high disease pressure, and after devastating losses to peronospora (downy mildew) in 2023, agronomist teams were extra vigilant about staying on top of spraying.

The vines rebounded from the low yields of 2023 with a bumper crop. The Chianti Classico consorzio reports a total production of 305,000 hectolitres in 2024, which is 50% more than 2023, and the highest since 2019.

At San Giusto a Rentennano, Luca Martini di Cigala says that green harvesting was ‘fundamental’ to achieving full ripeness.

He dropped 25-30% of bunches between July and August, and another 10-12% at the beginning of September. ‘Too often, grape thinning is done too late or not at all,’ he emphasises.

The heavy loads were exacerbated by the rain in September, which plumped up berries and slowed ripening, particularly in areas with less sun exposure. The once common practice of deleafing became vital again.

According to several growers, achieving phenolic ripeness was a challenge, especially in vineyards where the summer heat had blocked photosynthesis. However, waiting for ripeness increased the risk of rot.

The long and onerous harvest lasted well into October and required multiple passages in between downpours.

Thin, delicate skins demanded gentle vinifications. Winemakers cited everything from less pumping over, avoiding punching down and shorter macerations.

The latter was also due to logistics, as there were just so many grapes to vinify – estates scrambled to get their hands on more vats to deal with the surfeit.

‘2024 was undoubtedly difficult to manage, and costlier compared to other years,’ says Angela Fronti at Istine. ‘Nevertheless, it was highly rewarding in the end.’

Read the rest of Michaela's Chianti Classico analysis:

Late release – A look at the 2023s

Michaela's pick of Chianti Classico 2024 (& late releases)

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Both 2023 and 2024 had their challenges for winemakers, but that doesn’t mean these vintages are void of great value-for-money wines.

This year’s value picks focus on chillable, quaffable annatas rather than bottles which rise above their station.

But as a reminder that Chianti Classico offers amazing value throughout its ranks, in addition to the entry-level annatas I've also included one Riserva and one Gran Selezione that won’t break the bank.

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Elevated from Riserva to Gran Selezione for the 2023 vintage, Maurizio Alongi’s standout Vigna Barbischio proudly touts the UGA (Unità Geografiche Aggiuntive) of Gaiole – one of eight subzones now permitted on Gran Selezione labels.

Similarly, Cigliano di Sopra has debuted its first ever Gran Selezione, from a single vineyard in San Casciano planted in 2016.

Maddalena Fucile admits that it’s unusual to declare this lofty status for fledging vines – for context, the estate’s Riserva features 50-year-old plantings.

‘If a vineyard is born with the right stuff, it can be a Gran Selezione even from its youth,’ she reasons.

I was also charmed by Il Poggiolino’s resinous Le Balze and Poggio al Sole’s glossy Casasilia. Both hail from San Donato in Poggio and offer satisfying drinking over the next decade.

As the majority of 2023 Gran Seleziones won’t be released until at least next year, I will reserve final judgement for now – however, several estates including Tregole and Castello di Ama have already indicated that they will skip the vintage for their Gran Selezione.

And while Rocca delle Macìe did produce its Fizzano Il Crocino label, the family chose to use the fruit from their prized plot usually destined for their flagship Sergio Zingarelli bottling in the Riserva instead.

2022 and 2021: Perfect scores and changing rules

The 2022 and 2021 Gran Selezione releases cast a brilliant spotlight on the classification, offering cellarworthy gems promising 10 to 15 years of evolution.

Notably, Castello di Ama’s magnificent Bellavista 2022 earns the distinction of receiving my first ever 100-point score for a Chianti Classico.

Enjoy its longstanding signature blend of 80% Sangiovese and 20% Malvasia Nera while it lasts, as it will soon be tweaked to conform with revised regulations due to come into effect for the 2027 vintage, which stipulate a minimum of 90% Sangiovese.

Furthermore, because the updated protocol for Gran Selezione will prohibit Merlot altogether, the estate has withdrawn its La Casuccia bottling from the Chianti Classico denomination as of the 2022 vintage.

An 80/20 blend of Sangiovese and Merlot, it is now labelled as a Toscana IGT.

Marco Pallanti, who launched the wine in 1985 and was instrumental in establishing the Gran Selezione category, expresses regret.

‘I have always believed that the best wines of the zone should be Chianti Classico,’ he states. While a loss for the denomination, La Casuccia will find itself in good company among the region’s exceptional Super Tuscans.

The majority of Gran Seleziones today are made exclusively from Sangiovese, having been conceived relatively recently or evolved with foresight of the category’s direction.

Castello di Fonterutoli’s Badiòla is one such example, and rings out in 2022 as a clear reference point for Radda’s cool, radiant and racy profile.

Expanding horizons & new projects

Fully embracing the UGA endeavour, Antinori’s new trio of Gran Selezione from San Casciano, Castellina and Gaiole shine for the second consecutive year.

In other news, the company announced that it has taken over management of Castello di Cacchiano, a historic property once part of the original Ricasoli empire. Expect a facelift there.

With the 2022 vintage, Fèlsina marks its 60th anniversary. Throughout this time, the Poggiali family have been steadfast champions of Sangiovese.

Their Colonia wonderfully captures the wild, earthy sunbaked allure of Castelnuovo Berardegna.

From the same UGA, San Felice’s second vintage of La Pieve combines structural and fruit richness in an approachable package.

Now under the direction of Carlo De Biasi, San Felice is embracing regenerative agriculture. Through the LIFE VitiCaSe project, they have established four pilot vineyards, in collaboration with Castello di Albola and Tenute Ruffino, serving as an educational hub for improving soil health and increasing carbon capture capacity.

Other noteworthy nascent Gran Selezione bottlings from 2022 include Castello di Gabbiano’s Vigneto Cerbaiola, sourced from a single parcel in San Donato in Poggio, and Pomona’s Vigna del Termine.

The latter will eventually bear the UGA of Vagliagli – one of three additional subzones permitted from 2027.

Don't forget the 2022s

Not to be outdone by the 2022s, the late-release 2021s offer as much pleasure as cellaring potential.

Among my personal highlights, Castagnoli’s transportive Salita and Nardi’s effusive Vigna del Pino both wave the flag for the Castellina UGA.

Built for the long term, Castello di Monsanto’s celebrated Vigna Poggio from San Donato in Poggio is outstanding. Likewise, Panzano-based Le Cinciole comes out with its best ever vintage of Aluigi.

Finally, after years in the making, Querciabella has released three new Gran Selezione representing Greve, Radda and – another UGA-in-waiting – Lamole.

‘This was Sebastiano’s dream,’ says long-time winemaker Manfred Ing. However, Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni ceded ownership of the winery to his sister Mita Castiglioni and her son Andrea before seeing the project reach fruition.

The wines are a stunning testament to his legacy, with the Radda bottling getting my top vote.

Ultimately, no single subzone triumphs above the others. Instead, the exciting and diverse wines emanating from across the region serve to reinforce the UGA project, cementing the ongoing commitment of Chianti Classico's top estates to the Gran Selezione category.

Read the rest of Michaela's Chianti Classico analysis:

Michaela's top Gran Selezione released this year

Gran Selezione: Best of the rest

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With a young generation embracing it, and historical estates continuing to defend it, Chianti Classico Riserva remains resilient to the vagaries of vintage, climate and trends.

Even as former Riservas continue to be upgraded to Gran Selezione, Chianti Classico's middle tier is still seeing its share of new wines.

Sofia Ricasoli, who represents the 33rd generation of the region’s most legendary wine family, has chosen Riserva for her one and only Chianti Classico made under her own label.

‘It’s a more historical category than Gran Selezione’, she rationalises. Launched with the 2021 vintage, Innesto means ‘graft’ and references a return to her deep roots after studying and practising law, while at the same time looks toward the future.

Challenges aplenty

Aware but undeterred by the myriad of challenges facing the wine industry today, Ricasoli asserts, ‘The greatest is climate change – more so than market or economic conditions.’

Indeed, climate challenges were front and centre in 2023, with a significant reduction in quantities due to peronospora (downy mildew), hail and drought.

After losing 80% at his Monte Bernardi estate, Michael Schmeltzer essentially folded what are typically three separate bottlings into a single soulful Riserva. Other estates didn’t bottle a Riserva at all.

The Riserva 2023s that were bottled reveal some issues managing ripeness and volatile acidity. Several examples were already fully evolved, contradicting the spirit of the category.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, my top picks come from the region’s cooler pockets: Castello di Querceto in the upper reaches of Greve, Castello di Volpaia in the fresh, forested subdistrict of Radda, and Castellaccio’s Lama dei Cortacci above the hamlet of Lamole at a lofty 700 metres.

I would recommend drinking these over the next five to eight years. San Giusto a Rentennano’s reliably excellent Le Baròncole is an exception and needs more time in bottle.

Chianti Classico's up-and-comers

Read the rest of Michaela's Chianti Classico analysis:

2022 and other late releases

2022 is shaping up to be a far more consistent vintage than 2023. Revisiting some 2022s released last year alongside some 2022s debuting this year reveals a highly successful cohort.

Combining density with grip and zip, they offer a solid decade of drinking potential. Among this year's releases, L'Erta di Radda and Val delle Corti are highlights, while Podere Ferrale is yet another promising new name.

Meanwhile, the category's stalwarts continue to live up to their formidable reputations, highlighted by Castello di Monsanto’s vivacious 2022, Badia a Coltibuono’s refined 2021, and Castell’in Villa’s intricate, age-worthy 2020.

Michaela's pick of Chianti Classico Riserva

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I arrived in Burgundy for a two-month stint in late spring of 2024 with only a limited understanding of the region, and even less sense of how to navigate it.

It wasn’t until a couple of weeks into living in Chalon-sur-Saône that I went to Beaune for the first time.

I soon realised that the key to enjoying Burgundy at its best was to think – and drink – like a local.

Burgundy is small enough, and its wine community close enough, that it doesn’t take long to notice how everyone is connected – winemakers, importers and friends-of-friends all circle back to the same handful of addresses.

Spend just a few evenings in Beaune’s wine bars and that web starts to reveal itself.

Get to the beating heart

The centre of that web is Beaune’s Saturday market – and more specifically, the Saint Romain Coffee cart in front of the giant panda statue.

Matt McClune, an artist from Boston, moved to France in 2004 with his wife, eventually landing in St-Romain, where he started a coffee roastery.

Saint Romain Coffee fuels the wine world in Burgundy and beyond. The coffees, which are all sourced from independent farms in Ethiopia, are carefully roasted in small batches at Matt’s shop, located in a cellar-like space on a steep hill just above a sea of vines.

The shop is open Mondays and Tuesdays, but it’s best to find Matt on Saturdays, pouring perfectly extracted espresso into ceramic mugs among a swarm of winemakers and market-goers.

It’s from this point that the world of Burgundy – its goings-on, its stories, its secrets – opens up.

Ease into local life

The market itself is one of the region’s best. Stalls of spices, cheese, fruit, bread, vegetables and cured meats roll into town before sunrise and take over every street, only to roll out again by midday.

Beaune’s narrow cobbled roads buzz with food and wine lovers.

Afterwards, with bags of Comté and produce in hand, locals retreat to Beaune’s brasseries for lunch. Crème Comptoir, an all-day café and wine bar on Rue Paradis, is a favourite – an easygoing spot, where bar seating wraps around an open kitchen.

Here Saturday afternoons reliably draw a crowd of local winemakers and wine professionals catching up over a bottle.

Listen in for long enough and you’ll pick up on the region’s rhythms. The Côte d’Or’s large expat community makes it an easy place to navigate without French, and postings for local wine and food fairs and concerts are usually pinned in the window.

In Burgundy, it’s nearly impossible to turn over every stone in a single visit – there is always another producer, another café, another thread to follow.

What remains constant is the promise of a region that opens itself up to those patient and curious enough to seek out its local community, not just its cellar doors.

Knowing where to begin is the hardest part – and that’s exactly what this guide, and the recommendations below, are designed to help with.

Many of the villages in Burgundy are accessible by train – the same line that carries you south to Lyon and north to Paris.

Having a car isn’t really necessary, but it’s helpful for organising vineyard visits and exploring the region beyond its towns.

Wineries to visit

The wineries listed here are a great start to discovering the wines of the region. Always try and book in advance, some wineries are open by appointment only.

Where to stay

Boutique hotels and guest houses are the perfect place to base yourself when travelling in Burgundy. Many of them marry historic touches and original features with contemporary decor and a sense of understated luxry.

Alfred Hotels, Beaune

A boutique hotel on the edge of Beaune that opened in early 2026, its 49 rooms are the perfect jumping off point for exploring the local town and the region beyond.

It seamlessly blends old and new, offering a comfortable stay while remaining enmeshed in Beaune’s historic landscape.

Maison du Colombier, Beaune

A historic guesthouse in Beaune’s city center with five independent apartments and a great wine bar that opens onto the iconic cobblestone streets.

Maison le Chevreuil, Meursault

Luxury 10-room inn and restaurant surrounded by the beautiful vineyards of Meursault.

Papotte, Bligny-sur-Ouche

A series of four design-forward homes and apartments located around a beautiful mill, offering longer-stay rentals. There is also a beautiful café.

Côté Park, Givry

An 18th-century château converted into four distinct guest rooms which overlook a quiet courtyard.

Ô Cœur de Chalon, Chalon-sur-Saône

There are some amazing homes for rent in downtown Chalon-Sur-Saône, and this is a great option for something central.

What to do

Where to eat and drink

Unsurprisingly good wine is not hard to come by in Burgundy, but the suggestions for restaurants and wine bars below offer something a cut above the rest; a well-measured combination of excellent wines, thoughtful and sensitive food and great atmosphere.

Crème Café, Beaune

All-day café and wine bar serving seasonal fare in a laid back setting.

La Dilettante, Beaune

Wine bar serving natural wine and French classics with a Japanese influence.

Caves Madeleine, Beaune

Often considered one of the best restaurants in Beaune for its hyper-local classic cuisine and amazing wine list. Make a reservation far in advance to get a seat.

The Publican, Beaune

Local evening haunt serving great local wine and beers on draft.

Le Soleil, Savigny-les-Beaune

A quaint inn and bistro set inside a gorgeous, sun-yellow home. Both the food and wine menus rotate daily – farm to table takes on a new meaning here, with deliveries being made by local farmers and winemakers at all hours of the day and night.

La Cave du Centre, Chagny

Opened in 2024 by wine writer Aaron Ayscough, it serves foremost as a wine shop offering unique and fan-favourite bottles alike, alongside a menu – written on the mirror of course – of classically French small bites.

Colette, Chassagne

Set among Chassagne’s beautiful vineyards, this is a wine bar, wine shop and coffee shop from Clément Colin-Morey – son of local legendary winemaker Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey – and his partner Emma.

Le Petit Chêne, Chassagne

One of the region’s best boulangeries and chocolate shops.

Le Soufflot, Meursault

Located in a former winegrower's house in one of Burgundy’s most iconic villages, the atmosphere here is relaxed and comfortable, but the food is refined and delicate, paired with an excellent wine list.

Haïka Coffee, Chalon-Sur-Saône

A great local roastery in the town center with a lovely terrace where you can catch the goings-on of the town while you sip.

La Maison Romane, Nuits-St-Georges

Restaurant, bakery, brewery and cellar, La Maison Romane is a true hub for community and connection in Burgundy, founded by Oronce de Beler, who decided to leave Paris in 2004 to learn winemaking.

Bruno, Dijon

An intimate wine bar helmed by Bruno himself, a local legend in Dijon, who has curated one of the most refined wine lists in Burgundy, serving charcuterie, cheese, anchovies and other great delicacies to regulars and tourists alike.

Cibo, Dijon

A new-wave bistrot serving refined seasonal fare inside of a stunning 17th-century stone building in downtown Dijon.

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Romano dal Forno was born in 1957, the only son of a family of small vineyard owners in the valley of Ilasi, in the east of Valpolicella.

Like many families in the valley, the Dal Fornos had always produced wine for their own use and sold the bulk of their grapes to the local cooperative. Romano was the first to bottle and sell wine under his own name.

When I first met Romano towards the end of the 1980s, we spoke at the kitchen table of his family home.

A flight of rickety steps led from the kitchen to the tiny underground cellar where Romano’s entire production was ageing in traditional casks.

A single light bulb dangled from the ceiling of the cellar – the scene was one which you would have found in the homes of countryside families the length and breadth of Italy in those days.

Passing in front of the Azienda Agricola Romano dal Forno today, the company headquarters could easily be mistaken for a rather grand 17th-century Venetian villa from the outside.

The architecture, along with the decor of the reception areas are of the era, however the grape-drying and vinification facilities are high-tech, with an array of equipment designed to the company’s own specifications.

The cellars go down three levels, and the vaulted barrique cellar alone extends for an area of 1,392m².

Valpolicella's best-kept secret

The vineyard area has grown from the original 7.5 hectares to 35ha, and production from 5,000 bottles a year to an average of 50,000.

The wines – which for most of the 1980s were Valpolicella’s best-kept secret – today enjoy iconic status.

The transformation of the azienda has something of a fairytale story about it, and in fact Romano himself says: ‘Sometimes, when I’m on my own in the winery, I wander around and I think to myself, how on earth did I manage all this?’

Romano made his first official vintage in 1983. He was 26 years old and recently married.

Bursting with energy, he was idealistic and galvanised by the dream of making quality wine. But breaking with the local cooperative was a giant step.

When Romano told his father he wanted to start his own production, his father took it badly. Where was the sense in setting up in competition with the cooperatives?

In the end his father acquiesced, but looking back now, Romano has to admit that he was right to be sceptical.

‘In the 1980s, the word “quality” did not exist in the Italian language. You had to produce quantity to get ahead’.

Learning from a legend

It was about that same time that Romano met Giuseppe Quintarelli, with whom he formed a lasting relationship.

The legendary Amarone producer was an inspirational figure for Romano, but when it came to making wine, he was determined to do it his way.

‘I didn’t want to be a copy of Quintarelli… I wanted to stand on my own two feet’, he says, continuing, ‘Giuseppe always used to say, “We have always made wine the way tradition commanded, and how it always has been”, but that jarred with me’.

Romano could not relate to a tradition that was not a part of him, but there was one instance at the start of his career when following Quintarelli’s advice proved to be a game-changer.

Quintarelli had suggested that Romano thin out the crop, which he did – not by removing whole bunches, but by cutting away the bottom of the bunch to leave only the wings, known as the ‘ears’.

‘I saw immediately that this was a good thing to do, but also very risky,’ he recalls. ‘The results were great when the weather held, but in years when it rained it was a disaster’.

Despite the risks, with this extremely rigid selection using only tiny bunches of the very best fruit, Romano was able to produce high quality wine.

This attracted the attention of an American importer and enabled him to enter the US market at the end of the 1980s, commanding prices well above the average for the period.

At this stage, no more than 5,000 bottles were being made from his 7.5ha of vineyard – around 3,500 bottles of Valpolicella and 1,500 of Amarone.

These drastically reduced yields and hyper-selection became hallmarks of the estate, but Romano knew that castigating the vines in a vineyard which was not designed for low yields was a compromise.

Following visits to France to study high-density planting, Romano planted a vineyard with 11,000 vines/ha in 1996, and over the next 10 years, between new acquisitions and the replanting of existing plots, he converted the entire estate to hyper-density, resulting in revolutionary low yields unheard of in the Veneto at that time.

Rethinking the process

The vineyard is the starting place, but it does not stop there. Romano likes to cite the late Carlo Petrini’s dictum that, ‘From great grapes you can also make excellent vinegar’, and the refinement of the vinification processes has played a crucial role in the evolution of the winery.

The distinctive features of Dal Forno’s wines – the purity of fruit, the dry elegance, the finesse of the tannins, and the extreme technical precision – can all be traced to specific innovations in winemaking over the course of time.

The fruit quality comes from the rethinking of the grape drying (‘appassimento’) process.

Romano recounts that in the first years: ‘Clients used to come to visit... and I would proudly show them grapes still laid out to dry in April. When I think about it now, I think, how stupid I was’.

The concentration that comes with appassimento is indispensable to Amarone, but over-long drying compromises the purity of the fruit, introducing notes of advanced evolution.

‘Appassimento isn’t like sending a school kid to do cramming lessons to make up for what he didn’t learn at school’, Romano notes. ‘It’s that extra bit of study that helps him to excel’.

Reducing the length of appassimento meant going back to the vineyard and picking later to have levels of ripeness which offset a shorter period of grape drying.

Grapes for Amarone now dry for no more than 60 days, and since 2001 the fruit for Dal Forno’s Valpolicella is pressed after 30 days.

Since 2020, production has been managed by Romano's son, Marco.

The second milestone in the forming of the house style was the development of a drier style of Amarone.

‘Amarone is an opulent wine; if it’s not opulent it’s not Amarone, but that opulence has to be supported by a freshness and sapidity that make it inviting to drink’.

Final tweaks

Obtaining the elegance of the style he was looking for meant reducing the residual sugar, but up until 1993, when he moved into new, purpose-built cellars, fermenting all the sugar out of musts with the massive concentration of partially dried grapes was problematic.

He says: ‘I remember that in the early years, not having the technology, nor the understanding of how to solve the issue, many vintages ended up with residual sugar. Perhaps some clients liked the old-fashioned style, but I didn’t.

'Amarone should have three or four grams of residual sugar, maximum five, but sometimes it used to go up to eight, nine or even 10 grams. They might have drunk all right when they were young, but with age those wines became fat and sticky’.

The ability to control the temperatures in the final stage of fermentation through underfloor heating in the new cellars was the piece of the jigsaw that completed the picture.

From the first vinifications in cement vats in the old family cellar, in order to get the textures he was looking for, Romano has always experimented with crushing, fermenting and punching down together in the same vessels.

When he moved into the new cellars he started experimenting with vinification in barriques.

‘I found out later that in France, Château Le Pin was vinifying in the same way, but I didn’t know that when I started,’ he recalls.

Romano was not satisfied with the initial results, but he learned from the experience.

‘In 1995, I constructed the prototype of a vat that reproduces the vinification in barriques, and from then on, it was plain sailing.’

Defending identity

I put it to Romano that there is great stylistic diversity in the Amarones produced today, and I asked for his views on the direction it should take in the future – should it try to accommodate modern tastes, or remain faithful to its origins?

His reply left no doubt about his convictions: ‘There is a theory among some producers that Amarone should become a wine to drink throughout the meal… but it has no sense.

‘Amarone is not an everyday wine. We are talking about wines with 16-17 degrees of alcohol. I can’t imagine an Amarone with 14 degrees. To go under 16% you lose concentration, you lose substance… If we turn Amarone into a vinello ('a little wine') what have we achieved? We’ve lost that identity that has brought us to where we are today.

‘When we begin to put into question emblems, Amarone and Recioto… we are destroying our history’.

Dal Forno Amarone in some vintages, such as the great 2011, has touched 17% abv and perhaps even a half a point higher, but the wines have always maintained that characteristic. The current aim is to stabilise at 16%, but not to go under.

Romano believes that accommodating Amarone to perceived commercial demand for wines to drink throughout a meal is a betrayal of its true character.

‘Reducing the alcohol, you have to press earlier and then you lose concentration and substance'.

A taste of precision

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time travel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An uncertain path

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Supporting creativity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One Guyon to try

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On a quiet road in St-Emilion, two tall stone pillars mark the entrance to small, idyllic, grand cru classé Château Corbin.

Turn in and follow the gravel drive lined with old horse-chestnut trees. You’ll come to an iron gate that opens to a courtyard and a white-shuttered 18^th century château of cream-coloured stone, complete with romantic tower.

Outbuildings on either side hold the vat cellar and the office; the surround is well-tended Merlot and Cabernet Franc vines, the main grapes of St-Emilion.

This elegant property is one of my favourites in Bordeaux. Unlike the left bank’s grand, imposing châteaux with shiny new chais designed by famous architects, Corbin feels intimate, charming, jewel-like.

You fantasise about living there. And it has a tradition of being run by talented women.

The latest is Anabelle Cruse-Bardinet, who took over in 1999, and did that year’s harvest with a baby in her arms, she tells me as we tour the vines and cellar.

Now she’s wearing fashionable black sunglasses and boots, black slacks, and a man’s Rolex.

Since just before the 21^st century began, she’s been revamping this beautiful estate and perfecting its wines.

As she began, a Right Bank group of rebels called garagistes dominated the conversation in St-Emilion with their controversial, flamboyant, oaky reds that achieved cult status thanks to the enthusiasm of critic Robert Parker.

But Cruse-Bardinet’s goal from the beginning was different: to hone a wine style that’s all about elegance, purity, and Corbin’s terroir. And her recent vintages are the best yet.

A long history, and trailblazing women

In the 13^th century, Corbin’s land was the central part of a large fiefdom belonging to local lord Arnaud de Corbin.

One later owner, it’s believed, was the son of King Edward III of England, known as the Black Prince who was, for a short while, direct ruler of Gascony and lived in Bordeaux.

Time saw the eventual breakup of the huge property. A map dating to 1811 shows five châteaux that include ‘Corbin’ as part of their names, but Château Corbin is the original one.

By the 19th^th century Corbin belonged to négociant Jean Chaperon-Grangère, mayor of Libourne, and his death started a tradition of women managing the estate, his widow Marguerite taking charge from 1832 to 1845.

Jean-Paul Chaperon, the distant cousin who inherited next, combined Corbin with neighbouring Château Jean Faure for some 50 years.

Cruse-Bardinet’s great grandparents, négociant Joseph Guiraud and his wife Yvonne, who bought Corbin in 1924 ushered in a new era.

During the Second World War, their daughter, Marie Joseph, took over when her husband was made a prisoner of war. She was the second woman to run the estate.

Later, her parents purchased Chateau Certan-Guiraud in Pomerol, which also came under her purview and she ran both for decades.

And when the St-Emilion classification system was established in 1955, Corbin was ranked grand cru classé. Her eventual consultant? Michel Rolland.

Anabelle, born in 1967, is the third woman to shape the estate’s fortunes. You could say that winemaking and Corbin were her destiny.

She’s a member of the Cruse family – her cousin is Emmanuel Cruse of Château d’Issan – major players in the Bordeaux wine trade for seven generations.

She grew up at Château Laujac, a 400-hectare estate in the north Médoc where her winemaking father farmed a 70 hectare vineyard and managed a herd of 500 cows.

But during her childhood she also spent a month each year during harvest at Corbin, owned by her mother’s family.

‘It was more important than school,’ she says. ‘A retired teacher came to the château to teach us every day after we picked grapes.’

Corbin's call

Cruse-Bardinet’s first job after studying oenology at University of Bordeaux was at Château Branaire-Ducru, and she worked in California at Sterling Vineyards, and for several years at Laujac.

But her grandmother, who wanted her to take over Corbin, frequently requested her help, and eventually the estate’s charm seduced her.

As in so many Bordeaux wine families, a tangle of family ownership conflicts reigned for many years.

The fighting was resolved in 1999, when one part of the family took control of Certan-Guiraud and sold to Christian Moueix, who renamed it Hosanna.

Cruse-Bardinet, her sisters, and grandmother retained Corbin until 2007, when Cruse Bardinet and her husband Sebastien were able take complete ownership.

The rise of women was just beginning in Bordeaux when she took on the winemaking role at Corbin.

The challenges required immediate judgment and investment. Luckily, she jokes, her parents educated her on the value of work.

The vineyard, which surrounds the château, wasn’t in bad shape, but needed a new drainage system.

Revamping the estate

Lying on the border of Pomerol, the terroir is completely different from the famous limestone plateau surrounding St-Emilion village.

The six hectares on the Pomerol side of the vineyard are clay; the other seven hectares are ancient sandy gravel over an iron-rich clay subsoil.

A study of the terroir pointed to new rootstocks, clones, and replacing the vines in many plots.

There was no crush pad for the picked grapes. They lacked a sorting table and decent crusher and had to upgrade the cellar with new temperature-controlled vats.

The château itself hadn’t been lived in for years and required renovation. Michel Rolland’s consulting team helped advise on vinification.

The wines improved quickly, and the 2009 hit the jackpot, with international praise for its deep, ripe, generous fruit, sumptuous texture and oh-so-reasonable price.

A few years later came an office rebuild and space for visitors, and eventually a new vat room, finished just in time for the great 2016 vintage. Finally, everything was complete.

Or so she thought.

2017: The turning point

At the end of April in 2017, a severe frost wiped out Corbin’s crop. Cruse-Bardinet says she felt like she was as dead as the vineyard. But gradually she saw the year with no wine as an opportunity to rethink everything she had been doing.

‘We will never fight against mother nature,’ she says. ‘Adapting to what she gives means changing the way we make wine.’

In other words, a style revolution.

The first thing was to recognise you couldn’t just follow traditional production rules. In 2018, she brought in a new cellar master, and started picking earlier, plot by plot.

‘Even a day can make all the difference,’ she says. Using plot by plot vinification, she favoured infusion rather than pump overs for less extraction.

Having sold the barrels intended for the 2017 vintage, she bought fewer, using only 50% new and discovered the richness of her wine in those not aged in new oak.

In 2019, she tried glass wine globes, a round-shaped glass vessel, for ageing the Cabernet Franc to showcase the Corbin terroir and bring out more pure fruit flavours.

In 2020, she started fermenting without sulfur and expanded wine globe experiments. In 2021, she added densimetric sorting, a way to move grapes through water and select only those with greater density. In the vineyard she switched to only organic products.

And she enlisted a new consultant, rising star Thomas Duclos of Oenoteam, noted for helping châteaux find a fresher, more balanced, nuanced wine style.

‘I’m on the way of Corbin and its terroir now,’ she says. ‘Finally, the wine and estate are what I want. And now my aim is to transmit all this to the future.’

Ten vintages of Château Corbin

Wines are listed by vintage, oldest to youngest

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Susie Barrie MW, Matt Hodgson and Dror Nativ MW tasted 66 wines, with 11 Outstanding and 40 Highly recommended

English sparkling wine: Panel tasting scores

66 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 11

Highly recommended 40

Recommended 14

Commended 1

Fair 0

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their current-release brut or drier-style white, rosé or red traditional-method sparkling wines, single varietals or blends, produced in the UK using a blend of multiple vintages and labelled as non-vintage or multi-vintage

It was the year of the London Olympics, not to mention Queen Elizabeth ll’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

But for UK wine, 2012 was an annus horribilis on a scale hitherto unseen in the modern era.

When a vintage that bad comes along, having a stock of reserve wines to draw on is an essential blending tool in any traditional-method sparkling winemaker’s arsenal.

Sadly, given the nascency of the UK industry at that time, very few wineries had a reserve wine programme.

But as Hattingley Valley’s then head winemaker Emma Rice said: ‘2012 spurred us on to do it’.

Fast forward to today and the industry has evolved from producing largely single-vintage wines to one where non-vintage (NV) and multi-vintage (MV) bottlings play a growing role.

Hence this panel tasting, which also perfectly demonstrated how quality is rising seemingly exponentially.

As Dror Nativ MW stated: ‘If you consider the number of high scores we gave today, there’s really smart, consistent winemaking in England.’

Depth of flavour

Matt Hodgson concurred, adding: ‘I think non- and multi-vintage is the right direction of travel for the English wine industry’, and all the judges agreed that the wines containing higher levels of reserves (or just based on older vintages) delivered greater complexity and depth of flavour.

It’s also worth mentioning that almost all the wines we rated Outstanding (95 points or more) had seen oak and spent considerable time on lees, which added further layers of flavour.

One noteworthy observation was the way in which the whites outperformed the rosé wines (of the 30 wines scoring 93-96pts, only eight were rosé).

Hodgson commented: ‘We’ve always been big advocates of English sparkling rosé [at retailer Grape Britannia] and they were great – it’s just the whites were even better.’

Beyond quality, what I find exciting is that, in the key sweet spot of £30-£50, the best UK wines offer excellent value.

As Nativ said: ‘Based on the tasting today, we saw brilliant value compared to either Champagne or any worldclass sparkling wines.’

I couldn’t agree more.

See all notes and scores from the UK sparkling wines tasting

The judges

UK sparkling wines panel tasting results:

Wines were tasted blind

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I was chatting to a winemaker recently over dinner, and I confided in him an insecurity of mine.

I explained that while I didn’t normally find it difficult to describe the style of any given Rhône vintage, I found it peculiarly challenging to succinctly summarise that of 2022.

‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I feel the same way.’ It helped put my mind at rest. But I’m still determined to get to grips with this slippery customer.

In any given year, wines tend to perform rather like flocks of birds or shoals of fish: there might be smaller sub-groups or individual outliers, but the majority move in the same direction to create a general vintage style.

The 2022, however, is unusually chaotic.

The season

Lewis Bungener of Clos de Caveau says ‘2022 was a very particular vintage – one that initially caused real concern.’

Between 15 October 2021 and 1 September 2022, just 300mm of rain fell in the southern Rhône, compared to an average of 600mm.

Combined with the intense heat (it was the hottest May on record) many vines simply shut down and stopped growing in order to conserve water.

‘The rain that eventually came in late summer changed everything,’ says Bungener.

‘The effect was extraordinary: what had threatened to become heavy wines with dry, harsh tannins found an incredible balance, gaining freshness and definition. That said, producers who misjudged maturity timings did still suffer.’

Cécile Dusserre of Domaine de Montvac agrees, saying: ‘We had two nights of rain on 7 and 8 September, and we finished harvesting on 14 September.’

Rain at harvest can cause grapes to rot, but conditions had been so hot and dry, the water was welcome.

‘It allowed for a more relaxed juice and lowered the concentration of the berries,’ says Dusserre.

Though controlled irrigation is permitted in Vacqueyras, it was gratifying to see that some of the best wines this year were produced by estates that don’t water their vines, such as Domaine de Montvac, Domaine Montirius and Domaine la Monardière.

It proves that even in very dry years, Vacqueyras can still produce excellent wines, which bodes well for an uncertain future.

The tasting

These extreme conditions created a series of obstacles and pitfalls that vignerons were forced to navigate. Not everyone succeeded.

The year started with a huge abundance of grapes. Those who failed to drop fruit often struggled to eventually ripen all their berries, ending up with green, unripe flavours.

The lack of rain during the growing season produced very small berries, with little juice but thick skins. For some, excessive extraction led to tough tannins.

Intense heat can cause many problems, and some wines suffered from high alcohol – though not as many as I expected. Instances of low acidity or pruney fruit were thankfully rare.

And finally, some wines failed to make the grade simply due to excessive oak. Layering oak tannins on top of robust fruit tannins produced some inelegant, clunky wines.

But many producers managed to sidestep some or all these potential snares to create wines of balance and drinkability.

The verdict

Having had a few years in bottle to come together, many are now looking better than they did from barrel – both whites and reds.

I felt happy to recommend around half the wines I tasted, and they are featured below.

And many of those who did succeed really excelled.

As Bungener says: ‘The vintage across the region produced a mixed picture but for those who managed the conditions well, 2022 produced wines of real distinction: a rare combination of richness and fullness alongside finesse and freshness.’

This tasting helped me to understand this confounding year. The key is this: the best wines excel despite the vintage, not because of it.

The best Vacqueyras 2022 wines in bottle

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Fortified wines get forgotten in the summer. As temperatures rise, we instinctively reach for crisp whites, rosé, or beer, while bottles of Port, Sherry, and Madeira remain firmly associated with winter indulgence.

Yet this broad and diverse category extends far beyond rich, sweet after-dinner wines.

Many of its finest expressions are dry, savoury, and refreshingly high in acidity, making them ideal aperitifs and remarkably versatile partners at the table.

Unsurprisingly, most originate in some of Europe's hottest wine-growing regions, where locals have long enjoyed them alongside simple seasonal dishes.

Here's where to start.

White Port, Portugal

Cocktail lovers would do well to rediscover White Port. Produced in Portugal's Douro Valley from indigenous grape varieties such as Gouveio and Malvasia Fina, fermentation is stopped by the addition of aguardente, a neutral grape spirit, preserving natural grape sugar and raising the alcohol to around 20%.

The result is a wine with ripe stone fruit flavours, dried herbs, and subtle nutty complexity from barrel ageing.

Served chilled, it makes an excellent aperitif in its own right.

Better still, try the Porto Tónico, Portugal's favourite summer serve.

Mix one part White Port with two parts tonic water over plenty of ice, then garnish with a wedge of citrus, a slice of peach, and a sprig of mint.

Refreshing, aromatic, and effortlessly elegant.

Sercial Madeira, Portugal

Madeira deserves serious attention in the warmer months.

Produced on the subtropical Atlantic island of the same name, these fortified wines are renowned for their complex, oxidative character and remarkable acidity.

Sercial is the driest of Madeira's styles and is particularly refreshing in warm weather. Served cold, it offers flavours of lemon peel, toasted nuts, and dried herbs, balanced by a searing acidity that keeps you coming back.

Pair it with salted pistachios, charcuterie, and tangy goat's cheese, and it becomes the ultimate sundowner.

Fino & Manzanilla Sherry, Spain

Head to Jerez in southern Spain and you'll find Fino and Manzanilla, summer drinking at its finest.

Made from Palomino and aged beneath a layer of living yeast known as flor, they develop wonderfully savoury flavours of bread dough, almonds, sea spray, and a briny quality reminiscent of a dirty martini.

At just 15% ABV, Fino is among the lightest fortified wines available. Serve it ice cold and drink it fresh, as this is not a wine to keep in the cellar.

Lay your table with olives, anchovies, salty crisps, and a free-poured Fino, and you'll be transported straight to a balmy evening in Andalucia.

Marsala Vergine, Sicily

Sicily's famous fortified wine is too often dismissed as a cooking ingredient. In reality, the wines are incredibly complex and age-worthy.

The finest dry examples, such as Marsala Vergine, are serious yet refreshing wines. Serve chilled alongside bottarga pasta or grilled fish with spiced couscous.

The combination of nutty depth, bright acidity, and savoury character makes it an unexpected and sophisticated dinner companion.

The golden rule for summer fortified: go dry, serve cold, pair with something salty, and drink in the sun.

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Other than the island of Corsica, I barely knew where I was. A last-minute invite, a skimmed itinerary.

All I knew was: if you're invited to the Île de Beauté – in January or any time of year – you say yes.

Flying south, I left the torpor of a Paris winter and arrived in Bonifacio. It sounds Italian because Corsica was indeed part of Italy far longer than France.

At the airport I received a text from my brother in LA: ‘Just watch your back,’ with a link to some breaking news.

Earlier that day, a Corsican man was taken out by a sniper while attending his mother’s funeral at a village church.

A member of a rival mafia ring, he'd been living in exile in Nicaragua, and only travelled back for the funeral. The Île de Beauté is as edgy as it is beautiful.

Edges, after all, are where the drama of life happens. Where one thing ends and another begins, where exposure is total and forces intersect.

A landscape of rock and wind

On the island's southern tip, wind blasts this mountain in the sea from three sides.

At the Bouches de Bonifacio, the narrow strait separating Corsica from Sardinia, wind is not a passing weather event so much as a permanent condition.

Leaning into it atop the limestone cliffs that plunge into the azure sea, you sense the same elemental energy that flows through the wines of Corsica's wild edge.

Corsica is less an island than a granite rock emerging from the sea. The strait of Bonifacio is the windiest stretch of the Mediterranean, and the luminous island rivals anywhere in France for sunshine.

Almost a quarter of the island sits above 1,000m, with more than 20 peaks exceeding 2,000m.

This extreme juxtaposition means you could swim in the morning and ski in the afternoon.

Vines trace the valleys and steep slopes of granitic, schist and limestone soils, amid native cork oaks, olives and the dense, fragrant maquis – Corsica's version of southern France's garrigue.

Herds of handsome, bell-clanging Corsican goats roam the craggy hills, kept in check by magnificent local dogs called Cursinu.

Hawks and seabirds ride the currents of deliciously fresh, salt-laden air.

Although tired when I arrived, I was immediately energised by the bright sun, 20-degree mid-January temperature and almost unbearable beauty.

Part of it, too, was an oceanic atmosphere charged with negative ions.

The chemistry of the sea

Southern Corsica's constant sea breeze not only tempers the sun and heat exposure of the vines, the air circulation keeping them free of disease and allowing almost every vineyard to be organic, but also carries an abundance of negative ions – atoms or molecules with more electrons than protons – generated as the chemical bonds of water molecules are broken through the crashing of waves, the endless movement of the sea, and the dispersion of saltwater by the wind.

Similar to the refreshing sensation experienced near waterfalls, or even a good shower, coastal air is charged with these particles, which a substantial body of scientific research demonstrates has health benefits such as improved mood and increased energy levels.

A walk on the beach or dip in the sea is nature’s best anti-depressant.

More than terroir

In wine, we spend too much time looking down, limiting the discussion of terroir to what's underground.

In Corsica, the eye is inevitably drawn up and out.

Here, the landscape itself argues that airoir and méroir – the elemental forces of air and sea – deserve a place in the conversation alongside soil and sun.

Oceanic influences, arriving from three sides, are clearly imprinted on Corsica's three southern appellations – Corse Porto-Vecchio, Corse Figari and Corse Sartène. Here you don't find sun-baked Mediterranean wines, but those with edge.

The appellations of southern Corsica

In Corse Porto-Vecchio, Corsica's smallest appellation, vines cling to arid limestone and granite hillsides, facing the sea and battered by the winds.

At Domaine Torraccia, the flagship Oriu rouge – a blend of Niellucciu and Sciaccarellu – marries power and precision.

The Alligria Blanc – a barrel-fermented Vermentinu – nods toward white Burgundy yet speaks its own tongue.

Domaine de Granajolo's Le J cuvée takes a similar path – structured, textural Vermentinu built to last.

At Domaine de Solenzara, mother and daughter Fabienne and Victoria Lucchini make wonderfully salty, electric Vermentinu and rosé from granite hills that drop into the sea.

Moving south to the Corse Figari appellation, the landscape becomes more open and exposed, the cork oaks, olives, maquis and vines appearing as wind-sculpted bonsais.

Planted five centuries before Christ, it's Corsica’s oldest winescape, still home to forgotten varieties that thrive on limestone and granite despite the harsh conditions.

The quality level is extremely high across the nine producers in the appellation – Domaine de Tanella, Domaine de Peretti della Rocca and Domaine Nicolai among the standouts.

But Clos Canarelli is the revelation of the south – perhaps of all Corsica.

The crispy-crunchy grape

East of Figari, the star of the Corse Sartène appellation is the grape called Sciaccarellu, whose name means ‘crispy-crunchy between the teeth’.

These pale ruby reds display extraordinary aromatic intensity: concentrated red berries, white pepper, wild herbs.

Sartène's granite soils lend structure and depth to the grape’s natural silkiness, producing graceful, age-worthy island reds.

The rosés are equally compelling – vibrant, precise and beguilingly aromatic, made mostly from Sciaccarellu with occasional additions of native whites such as the rare Genovese or Biancu Gentile.

Standout producers include Domaine Castellu di Baricci and Domaine Saparale.

My Parisian neighbours told me 'everything the Corsicans touch turns to gold' – and the vineyards, wines, and wineries of the south speak to that.

As does the charcuterie they pride themselves on, and even the incredible oranges they serve as dessert.

With its own grapes, culture and conditions, Corsica isn’t trying to be Burgundy or Barolo – it’s not quite France, not quite Italy, but an island unto itself.

An island where wind sings through elemental wines from the wild edge of a mountain in the sea.

The producers to know in southern Corsica:

• Buzzo Bunifazziu
• Clos Canarelli
• Domaine Andriella
• Domaine Castellu di Baricci
• Domaine de Granajolo
• Domaine de Peretti della Rocca
• Domaine de Piscia Finidori
• Domaine de Solenzara
• Domaine de Tanella
• Domaine Nicolai
• Domaine Saparale
• Domaine Torraccia

11 wild Corsican wines to try

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Georgie Hindle, Arthur Coggill and Tom King tasted 147 wines, with 3 Exceptional, 32 Outstanding and 98 Highly recommended.

147 wines tasted

Exceptional 3

Outstanding 32

Highly recommended 98

Recommended 14

Commended 0

Fair 0

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their grand vin Pomerol and St-Emilion Grand Cru, Grand Cru Classé or 1er Grand Cru Classé wines from the 2020 vintage

'There wasn’t a wine I didn’t like,’ remarked Tom King after what proved to be one of Decanter’s most successful panel tastings in recent memory, with an extraordinary 35 wines rated Outstanding or above from 147 tasted – clear evidence of the strength and consistency of the 2020 vintage in St-Emilion and Pomerol.

The two-day blind tasting confirmed the quality across the board. Arthur Coggill summed it up neatly: ‘2020 is a homogeneously good vintage in Bordeaux – these are wines you can go and buy with confidence.’

The judges found no outright failures; ‘We didn’t actually find a bad wine,’ he added.

The growing season in 2020 was defined by an unusually early start, extreme heatwaves and the driest summer since 1959 (until the 2022 vintage).

Merlot, the dominant variety on the Right Bank, ripened beautifully under these conditions, yet the wines showed surprising restraint.

Alcohol levels and oak influence were far more moderate than the judges had feared; there were no overworked wines, instead freshness and balance prevailed. Differences between the appellations stood out clearly.

Pomerol offered greater consistency, especially at the lower end, producing plush and fleshy wines that remained faithful to their charming, fruit-forward signature.

‘Pomerol is just a bit more generous,’ observed Coggill. St-Emilion was more diverse and patchy at the entry level, with ‘more mediocre, but not necessarily bad wines’, Coggill noted – largely a reflection of its greater size and varied terroirs.

Yet at the top end, its wines frequently displayed superior elegance and finesse, outperforming Pomerol in poise and length.

St-Emilion Grand Cru Classé estates performed strongly, as expected, but Pomerol’s broader success across all price tiers was particularly striking.

Ready to go

The drinkability of these wines is a major strength. Many are already highly approachable – ‘happy wines’, as King put it, that will perform well by the glass in restaurants or on the table at home today.

The judges agreed that roughly half the wines felt ready to drink now, while the remainder offer excellent cellaring potential thanks to bright acidity, concentrated fruit and structured tannins.

King highlighted the ‘velvety’ texture of the Pomerols and their surprising accessibility: ‘There was not much in Pomerol at least that I would say has to be kept.’

Prices reflect the fine-wine status of these appellations; very few of the top-scoring bottles sit comfortably under £30, even in bond (before duty and VAT), indeed the very best top £50.

Yet within this category many represent excellent value, offering the immediate pleasure of a great vintage alongside the structure to evolve magnificently over the next 20-30 years.

Overall, the judges described 2020 as a ‘cracking vintage’ of good-to-excellent wines that offer a combination of generosity and restraint.

For drinkers seeking reliable, characterful Right Bank Bordeaux that can be enjoyed young or cellared with confidence, 2020 delivers in spades.

See all the notes and scores from the St-Emilion and Pomerol 2020 tasting here

The judges

St-Emilion & Pomerol 2020 tasting results

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Earlier this year at the Millésime Bio organic wine fair in Montpellier, I tasted with Pierre Caizergues of Pierre & Antonin, a micro-négociant based in Malepère on Languedoc’s western frontier.

I’ll admit it was the wine labels that first caught my eye – frolicking foxes and unapologetically bright colours (I have a soft spot for foxes, especially the urban ones that have adopted my small London garden), but other aspects soon piqued my interest beyond the aesthetic charm: lightweight bottles, organic viticulture, minimal sulphur, indigenous yeasts – and, most strikingly, disease-resistant grape varieties.

Embracing hybrid grapes

Although they’re both from Languedoc, Pierre and his business partner Antonin Bonnet met in New York in 2010 while working in sales. After a decade of fermenting ideas, they returned to France and launched Pierre & Antonin in 2020.

Initially, they worked with a mix of classic varieties and hybrids. Gradually, though, they’ve shifted almost entirely to disease-resistant grapes such as Souvignier Gris, Cabernet Cortis, Artaban and Floréal, making red, white, rosé, orange and pét-nat wines.

They persuaded a small collective of growers to plant small plots, guaranteeing to buy the fruit.

Now their aim is to explore the potential of these hybrid grapes – showing that the wines can be made with minimal intervention, but can also be delicious and, crucially, affordable.

Vibrant, well-priced wines to be opened and shared

How can these factors be achieved? Due to the hybrids’ resistance to downy and powdery mildew, the cost of treatment products and labour are much lower and the lightweight bottles (only 370g) not only reduce carbon emissions during transport, but are also cheaper.

In a region where margins are tight and climate pressure is intensifying, these savings are no small consideration. And the elimination of fungicides means that fermentations start easily, so it’s easy to rely on indigenous yeasts.

The result is wines that are vibrant, unfussy, fruity, low in alcohol and well priced – bottles designed to be opened and shared rather than cellared.

This is arguably the ideal region to plough this furrow – the stakes aren’t as high as they would be in Beaune or Châteauneuf-du-Pape, say, and land is cheaper.

Later, I kept thinking back to how Pierre had referred to the hybrid grapes as ‘resistants’. In my mind this rang out as ‘resistance’.

There’s an undeniable semantic link – resistants/resistance – and the implications are strong. The word ‘resistance’ carries a lot of weight, but what does it mean in this context?

The wine world is at an uneasy juncture, so this is about resistance not only against vine disease, but against shifting tastes, climate chaos and economic volatility.

And then there’s resistance in the form of resilience and adaptation – not accepting that sustainability inevitably makes wine more expensive and less accessible. Opening a wine made from disease-resistant varieties is in itself an act of resistance.

Antonin believes that hybrids will be part of the future of wine – that they’ll be, at least in part, tomorrow’s answer to climate change.

‘There are masters of Syrah,’ he says. ‘There are many masters of Pinot Noir all over the world.’ But who will be the masters of Souvignier Gris, Cabernet Cortis and Floréal? Perhaps we’re about to find out.

Sip to make a difference

Souvignier Gris was Pierre and Antonin’s gateway grape. Alongside the still white Pierre & Antonin, Petit Sauvage Blanc, Languedoc, France 2025 (91pts, £17 Vindependents), they also make a pét-nat and a skin-maceration wine with it.

‘We love Souvignier Gris so much that we made it three ways,’ says Pierre. It’s bright and zesty, with fresh acidity, tropical fruit, some spice and a cool minty note, bringing great refreshment to sun-filled days.

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Look up: we’ve got a revolution on our hands. The old order’s being swept away. No more steady state: for the first time in human history, significant decade-on-decade change is permanent, structural and accelerating.

Climate is now a rocket. Wine-growers (whose plants and products measure its effects with great exactitude) sit in the cockpit, seatbelts fastened. They’ll need them.

Hotter, colder, wetter, drier, windier, spikier, more violent: that’s tomorrow. Growers need to be alert, responsive, flexible – to retreat where necessary, but also to seize new chances and opportunities when they present.

Here’s an example of chance seized. It’s a sparsely populated, barely planted corner of the high Languedoc, way beyond the reach of any existing appellation. It had no wine distinction in the past – yet now it’s producing some of France’s most exciting new whites.

Cédric Guy of Domaine de Bon Augure is prime mover in this story. Faugères born and bred, he worked from 1995 with the Bouchard family at Abbaye Sylva Plana. From 10ha, Sylva Plana (certified organic since 2008) expanded to 54ha, a hotel and a restaurant. But Cédric had a dream: to make white wine, which he felt was ‘impossible’ in the heat of Faugères.

He searched – and found mountain vineyards (450m-600m) 40 minutes north, in the Monts d’Avène sector of the IGP Haute Vallée de l’Orb, planted with Chardonnay – to which he added Petit Manseng, Petite Arvine and other varieties. ‘Initially, I was happy if the must got to 11% or 11.5%. Wines with high levels of acidity weren’t much in demand 20 years ago, so I made sparkling wines.’

The rocket, though, had lifted off. Cédric sold his share of Sylva Plana in 2013 when his mountain- vineyard alcohols moved past 12% towards 13%; he switched to still wines.

‘It’s not politically correct to say it and I don’t want the planet to suffer, but the climate is now extremely favourable to producing great white wines here. We have lots of rain; we can preserve acidity; we have enough juice so the musts aren’t too concentrated.’

It was early April when I visited; Bourgogne had been fighting late-March frosts. ‘When I saw pictures of their vines,’ said Cédric, ‘I could see leaves. We still have sleeping buds. We have time lag that works at both ends of the season.’

I’m not a fan of ‘tight’, high-acid, low-alcohol wines... when they’re the result of early picking, of anxiety and adjustment, of peer-group pressure and media proselytising. The wines of Bon Augure, from vines immaculately tended on often steep, limestone breccia soils just north of the village of Joncels, aren’t like that. Their acidities are astonishing: tingling, zesty, energetic, dancing with flavour in their arms; you know that this acidity will settle, fill, convince and satisfy with time in the bottle.

Nothing is raw or uncovered here: there’s sap, sinew and wealth of flavour behind, together with the quiet aromatic allusions that recall natural landscapes.

Bon Augure produces four principal wines: a pure-Chardonnay ‘en terre étrangère’; the sculpted Chardonnay-Petit Manseng blend ‘Joncs-cella’; a mouthwatering and vivacious, amber-tinted skin-contact wine based on trois gris (Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Gris, Grenache Gris) called ‘Aux innocents les mains pleines’; and the dense, finely crafted DSLS Petite Arvine.

All are world- class. Note the varietal width: another good sign. There’s convincing Pinot and Cornalin, too.

Cédric isn’t alone. A local charity called Les Compagnons du Sens, led by a charismatic retired monk called Frère Marie-Pâques, has been helping younger growers set up in the Haute Vallée de l’Orb. Domaines to look out for include Angel Montgros, Bòria Bissio, Gravezon, Jouvet, Mas des Mesures, Peira Clara and Saint Antonin.

Monts d’Avène will appear on labels of IGP Haute Vallée de l’Orb from vintage 2025 for wines made from limestone-grown, barrel-fermented Chardonnay; it may eventually win an AP. If everything hasn’t changed by then.

In my glass this month

Bon Augure’s 2024 ‘en terre étrangère’ (pure Chardonnay from the domaine’s highest vineyards, part-barrel fermented in old oak, with full malolactic) is inspiring, assured wine.

Its spring- garden freshness suggests both plants and flowers; it’s complete on the tongue. You can’t escape the often-overused descriptors salt and stone here, once the acrobatic acidity has come down off its high trapeze and the applause is subsiding. Taste it and believe. (Via UK importer Saison Wines)

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Most wine lovers would dream of having a cellar so capacious you could lose 18 bottles of Champagne in it.

Lyonnais chef, and French national treasure, Paul Bocuse, did exactly that, though.

Tucked away, forgotten in a corner of his restaurant’s cellar, were 18 bottles of Ruinart 1926, bought to celebrate the year of Bocuse’s birth.

The story of how these wines were tasted for the first time outside the maison is one marked with poignancy, though.

Not only were the wines only discovered after Bocuse’s death in 2018, but the dream to generously open some with friends of the maison belonged, originally, to Fréderic Panaïotis, the Ruinart Chef de Cave who tragically passed away in 2025.

Panaïotis and Bocuse tasted two bottles together, reporting a ‘remarkable’ wine of 'ripe fruit, apricot, candied lemon and candied orange' according to the house’s new Chef de Cave, Caroline Fiot.

An unexpected boon

Their discovery comes as a boon to the house, whose library is a little thin on older vintages, explained Fiot.

‘When Fred heard about the 1926 bottles it was big news because it is the oldest vintage stored in our cellars,’ she explained.

‘After the Second World War we only had 10,000 bottles left in the cellars because of all the wines that were taken by the German Army. Afterwards the philosophy was to sell the wines, not to keep them.’

At the time, there was no Dom Ruinart or Blanc de Blancs, arguably the most famous wines of the house today.

In fact, the concept of ‘prestige’ Champagnes did not really exist, and Ruinart’s main offering was, as was common in Champagne, restricted to a non vintage and – as discovered here – a vintage.

With little information available, Fiot was not sure exactly what the 1926 contained by way of a blend or ageing time.

Panaïotis did some laboratory analysis which showed the ripeness at harvest was an impressively ripe one, likely 'between 9.5 and 10 degrees' of potential alcohol at harvest, with the final release dosed at 17 g/l of sugar – dry for the time, but above today’s ‘Brut’ category.

A daring feat – fresh disgorgements

After the second fermentation in bottle, Champagnes rest for a number of years before being ‘disgorged’ – having the dead yeast removed.

It is a process which oxygenates and provokes ageing, both positive but ultimately potentially negative, in the wine.

Before disgorgement, though, the wine being ‘on lees’ can hold the evolution in check quite profoundly.

Save for the 1926 which was an original release, disgorged and dosed back in the 1930s, most of the wines were disgorged the very morning of the tasting.

Chef de Cave Caroline Fiot clearly senses the excitement of the moment as a small group is gathered at the maison to taste through a selection of Ruinart vintages ending with ‘6’, heading backwards from 2016 all the way to 1926.

'I am tasting these for the first time, with you!' she remarked.

The decision to pour fresh disgorgements of the older wine paid off, especially with a stunning 1956 which confounded even the most experienced Champagne tasters among us with its scarcely believable youthfulness.

By keeping these bottles undisgorged up until the moment of tasting, though, Ruinart rolled the dice – there’s no chance to add dosage, to prepare more like a ‘commercial’ release of the library wines.

We were tasting them completely naked, fresh, woken abruptly from their slumber.

Still, the technical hurdles for these wines to tackle to render drinkable, let alone enjoyable, wines for many, many decades longer than their creators would have imagined are considerable.

A moment a century in the making

A few – such as the 1966 – didn’t quite make it, victims in some cases of oxidation or degradation during the lees ageing stage.

Others, such as 1996 or 1986, were sound yet at points where the strengths of the vintages were starting to be outweighed by the weaknesses.

Anyone lucky enough to enjoy such bottles as the 1926, 1956 and 1976 will take the lows, though, to experience the highs; and this was a tasting where the most venerable bottles were the stars.

As we reached the 1926, Fiot was feeling the pressure – quite literally – as the foil was gingerly removed and the original cork gently prised out.

'Will we get a ‘pop?' she wondered.

The answer was as most expected, no. Pressure drops as Champagne ages, and this journey was simply too long.

What the wine absolutely wasn’t, though, was dead; yes, there is overt oxidation, yes plenty of sherry-type aromatics, yes the sort of flavours that, in a younger wine would evidently be considered flaws.

What there was, though, was life. Drinking pleasure. To someone lucky enough to have tasted many Champagnes of half its age rich in complexity, yet devoid of such essential drinkability, the 1926 was an unforgettable experience.

Will the current 2016 live quite as long?

As a very small release in Ruinart’s portfolio, few outside France even get to taste this cuvée.

What this tasting proved beyond doubt was that quality, and ageability, make it one worth hunting down.

Old Ruinart from 2016 to 1926

Wines are listed from youngest to oldest

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The cool climate and wide-open spaces of Burgundy’s Hautes-Côtes make it the next big thing.

The Hautes-Côtes region of Burgundy oozes charm, with its rolling hillsides populated by more cows than people and tiny villages strung together by country roads that weave through dramatic hillsides most visitors never see.

The wines, too, are easy to love: crisp, clean whites, and structured, sometimes slightly rustic reds that recall the Burgundy of an earlier era.

The Hautes-Côtes has long been a dreamy country idyll, a respite from the excitement of the mainline Burgundy villages.

Today, however, with its ‘Horizon Hautes-Côtes’ initiative, the Burgundy wine establishment is trying to make the Hautes-Côtes the next big thing.

A recent press conference about the initiative highlighted some surprising facts: more than 1,800 hectares are currently planted here, and another 2,600 hectares that are classified for AOC wine have not yet been planted.

These cooler, high-altitude sites offer an increasingly attractive profile as global warming accelerates.

With the weight of the BIVB behind it, this appellation may be the wave of the future.

Where are the Hautes-Côtes?

The term Hautes-Côtes refers to the high-altitude slopes west of the main Côte d’Or, mainly at elevations between 300-460 metres, a region that had far more vines in the early 19^th century than it does today.

When the vineyards were replanted after the phylloxera epidemic, however, many growers planted grapes for making inexpensive wines, where yield, not quality, was the objective.

The effect was that wine production was at a nadir from the end of the 19th century until after WWII.

Although the regional appellation Bourgogne was codified in 1937, the distinction of a separate appellation for the Hautes-Côtes did not occur until 1961.

The region is large, spread across 47 villages that produce an average of nearly 9 million bottles of red, white, and rosé wine.

The Hautes-Côtes de Beaune are stretches across the hills from Corton down to Maranges, south of Santenay.

The Hautes-Côtes de Nuits is more compact, confined to the hills above the southern portion of the Côte de Nuits from Chambolle-Musigny to Nuits-Saint-Georges. One village, Magny-lès-Villers, is split between the two appellations.

Coming to grips with this vast expanse can be daunting. The first exposure for many are the delicious cuvées made by well-known growers in the mainline Côte d’Or, such as Anne Gros, Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey, Thibault Liger-Belair, Emmanuel Rouget, Sylvain Cathiard, and Etienne Sauzet.

Domaine Leflaive has planted vines in the Hautes-Côtes, and even Domaine de la Romanée-Conti tried their hand at it, vinifying several vintages of grapes grown at the Abbaye Saint-Vivant de Vergy before the vines were pulled up.

Building an identity

As the region grows collectively, however, there is with relatively little name recognition for individual villages.

As head of the Hautes-Côtes growers union, Nicolas Thévenot, points out, there are important differences.

He says: 'Every valley is a separate terroir; there are sites that a very steep and others that are on a plateau.

'Many vines are planted on clay and limestone soils similar to those found at lower elevations in the Côte d'Or, although it is also possible to have granite soils in the south near Maranges. The one common element is the elevation.’

Despite the distinctiveness, however, there is still work to be done to gain recognition, particularly in export markets, where négociant houses will often buy grapes that qualify as Hautes-Côtes but sell them as a simple Bourgogne.

Others, however, are highlighting the advantages of the Hautes-Côtes, including Laurent Delaunay, co-president of the BIVB and head of Maison Edouard Delaunay, based at the Château de Chaumont in l'Étang-Vergy above Nuits-Saint-Georges.

Fickel fame

Most village names in the Hautes-Côtes elicit a blank stare from wine lovers.

One that broke the mould was Saint-Romain, which was once classified with the Hautes-Côtes and is now a stand-alone cru in its own right.

Perhaps the village with the most potential to pull forward is Meloisey, an ancient village with an exciting mix of winemakers, including Denis Carré, Agnès Paquet, Alexandre Parigot, and others.

The current crop of winemakers in this village includes both those at historic domaines and passionate young people starting new properties, something that is still possible in the Hautes-Côtes.

Although few highlight Meloisey per se, many use vineyard names on the label, such as La Perrière.

Other nearby sites include Les Dames Huguettes and En Bully, both located within Nuits-Saint-Georges but classified as Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Nuits.

High and wide

One of the most distinctive characteristics of the region is the training system 'haute et large' (high and wide).

The Hautes-Côtes was among the first regions to experiment with this low-density planting system.

The most apparent advantage of the ‘haute et large’ training system is that the vines are less exposed to the danger of frost, which will settle near the base of the vines.

The system also enables a more complete usage of cover crops, is easier to work, and facilitates the use of mechanical harvesters.

It is also thought that if conditions remain dry and hot, the vines will be better able to resist drought stress at lower densities.

Exact statistics on the use of this system are not available, but Nicolas Thévenot, president of the union of Hautes-Côtes winegrowers, estimates that approximately 40-50% of the vines in the Hautes-Côtes are trained in this fashion.

Biodiversity and business

The purpose of the Project Horizon Hautes-Côtes initiative is to manage growth while respecting the region's traditions and biodiversity.

More than 85% of the surface in the wine-producing portions of the Hautes-Côtes is also protected under European law as a Natura 2000 nature preserve, which were established by Brussels to protect endangered species of birds, animals, and plants.

The project is mapping the region from multiple perspectives to ensure sensitive development.

Renowned geologist Françoise Vannier will map the underlying geology and environmental consultant Marc Ouvrié is mapping the climate risks including frost and hail.

The information will be used with Natura 2000 data to protect the environment and target 'smart' development.

The combination of cool, high-elevation sites, room to grow, and an exciting crop of young talent combine to make the Hautes-Côtes one of the premier destinations for top-quality yet still-affordable Burgundy wines.

Wines from Burgundy's Hautes-Côtes

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It’s not every winery visit that begins in a 13th-century church. In early February, Chiesa San Donato provides a welcome refuge from the chilly winds that wrap their way around the hilltop village of Lamole.

At this time of the year, there’s no one to be seen; a stray cat soaks up a shaft of sunlight on an old stone wall, but the road is quiet.

It's a stark contrast to the summer months, when Chiantigiana tourists flock to the hamlet’s lone restaurant, ‘Il Ristoro di Lamole’, to enjoy authentic Tuscan fare against a backdrop of magnificent views.

But for now, the small hilltop borgo is deserted, and winemaker Andrea Daldin and I have the ancient frescoes to ourselves.

Daldin explains that as recently as 1945, Lamole was a beating heart with 1,000 inhabitants. Today, in contrast, the number sits closer to 100.

Yet, the preservation of the little church and its 14th century altarpiece is remarkable; in the long summer evenings, the doors are flung open to host a throng of tourists for summer concerts.

Chianti Classico’s high altitude frontier

To reach this quiet haven, situated between Siena and Florence, you must take the road from the famed town of Greve, climbing to over 650 metres above sea level.

Lamole is both the smallest and one of the coolest UGAs (Unità Geografiche Aggiuntive) in Chianti Classico, sitting at the upper limit for growing Sangiovese in Tuscany.

Increasingly, this extreme geography is highly coveted. As summers get ever hotter, forward-thinking wineries are aggressively scouting for cooler sites.

Lamole’s altitude offers a welcome freshness that translates directly into the wines; at this elevation, vines benefit from cool evenings, excellent ventilation, and long sunlight hours.

Consequently, land prices here have soared to become among the highest in all of Chianti Classico.

A Venetian legacy

The driving force behind Lamole’s modern preservation is the entrepreneurial Marzotto family, whose wine group is currently managed by its eighth generation.

With ancestral origins as philanthropic Venetian textile merchants, the family has invested heavily in the village.

Their work includes financing the restoration of San Donato, driven by a philosophy that a good wine must also be 'good' in financial, environmental, and social terms.

This continues a wine legacy that first began in 1935, when Count Gaetano Marzotto established the Santa Margherita winery in the eastern Veneto, transforming reclaimed marshland and establishing schools, housing, and medical care for his workers.

Today, the group’s properties span from Alto Adige to Sardinia, and further afield in Oregon – but here, their Lamole di Lamole estate remains the area's largest, spanning 288 hectares with 37ha under vine.

Stones and coins

The very identity of the region is etched into its geology. The village takes its name from lame (meaning 'blades') – the mineral-rich natural terraces that cut into the steep slopes.

This viticultural landscape traces its lineage back to Roman times, and ancient cart tracks are still used to navigate the vineyards today.

It was in these soils that Daldin once unearthed a Roman coin; a token he has kept in his pocket ever since as a talisman and a reminder of the area's rich past.

Even the flora nods to antiquity. The distinctive Florentine iris, or gaggiolo, has grown among the vines since the Roman era, its bloom reflected in Florence's symbolic fleur-de-lys.

Highly prized by perfumiers for its orris root, this flower serves as the inspiration for the estate’s floral ‘Maggiolo’ Chianti Classico, named for its May (maggio) flowering.

Preserving this vertical landscape requires constant effort. The vineyards are situated on terraces supported by dry stone walls made from traditional Tuscan sandstone (macigno), an ancient structural craft recognised by UNESCO in 2018.

Lamole di Lamole has undertaken extensive restorations of these walls around its Campolungo vineyard, which yields the grapes for one of its flagship Gran Selezione wines.

Carbon

Managing the delicate balance between past and future falls to Daldin. Originally from Trentino, the winemaker moved to Siena to study oenology and has spent the last 30 years at Lamole di Lamole.

In this time he has overseen the conversion to organic farming, employing a meticulous, vine-by-vine approach utilising natural treatments based on aloe, algae, and propolis, alongside careful water management.

This ecological focus reached a milestone when Lamole di Lamole became the first Italian winery to be certified carbon neutral, backed by a dedicated full-time sustainability manager within the HERITA Marzotto Wine Estates group.

Pruning is not only a case of building the essential structure of the plant, but a way of helping develop the next generation of viticulturalists.

As Daldin explains, specialised pruning courses are hosted in these vineyards to preserve the alberello lamolese – a traditional bush-training method perfectly adapted to these steep slopes.

Testament to this, the estate boasts a historic plot of old vines planted in 1945, showcasing 30 different clones of Sangiovese trained using the alberello lamolese method, standing as a living museum of the town's heritage.

A taste of Lamole di Lamole

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Lambrusco, Emilia-Romagna’s sparkling red wine, is on-trend for being pairable, chillable, and more complex than once presumed.

But besides Lambrusco (and Sangiovese), there's another grape worth considering – the region's signature white grape, Albana.

Albana has long been overlooked due to its primary application in sweet, late-harvest passito wines, which has obscured the grape’s true potential.

Yet did you know that Albana di Romagna DOCG was the first white wine in Italy to receive DOCG designation, in 1987?

Capable of making dry and sparkling styles as well as the more ubiquitous sweets, the golden hued grape's versatility hinges on attention to terroir and technique.

So here are three reasons to pick up a bottle of Albana this summer.

1. Authenticity

Many winemakers in the region are commited to Romagna’s indigenous varieties, including Trebbiano, Sangiovese, and of course Albana.

This ensures that a sense of true identity and authenticity can be found in the bottle, tied to microclimate and soils for true terroir expression.

Open valleys support some maritime influence from the Adriatic Sea and abundant sun exposure, while inland sites offer a greater balance of clay in the soil for water retention.

Albana thrives in a composite of calcareous, sandstone, and clay soils, where it expresses acidity, salinity, and minerality.

For example, Elisa Valpiani – co-owner of Marta Valpiani in Castrocaro Terme – applies low-intervention winemaking in ‘Delyus’, a bright white with a lovely salty freshness, grown on south-facing slopes 500 metres above sea level.

2. Versatility

Full in body and with a plush texture, Albana's dry wines typically express savouriness and freshness, with tension and equilibrium between citrus, stone fruit, herbal and floral notes.

Notes of honey complement sweeter wines.

Albana’s thick skins lend phenolic structure, which makes it particularly suited to orange/ skin contact expressions, as well as supporting sweet wines.

The grape's natural acidity is beneficial for making sparkling wines, and also perfectly counterpoints the residual sugar in botrytis and late-harvest sweet styles.

Vinification in concrete or stainless steel preserves Albana's dynamism, while the use of oak brings out more complexity and enhances texure.

Lees stirring is used for even more weight and texture.

3. Food friendly

With phenolic structure, acidity and freshness, Albana is a fantastic white wine for the dinner table.

Dry versions in particular are substantive, full-bodied counterparts to the region’s signature pasta dish, cappelletti, as well as structured seafood, pork, and poultry dishes.

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Heather Dougherty, Lionel Periner and Daphne Teremetz tasted 111 wines, with 5 Outstanding and 37 Highly recommended.

Provence rosé: Panel tasting scores

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 5

Highly recommended 37

Recommended 59

Commended 10

Fair 0

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their latest-release rosé wines from any of the APs Côtes de Provence, Coteaux Varois en Provence, Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence, Les Baux de Provence, Bandol, Bellet, Cassis, Palette or Pierrevert

'The Bandol region stood out to me'

Provence rosé is a feast for the eyes as well as the tastebuds, and this tasting treated us to wines ranging in hue from barely coloured, palest blanc de noir, through ‘onion skin’ colour to deep coral pink, reflecting the breadth of styles available.

Nevertheless, the classic Côtes de Provence rosé paradigm of wines that are pale in colour accounted for most of those in this tasting.

When done well, these delicate wines still deliver in terms of flavour. Daphne Teremetz encapsulated what she was looking for as ‘pure, wild strawberry fruit, a creamy-textured palate with a crisp, fresh finish, as well as some delicate fruit flavour on the finish’.

All three judges were expecting consistency, in a style that has come to define the rosé category.

‘Provence rosé has a remarkably consistent identity,’ said Lionel Periner. ‘When people imagine pale, dry rosé, they’re usually picturing Provence.’

A touch of age

Although most Provence rosés are generally destined to be drunk in the summer after they’re made, the fact that four out of five of the wines we rated Outstanding were older vintages shows that, at a certain quality level, there are fine wines being made that age beautifully.

Bandol excelled in this, accounting for two of those five wines scoring 95 or 96 points, flying the flag for often more deeply coloured, ageworthy, gastronomic styles.

Periner expressed his enthusiasm: ‘The Bandol region stood out to me as the most interesting: the wines we tasted showed great freshness in a medium-bodied style, and they would pair beautifully with food.’

The success of Château d’Esclans’ flagship blend Garrus also demonstrated that neither Mourvèdre nor deep colour is a requirement for Provence rosé to age well.

At the other end of the scale, too many wines from the appellations of Coteaux Varois and Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence underperformed, showing either a lack of flavour or tartness. In terms of value for money,

Teremetz summed it up: ‘The pricing is far above average – and the best wines absolutely merit that.’

See all notes and scores from the Provence rosé panel tasting

The judges

Provence rosé panel tasting results

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Deep in the Laurent-Perrier cellars, oenologist Constance Delaire stands in front of a row of eerily smooth, flawless tanks installed by Michel Fauconnet, the long-serving predecessor of new cellar master Olivier Vigneron.

‘There are no seams in the steel,’ she says, the tanks glowing like perfect mirrors in the dim light. ‘Michel was so afraid of oxidation that he had them made this way.’

Vigneron strolls in, looking like a man on a mission. ‘Sorry to miss the start, but I have been in the United States for three weeks and the wines require my attention.’

I remember this interaction eight months later, as Vigneron and I sit down in London to mark the release of the latest iteration of Laurent Perrier’s utterly distinct prestige cuvée Grand Siècle.

His admission as we settle in that he is a ‘chef de cave des caves’ – a cellar master of the cellars, as opposed to the media rooms and airport lounges – rings true.

The new release – Itération 27 – marks a year since Vigneron took charge at the family-run house.

Laurent-Perrier’s modern success is built on the legacy of Vigneron’s mentor, Fauconnet, a man very much in the same mould.

‘Every house has a different culture – some cellar masters are more communicator than technician,’ Vigneron says.

‘But here the job is about keeping the idea of what Laurent-Perrier is, to guard the history of the maison as I was trained by Michel, and to keep freshness and elegance – this is my work.’

Kept in reserve

Work, it must be said, is already familiar to Vigneron, who was appointed to the house in 2004 after four years as a winemaking assistant within Laurent-Perrier’s sister house De Castellane, just three years after completing his studies in Reims.

Hailing from Bergères-les-Vertus in the Côte des Blancs, where Vigneron’s wife grows and produces Champagne Perrot-Batteux, Vigneron is the definition of a continuity candidate.

Continuity may be the order of the day, but that doesn’t translate to standing still.

Today’s Champagne winemakers have to deliver consistency in extremes of climate arguably never seen before, relying ever more on their greatest asset – their store of reserve wines, whose varied attributes can complement whatever nature throws up.

‘Knowledge of the reserves is critical to the job,’ says Vigneron, whose cellar after a harvest is made up not just of 700 tanks of that year’s wine, but also a remarkable 300 of reserve wines from previous harvests. All of these must be tasted, assessed and directed to blends or further storage.

For anyone wanting to taste a snapshot of this work, in 2024 Laurent-Perrier released the Héritage cuvée (£65-£80), a wine with a makeup not normally seen in Champagne: 100% reserve wines, with no young base year in the blend.

‘In being all about the reserves, it keeps the spirit of Grand Siècle,’ Vigneron says, although there is ‘more freedom’ to make Héritage than there is with the multi-vintage Grand Siècle that tops the portfolio, which must be a blend of only three vintages.

Two years on from the Héritage release, it has developed beautifully.

‘We’re really seeing the effects of double maturation, first in the reserve tanks and then in the bottles,’ says Vigneron.

The art of the blend

It’s in the Grand Siècle itself, though, that Vigneron’s art reaches its pinnacle. ‘The aim is to recreate the perfect year,’ Vigneron says of the concept that has been in place since 1959, ‘not just to blend together three consecutive vintages.’

In theory only vintages bottled individually as Laurent-Perrier Millésime can be used as ingredients for Grand Siècle (although hawk-eyed fans may spot an outlier in the current release), but even these are kept back as separate components, presenting Vigneron with a highly complex blending task when the decision is made to create an iteration.

Itération 27 contains 65% of the generally sunny and very hot 2015 vintage.

‘Chardonnay had a lot of generosity and needed balancing with vintages of vivacity and tension,’ Vigneron says.

The vintages that make up the blend, 2013 and 2012, seem to elevate the wine far beyond where most 2015 vintages alone can reach. ‘It’s a work of great precision – we can’t force it.’

While the Millésime Brut 2018 bottling (£72-£80), which has also just been released to the market, seems likely to feature in future Grand Siècle iterations, it’s worth noting that Laurent-Perrier didn’t make vintage Champagnes from 2016, 2014, 2013, 2010 or 2009, all of which were widely released by other houses.

It’s a restraint that has served this discreet maison well.

‘The family ownership means there are no obligations,’ Vigneron points out. ‘The wines can lead us.’

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Verdejo has cemented its status as Spain’s most popular white wine after winning legions of admirers. Wine lovers enjoy its zesty acidity, citrus flavours and distinctive herbal notes. It makes an ideal aperitif, but Verdejo also pairs beautifully with a wide array of foods, from salad and seafood to guacamole and Asian dishes.

Most Verdejo is produced in Rueda, which is located in the heart of Spain’s Castilla y León region. In 2012, the Designation of Origin (DO) Rueda reported 11.3% annual sales growth, driven by the soaring popularity of Verdejo.

However, 85% of sales were made within Spain, while only 15% went to export markets. That inspired the DO Rueda to create World Verdejo Day in 2013.

The rise of World Verdejo Day

World Verdejo Day started out as a small celebration in a handful of US cities, but it expanded rapidly in the ensuing years. By 2018, it had become a global event, with promotional activities across the US, Mexico, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands and beyond. The event takes place on the second Friday of June each year.

Exports have also increased at a brisk pace. In 2025, DO Rueda exported 17,481,944 bottles, with Verdejo accounting for 88% of sales. The UK has developed a particular fondness for Verdejo, with sales exceeding 1.3 million bottles in 2025 alone.

A millennium in the making

Verdejo has been grown in Castilla y León for more than 1,000 years. For most of that time, it was used to make oxidative, sherry-style wines. The grape was almost wiped out by the phylloxera epidemic in the early 20th century, and for decades afterwards it was used for producing simple, often forgettable whites.

Verdejo was then reborn in the 1970s, when celebrated Rioja producers identified Rueda as the ideal place to make serious white wine in Spain. The DO Rueda was established in 1980, and the grape has gone from strength to strength ever since.

Today, Rueda still accounts for the vast majority of Verdejo plantings. The grape thrives in the region’s stony soils and high-altitude vineyards, which are often 700 to 900 metres above sea level. Those altitudes produce dramatic day-night temperature swings that preserve acidity and aromatic intensity.

However, Verdejo has now started to expand out of its Spanish heartland. Pioneering producers in Argentina, Australia, the US and further afield are starting to produce high-quality Verdejo, pointing to a bright future for this popular grape. The second Friday in June is the perfect time to celebrate its rise by enjoying a glass of Verdejo with friends.

Scroll down to see award-winning Spanish Verdejo wines from DWWA 2025

DWWA 2025: Award-winning Spanish Verdejo wines

Fortified

De Alberto Gutiérrez, De Alberto Palido, Rueda NV
Gold, 95 points
A beguiling austerity of smoky saline and iodine aroma that fuses with the mouth-watering limpidity of braised celery and fennel seed that enhances the creamy texture. Alcohol 15%

Still whites

Bodegas Rodríguez Y Sanzo, Palo Norte Verdejo, Rueda 2020
Gold, 95 points
Intricately laced with dried chamomile, dried herbs and mace on the nose, with a flourish of delectable lemon peel acidity and a long nutty finish. Alc 13.5%

Cuatro Rayas, Vendimia Nocturna Verdejo, Rueda 2024
Silver, 94 points
The nose has a character of ripe peaches, lemon oil, chamomile, lemongrass and lilac flowers. Chalky on the palate. Alc 13.5%

Viñas Murillo, Chapirete Seleccion Verdejo, Rueda 2024
Silver, 94 points
Beautiful nose, displaying delicate aromas of orange blossom, lemon zest and marmalade. Tangy and bright, with a delicate saline character. Alc 13.5%

Marqués De Riscal, Finca Montico Organic Verdejo, Rueda 2023
Silver, 94 points
Lovely bright floral notes with nuances of tobacco leaf, tarragon, ripe peaches, guava and dragon fruit. Harmonious, with a long finish. Alc 12.8%

Valdecuevas, Cuvèe Verdejo, Rueda 2023
Silver, 94 points
Limey nose with floral tones of lilac, violets and honeydew melon. Rounded acidity, very refreshing, with a pithy finish. Alc 13.5%

Bodegas Campo Eliseo, Rueda 2022
Silver, 93 points
Nutty nuances with hints of vanilla, smoke and peaches. Citrusy on the palate, with a very long and fresh finish. Alc 13.5%

Javier Ruiz, Verdejo, Rueda 2024
Silver, 92 points
Subtle and perfumed, with apples, passion fruit, roses and a touch of pickles on the nose. Vibrant acidity, great mouthfeel. Alc 13.5%

Bodega Cuatro Rayas, Amador Diez Verdejo, Rueda 2020
Silver, 92 points
The nose shows aromas of mulberry, mistletoe, white fruits and dried herbs. Elegant on the palate, very well made. Alc 13.3%

Bodegas R&G, Parcela 23, Rueda 2022
Silver, 92 points
Lifted aromas of flowers, ripe fruits and some saline edge on the nose. Textural palate, with a long pithy finish. Alc 13%

Pedro Escudero, Bestia Parda, Castilla y Léon 2020
Silver, 92 points
Complex aromas of custard cream, lime, lemon and green tea leaf with some toasty and floral undertones. Succulent and creamy. Alc 13%

Finca Tresolmos, Classic Verdejo, Rueda 2024
Silver, 91 points
Restrained on the nose, showing fresh and pure aromas of lemon and fennel. Creamy texture and pleasant acidity. Really appealing. Alc 13%

Coming soon: Decanter World Wine Awards 2026 results

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Zareh Mesrobyan, head of wine at Estelle Manor – a luxury hotel and country club with four restaurants, a bar, and a cafe – saw off competition from 28 other sommeliers to claim the coveted title.

This year’s competition was the first UK event hosted by Ruinart’s new cellar master Caroline Fiot, who took over following the untimely passing of her predecessor, Frédéric Panaïotis, last year. The jury was completed by Emma Denney, director of wine at Claridge’s and 2024 challenge winner, and myself, Natalie Earl, representing Decanter.

Second prize was awarded to Joanna Nerantzi, head sommelier at Raffles London at the OWO, while Grace Shih, head of wine at Restaurant St Barts, took third place.

The challenge centres on a blind tasting of four wines, in which participants must assess technical details – intensity, acidity, body, tannin, alcohol, flavour – to make an informed case for a wine’s potential origins, climate, grape variety and winemaking technique.

Correctly identifying the exact wines is a bonus, but not necessarily the goal; what the jury is looking for is the ability to reason precisely, and communicate why their assessment has led them to a particular conclusion.

At a time when answers are available at the touch of a button, the value of that expertise, and of the human connection it enables between sommelier and guest, has never felt more important.

This year’s theme was rosé, with the blind tasting spanning both still and sparkling examples. It served as a reminder that rosé is a category worth taking seriously, pushing participants to think creatively about food matching and the different scenarios in which these styles can be enjoyed at their best.

The wines in the blind tasted were revealed as:

• Nyetimber, Sparkling Rosé, England NV
• Eric Rodez, Rosé Macération Edition 37, Champagne NV
• Gusbourne, Still Rosé, England 2025
• Domaine Tempier, Rosé, Bandol 2025

The competition runs across nine countries around the world, with each national winner earning a four-day educational trip to Champagne, which includes tastings, vineyard visits and masterclasses.

The Ruinart Sommelier Challenge was created in 2010 by Panaïotis alongside the Ruinart winemaking team, with the ambition of building an international training and mentoring programme committed to supporting sommelier wine education.

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It wasn’t the lure of fine bottles that first brought me to the Dordogne almost two decades ago.

This corner of southwest France promises medieval bastides, honey-coloured villages, culinary delicacies such as truffles and foie gras, and even vineyards, but as I mapped out my wine stops before my first trip to the region, it was Bordeaux – its famed neighbour to the west – that occupied most of my attention.

With the exception of Monbazillac, known for its noble sweet wines, Bergerac was hardly on my radar.

Little did I know I would end up falling for a region punching well above its weight. Bergerac offers remarkable value for money with excellent bottles for a fraction of what you’d pay for Bordeaux.

And things continue to improve as producers embrace fresher, more approachable styles while maintaining a commitment to quality and sustainability (roughly 35% of the vineyards are certified organic).

Bergerac: Rich in history

Spanning 10,500ha, Bergerac’s history dates back to Gallo-Roman times. Thanks to its prime position on the banks of the Dordogne river, wine trade flourished in the 13th century.

The region now counts seven sub-zones (Bergerac, Monbazillac, Côtes de Duras, Pécharmant, Montravel, Rosette and Saussignac) covering 10 APs, with everything from zesty whites to handsome reds.

Though predominantly planted with Bordeaux grape varieties, each appellation has its unique character and terroir.

Authentic and worth discovering

In and around the town of Bergerac, the pursuit of the French art de vivre is palpable, especially in summer when festivals and events spotlighting local producers are in full swing.

Whether you’re watching the sun set over Château de Monbazillac or revelling in enchanting landscapes as you cycle past vine-covered hillsides and pretty villages, there’s plenty to prove that this once-overlooked corner of France is an attractive wine destination in its own right.

Top experiences

Quai Cyrano

No better place to hit the ground running than at Quai Cyrano, which is equal parts wine shop, tourist office and wine bar, housed in an attractive building on the banks of the Dordogne in the centre of Bergerac town.

Come here to sample 140 wines (paired with cheese or charcuterie boards) from the different appellations, either on the panoramic riverfront terrace or in the peaceful 17th-century Récollets cloister.

Don’t miss the Rosé Party at the cloister on 10 July and the Rosette Night on the old port on 15 August.

Château de Monbazillac

Before sampling Monbazillac’s silky liquoreux (sweet) wines (perfect when served chilled as an aperitif or paired with a foie gras terrine), step back in time with a visit to the 16th-century castle where you can discover how the region’s golden nectar is made.

Just 15 minutes south of Bergerac, this remarkable historic monument also hosts art exhibitions and the much-anticipated Soirées Paradizillac.

Held every Thursday between 16 July and 13 August, these open-air concerts are a feast for the senses, with wine tastings, Monbazillac-based cocktails, charcuterie boards and spectacular sunsets.

Tickets should be booked in advance via the website.

Hop on a bike

The Monbazillac route is an easy loop through vineyards and small villages. Gentle hills make it a relaxed and scenic ride, ideal for casual cycling and sightseeing (approximately 24km, 2.5 hours).

A little more challenging, the six-hour (82km) Pays des Bastides route is well worth the effort.

You’ll pass by historic villages such as Beaumont, Cadouin, Belves and Monpazier.

Bikes can be rented through MBS Mobility Bike Solution, while Quai Cyrano can provide detailed information and assistance in mapping out the ultimate route.

Discover Duras

The welcoming village of Duras (about 40km southwest of Bergerac town) is well worth a visit.

Spend an afternoon strolling through the charming streets and exploring its 12th-century château before settling in for an aperitif at Chai et Rasade, known for excellent charcuterie and a cellar of more than 200 wines and spirits, including a small selection of Duras wines by the glass.

On Thursday evenings in summer, the village comes alive with its convivial night market, where you can enjoy regional food, wine, live music and dancing.

Must-visit wineries

Domaine du Haut-Pécharmant

If it’s age-worthy, structured reds you’re after, Pécharmant in the northeast has little to envy neighbouring Pomerol.

The south-facing slopes, with soils of gravel, sand and iron-rich clay, benefit from warmer, drier conditions, ideal for producing full-bodied wines with lots of elegance.

The Haut-Pécharmant Prestige cuvée (a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec) stands out for its complexity, concentrated fruit and supple, well-integrated tannins.

A natural partner for the region’s robust duck dishes, this wine can easily be kept for up to 15 years.

Château le Tap

In Saussignac, just west of Monbazillac and also known for excellent sweet wines, most winegrowers have rejected chemical farming.

Among them are Olivier and Mireille Roches of Château le Tap, a 15ha estate that has been fully organic since 2007.

Their Bergerac rosé, with aromas of succulent strawberries, delicate floral notes and a lingering minerality, is one to pour alongside duck charcuterie or a goat’s cheese tartine topped with macerated strawberries.

Château Puy-Servain

Montravel, in the far west of the region, on the right bank of the Dordogne, is home to some of the region’s finest whites, and Château Puy-Servain’s Marjolaine is a prime example of how expressive these wines can be.

Made from Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon planted on clay-limestone soils, this elegant cuvée is the brainchild of the spirited Daniel Hecquet (named Winemaker of the Year 2026 by the French publication Guide Hachette des Vins).

It merges freshness and citrus notes with floral aromas and a subtly textured mouthfeel thanks to five months in French oak.

Eating and drinking

Les Fresques

Located in Monestier, about 25 minutes from Bergerac, the Michelin one-star Les Fresques is part of a hotel set within the 16th-century Château des Vigiers. Chef Didier Casaguana’s artful dishes are matched by an extensive wine list with roughly 20 regional selections.

Try the signature oyster and caviar with Château Haut Bernasse’s Arcane cuvée. Made with a touch of Chenin, it opens with notes of white flowers, citrus and green apple.

Its creamy texture and subtle barrel-derived richness beautifully complement the fromage blanc sorbet, while its vibrant edge enhances the oyster’s salinity.

La Tour des Vents

Book a table on the terrace at Michelin one-star La Tour des Vents and order the three-course ‘Gourmand’ menu (€75) – with wine pairings (€53) if you’re feeling indulgent – while taking in sweeping views over the lush countryside.

A standout dish is the roast pigeon supreme, served with crispy leg, truffled Jerusalem artichoke purée, Brussels sprout leaves and reduction jus.

Pair it with Domaine Albert de Conti’s Côtes de Bergerac Chez Paul, a structured Cabernet Sauvignon with notes of violets, black fruits and fine, dusty tannins.

Le Chamoine

For something a little more budget-friendly, Le Chamoine (a two-minute walk from Quai Cyrano) serves classic Périgord cuisine, including magret and other duck dishes, alongside African-inspired specials such as a hearty Senegalese poulet mafé and even excellent fish and chips.

There’s also a small but thoughtfully curated selection of Bergerac wines.

L’Anthonnoir

Owner, sommelier and Bergerac native Anthony Guire offers more than 130 wines by the glass (including a good selection of Bergerac wines) served with cheese and charcuterie platters.

Where to stay

Les Gabarres apartment

You’ll feel like a local when you rent this bright apartment right in the centre of town.

It’s a treat to cook with fresh local produce from the Wednesday or Saturday morning market in the spacious kitchen, complete with a large island where you can sip wine while taking in the gorgeous views of the Dordogne.

Château les Merles

Tucked between the vineyards and just a 15-minute drive from Bergerac’s centre, this four-star hotel also offers apartments, villas and even a golf course.

At the gastronomic restaurant, chef Bas Holten cooks dishes with organic produce from his vegetable garden.

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