Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2020 i Decanter

WHAT I’VE BEEN DRINKING THIS MONTH I’ve been back in Alsace over the last week, which meant a chance to catch up with one of my favourite grape varieties on home soil: Gewurztraminer. Few Alsace growers are more skilled at vinifying it than Félix Meyer of Meyer-Fonné, and his Gewurztraminer Kaefferkopf 2015, from the Ammerschwihr grand cru of the same name, was everything I hope for: creamy, mushroomy, gingery, rich and liquorous on the tongue, fire-free, stone-freshened at the end. A seamless, supple treat; completely enchanting.…

WHAT I’VE BEEN DRINKING THIS MONTH Sami-Odi, Little Wine #8 is a Barossa Shiraz blend vinified from 2018 (48%), 2017 (29%), 2016 (12%), 2015 (9%) and 2012 (2%), sourced from the Hoffmann Dallwitz vineyard. It’s a supple wine of distinct and voluminous perfume, showing violets, sweet spice, peppered charcuterie and brambly herbs. The dark fruit-laced palate feels supple and succulent, yet cool in acidity, with more of a herbal-briar detail. It is inherently delicious, as well as definitively complex. A remarkable, intriguing and original wine (£59 Swig).…

Events SHANGHAI: DECANTER WINE LEGENDS ROOM One highlight for visitors at this year’s Shanghai Fine Wine Encounter was a chance, for the first time, to taste superb wines by producers featured on our Decanter Wine Legends page in issues going back to 2011. Including some of the vintages originally featured and some more recent, Stephen Brook tasted the wines that topped the bill in Pudong in November... Recaredo, Turó d’en Mota, Cava, Catalonia, Spain 2001 The 1999 vintage was the first for this groundbreaking Penedès sparkling wine – produced since 2006 under the new Corpinnat banner. It is aged on the yeasts for 11 years or more. This 2001 is fully dry, mature and rounded, nutty and suave with fine depth and texture. 2004 also shown. (1999 featured in Wine…

Consumer trends ON THE RISE: low- and no-alcohol wine As a growing number of people in the UK choose to drink ‘less and better’, the universe of low- and no-alcohol beverages is rapidly expanding and improving. Can the wine category keep up? Peter Richards MW investigates Like Brexit, Trump and Marmite, some things in life seem destined to be controversial. Two of them came together recently when the UK’s Football Association decreed that winners of the 2019 FA Cup, in a break with tradition, would not be awarded Champagne but ‘a non-alcoholic Champagne’ alternative. Needless to say, the announcement provoked much coverage and debate. Low- and no-alcohol wine is something of an enigma. Legally, it doesn’t exist – officially, ‘wine’ should contain a minimum of 8% alcohol by volume (abv)…

Low & no: top tips I’m still waiting for that eureka moment with low- and no-alcohol wine, but have been encouraged by developments of late. What I look for is an ability to pair with food, vinous characteristics, not being too sweet and a lack of off-flavours (particularly that raw pastry/damp cardboard hallmark of many low- and no-alcohol wines). This isn’t easy when a key ingredient like alcohol is removed. One brand that has caught my eye is Sinzero from Chile. Its Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 1 (<0.5%, £9.49 Dry Drinker) shows typicity and complexity, and drinks well alongside a range of foods, with a touch of creamy oak and cassis concentration. Sinzero Brut sparkling (<0.5%, £9.49 Dry Drinker) is on the dry and tangy side but lacks the confected,…

Your Montalcino address book ACCOMMODATION Hotel Vecchia Oliviera www.vecchiaoliviera.com Il Rifugio d’Altri Tempi www.rifugiodaltritempi.it Hotel dei Capitani www.deicapitani.it La Suite Corso Matteotti 37, Via Giacomo Matteotti 37, 53024 Montalcino Affittacamere Mariuccia, Piazza del Popolo 28, 53024 Montalcino Villa Palazzetta www.villapalazzetta.com Montalcino Townhouse www.montalcinotownhouse.com Cordella Montalcino Wine Resort www.cordellavini.it Casanova di Neri www.casanovadinerirelais.com Canalicchio di Sopra www.canalicchiodisoprawinerelais.it Capanna Wine Relais www.capannamontalcino.com Mastrojanni Relais www.mastrojanni.com Locanda Sant’Antimo www.locandasantantimo.it Le Ragnaie www.leragnaie.com Podere Il Cocco www.ilcocco.it Villa le Prata www.villaleprata.com Tenuta di Argiano www.argianodimore.it RESTAURANTS Albergo Il Giglio www.gigliohotel.com Osticcio www.osticcio.it Boccon DiVino www.boccondivinomontalcino.it Vineria Le Potazzine www.lepotazzine.com Alle Logge di Piazza, Piazza del Popolo 1, 53024 Montalcino Caffè La Fortezza, Viale della Liberta 6, 53024 Montalcino Petto’s Pizza, Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi 1, 53024 Montalcino Il Marrucheto, Via della Stazione 7, Sant’Angelo ScaIo,…

THIS MONTH’S PANEL TASTINGS New World single-vineyard Pinot Noir & 2010 Cornas, Côte-Rôtie & Hermitage WANT MORE? Decanter.com/ premium has full tasting notes for both panel tastings, plus exclusive tasting reports and more Steven Spurrier’s fine wine world Our consultant editor and 2017 Decanter Hall of Fame recipient picks fine wines to drink now and to lay down, all priced at £25 and above Weekday wines By the Decanter team Want something more adventurous in your midweek wine selection but don’t want to make an expensive mistake? We’ve found 25 exciting wines to try for £25 or under New World single-vineyard Pinot Noir 100 wines tasted It’s a great time to try these expressive, characterful wines, with plenty of high scores reflecting the quality 2010 Northern Rhônes: Cornas,…

WEEKDAY WINES Looking to try something different or adventurous, but don’t want to make an expensive mistake? The Decanter team has done the hard work for you, picking out 25 exciting and accessible wines available in the UK priced at £25 or less Chapel Down, Sparkling Bacchus, England NV 89 £19.99 Majestic Bacchus is fast becoming England’s signature grape, and this sparkling version is an easy introduction into English fizz. It may not have the cachet of the Champagne varieties, but it offers gooseberry scents with smooth notes of cut grass, lime and juicy stone fruits. Slips down easily. JB Alcohol 12% Delaire Graff, Chenin Blanc Reserve, Swartland, South Africa 2018 92 £16.95-£18 The Secret Cellar, Twelve Green Bottles A delicious, complex wine from 30- to 40-year-old vines. With an…

Panel tasting THE VERDICT While some top regions were under-represented, the many higher-scorers showed good varietal character and regional individuality, and there were few disappointments, as Tina Gellie reports While ‘Pinot Noir’ on the wine label is enough of a lure for most wine lovers, what unique selling point do the additional words ‘single vineyard’ provide? The consensus among our judges was that a single vineyard is the New World’s version of a ‘climat’ in Burgundy – a specific parcel of vines – and that labelling a bottle with a single-vineyard designation implied that it was of higher quality than a producer’s ‘basic’ Pinot Noir. ‘It indicates this is a producer’s best-quality fruit,’ explained James Doidge. ‘This is the wine they will spend the most time and energy on because…

THE JUDGES Christian Honorez Honorez is managing director of London wine merchant H2Vin. He began his career as a chef near Avignon before moving to the UK in 1985 to work in the wine trade, setting up H&H Fine Wines in 1988. Today he brings with him 35 years’ experience supplying wines to top UK restaurants and hotels, and is a DWWA judge. Tanguy Martin Now wine manager at New St Wine Shop in London, Martin grew up in Lyon, attending the Lycée Viticole de Beaune, then finishing his oenology diploma in Montpellier. Moving to the UK in 2011, he worked at Hotel TerraVina under Gerard Basset OBE MW MS, rising to head sommelier. In 2015, he won the title of UK Sommelier of the Year. Matt Walls Walls is…

TASTING NOTES DECODED Violet Written by Laura Seal Violet is generally picked up as an aroma in wine, but it can be a flavour too — as anyone with a penchant for the British-made Parma Violet sweets will know. Violet commonly displays a musky sweetness on the nose, but tastes a touch more bitter and austere. In this way, it can be aligned with other bittersweet and perfumed floral notes such as bergamot, rose, geranium and lavender. Just like perfume, it’s a matter of preference whether you find violet flavours and aromas off-putting or appealing in wines. The distinctive scent and flavour comes from two chemical compounds, α-ionone and β-ionone, which are also used in the confectionery and in perfumery products derived from violets. It crops up in a broad…

Letter of the month Growing optimism While reading the January 2020 issue I came across Dr Richard Smart’s letter and Andrew Jefford’s column on the negative environmental impact of wine production. Nobody can deny that many processes in the wine industry produce high levels of CO2 but what about the positive impacts of the industry? What both writers fail to mention is the amount of oxygen released into the air through plant leaves. On average, leaves produce about 5 millilitres of oxygen per hour. So plants with more leaves produce more oxygen than plants with fewer leaves. In addition, larger leaves produce more oxygen than smaller ones. Taking that into account, and the high number of other trees and plants on most wine estates – plus…

Jane Anson ‘Getting to know a wine estate is like getting to know a person’ Photograph: John O’Brien Roland Barthes’ The Death of the Author was a big deal when I was an English literature student at Sheffield University in the 1990s. It led to regular debates as to whether you had to know the writer’s own history to fully understand his or her book, or whether that information was superfluous and simply a distraction. Weirdly, the same question often arises over wine. Is the only way to truly understand a wine to visit the vineyard in person, to walk the vines and poke around under the hood? Or can you understand it simply through what you find in the glass, ideally helped by speaking to the people who made…

Vintage preview BURGUNDY 2018 A hard vintage to generalise about, due to individual estates’ reactions to the extreme weather. So, more than ever, says Tim Atkin MW, it pays to know your producer and choose carefully. Here he gives an in-depth analysis of the vintage and picks out 100 top-scoring and best-value reds and whites from across the communes Photograph: Jon Arnold Images Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo Historic is a word that has been widely employed to describe Burgundy’s 2018 vintage. It was certainly a year of extreme weather – the hottest since 2003 – and of large volumes, particularly for white wines. Some have compared 2018 to the semi-mythical 1947, while at least one UK importer has claimed that many domaines have produced their ‘finest-ever’ reds. The truth, as it…

Low & no: how it’s made Photographs: www.eresson.com; NurPhoto/Getty Images Fermentation is a transformative process. It doesn’t just produce alcohol but also myriad aromas, flavours and textures. The real challenge of making low- and no-alcohol wine is thus about how to remove the alcohol from a fermented juice (which can typically be 13%-14% alcohol by volume) without impairing mouthfeel, balance, typicity and quality. It’s not easy. There are three main methods currently in use. Vacuum distillation sees alcohol and other volatiles removed at a relatively low temperature (25°C-30°C), with aromatics blended back in afterwards. Spinning cone columns are not dissimilar, but involve repeated low-temperature evaporation and condensation using inverted cones and centrifugal forces. They are swift and highly efficient in separating constituent elements, which are then blended back together. Both…

Prosecco Superiore PROSECCO SUPERIORE: MY TOP 20 Following a visit to the picturesque communes of Valdobbiadene and Conegliano, Rebecca Gibb MW looks at the latest trends in Italy’s most famous sparkling wine and picks out 20 of her top Prosecco Superiore wines to try The capital city of Azerbaijan was an unlikely location to safeguard the future of the Prosecco Superiore zone, but in Baku in July 2019 the steep hills of Valdobbiadene and the rolling slopes of Conegliano were awarded UNESCO World Heritage status. Verdant terraces curve across its slopes and Inca temple-like mounds, looking down upon more orderly rows of vines on the plains towards Treviso. It is not only higher elevations that distinguish these hillside vineyards from their flatland counterparts (and their UNESCO stamp of approval) but…

Marie-Hélène Boisvert MY MONTREAL This famously bilingual city is often dubbed the ‘Paris of Canada’, and its cosmopolitan, multicultural influences and scenic backdrop make it a must-visit for any travelling foodie, as Marie-Hélène Boisvert reports There is no denying the eclectic vibe of Montreal. Vast cultural diversity has greatly influenced the flair and innovation of our gastronomic creations – one of Montreal’s greatest strengths. You can dine somewhere new every night of the year, never visiting the same place twice. In the last decade, Montreal has become one of the most renowned gastronomic destinations in the world, due in part to its famous chefs – names such as Normand Laprise, Martin Picard, Marie-Fleur St-Pierre and Charles-Antoine Crête. Montreal is a mecca for poutine: a Quebecois dish made of fresh-cut french…

Steven Spurrier’s FINE WINE WORLD Decanter’s long-standing consultant editor and 2017 Decanter Hall of Fame Award recipient picks fine wines for drinking now and recommends others for laying down, all priced from £25 upwards FROM THE CELLAR Château Rieussec, Sauternes 1CC 1990 The wines, all presented by members, at the 185th dinner of the Saintsbury Club last October surpassed our usually high expectations. A grandiose Pol Roger 2002 Vintage Champagne from magnums set the tone for two fine Chablis – magnums of Jean Dauvissat’s 1er Cru Fourchaume 2013 and Moreau-Naudet’s Grand Cru Valmur 2012 – while the two clarets that accompanied the fillet of beef were even more impressive. Château Léoville-Barton 1996 (presented by Anthony Barton) was superbly classic St-Julien, totally Barton with a decade and more in front of…

Panel tasting NEW WORLD SINGLE-VINEYARD PINOT NOIR Burgundy dreamers? Many winemakers beyond Europe now have the know-how and the quality of fruit to produce Pinot Noirs that truly reflect their own local terroirs, says Dirceu Vianna Junior MW The marriage between Pinot Noir and the complex array of soils created by a geological fault that formed the low hills facing east across the Saône plain has helped give Burgundy its reputation as one of the world’s greatest wine-producing regions. And for decades New World producers have been pursuing the magic that red Burgundy can achieve. Pinot Noir was first planted in Oregon in the early 1960s. In 1968, Chile’s search for cooler areas identified Chimbarongo in Colchagua Valley as the best spot for the variety at that time. Many other…

THE JUDGES James Doidge Doidge has been involved in the wine trade for his entire career. In 2002 he became managing director and buyer for The Wine Treasury, a London-based importer specialising in New World wineries, with a particular focus on partnerships with top producers in California, Oregon and Washington State. Roger Jones Jones owns award-winning restaurant The Harrow at Little Bedwyn, together with his wife Sue. Both a wine critic and Michelin-starred chef, he frequently visits Australia to promote food and wine pairing, and set up The Tri Nations Wine Challenge to promote wines from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. Dirceu Vianna Junior MW Originally from Brazil, Vianna studied forest engineering and law, before moving to London, where he began to work in the wine trade in 1990.…

THE FACTS (2018 figures) Cornas Appellation granted 1938 Area 150ha in production Average yield 33hl/ha Grapes Red wine only appellation 100% Syrah Côte-Rôtie Appellation granted 1940 Area 319ha in production Average yield 40hl/ha Grapes Red wine only minimum 80% Syrah, with a maximum 20% Viognier Hermitage Appellation granted 1937 Area 136ha in production Average yield 38hl/ha; 70% red wine, 30% white wine in 2018 Grapes Reds Minimum 85% Syrah, with a maximum 15% Roussanne and/or Marsanne Whites Roussanne and/or Marsanne permitted…

Expert’s choice CASTILLON 2016 On the east of the Right Bank’s grouping of Merlot-centric appellations, the slopes of Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux are home to some of the region’s best-value reds. James Lawther MW picks his top 18 Check the names of the investors in Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux over the past 20 years, and you’ll see that the region clearly has something to offer. Right Bank heavyweights such as Stephan von Neipperg of Château Canon La Gaffelière (at Château d’Aiguilhe), Gérard Perse of Pavie (Clos Lunelles), the Bécots of Beau-Séjour Bécot (Château Joanin Bécot), Denis Durantou of L’Eglise-Clinet (Château Montlandrie) and the Thienponts of Le Pin (L’Hêtre) have been seduced by the region – and with good reason. The 2,300ha appellation is basically a prolongation of the St-Emilion hillslopes,…

Market watch Time ripe for alternative regions All the important fine wine investment news, compiled by Chris Mercer Below-the-radar wines in regions such as Piedmont, Tuscany and the Rhône could be worth a closer look early in 2020, as top-end Bordeaux and Burgundy hit turbulence. Italian wines with high scores ‘continue to offer buyers lower-cost access into the fine wine market’, said a recent Liv-ex report. Current weakness in the overall fine wine market, principally affecting top Bordeaux and Burgundy, may offer collectors an opportune moment to examine some of the sector’s underdog regions. ‘We’ve been watching Piedmont quite closely,’ said Miles Davis of Wine Owners cellar management and trading platform. He said there was ‘plenty to go at’ beyond high-profile names such as Giacomo Conterno or Gaja, but that…

JIM BARRY, THE ARMAGH 1999 Clare Valley, South Australia A legend because… The heartland of Australian Shiraz is usually considered to be the Barossa Valley, but other regions have shown they can also produce outstanding wines from this variety. Jim Barry, a Clare Valley pioneer, established his winery in 1959. In 1968 he planted Shiraz vines in the Armagh region, which led to the creation of The Armagh 17 years later. The name is a tribute to the place and to the Irish settlers who came here from 1849 onwards. Barry intended the wine to be a challenger to the iconic Penfolds Grange and Henschke Hill of Grace, and it was priced between them on release. The Armagh has been made in most vintages, but there were years when none…

In brief Stay up to date with the latest wine news on Decanter.com, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @Decanter ■ A nationwide blind tasting conducted by Majestic Wine claims to have revealed the true preferences of British wine drinkers. More than 25,000 people blind-tasted a variety of red and white wines across Majestic’s 200 stores and voted for their favourites. Sicilian red variety Nero d’Avola came top in 78% of stores, while Sauvignon Blanc was the white wine of choice in 68% of stores. ■ A luxury package including lunch or dinner for four at Château Lafite Rothschild sold for more than £11,000 at a Sotheby’s auction held in aid of Cité du Vin Bordeaux wine museum. The auction featured more than 40 lots donated by prestigious wine…

Andrew Jefford ‘Roussillon would be where I’d set about hunting for absolute grandeur...’ Come May, it will be 10 years since my family and I moved to the Languedoc. I feel guilty for not having explored it more thoroughly; columnists, though, have to roam widely. My colleague Rosemary George MW (whose useful Wines of the Languedoc was published in 2018) knows it better than I do, so I always enjoy comparing notes – and tramping the hills – with Rosemary and her husband Christopher. A couple of tastings last year, though, gave me the chance to think more deeply about progress in this part of the world. One of these was a survey of vintage 2010 from Pic St-Loup (24 samples), St-Chinian (29 samples) and Roussillon (37 samples), to see…

Letter from Barossa Mike Bennie ‘A younger generation has begun to reinterpret the vinous landscape’ The Barossa Valley is one of my favourite wine regions. Few places better intertwine the mesh of such an unusual viticultural history, old vines, stoic wine styles and global presence, despite how ‘agricultural’ the region feels from within. It is a potent symbol of Australian immigrant nous and tradition – the farmers’ endeavour and struggle, their acceptance of a climate and soil so unfamiliar for grapes. The Barossa is Australiana 101: ruddy earth, baking heat, mobs of kangaroos, screeching local bird life and plots of craggy old vines interspersed between thatches of bushland. The wines, too, reflect this motif. Hardy against the elements, grapes produce muscular, broad-shouldered, bold, rich and warm wines. Ink-glazed glasses result…

Events SHANGHAI FINE WINE ENCOUNTER At our sixth annual gathering in China, 1,200 eager guests joined more than 160 top wine producers from 17 countries at The Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong, for a day of wine discovery. More than 600 wines were poured, with Australia as the featured region of 2019 Photographs: Ben Hu, ZHU Dicheng…

Low & no: the law Legally, there is no such thing as ‘low- or no-alcohol wine’. Wine needs to have a minimum alcohol level of 8%, unless a specific exemption exists (for instance, Moscato d’Asti). Otherwise it must be called a ‘wine-based drink’ or words akin. There are currently four terms that can be used for wine-based drinks of 1.2% and under. These are ‘low alcohol’ (1.2% or less), ‘non-alcoholic’, ‘de-alcoholised’ (alcohol extracted, no more than 0.5% abv) and ‘alcohol free’ (alcohol extracted, no more than 0.05% abv). Confused? Join the club. No wonder research by London-based Portman Group reveals 68% of British adults think using one term would be clearer, while Reh Kendermann’s Alison Flemming says the current situation ‘just breeds confusion’. There are calls for the UK to…

MONTALCINO: a wine and food lover’s guide Renowned for its world-class red wines and bucolic setting, Montalcino has much to offer tourists, but where to start? Monty Waldin shares his little black book of places to stay, eat and taste wines in this Tuscan treasure-trove destination Montalcino is a superstar wine region, fortuitously well off the beaten track. Unspoiled, with no motorway nearby, the most ubiquitous through-traffic is human-powered. Steady streams of pilgrims plod the ancient Francigena byway crossing Montalcino, heading south to Rome’s Vatican. Packs of Lycra-clad cyclists pedal themselves to exhaustion along the bumpy chalk byways of the Eroica (or ‘Heroic’) Route. And wine lovers come to taste the world’s most famed 100% Sangiovese red wines, the oak-aged Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, and its earlier-bottled, no-oak-needed sibling Rosso…

My top 10 in Montreal 1 Capsa How often can you go out for brunch and be offered a glass of fino to pair with your plate? Owned by a Québecois chef and a Portuguese sommelier, Capsa offers a typical brunch menu with a delectable Portuguese touch in a downtown setting. The result is delicious and savoury! www.capsabox.com 2 Manitoba Chef Simon Mathys aims to help Montrealers reconnect with and discover the food of Canada’s First Nations. The main dish here is prepared with seal, 3 Taverne Square Dominion Located in the heart of Montreal since 1927, the atmosphere of this tavern is both fancy and casual at the same time. The extended wine list boasts selections of Burgundy and Bordeaux classics, some rare German and even…

The Spurrier selection Château de Fosse-Sèche, Arcane, Saumur Blanc, Loire, France 2016 93 £34-£37 Top Selection, Blanco & Gomez A brilliantly expressed Chenin Blanc, on biodynamically farmed silex and gravel soils, fermented on lees for seven months in tank. Superb florality, purity and depth. A true classic from an underrated AP. Drink 2020-2036 Alc 13% Casa Marin, Lo Abarca Hills Vineyard Pinot Noir, San Antonio Valley, Chile 2012 93 £37.99 Alliance Wine, The Fine Wine Co From María Luz Marín, Chile’s first female winemaker-owner. Wonderful nose of black cherries and plums, controlled richness on the palate: a really lovely wine. Drink 2020-2026 Alc 15% Mazzei, Zisola Doppiozeta, Noto Rosso, Sicily, Italy 2014 92 £38 Harrods, Maison Marques & Domaines A rigorous selection from bush-trained Nero d’Avola grapes, aged for 16…

PINOT NOIR AND SINGLE-SITE EXPRESSION Pinot Noir is the quintessential interpreter of terroir due to its ability to capture nuances of the land where it is grown. It is a demanding variety, both in the vineyard and the cellar. As long as vines are well established, yields kept at suitable levels and there is no excessive use of winemaking trickery, it is capable of retaining varietal expression, exuding elegance and conveying a sense of place. A single vineyard can have an essential impact on the wine’s character. Pinot Noir from loess soils is often lighter and elegant; granite soils contribute to wines that are linear, angular and display attractive mineral notes; whereas red clay is responsible for wines that are rounder and plump. To respect single-vineyard characteristics, producers are increasingly…

Panel tasting 2010 CORNAS, COTE-ROTIE & HERMITAGE Often foreboding in their youth, given time, the Syrah-based reds from this trio of northern Rhône appellations can reveal tremendous depths of nuanced complexity and texture, says Matt Walls Tasting the 2010 northern Rhônes on release was unforgettable – it remains the most impressive vintage I’ve ever tasted en primeur. The wines were endowed with everything needed to age beautifully: concentration, freshness, incredible depth. It was clear that these were going to be long-lived – but for how long? Côte-Rôtie lies at the northern end of this slender wine region, 50km north of Hermitage, and the wines enjoy a marginally fresher climate. Much of the best terroir of the northern Rhône is granite, but here the rumpled terraces consist of schist and gneiss.…

Panel tasting THE VERDICT A small field it may have been, but these maturing Rhônes left our three judges highly impressed, says Vahan Agulian. Crack open your Cornas, consider the Côte-Rôties, but hang on to your Hermitage The 2010 vintage was one of the most hyped vintages at the time in the northern Rhône’, Matt Walls recalled. ‘It was the most impressive vintage I’ve ever tasted young.’ But, 10 years down the line, how has the evolution of these wines progressed? Are they ready to drink, to keep, or simply past their best? Walls remembered that ‘for such a structured vintage, I didn’t know when the best time would be to drink them’, and Christian Honorez also had his doubts at first, believing this tasting might be ‘quite limited’. ‘For…

Readers' queries Notes & Queries Each month our experts answer readers’ wine queries and share their knowledge Storage search The UK offers many solutions for those seeking in-bond wine storage, but I can’t find anything in France. Does anyone offer these services? Thomas Couper-Edwards, London Jane Anson replies: Private EU citizens can’t use bonded warehouses in France, if the aim is for their own personal consumption of the wine at some point. There are a few places that companies or individuals from outside the EU can use to store wine in-bond. One of the most high profile for both trade and international private collectors is called Bordeaux City Bond (www.bordeauxcitybond.com), which has the same secure conditions and guaranteed traceability as other international bonded warehouses, although as…

Release price up 7% for sought-after Vega Sicilia Unico 2010 Vega Sicilia has released its Unico, Ribera del Duero 2010 priced at about £672 per three bottles, or £2,688 for 12 in bond (ib), said Liv-ex. Photographs: Imagebroker/Alamy; www.the-buyer.net Sarah Jane Evans MW rated the Unico 2010 at 98 points after tasting the Tempranillodominant wine for Decanter Premium. She previously gave 97 points to Unico 2009, which was priced slightly lower as Decanter  went to press. Farr Vintners was selling the 2009 at £2,450 (ib) for a 12-bottle case. For drinking soon, Evans also recently said Unico 1999 was ‘entering its best moments’. London merchant BI Wines & Spirits was selling it at £3,500 (ib) per 12-bottle case. Read tasting notes for Vega Sicilia’s new releases online at Decanter.com/premium…