Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2021 i Decanter

TRAVEL SECRETS OF THE LOCAL EXPERTS We asked eight of Bordeaux’s top English-speaking wine-country trip planners and guides to reveal their favourite places, from off-the-beaten-track secrets to once-in-a-lifetime gems STORY CEIL MILLER BOUCHET Of the 57 appellations in the Bordeaux region, our guides (see ‘Meet the experts’, p104) picked out Sauternes and Fronsac as must-visit appellations for their low-key charm, bucolic landscapes, family-owned properties and growing roster of wine tourism experiences. A perfect day in Sauternes, according to Janice Brooks, offers so much more than the usual cellar visit followed by a sip and swirl. Her favourites include Château Sigalas Rabaud (www.chateau-sigalas-rabaud.com), a small, family-owned property where your guide could be the marquis himself. ‘There are children’s games, and delicious gourmet tapas or meals on the terrace overlooking the vines,…

MEET OUR PANEL OF BORDEAUX EXPERTS Martin Hurst & Tim Olson of The Bordeaux Concierge left New York careers to run private, tailor-made tours and experiences for wine lovers, as well as road trip itineraries. thebordeauxconcierge. com Janice Brooks of Bordeaux with a Smile is an Alabama native and a trained actor who also instructs masters students in wine and spirits. She focuses on wine-country history. bordeauxwithasmile@ gmail.com Mary Dardenne of Decanter Tours (no relation) works with independent travellers and wine club groups. Originally from Texas, she’s a certified travel advisor with The Travel Institute decantertours.com Sarah Seguret, who runs My Bordeaux Tours, is an Irish native and accredited tour guide who specialises in biodynamic wines, as well as the latest trends in wine viticulture and gourmet dining. mybordeauxtours.com Caroline…

10 years on: Anson’s Left Bank 2011 rating Wines are listed by commune, north to south; then in descending order by score; and then alphabetically by producer St-Estèphe STANDOUT Château Cos d’Estournel 2CC 95 £83.33 (ib)-£145 Bordeaux Index, Crump Richmond Shaw, De Burgh, Farr Vintners, Millésima, Montrachet, Veblen, Wilkinson Vintners Rich, dark and spicy in its aromatics and fruit. Less evident austerity than the Montrose, though that’s not to say this is a generous vintage – more that it benefits from a sense of powerful exoticism. Hail meant Cos had to pick the Cabernet a little early, but it was handled well, and this still has plenty to give with a little more ageing in bottle. Drink 2021-2040 Alcohol 13% 1 STANDOUT Château Calon Ségur 3CC 94 £62.50 (ib)-£97.75…

Quality outside the classification There are plenty of notable Pessac-Léognan wines that aren’t classified. Take, for example, Château Smith Haut Lafitte’s world-class white. The result of everything from careful attention to how much sunlight the grapes get in order to preserve acidity, to inert pneumatic horizontal presses to prevent oxidation (and loss of aromas and colour degradation), it doesn’t feature in the classification only because Smith Haut Lafitte wasn’t making white wine in the 1950s. Another non-classified wine can be counted as one of the appellation’s top reds: Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion. The owner at the time chose not to apply, but today the wine would surely be included if the classification were to be held. Not to be confused with the Domaine Clarence Dillon properties of Châteaux Haut-Brion and…

LEFT BANK Graves & Pessac-Léognan: Panos Kakaviatos’ 12 to try WHERE TO START 1 Château Chantegrive, Cuvée Caroline, Graves 2017 91 £11.84 (ib)-£18.33 Crump Richmond Shaw, Millésima This is crowd-pleasing, with rather pronounced oak aspects. I like the mandarin orange, white peach, and not overbearing vanilla tones. The finish is fresh with a touch of wet stone. Enjoy with roast veal in cream sauce. Drink 2021-2026 Alc 13.5% Château Rahoul, Blanc, Graves 2017 91 £10.50 (ib)-£24.50 Champagnes & Châteaux, Crump Richmond Shaw Lovely pear and peach aspects, harmonious aromas. The palate is brisk and bright. Lees stirring adds complexity to fine fruit purity. Delicious with mildly spiced kung pao chicken or broiled cod with lemon and olive oil. The 20% new oak is nicely integrated. For the price, a no-brainer.…

FOOD PAIRING BEYOND CLARET AND LAMB Red Bordeaux is the default choice for a classic main course – but what if you’re eating more adventurously? Nine chefs and wine professionals share inventive dishes that pair perfectly STORY VICKI DENIG Red wines from Bordeaux have long enjoyed their share of classic pairings: roast lamb, venison, duck breast or beef-based dishes. Yet there are plenty of alternative options for the more adventurous Bordeaux lover. Decanter enlisted the help of chefs, sommeliers and team members from renowned Bordeaux estates to gather inventive food matches for their classic grands vins. Seafood & fish GRILLED RED MULLET & PROVENCAL POTATOES Benjamin Camy, sommelier at Château Pape Clément, suggests enjoying a recent vintage of the estate’s grand vin with grilled red mullet and Provençal potatoes. A…

UNCORKED Andrew Jefford ‘You may be suspicious of celebrity wines...’ ILLUSTRATION SAM KERR/DEBUT ART Last summer I was researching rosé, and thinking about the celebrity-wine phenomenon, much of it clustered around Provence rosé. It’s the perfect match. Provence rosé is aspirational, visually alluring and can be artfully packaged; and quality in rosé has a different meaning to quality in fine red and white wines. Forget about intensity, depth and concentration; great rosé is sublime understatement. And understatement can be created in quantity. Then one hot day at a friend’s house, I met Xavier Roger, a son of Sancerre’s Jean-Max Roger. He runs the Carcassonne-based wine-sourcing business LGI Wines, and was helping out with Kylie Minogue’s mainly pink wine brand. Roger put me on to Paul Schaafsma, the genial Australian who…

BARBERA BRILLIANT BARBERA A hugely flexible grape variety, producing approachable yet often complex and food-friendly wines from diverse terroirs STORY MICHAELA MORRIS A talent contest of Piedmont’s native grape varieties might well see the top prize going to Nebbiolo. It’s Barbera, however, that gets my vote for congeniality. Grown throughout Italy, Barbera is among the country’s top 10 most planted grapes. It is also one of the few indigenous Italian varieties succeeding in international soil. Nevertheless, Barbera’s most significant plantings are in the northwestern region of Piedmont, which provides benchmark examples. Believed to have existed since the Middle Ages, Barbera originated in Alessandria province. During the 1900s, this easy-to-grow, vigorous variety established itself as Piedmont’s reliable workhorse. ‘It was a very productive grape and ripeness was rarely fully achieved,’ states…

The Decanter guarantee Our buying guide provides you with trusted, independent, expert recommendations on what to buy, drink and cellar. Each panel tasting is judged by three experienced tasters chosen for their authority in the category of wine being rated. All wines are tasted blind and are pre-poured for judges in flights of 8-10 wines. Our experts taste and score wines individually but then discuss their scores together at the end of each flight. Any wines on which scores are markedly different are retasted; however, judges are under no obligation to amend their scores. Judges are encouraged to look for typicity in wines, rewarding those that are true to their region. When judging, experts are aware of wine price bands – under £15, £15-£30 and over £30 – with the…

Learn as you go: where to get educated The Bordeaux Wine Council (www. bordeaux.com) gets top marks in wine education from all of our experts – many of whom teach there – for its wide array of English-language wine education, ranging from half-day introductory classes to week-long in-depth explorations. Its website is also a treasure trove of information about the region and its wines. Also in Bordeaux, L’Atelier de Dégustation (www.latelierdegustation.com) offers private English-language wine tasting and education classes in the heart of the historic Chartrons district, where the wine merchants traditionally housed their barrels in stone warehouses. For Right Bank aficionados, the Maison du Vin de St-Emilion (www.maisonduvin saintemilion.com) offers both beginners’ and in-depth classes.…

Pauillac: eight names to know 1 Château Bellegrave With vines close to Lynch-Bages and the two Pichons and with a higher percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon with more gravels, Bellegrave produces structured and savoury wines for about £16 a bottle. The 2018 from this 8.7ha property is a sumptuous vintage, with ripe black fruit and juicy cassis. 2 & 3 Château Fonbadet, Château Pauillac Fonbadet – a family-owned 20ha estate with vines on gravel outcrops at 14m-22m near Mouton Rothschild and Lynch-Bages, planted to 60% Cabernet Sauvignon – is crafting fine wines at economical pricing: about £25 in bond. Even more impressive is Château Pauillac, under the same ownership; at 1.5ha, the older vines grown on deep Garonne gravels yield a wine with more density. 4 Château La Fleur Peyrabon The…

LEFT BANK Understanding GRAVES Rich in wine history, Graves and Pessac-Léognan offer quality and value at a range of price points, from easy-drinking styles to high-end examples with long-term potential. Here’s our comprehensive guide STORY PANOS KAKAVIATOS Stretching from Pessac some 50km southwards to the town of Langon, the vineyards of Graves are bordered to the west and south by pine forest and to the east by the Garonne river. Within Graves, in its northern sector, is the more recently created (1987) appellation of Pessac-Léognan, which includes all classified Graves wines. While all Pessac-Léognan wines are part of the Graves region, not all Graves wines are Pessac-Léognan. One of Bordeaux’s oldest winemaking regions, Graves has been exporting wine since Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry of Anjou, who became king of…

Terroir and climate Graves and Pessac-Léognan are considered ‘Left Bank’ appellations of Bordeaux because they lie to the left of the Garonne river. The famous Médoc gravel terraces from the north continue into the Graves region, named after its gravel-rich soils, mixed with sand, clay and some limestone. The river to the east mitigates frost, and the forest to the west protects against the prevailing winds and keeps soils moist. As temperatures are generally higher than in other Bordeaux appellations, its vineyards are among Bordeaux’s earliest to ripen.…

EDITOR’S LETTER The same, but different Regular readers may notice something different about this issue. If you are among that number, firstly, thank you for your commitment and, secondly, I hope we haven’t given you a nasty shock. As you will have noticed, we’ve given the magazine a bit of a spring clean. It had been quite a while since the design was last refreshed, so we decided it was high time to smarten up some of the more cobwebby bits. We’ve increased the paper quality, and we’ve also freshened up some of the content, adding a new section, Uncorked, to showcase shorter stories, and bringing in another new regular to help those climbing the learning ladder (in fact, that’s all of us). However, we haven’t lost any of our…

High praise: Aldo Fiordelli’s 12 from Italy’s elevated vines 1 Tiefenbrunner, Rachtl Riserva, Alto Adige 2017 94 N/A UK www.tiefenbrunner.com This Sauvignon Blanc matches the steeliness of its structure with concentration of fruit and extraordinary depth. Grown on a mix of chalk sandstone and the local porphyry at 580m-650m at Aica di Sotto. Pale greenish in the glass, it emerges with smoky tones accompanied by floral, citrus and light herbal touches. It shows a lot of layers in a tight-knit structure, with zesty acidity well integrated with gooseberry fruit and toasty finish. Drink 2021-2030 Alcohol 13.5% 2 Anselmet, Mains et Coeur, Valle d’Aosta 2018 93 N/A UK www.maisonanselmet.it Maison Anselmet’s vineyards of Chardonnay are at 800m, planted in 1989. Fermented in oak, the wine is aged for 18 months in…

TUSCANY GREAT TUSCAN VINTAGES TO DRINK NOW Each growing season seems to bring different but equally challenging conditions in Tuscany: it’s rarely easy. We explain how producers succeeded in the five most significant recent vintages, and pick four standout wines from each to try STORY MONTY WALDIN The best Tuscan vintages are not always the easiest. In 2010 there was a chance of real glory, but you needed to earn it right through a season seemingly laden with bear traps – life was easier for the perennially attentive producers able and willing to sacrifice crop for quality in order to capture 2010’s elegance, both in terms of fruit clarity and tannic finesse. The follow-on 2011 was the difficult child, scolded by brutal Saharan heat just before harvest – a small…

Standout producers Accornero Palpably committed to making complex and characterful Monferrato Barbera. Giacomo Conterno Undeniably the reference for powerful, ageworthy, Barolo-esque Barbera. Michele Chiarlo Veteran champions of Barbera as well as the Asti zone, the Chiarlo family has been an important driver of quality. Olim Bauda Fantastic quality, from entry level to top of the range. Vietti Making consistently excellent Barbera from the Alba and Asti regions, Vietti has significant holdings of old vines in both.…

Capalbo’s pick: the soul of Sicily in 10 delicious wines PHOTOGRAPH BENEDETTOTARANTINO, STEFANO SCATA 1 Benanti, Pietra Marina Bianco Superiore, Etna 2016 97 £87.25 Field & Fawcett, Sociovino This definitive wine of pure Carricante is given extensive contact on the lees, without wood, taking its structure from the grapes and terroir. Pale with golden highlights, it offers iodised notes on the expressive nose and an almost shy (still very young) palate that builds slowly in the mouth to a finale of energy and length. Drink 2022-2030 Alcohol 12% Marco De Bartoli, Integer Grillo, Terre Siciliane 2018 97 £34.50 Les Caves de Pyrene Light burnished gold. The nose is rich, with aromatic and salty notes leading to an energised, complex, clean palate with a very long, salivating finish. A now and…

WINE EDUCATION The joy of learning Enjoying a glass of wine is an experience that’s enriched through knowledge. Wherever you are on your wine journey, there are resources to assist you STORY ANDREW JEFFORD If you’re here, leafing through the pages of Decanter, it’s because you like wine. Why? Wine gives us sensual pleasure while lifting our spirits and bringing us (at least in non-Covid times) closer together. But that’s not all. Unlike most simple sensual pleasures, wine comes cloaked in stories: about who made it, about where it came from and the season it grew in, about its plants and its soil, about craftsmanship. It challenges us to describe it, setting pen to paper or fingers to keyboards. We soon find others have done just that: article after article,…

FIVE OF THE BEST: GRAPPAS RECOMMENDED BY JAMES BUTTON PHOTOGRAPHS HERA FOOD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO, WEYO/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO Grappa is a fragrant Italian spirit made from the grape solids left over from wine production, known as marc or pomace. There are about 130 distillers making grappa, primarily in the north – the Veneto region is the heartland of grappa production. Traditionally consumed as a young white spirit, quality has improved drastically in recent decades. Today’s examples are characterful and represent a wide variety of styles. To reflect this, there are nine IGTs for grappa, as well as regulated age designations: affinata, which spends a maximum of 12 months in barrel; invecchiata or vecchia, aged for 12-18 months in barrel; and stravecchia or riserva, with a minimum of 18 months in barrel.…

The wines to match FRIULANO Hailing from the Friuli region in the northeast of Italy, bordering Slovenia and Austria, Friulano typically offers orchard fruit and almond aromas but also a delicate acidity and minerality. Lees ageing gives it a slightly creamy texture, adding body. Yet it remains a subtle and delicate wine, making it a great match for the sea bass in salt. Try: Masùt da Rive, Friulano, Friuli Isonzo, Italy 2019 90 £17.68 Jascots Aged on its lees for seven months, this Friulano has an intense palate of green apple, white flowers and tangy lime, with a lick of salt, too. Hints of wild herbs emerge as it opens up, and the length on the focused, lemony, saline finish is carried by the fresh acidity. Drink 2021-2022 Alc 13%…

WEEKEND WINES Wanting to splash out a little bit more to celebrate your weekend in style? As a companion selection to our 25 wines under £20, the Decanter team has selected seven standout bottles that are sure to impress, all available in the UK and priced between £20 and £50 RECOMMENDED BY JAMES BUTTON, NATALIE EARL, TINA GELLIE, GEORGINA HINDLE, JULIE SHEPPARD, AMY WISLOCKI AND SYLVIA WU Domaine Agnès Paquet, Patience No10, Auxey-Duresses, Burgundy, France 2017 £34.49 Stannary Wine Clean and flinty nose with lemon and lime blossom. Lovely texture, round and supple with a juicy lemon and Mirabelle plum freshness, balanced acidity. Precise and refined, and a great food wine. GH Alc 13% Hugo Mendes, Lisboa, Branco, Lisbon, Portugal 2018 £22 Bar Douro Bottle Shop Fernão Pires, Arinto and…

LOOKING AHEAD NEW PORT 2019 DECLARATIONS Quinta do Noval has declared the 2019 vintage of its Nacional, and Symington planned to release two 2019 quinta Ports in early June: Quinta do Vesuvio and Dow’s Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira. NAPA VALLEY AUCTION The Premiere Napa Valley auction will open online bidding from 3 June with a live-streamed auction on 5 June. For trade bidders only, the sale features one-off creations by top Napa wineries, so can be interesting to track. BBR BURGUNDIES Berry Bros & Rudd is offering an in-person exploration of 12 white Burgundies, including a ‘trio of grands crus’, at its No3 St James’s Street premises in London on Wednesday 21 July. Tickets cost £245 per person. CHATEAU MARGAUX Keen for more Bordeaux? Decanter’s Château Margaux virtual masterclass…

Tasted & rated for Decanter Premium PHOTOGRAPHS TENUTA SAN GUIDO, DON MAMMOSER/ALAMY STOCKPHOTO Ornellaia, Bolgheri Superiore, Tuscany 2007 98pts This was recently rated 98pts by Monty Waldin, who reviewed it alongside several vintages after co-hosting a Decanter virtual masterclass with the SuperTuscan estate. Waldin praised its ‘remarkable, Peter Pan-like freshness’ with generous fruit and ‘benign but still purposeful tannins’. Liv-ex data as of 11 May showed the market price was £2,100 (12x75cl ib), having roughly doubled over the past decade. Ornellaia 2018 was recently released by UK merchants at about £1,600 (12x75cl ib), and was rated 96pts for Decanter by both Jane Anson and Aldo Fiordelli. Collectors and investors will find a wealth of useful information on Decanter.com/Premium, including expert assessments of new vintage  releases and comprehensive tasting notes. Current…

Room with a view: the best chateâu stays in Bordeaux ‘More and more wine properties are opening up their château bedrooms to guests,’ says Martin Hurst, who often sends his clients to Château Beauregard (www.chateau-beauregard.com) in Pomerol, where the historic charterhouse has been restored with five private rooms, and Château Le Pape (www.haut-bailly.com), which has also refurbished its elegant property to receive guests in an intimate setting just outside the Bordeaux city limits. On the Right Bank, Château Troplong Mondot (www.troplong-mondot.com) gets top marks from all of our experts. With the postcard-perfect view (right) of the village of St-Emilion (a 20-minute stroll through the vines) and impeccable wine-country art de vivre, you can’t go wrong choosing one of the charmingly decorated rooms in the main property or the private two-bedroom…

10 YEARS ON: BORDEAUX LEFT BANK 2011 Now is the perfect time to reassess the Bordeaux 2011s – an earlier-maturing vintage than many in the last decade. Here we highlight 31 Left Bank wines retasted recently, including standout selections and best-value choices STORY JANE ANSON Last year, I wrote during the incredible 2010 retrospective that it’s easy to forget that Bordeaux doesn’t always taste like this – and here, in the 2011s, we have a return to a more classical style. Overall, I rate 2011 as a 3/5 vintage. There are some excellent wines, without question – I scored 14 of these Left Bank classifieds at 95pts or higher, which means Outstanding in Decanter terms – but none at the Exceptional level of 98pts or more, and none warranting 100pts,…

WELCOME TO BORDEAUX Let us guide you through this most classic of regions and its great wines GEORGINA HINDLE DECANTER PREMIUM EDITOR & REGIONAL EDITOR FOR FRANCE PHOTOGRAPH AVTG/GETTY IMAGES A region that hardly needs an introduction, Bordeaux is synonymous around the world with fine wines, whether red, white or sweet. Bordeaux has produced high-quality wines since at least the time of the formal Left Bank grand cru classification in 1855, though even the Romans knew the potential of the varied terroirs covering the region’s 110,000 hectares. Nowadays, about 650 million bottles are produced annually (CIVB, 2020). But it’s not the sheer size of production that keeps this region at the tip of everyone’s tongues – it’s the ability to fuse an illustrious history and centuries of tradition with innovation…

Meet the Decanter experts JANE ANSON is a Decanter contributing editor and DWWA Regional Chair for Bordeaux, where she also lives. Her most recent book is an in-depth study of the region, Inside Bordeaux (£60, BB&R Press) PANOS KAKAVIATOS is a widely published journalist, wine writer, judge and educator, publishing at www. wine-chronicles.com. As well as writing about wine, he organises wine tastings and wine tours ANDY HOWARD MW is a Decanter contributing editor and a DWWA Regional Chair. A former wine buyer, he now runs his own wine consultancy Vinetrades Ltd, focusing on wine education and sourcing VICKI DENIG is a widely published wine and travel journalist. She splits her time between New York and Paris, and is a Certified Specialist of Wine through the Society of Wine Educators…

Affordable alternatives In addition to the six wines profiled here, look out for others of this nature owned by top St-Emilion and Pomerol estates, including: Clos Badon, St-Emilion Grand Cru Owned by Jean-Luc Thunevin of Château Valandraud (St-Emilion 1GCC). Good value St-Emilion but a little more expensive than the others mentioned here. Vieux Château Saint André Montagne St-Emilion Owned by former Petrus winemaker Jean-Claude Berrouet (44 vintages), and managed by his son Jean-François. Elegance and precision, of course. Château Alcée Castillon, Côtes de Bordeaux Owned by Nicolas Thienpont, who manages Châteaux Larcis Ducasse and Pavie Macquin (St-Emilion 1GCCs). Good value. Château Joanin Bécot, Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux Owned by Juliette Bécot of Château Beau-Séjour Bécot (St-Emilion 1GCC). More fruit and freshness from 2017. L’Aurage Castillon, Côtes de Bordeaux Owned by…

Graves & Pessac-Léognan: the facts Graves AP Established in 1937 Pessac-Léognan AP Established in 1987 Planted area Graves 3,500ha; Pessac-Léognan 1,791ha Production (bottles) Graves 20 million; Pessac-Léognan 8m Grapes About 75% red wines made primarily from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc and about 25% white wines made from Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle Winemakers More than 200 in Graves, 75 in Pessac-Léognan Classification All 16 estates from the 1953 Classification for Graves are located in the Pessac-Léognan AP. Of the 14 estates, six are classified for both their red and white wines, seven for their reds only, and three for their whites. All are ranked equally as cru classé de Graves [SOURCE: INSIDE BORDEAUX BY JANE ANSON (BB&R PRESS, APRIL 2020)]…

Reds and whites: vintage variation When buying Graves, it’s worth bearing in mind that vintage quality for whites may not always be the same as for reds – and vice versa. For example, 2017 was superb for white wines. Cool, dry weather resulted in crisp, refreshing wines, and grapes were picked under excellent conditions, whereas in September there was rainfall that complicated the vintage for the reds. By contrast, 2016 is considered a top red wine vintage, with wines exuding density and freshness, but the whites lack the requisite acidity for optimal verve and energy. On a few occasions, however, both reds and whites have been excellent, such as in 2010.…

SAUTERNES SAUTERNES: FIVE VINTAGES TO DRINK NOW Have you discovered the delights of Sauternes? The definitive sweet style offers plenty to enjoy at varying stages of maturity. We suggest 10 wines to open now STORY STEPHEN BROOK Sauternes is one of those wines that can be enjoyed young but in good vintages can age and evolve for decades. In the past, it wasn’t so accessible when young, often due to high doses of sulphur dioxide at bottling, which suppressed many of the wine’s characteristics, in particular its fruit. Today, SO2 additions are more tightly regulated, and winemakers prefer to use the minimum in order to preserve the wine’s intrinsic freshness. Even so, it’s usually worth giving a Sauternes at least five years in bottle before pulling the cork. As the…

Meet the Decanter experts MICHAELA MORRIS is a wine writer, judge, educator and speaker. Based in Vancouver, she teaches about Italian wine across Canada and abroad. She is also a VIA Italian Wine Expert STEPHEN BROOK is a contributing editor to Decanter and the DWWA Regional Chair for Piedmont. The author of almost 40 books, he has won several awards for his work in wine CARLA CAPALBO is an awarded food, wine and travel writer and photographer. Among others, she has authored three books since 1998 focusing on the regional food and wines of Italy ALDO FIORDELLI is a widely published Italian journalist, wine writer and author, and a DWWA judge. He became a qualified sommelier in 2003, and has written books about food, wine and art RICHARD BAUDAINS has…

LETTER OF THE MONTH Give celebs a chance A fascinating and timely column from Andrew Jefford in your March edition, ‘Great wine needs no help from designers or celebrities’. Like Andrew, I believe that one of the small upsides from the dreadful pandemic is the opportunity it afforded us to slow down, embrace simplicity and rein back some of the worst excesses of consumerism. The ever-growing list of so-called ‘celebrity wines’ does seem out of step with the current mood, but rather than dismiss the phenomenon out of hand, a more nuanced approach is needed. While no one should support a shallow celebrity vanity project where branding trumps product, nor should we dismiss out of hand those with a genuine passion who happen to be better known for their stellar…

STING: WINES OF MY LIFE Message from a bottle Exclusive: Rock star Sting and his wife Trudie Styler reveal the wines that have played a major part in their life and influenced the winemaking at their Tuscan estate, Il Palagio STORY EMILY O’HARE You sometimes hear the phrase ‘rock-star winemaker’ – usually referring to a producer with slightly-longer-than-usual hair and a slightly-bigger-than-usual personality. But in this case it’s true. Sting, the ex-frontman of world-famous band The Police, who has enjoyed an extraordinarily successful solo musical career since 1985, is also a winemaker. In 1997, Sting and his wife, the film producer, actor and director Trudie Styler, purchased a run-down 16th-century Tuscan villa, 45 minutes south of Florence. The estate, Il Palagio, came with about 350 hectares largely of forest, with…

TOP 20 BUYS: SOAVE It’s still the perennial summertime thirst-quencher, but thanks to its rich and varied terroirs the wines of this well-known Veneto region offer impressive diversity and complexity, too STORY RICHARD BAUDAINS To ‘know your label’ has never been sounder advice than it is in the case of Soave. This northern Italian classic white has many facets, and the best guide is the system of denominations which distinguishes styles and places of origin. The first distinction to make is between DOC and DOCG versions of Verona’s native white. The DOC is certainly the most familiar. Typically (but not necessarily) unoaked, this is where you find the canonical citrus and almond character in a light, dry, zingy wine which flows over the palate with seductive moreishness. It’s a style…

Michaela Morris selects 10 top Piedmont Barbera reds 1 Olim Bauda, Riserva, Nizza 2016 95 £29.99-£36.95 Alliance Wine, DBM Wines After working with barriques for a number of years, the Bertolini brothers switched to 25hl casks of French Allier oak in order to achieve a more elegant expression of Barbera. From the northern sector of Nizza, this has seductive aromas of raspberry, cherry and cocoa laced with coffee wafting faintly through the background. The fruit is plush, taking on an exotic sweet savouriness, and the tannins are graceful. Tangy, zesty acidity cleanses the palate and stimulates the appetite. Very long. Drink 2021-2028 Alcohol 15% 2 Accornero, Bricco Battista, Barbera del Monferrato Superiore 2016 93 £32.70 Tannico The Accornero family are fourth-generation winemakers and own 20ha in Vignale Monferrato. Bricco Battista…

BAROLO 2013: A RETROSPECTIVE The 2013 vintage was very strong for Barolo, despite variable conditions across the region, and while the wines continue to evolve, most are drinking extremely well now ‘The upshot of the 2013 growing season was that the wines, while structured, were more marked by perfume and finesse than by power’ Young Barolo is far easier to taste than it used to be, and probably all the better for it. It has little to do with the varying approaches of traditionalists and modernists, and everything to do with extraction: grapes tend to be picked at higher ripeness (and thus with riper tannins too) and extraction is far gentler. This means not only that the wines are better balanced and more enjoyable in their youth, but also that…

Resources Best books Every wine student should own The World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson MW, and The Oxford Companion to Wine, edited by Jancis Robinson MW. For tasting, seek out Essential Winetasting by Michael Schuster. After that, choose something for inspiration (an Oz Clarke, maybe?) or a specialist book on your favourite region, such as Jane Anson’s Inside Bordeaux. Best online teaching In addition to both the Wine Scholar Guild and WSET courses, look out for the online resources provided by London members’ club 67 Pall Mall (www.67pallmall. com) – and Decanter. com and Decanter Premium Best courses The gold standard for general wine and spirit education are the courses run by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, or WSET (www.wsetglobal.com), which has 900 approved…

WORLD GINS A world of FLAVOUR Gin is not just British; it’s made all around the globe, from Australia to India to Venezuela. Here’s a selection with a distinctive local character STORY JULIE SHEPPARD While certain spirits embody their country of origin and can only be produced there – think tequila in Mexico – others can be made anywhere in the world. Of those, and perhaps more than any other nomad spirit, gin can capture the flavours of the place where it is made, through the use of distinctive local botanicals in its production. ‘Gin has the opportunity to say so much about locality in flavour terms,’ says Guy Hodcroft, buyer at Master of Malt. ‘By using distillate derived locally, from a particular place and in a particular style associated…

THE JUDGES Andrea Briccarello is business development manager at Jascots, a specialist on-trade wine merchant. Formerly head sommelier and wine buyer at Galvin restaurant group, he also previously worked as a brand manager for Bisol Prosecco, and judges regularly for the DWWA Michael Garner has worked in the wine trade for 40 years, largely specialising in the wines of Italy. Author of Amarone and the Fine Wines of Verona and co-author of Barolo: Tar and Roses, he is co-owner of Italian wine specialist Tria Wines, and is a DWWA Regional Chair for northern Italy Ben Robson is owner of wine merchant Bat and Bottle, which specialises in importing Italian wines with a focus on small producers. He is a regular visitor to wine regions in Italy, and in 2020 assumed…

WEEKDAY WINES Looking to try something different or adventurous, but don’t want to make an expensive mistake? The Decanter team has done all the hard work for you, picking out 25 exciting and accessible wines which are available in the UK and priced at £20 or less RECOMMENDED BY JAMES BUTTON, NATALIE EARL, TINA GELLIE, GEORGIE HINDLE, JULIE SHEPPARD, AMY WISLOCKI AND SYLVIA WU Villiera, Tradition Brut, Western Cape, South Africa NV £17.99 Handford Wines Honeyed almond nougat and hints of vanilla on the nose, leading to a bright, slightly savoury palate with dried apple. Full malo, 18 months on lees and a solera-based dosage gives complexity and texture. Includes 12% Pinotage. TG Alcohol: 12% Purato, Grillo Spumante Brut, Sicily, Italy NV £11.99 Ocado This sparkling Grillo has a fresh…

THE BORDEAUX INDEX VIEW Fine wine & spirits specialists Bordeaux Index kindly sponsor this section of Decanter, and provide their view on the market here. They can be found at Bordeauxindex.com. Tuscany has clearly been one of the market’s standout performers across the last two to three years, driven by a combination of strong 2015 and 2016 vintages and also exemption from US tariffs; and earlier, in 2017, Piedmont saw a focused spike in pricing of top ‘traditional’ producers. Our current expectation is that Italy may be somewhat in the shadow of Bordeaux and Burgundy – where buying activity is very strong at present – over the coming year or two. Mainly this is because the catalysts for further gains in Italy are not obvious, and the Tuscan wines especially…

WORKING WINE TO 5 The wine educator-turned-private buyer Maxime Lu, chief wine editor, Wineonline.cn What’s the best thing about your job? I get to develop a career where my passion truly lies. The life of a private buyer is similar to that of a hunter. When target wines appear on the market, I need to snap them up quickly. The sense of accomplishment when I succeed enthuses me, as interesting fine wines are not always available to buy; it takes a bit of luck to come across them. And the worst? No matter how careful you are, there’s a chance you’ll pick up some faulty wines. Some are corked, some have brett [brettanomyces] issues and, for some white wines, there’s the risk of premox [premature oxidation]. Not all my clients…