Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 i Decanter

In St-Estèphe, the owners of Bordeaux second growth Château Cos d’Estournel, Michel Reybier and family, have bought neighbouring fifth growth estate Château Cos Labory from the Audoy family. No fee was disclosed. Reybier said he would ‘perpetuate the estate’s independence while pursuing the level of excellence made possible by this great terroir of St-Estèphe’. In the 19th century, Cos d’Estournel founder Louis Gaspard d’Estournel briefly owned Cos Labory, after buying it in 1847. Wine drinkers in the US have cemented their country’s status as the world’s biggest Champagne export market. Shipments to the US hit 33.7m bottles in 2022, said the Comité Champagne. That’s down about 1% versus 2021, but up 31% since 2019, before the Covid pandemic. Americans are ‘increasingly seeking out new moments for Champagne consumption outside celebrations…

America has long been a land of innovation – from blue jeans and fast food to lightbulbs and telephones. American ingenuity and the country’s talent for dreaming big have led to novel solutions to complicated problems. In wine, this means that new consumers, changing tastes and traditions in food and wine pairing, industry leaders, new technologies and new names are leading American wine into its next wave. Of course, there are many issues facing American wine – wildfires and smoke continue to torment wine-growers in the American west, fewer young Americans are drinking wine as their beverage of choice, and the global climate crisis rumbles on. But there are also many promising innovations. Climate change and new wine drinkers’ adventurous tastes are allowing winemakers and growers to explore new and…

Cooking up a cocktail Perfect. Three cherries is a new cocktail book from chef Adam Handling of one-star Michelin The Frog, near London’s Covent Garden. Named after his favourite drink – a perfect Manhattan garnished with three cherries – this guide combines recipes with cocktail history and basic tips on technique and kit. But it also explains how Handling’s culinary creativity and zero-waste ethos feed into the drinks served at his bars. ‘This book is based on what I would have wanted to know before I started really learning about cocktails. It’s the stuff that people don’t see behind the scenes – the researching, the training…’ said Handling, adding that it’s ‘for people that want to learn and do something different’. Alongside staples such as the French 75 and Sazerac,…

1 1615 Pisco Mosto Verde Torontel, Peru £35.56/50cl Amathus Drinks Distilled from partially fermented Torontel, grown in Lanchas in the province of Pisco, this is multilayered and complex, with raisins and curry spice alongside potpourri and even a touch of leather – fascinating, and well suited to a neat serve. Alcohol 42% 2 ABA, Chile £17.99-£21.95/50cl Amazon, Drink Finder, Gerry’s, Master of Malt, Spirits Kiosk, The Whisky Exchange, Vida A 100% Muscat of Alexandria pisco made in Chile’s Elqui Valley by the Aguirre family. There’s wonderful purity of fruit here, with grainy pear and peach joined by sweet spice and lifted by some lime peel towards the finish. Alc 40% 3 Demonio de Los Andes Acholado, Peru £29-£30.45/70cl Hedonism, Master of Malt, The Oxford Wine Co, The Whisky Exchange Peru’s…

REPORT JUSTIN KNOCK MW The Barossa is a special place for Shiraz. At its best, few regions come close (with any grape variety) in matching the fruit quality, layers of complex flavours, depth and richness of tannin – and in such a wide range of stylistic interpretations. Regardless of price or ambition, the majority of Barossa Shirazes age and mature beautifully, holding their fruit depth for many years as they evolve into the equivalent of a muchloved, supple leather recliner. So it was somewhat surprising that finding producers, or their UK importers, with both a young and more mature vintage of the same Shiraz cuvée proved so challenging. Our request, canvassed widely over several months, was not for commercially available quantities of one or both wines, but simply a pair…

91 Langlois-Château, Crémant de Loire Brut, Loire, France £19.99 Majestic Lovely freshness offset by rich orchard fruit and gentle nuttiness. A blend based on Chenin Blanc (10% of which from reserve wines) and the variety’s trademark woolly creaminess gives weight to lifted linden, grapefruit and peach aromas. Food friendly. IS Alcohol 12.5% 92 Craggy Range, Te Muna Road Sauvignon Blanc, Martinborough, New Zealand 2022 £16 The Wine Society Great intensity of punchy lime juice and passion fruit over ripe papaya. Part barrel fermentation then three months in barrel delivers wonderful texture and creaminess. Layered, bracing with a lingering sea breeze freshness. TG Alc 12.5% 91 Altano, Reserva Branco, Douro, Portugal 2019 £14.75 Fareham Wine Cellar A well-crafted blend of Viosinho, Gouveio, Rabigato and other white varieties from a Symington vineyard…

A global survey of wealth managers and financial bodies by London-based property consultancy Knight Frank has found that more than one third of respondents expected their clients to invest in wine this year, according to its 2023 The Wealth Report. The group surveyed more than 500 private bankers, wealth advisers and other financial entities, which collectively manage more than $2.5tn of wealth for ultra-highnet-worth individuals (UHNWI). When asked which ‘investments of passion’ clients were likely to purchase in 2023, 39% of respondents said wine. An average 5% of clients’ investible wealth was allocated to passion investments, such as wine, classic cars, art and watches, the survey found. That was above gold (3%), but equities came top, accounting for 26% of clients’ investible wealth on average globally. The Knight Frank survey…

How did you get here? I’ve worked in pretty much every aspect of the wine business. I’ve had the good fortune of working for two large publicly traded companies as well as several smaller ones. I even owned a wine shop and a group of wine-focused restaurants. My wife and I chose to raise our family in Walla Walla, a small wine community that we love. I joined up with Casey and Vicky McClellan, the founders of Seven Hills Winery (one of Washington’s pioneer brands) to help them build their business with the aim of selling it so they could retire. Once the sale was announced my phone blew up from friends in the business asking, ‘how did you do that, and can you help me do the same?’ –…

BRIANNE COHEN is a Los Angeles-based event producer, wine writer, judge and educator working in both in-person and virtual settings. Also a certified sommelier, she writes for various titles and publishes at briannecohen.com MAIAH JOHNSON DUNN is a writer and educator based in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Formerly in events marketing, she focuses on wine and hospitality, publishing her own work at maiah.com JONATHAN CRISTALDI is a widely published writer on wine, spirits and beer. Based in California, he is editor-at-large for both The Somm Journal and The Tasting Panel magazine, contributing to various other titles including Food & Wine LAUREN MOWERY is a widely published, US-based travel and drinks journalist, photographer, wine educator and consultant. Among many others, her work has appeared in Forbes, Wine Enthusiast…

In the 1940s, Jeff Andrews’ great-grandfather arrived in the area where the Andrews Family Vineyards stand. Today, aside from row after row of grapevines, only a few buildings break the horizon line. There are a couple of farmsteads and the family’s wine production facilities. It remains a very uninhabited part of eastern Washington, rising between the Yakima and Columbia rivers. It was all sagebrush and arid desert back in those days. Shortly after Andrews’ great-grandfather George Smith had broken the ground and planted dry-land wheat, the US military seized his land. It was soon after America had entered into World War II. His farm and most of the area in the high, rolling hills above the Yakima river were used as a bombing range by the US Navy throughout the…

Give your cocktail cabinet a spring clean with this selection of new gin releases and bottles bursting with fresh seasonal flavours. 1GinBey £25.95-£34/70cl Arabica London, GrapeSmith, Master of Malt, The Gin to my Tonic, The Spirits Room, The Whisky Exchange, Tiny’s Tipple Produced by Domaine des Tourelles winery in the Bekaa Valley, this deliciously distinctive gin features 14 Lebanese botanicals, including pomegranate seeds, rose petals and cassia bark. Rested in amphorae for six months after distillation to round out the flavour and texture, it’s really creamy in the mouth. A solid base of piney juniper is cut through with crisp citrus and finishes with a spicy, herbal lift. With its perfect balance of fruity, herbal and spice notes, this London Dry is a versatile addition to your spring drinks line-up.…

My book Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many is essentially a treatise on the simple, charming business of cooking at home. Curiously, the title for the book came about as Elena Heatherwick took photographs of produce and ingredients, heaps of books, pots and pans, plates, dishes and bowls piled up high on any and every surface while food was prepared in my scullery of a kitchen. Elena was just as interested in the adventure of ingredients being shopped for and prepared as she was in how they then became the dishes that grace the pages of the book. These simple actions became the spine of the book, with the idea that the mix of old and more modern recipes – and ingredients both familiar and less so –…

Let’s start with the positives. Six of the 14 wines scoring 90 points or above here came from San Antonio or Leyda – regions that earned plaudits from this tasting. Judge Ben Gubbins also noted the ‘promise’ offered by Osorno in the south. In general, the diversity of origins in the top-scoring wines was notable in this tasting, with quality to be found from Atacama and Limarí in the north to Malleco and Osorno in the deep south. The latter regions tended to deliver understated aromas yet intense palate profiles, while Atacama and Limarí majored on peppery, almost saline characters and great vibrancy. The best Sauvignons from coastal terroirs such as Leyda, San Antonio, Casablanca and Aconcagua combined aromatic lift with structure and layers of flavour. What didn’t find favour…

94 Ayala, Brut Nature, Champagne, France NV £33-£42 Bon Coeur, Butlers Wines, Champagne Direct, Petersham Cellar, Virgin Wines Filigree aromatics and soft minerality in crystalline fashion. Oyster-shell salinity and acid verve underpin the crispy pear, green apple and white grapefruit aromas. A subtle seam of linden and hay, lovely crunch, drive and complex purity. IS Alc 12% 95 Yalumba, The Virgilius, Eden Valley, South Australia 2019 £37.69 VinQuinn Just hitting UK shores is this gorgeous Viognier from winemaker Louisa Rose. Dried and fresh apricot meld with creamy cashew, exotic aromatic spices and a yeasty tang. Oily texture is rich but not cloying. Seductive purity now, but can cellar for added complexity. TG Alc 13.5% 93 Torres, Forcada, Penedès, Catalonia, Spain 2018 £42.05 Vinvm So far the most successful of the…

BORDEAUX EN PRIMEUR Bordeaux en primeur season is approaching for a 2022 vintage that has ‘the markers of great quality’, as regional wine bureau CIVB says. Pricing is important alongside quality, of course, and most releases normally arrive over May and June. Look out for tasting notes and scores online via decanter.com/premium COLLECTIVE NAPA VALLEY WEEKEND The Collective Napa Valley initiative is holding its Together Again Weekend on 2-3 June, with tickets on sale for a range of events, including a live barrel auction and tasting, as well as winery dinners. Only Collective members can purchase tickets, but it’s free to join. See collectivenapavalley.org RIDGE MONTE BELLO 2022 California’s Ridge Vineyards offers a portion of its famous Monte Bello wine en primeur in May each year. Next up is the…

Along Sonoma Coast’s Bodega Highway, morning fog in summer can feel as wet as a rainstorm. The area is populated by redwoods, trees that feed on such moisture to create a microclimate of cool, damp air. Their needles gather humidity, dripping it onto the ground below over the course of the day. Vineyards in this southwest section of Sonoma County grow tucked within the forest, enjoying an extended growing season compared to outlying areas. The trees moderate the heat and reduce the impact of drought in a state without summer rain. Pinot Noir began to appear in the region at the end of the 1970s, but only significantly expanded almost 20 years later. Since, Sonoma’s coast has developed into one of California’s pre-eminent, cool-climate wine-growing regions. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay…

1 Trothe, Sauvignon Blanc 2021 92 A very limited edition, launched with the 2021 vintage, this Sauvignon Blanc saw plenty of lees stirring during production in 100% concrete. The aromatics offer gooseberry, lemon zest and wet stone in a wine of a bright yellow hue. The palate offers rich, round tropical fruits balanced with a thirst-slaking acidity. Flavours of key lime, grapefruit pith and chalky minerality are finished off with zippy acidity and a long, bright finish. Drink 2023-2026 Alcohol 13.8% Trothe, Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 96 US$239 trothe.com The third release of Trothe’s flagship is now at 10 barrels of Clone 8 Cabernet selected from its older 98 and 03 Blocks. A streak of graphite cuts through the dark violet and ripe blackberry aromatics, the palate undeniably fresh despite the…

‘Wine has a unique language, and English is not my first language. I had to work hard to get promoted’ L ike a language, wine must be learned; theoretically, anyone can master the lexicon if they apply themselves. But wine as a subject also encompasses history, culture, science, even certain religions. For aspiring sommeliers – or anyone with the desire to work in wine – growing up in a Western society, where wine is culturally accepted, makes pursuing these careers easier. For the language of wine was written in English and European romance languages. Even tasting notes reflect the shared experience of Western food, from fruits to spices. So, how does an aspiring sommelier hailing from a non-traditional, even non-existent wine culture – or a family, society or religion that…

If there’s one thing the Decanter World Wine Awards results reveal, it’s a global perspective on the world of wine. With more than 18,000 wines entered from across the globe, blind tasted and rated by hundreds of the most reputable, trusted tasters, wines are benchmarked against those elsewhere in the world. But ‘the excitement doesn’t necessarily come from the volume of wines’, comments DWWA Co-Chair Michael Hill Smith MW. ‘The excitement is finding the good wines’ – and a DWWA Gold medal represents the signed, quality standard the experts are in search of. A grape known to express terroir, with its style, finesse and elegance impacted by changing climates, Pinot Noir is a variety to watch across annual editions of the competition – in 2022, Gold medal-winning Pinot Noir wines…

There are few classic cocktails as underappreciated as the Pisco Sour: a fresh, aromatic combination of pisco, lime juice, sugar and bitters that is so much more than the sum of its parts. Its headline ingredient, Chile and Peru’s brandy, or grape eau-de-vie, is just as underrated – at least outside its home countries. There’s plenty of debate between the Chileans and Peruvians about who has the stronger claim to pisco, and indeed whose version is better. But for those of us with no skin in the game, drinkers without borders seeking the most delicious spirits, having a bottle of both at home is an advantage, resulting in a broader range of styles. There are other brandies out there, but none showcases the grape, and its terroir, quite like pisco.…

As Jeremy says, this dish is equally as good as a pan of mussels and therefore from a wine point of view could be treated like a moules marinières. Muscadet would be the obvious option but given the cream, leeks and herbs, Chablis would be perfect, too; it’s such a simple dish it would be a good showcase for a premier cru. Outside France you could consider other dry white wines, not least as the recipe includes white wine: a good Pinot Grigio from the Alto Adige, an Albariño/Alvarinho from Spain or Portugal respectively, or maybe an Alella from coastal Catalonia, or Alpine white. From the New World I’d probably look at a young cool-climate Chardonnay – not too much lees or oak character, and saline rather than sumptuous, but…

THE MAGIC OF RIESLING AMY WISLOCKI It has become a cliché, the esteem in which Riesling is held by members of the wine trade. I was recently the honorary journalist among a group of sommeliers who gathered at London restaurant Frog by Adam Handling, for a tasting lunch featuring 12 Rieslings from six producers, spanning vintages from 2005 to 2021. It was organised by Stefan Neumann MS to commemorate last year’s 175th anniversary of Australian Riesling specialist Pewsey Vale. Neumann consults for Pewsey Vale’s UK importer Fells, which also brings in the wines of Alsace’s Hugel, so we enjoyed four vintages from each of those two estates, alongside two Rieslings from Germany (Bürklin-Wolf in the Pfalz, Heinrichshof in the Mosel) and two from Austria (Weingut Bründlmayer in Kamptal and Domäne…

F rench wine treasures have attracted strong bidding in Hong Kong, as auction houses restart live, in-person sales there following the lifting of Covidrelated social restrictions. Christie’s reported strong prices for lauded Bordeaux vintages at a live auction of wines from Norwegian collector Christen Sveaas. Top lots included eight bottles of Château Mouton Rothschild 1945, which fetched HK$1.06m (£109,000, US$135,000, pre-sale high estimate: HK$850,000). Twelve bottles of Latour à Pomerol 1961, reconditioned with new capsules and labels, also sold for HK$1.06m (high e: HK$650,000), and 12 bottles of Château Palmer 1961 fetched HK$562,500 (high e: HK$550,000). Michelle Chan, head of wine at Christie’s Asia Pacific, said the level of bidding at the sale ‘demonstrates the sustained appetite for fine wine in Asia’. At the Sotheby’s ‘The Ethereal Cellar’ auction on…

Fine wine & spirits specialist Bordeaux Index kindly sponsors this section of Decanter, and provides its view on the market here every issue. It can be found at bordeauxindex.com The wine market in Q1 has seen subdued activity, characterised largely by stable prices but lower trading volumes. New releases across Burgundy 2021 en primeur, Champagne (eg, Bollinger RD 08) and Bordeaux (eg, Latour 2015) have seen strong interest, but macro distractions seem to have somewhat muted buyer interest for wines already in the market. There are reasons to believe this will change during the course of Q2 and especially in the second half of the year – China’s post-Covid reopening among them. This is unlikely to be a ‘big bang’ but rather a gradual recovery in activity and potentially a…