Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i Decanter

Wine is a process, with a beginning and an end. Where those are, though, is largely up to you. Is the beginning when the grapes are harvested, the vines planted, the liquid first bottled, or even when the winemaker first had the idea? And is the end when it’s sold to you, or when it’s drunk, or when it’s finally forgotten after years of pleasant reminiscence? There are hours of entertaining discussion to be had in trying to define those parameters. But one thing is certain: two of the most important parts of that process are creating a great wine, and finding it an appreciative owner. In this issue we have tried to pay tribute to both of those elements: inspirational winemaking, courtesy of Portuguese maven/maverick Dirk Niepoort; and superb…

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

A contrarian,but arch collaborator; irreverent, but a lover of tradition, Dirk van der Niepoort is something of a conundrum. However, the willingness of the 40th recipient of the Decanter Hall of Fame award to flout convention and question authority or perceived wisdom is crystal clear. It has been a pebble, maybe even a boulder, in the pond of the Portuguese wine industry, making waves that have reached far and wide. TRANSFORMATIVE FIGURE At a time when, says fellow producer Paul Symington, ‘many thought it was mad’, Niepoort successfully diversified his family’s 19th-century Port company, entering the still wine arena and blazing a trail for Douro DOC wine. He has elevated the reputation of Portuguese wine, throwing his creativity and weight behind premium wines of quality and personality, and encouraging and…

Tinazzi’s wine story began in 1968, when Eugenio Tinazzi and his son, Gian Andrea, joined forces to create the company that is known as one of the finest producers in the Veneto. Though their roots are in northern Italy, the Tinazzi name has become equally reputed for quality Puglian wines. A Puglian adventure It was on a visit to Salento, in the south of Puglia in 2001, that Gian Andrea Tinazzi saw the potential of the region’s vineyards and indigenous varieties. Soon after his visit, he bought 20 hectares of vineyards in the Alto Salento, and a few years later, the Feudo Croce winery was built. Today, the estate has a little over 30 hectares of organically tended bush-trained and espalier vineyards. Local superstar grapes – Aglianico, Fiano, Negroamaro and…

OUTSTANDING RETAILER OF THE YEAR Winner The Wine Society ‘They’re the full package in terms of value, service and range,’ was one judge’s pithy summary of The Wine Society, worthy winner of the big gong. Delicious and diverse wines sourced by an outstanding buying team with a genuine commitment to value and service. Every wine lover should be a member. JUDGES’ CHOICE Winner Tanners Wines Runner up Aspen & Meursault As one judge put it, Tanners is ‘a great family business, a traditional merchant but with a modern twist – well worth discovering’. Aspen & Meursault represents an alternative approach: an innovative London hybrid wine bar and shop taking a refreshing and original approach to wine. SUPERMARKET Winner Marks & Spencer Runner-up Waitrose ‘Great to see M&S back on form,’…

P ick any vineyard in Corsica and there is a high chance you’ll enjoy a spectacular view as well as excellent wines. You might gaze upon the sea from the vineyards in Cap Corse or admire the wave-shaped La Conca d’Oru mountain in the Patrimonio wine region. Wherever you are on the island, the breathtaking scenery varies, but so too does the soil, ranging from slate to clay-limestone to granite. It means Corsica delivers a huge variety of wine, even with the same grapes being used throughout. Although the summer sees a huge influx of visitors, those in search of Corsica’s vinous and gastronomic assets will find the cooler months bring fewer crowds, along with rewards such as vineyard walks and the chance to try its rustic, seasonal cuisine which…

This month’s tastings THE Decanter GUARANTEE See page 122 114 EDITORS’ PICKS Decanter’s editorial team share highlights and discoveries from their latest tastings 116 BOURGOGNE WHITES 89 wines tasted Including three Outstanding white wines that span the full breadth of the Bourgogne regional appellations 124 PIEDMONT BARBERA 60 wines tasted A strong showing from these juicy, food-friendly northwest Italian reds, with 43 wines scoring 90 points or more 132 AGEING ENGLISH FIZZ Susie Barrie MW’s 18: the best of England’s sparkling wines can and do age beautifully 137 WEEKDAY WINES 25 picks under £20: a truly wide-ranging set of styles to choose from, including must-trys from South Australia, Greece and Portugal 140 WEEKEND WINES Seven at £20-£50: more top Hampshire fizz, quality Veneto rosé, rich Stellenbosch red Want more? Decanter.com/premium…

Up to €200m (£172m) has been made available to help turn surplus French wine into industrial alcohol this year, according to the country’s agriculture ministry. It said a ‘crisis distillation’ scheme was implemented following approval from the European Commission. French winemakers had applied to have more than 4.4m hectolitres (440m litres) of excess wine distilled, it added. Back in June, the European Commission authorised exceptional measures, including crisis distillation, across EU member states as the bloc’s wine producers faced a cocktail of higher stocks, falling domestic consumption and lower exports. France’s agriculture ministry reiterated that it would also work with growers to adapt to market demand over the longer term. French wine industry leaders said late last year that domestic consumption dropped 70% in the 60 years to 2020.…

I very much enjoyed Anne Krebiehl’s article on women wine collectors in the September issue, and I wouldn’t disagree with any of the points made; in particular I agree with the comments about women being more interested in broadening their experience and less interested in investing for the sake of it. I’d add two more suggestions. Firstly, there has been evidence from psychologists that in any field of collecting men are more likely than women to be completists – that is, it’s not enough to have, for instance, one example of a specific winemaker’s production: you must aim for a full flight. Secondly, although the amount that women are prepared to spend may be lower, we have to acknowledge that even now we are generally behind men in disposable income.…

This collaboration between six luthiers and the Villa Oeiras winery not far from Lisbon had its beginnings five years ago when Portuguese luthier Adriano Sérgio came across some beautifully aged, old mahogany in the form of broken-down wine barrels. The barrels had once belonged to the Marquês de Pombal, the man appointed to rebuild Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake, and who also brought the local Carcavelos fortified wine style to renown from his winery in his palace grounds in Lisbon. Adriano and German luthier Ulrich Teuffel bought the wood, and formed a group of six top European guitar makers, who decided each to build a guitar in secret, not showing each other their work until completion so they wouldn’t be influenced by each other’s designs. The remaining wood was used…

Wines fermented and/or aged in clay vessels have seen an important revival in the last couple of decades, largely thanks to the rediscovery of the winemaking traditions of Georgia and to prominent producers, such as Joško Gravner in northeast Italy, themselves inspired by visits to the Caucasus. This led to a close, almost inevitable, association between clay vessels and low-intervention, skin-fermented white wines. The natural wine movement embraced amphora wine as a category of its own and soon enough qvevri (see box, p34) were on every hipster’s social media feed. Making wine in clay containers is not, however, synonymous with low intervention or extended macerations. Following the hype of the early 2000s, many winemakers – from natural fanatics to technology-driven orthodox – have experimented with clay vessels as yet another…

As the world of wine seeks to connect to new generations and demographics, the story of California-based geologist Brenna Quigley’s entry into wine may serve as a case study. ‘I have memories of going wine tasting around Santa Barbara with a bunch of geology graduate students, as I was finishing my master’s degree,’ Quigley shares. ‘We’d all be sitting around tasting wine and, in our own sort of bubble, we’d say, “There has to be something to the geology.” We’d never heard the term terroir before. We honestly had no idea anyone else cared about it.’ Since then, Quigley has come to be known for both exploring and explaining the concept of terroir, working with Californian wineries such as Quintessa in Napa Valley and Carlo Mondavi’s Raen label in Sonoma,…

Ask Decanter Each month our experts answer your burning wine questions. Email your questions to editor@decanter.com VINOUS STATES OF AMERICA How many US states produce wine? Scott Jarvis, by email Clive Pursehouse, Decanter’s US Editor, replies: The answer, surprisingly, is all of them. Wine is made in every state in the union, from the hot, humid shores of Florida, where Muscadine is the most common grape made by the state’s 30+ wineries, to Alaska, where Zinfandel is grown in a greenhouse in order to ripen. While the fine wine world is familiar with California, Oregon, Washington and New York states, the country’s emerging wine regions from Michigan and Virginia to New Mexico and Arizona are focusing on Vitis vinifera, from Riesling in the Great Lakes to Cabernet and Merlot in…

A regularrequest I receive from friends and wine lovers is for advice on what bottle (or case) to lay down for a new godchild, a future anniversary or a ‘big birthday’. They might mention that they’re considering Port or Champagne, at which point I tend to throw English sparkling wine into the mix. The question that inevitably follows is: ‘But will it age?’ A decade or so ago that was almost impossible to answer with any certainty. The modern English wine industry was just too young and older vintages simply didn’t exist in sufficient quantity. Now, this is no longer the case. With several English wineries building libraries of their older vintages, we can say unequivocally that the best English sparkling wines can and do age. In some instances, quite…

A US winery survey has looked at tasting room trends, with data suggesting that Napa Valley has the highest average fees. The cost of a ‘standard’ winery tasting in Napa County averaged $81 per person, compared to $38 in Sonoma County and $32 in Oregon, said Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) wine division, based on 332 winery responses in its ‘direct-to-consumer’ report. It also found more US wineries were offering by-appointment tastings, rather than only walk-ins, compared to pre-Covid pandemic. Several Napa wineries offer tastings cheaper than the average cited above, although SVB highlighted a long-term trend of rising fees in the US. Rob McMillan, founder of SVB’s wine division, said: ‘Over the past 15 years, the purpose of the tasting room evolved from “selling what is in the bottle” to…

I first contacted this year’s Decanter Hall of Fame laureate, Dirk Niepoort, 36 years ago. By letter. Yes, that’s how things were done in 1987. I was drafting a little book on Port and had written to all the shippers. One replied personally, with a friendly letter of his own: Dirk. He was 23 at the time, making his first steps with the family company, unknown in the UK; I was 31 and trying to get a new career going. I met him in Portugal; he became my first wine friend. I got to know his family, and he mine; we learned and explored together. His father Rolf ran the business – effectively; though he seemed more interested in his collections of corkscrews, antique firearms and American cars than in…

On the face of it, the two wines couldn’t be more different. One is a sweet Muscat, the other a dry red. But the more you look, the more they share. Both originate from the same terroirs around the village of Beaumes-de-Venise, while grapes for dry reds are also sourced from the villages of Lafare, Suzette and La Roque Alric. Only a few miles from Gigondas, both appellations have vineyards within the jagged Dentelles de Montmirail mountain range. And both Muscat de Beaumes de Venise and red Beaumes-de-Venise are Southern Rhône Crus – the highest level in the appellation hierarchy. The sweet side Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise is grown on the sandy terraces. It’s a particularly hot mesoclimate, sheltered from the north wind – and Muscat loves the sun. This area…

Traditional-method sparkling wine from South Africa, known as Cap Classique, has transformed itself. Both established and emerging producers now represent an effervescent, dynamic and ambitious sparkling wine scene that pulls every register in the vineyard and cellar to deliver quality. At long last, the best of these wines are making it to our shores, ready to make you sit up and take notice. In recent years, Cap Classique has been one of South Africa’s fastest-growing wine categories – a striking achievement for a country where vineyard hectarage is shrinking (from more than 100,000ha in 2012, falling steadily to 89,384ha in 2022, according to data from SAWIS – SA Wine Industry Information and Systems). Admittedly buoyed at home by so-called ‘Nectar’ styles that come with dosage levels between 12-35g/L (making them…

There was never a man so notoriously abused,’ protests Malvolio in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and it seems to me that Cariñena, aka Carignan, could argue the same case. It’s still all too easy to discern the wild reek of a carbonic Carignan in a Languedoc blend, but fortunes are changing for the grape once seen as the ugly sister to Grenache and Syrah. And not before time. At its best it has a profile of dark berries, forest balsam, smoke and spice, with vibrant acidity and a smudge of sooty tannins. Cariñena is its true name, a nod to its supposed origins in Aragón, but it appears under many synonyms, a sign of its proliferation in the world of wine. Its natural home is in hot climates, so it grows…

Top-name Tuscan 2020s on sale More than 100 international fine wines have been released via La Place de Bordeaux in recent weeks, including the 2020 vintages of top SuperTuscans Masseto and Solaia. UK merchant Justerini & Brooks offered Masseto 2020 (Decanter 100 points) at £1,650 per three-bottle case in bond. Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, said the release price was slightly below current market prices for Masseto 2019 and 2018, and significantly cheaper than the highly prized 2015 and 2016 vintages. Analyst group Wine Lister said Masseto’s 2019 and 2018 vintages have risen in price by 9% and 40% respectively since release. It also noted buyers may be galvanised by 2020 being the final vintage overseen by estate director Axel Heinz, now CEO at Margaux second growth Château…