Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2024 i Decanter

EDITOR’S LETTER If you have a little knowledge and wide tasting experience, you can often take an educated guess at the style of an unfamiliar wine from its label, beyond the blurb on the back: the shade (pale or dark), region, grape variety and alcohol level all provide useful clues. With Champagne, it’s less clear. The brands spend heavily on packaging and advertising, but the beautiful bottles themselves offer few clues. The alcohol level doesn’t really vary from 12.5% or 12%, and though the words ‘blanc de blancs’ (ie, Chardonnay usually) and ‘blanc de noirs’ (Pinots Noir and/or Meunier) can hint at a style, you’re not generally given much else to go on. That’s why this month’s feature on decoding Champagne styles is so brilliant (see p33). Our Champagne expert…

We reached the viewpoint, but rain clouds and swirling mist veiled the vermilion hills below us. The sea – normally a deep gentian along this ‘Côte de Vermeille’ – was lost in grey. You could almost hear the vineyards gurgling with pleasure: this April drench came after three years of drought. A pair of trail runners emerged from a path through the bushes just beneath us, their 400m climb over, sodden, panting, beaming. ‘All that effort for nothing,’ lamented one of the winegrowers, shaking his head in wry amusement. ‘And we can’t get people to work on the vines.’ This is Collioure, in all its astonishment and difficulty. It could be a little mountain Burgundy of the south – or perhaps France’s miniature Etna. Its main grape variety, Grenache, is…

I’ll never forget the moment Pierre Overnoy handed me a jar containing a cluster of Ploussard grapes, harvested on 2 July 1991: a preserved piece of the natural world from my birth year. As I was departing, the pioneering Jura winemaker gave me a loaf of homemade bread. For the winemakers who gave birth to what has become known as the natural wine movement, this love for nature, combined with a paysan mindset, lies at the core of not only their approach to wine, but to life. It was this approach that resonated with me when I first came across natural wine in my mid-20s. I was quick to embrace it. Bottles such as Guy Breton’s 1989 Morgon, experiences with wines by the Jura’s Houillon-Overnoy and Domaine des Miroirs, the…

DECANTER WORLD WINE AWARDS 2024 Piedmont, in Italy’s northwest, is a prolific source of high-quality, distinctive wines, boasting more than 20 of its own grape varieties that reflect the region’s rich diversity. As one of Italy’s vinous powerhouses, Piedmont consistently excels at the Decanter World Wine Awards, showcasing not only its iconic wines but also its expanding scope. Nebbiolo, the region’s most highly reputed variety, is synonymous with the prestigious denominations of Barolo and Barbaresco. However, Piedmont’s distinction extends beyond Nebbiolo, with indigenous varieties such as the white Timorasso and red Grignolino offering some of its most exciting wines today. Notably, Grignolino made its debut in the demanding DWWA 2024 Gold medal category, while Timorasso secured a second consecutive appearance. Piedmont’s versatility extends to style, too. Asti DOCG, produced entirely…

Venice and the Veneto have been part of my life since childhood. I was 11 the first time I visited Venice. I know the province of Verona well – it’s where the radicchio my father exported was grown. Food connected me to the Veneto as a child, and it still does now, as I teach at a cookery school in the Dolomite foothills of Treviso three times a year. To be able to visit so often, and to cook with the region’s magical ingredients, is a privilege and pleasure. The cooking of the seven provinces of Veneto is as diverse as the landscapes of the region – from the snowy peaks of the Pre-Alps to the coastal marshes and lagoons. The recipes and essays in my book offer a glimpse…

Ask Decanter Each month our experts answer your burning wine questions. Email your queries to editor@decanter.com SWEET MYSTERY How does a wine’s residual sugar level affect its ageing potential? Michael Sunderland, by email Anne Krebiehl MW replies: This is a question that immediately begs another: how much sugar? Wines can be bone dry with less than 1g/L of residual sugar, tooth-breakingly sweet with more than 300g/L and anywhere in between. At which point this sugar starts to help ageability isn’t clear-cut as other elements, such as alcohol level and concentration, also come into play. However, even at lower levels, like for instance in the dosage of sparkling wines to brut level (that is, up to 12g/L of sugar), there’s anecdotal evidence that this small amount of sugar helps the wine…

The wine-growing region of Languedoc is roughly 200km in length, arcing around the southern section of France’s Mediterranean coastline. Diverse terroirs with schist, limestone, clay and sand can be found along the coastal plains and the southern foothills of the Massif Central. There’s an Atlantic influence in the northwest, higher-elevation coolness in the foothills of the Pyrenees in the south, and cool air sweeping down the Rhône valley in the east. The resulting diversity can make it almost impossible to define a ‘Languedoc style’. A long history of producing large volumes of cheap and cheerful wines has fixed an image of the region for many consumers, but affordable land and free-minded attitudes have meant the Languedoc has, for a number of decades, also produced some stellar wines. Judge Justin Howard-Sneyd…

Babylonstoren, Sprankel, Simonsberg, Paarl, South Africa 2018 92 £36.99-£40 Islington Wine, The Newt in Somerset This delightful Cap Classique delivers plenty of bubbly enjoyment. Chardonnay with 10% Pinot Noir, up to five years on lees brings a silky creaminess. Aromas of ripe peach and apple lure you in: a perfect aperitif. JS Alc 12% The Lane, Beginning Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills, South Australia 2022 92 £21.25 Corney & Barrow This hails from the cool-climate Adelaide Hills, and it shows in the focused, acid-driven style, which is balanced by toasty oak, a struck-match smokiness and white peach. Gives Burgundy at this price level a run for its money. AW Alc 13.5% Creation, Reserve Chardonnay, Cape South Coast, South Africa 2022 91 £28 Creation Wines An enticing, opulent mango, fennel seed and nutty nose leads…

The things you love are the things you invest time in.’ That’s the motto Daniel Gómez Jiménez-Landi and Fernando García have lived by and largely explains the evolution and success of Comando G, the project they founded in 2008. The project’s name is loaded with meaning: G stands for Garnacha, Gredos and granite, the region’s terroir- and visually defining rock; it’s also a nod to the Spanish-language version of a 1970s cartoon, Battle of the Planets, in which a team of stylishly caped heroes called G-Force (‘Comando G’) protect the Earth from alien threats. Meaning is indeed key to understanding Comando G. There’s a programmatic, almost ideological component to the project. Landi and García’s motivations are deeply rooted in the socio-economic phenomena that led to the abandonment of old vineyards…

It’s an iconic image straight out of a Hemingway novel: a sleepy bar on a Sunday afternoon, the floor littered with peanut shells; barrels with wooden spigots jostle for space above the bar. Short glasses – filled with ice, olives and an orange slice – hold one of Spain’s signature elixirs: vermouth, or as it’s known here, vermut. Spain’s vermouth has evolved alongside the nation, tracing its journey from international pariah during the Franco era (1939-1975) to the hub of culinary innovation and effortless cool that it is today. Once dismissed as the drink of grandparents, symbol of an era of political turmoil and economic hardship, it has undergone a renaissance in recent years, becoming a mainstay of hipsters and pensioners alike. Now, vermut is synonymous with those outdoor-terraza, laid-back…

EATING OUT: 4 TOP PICKS From tiny hole-in-the-wall bars to lofty Michelin-starred restaurants, Spain’s gastronomic scene is more dynamic and vibrant than ever. The next generation of restaurateurs, chefs and sommeliers are crafting remarkable wine lists, innovative food-and-wine pairings and unique fusion cuisine. It’s impossible to list every exciting new venue in Spain, but the four restaurants and wine bars below are a snapshot of the people and places worth knowing about. Albariza en las Venas Calle Divina Pastora 3, Local 51, Jerez de la Frontera From the moment winemaker Juan Carlos Vidarte and sommelier Rocío Benito first met during the 2021 harvest at Bodegas Luis Pérez in Jerez, they knew they would work together again. Their latest collaboration is Albariza en las Venas, which opened its doors in May…

BRIANNE COHEN is a Los Angeles-based event producer, widely published wine writer and educator working in both in-person and virtual settings. Also a certified sommelier, she runs her own website at briannecohen.com TOM HEWSON is Champagne correspondent for Decanter and Decanter Premium online, and a DWWA judge. A jazz musician, he writes on sparkling wine more broadly on the Six Atmospheres Substack HUON HOOKE is a widely published journalist and awarded wine writer, speaker and judge based in Sydney. His wine writing now appears mostly in The Real Review, and he is a DWWA joint Regional Chair for Australia EMMA JENKINS MW is a freelance wine writer, judge, educator and consultant. She qualified as New Zealand’s ninth MW in 2011, and among her roles she is research paper coordinator for…

We probably all have default wines. I mean the ones you resort to when you’re looking at a wine list and there’s nothing you haven’t tried before that feels exactly what you’re after. You have a comfort zone, or comfort wine, in other words. We all do. It may be – and too often is – Sauvignon Blanc, or claret in the broad sense, or something with the easy-to-read characteristics of Rioja. I have a few. I used to brag that I’d taste anything that came with a cork; these days I’m a bit more conservative. Fizz comes very high on my comfort list – and not necessarily Champagne. England has a dozen labels these days that give me the refreshment and uplift I’m looking for. I find people often…

In one sense, Champagne is easy to understand. Is there another wine appellation with such a strong, unified brand? For all the popularity of the world’s other sparkling wines, whether Prosecco, Cava or English sparkling, Champagne’s promise is simple: spend a little more and get the real thing. It’s even more of a disappointment, then, when a glass of Champagne doesn’t turn out to be quite what we were hoping for. Despite the reassuring unity of brand Champagne, the place is a universe all of its own, with more than 1,000 producers (split between houses, cooperatives and grower-producers) who make wines from seven grape varieties across 34,000ha of land spread over a distance equal to that between London and Birmingham. How, then, to make new discoveries, when there’s often little…

Barossa Shiraz is changing – and that’s exciting. Look beyond the 1990s legacy of heavyweight behemoths labouring under the weight of high alcohol and super-ripe fruit and you’ll find an exciting new league of nimble wines, with bright flavours and supple tannins, that still have distinctive drive, power and purpose. Arriving in the wake of an esteemed 2021 vintage, Barossa Shiraz from the low-yielding but high-quality 2022 vintage provides a fascinating snapshot of a wine style in transition. The 20 wines I’ve chosen here demonstrate this. The best examples have a leanness and delicious savouriness in the mid-palate that belies the old stereotype. Because alcohol levels have dipped a little, lively middle-weight contenders for the crown of best Shiraz have verve, energy and an understated elegance. Michael Hall is at…

The origin of gin The history of gin has been rewritten in a new book by Master Distiller Jared Brown and his wife, drinks historian Anistatia Miller. A Most Noble Water (£14.95 Mixellany) debunks the story that gin originated in Holland in the guise of Dutch genever. While conducting research in the National Archives, Brown discovered an English recipe from 1639 that includes juniper, orange, lemon peels and spices – core to the structure of modern gin. ‘I was searching for ultimate spellings of the word “juniper” in old books,’ he explained. The recipe predates the arrival of genever in Britain by about 10 years. As Master Distiller for Sipsmith – the distillery that kickstarted the UK’s craft gin scene in 2009 – Brown was keen to revive the recipe.…

Imagine you’ve been given a good bottle of Champagne: what do you pair with it? Maybe I’m doing you an injustice but my guess is that, whatever the style, you’re going to be pouring it as a prelude to a meal rather than as an accompaniment. You wouldn’t be alone. Even the pros don’t always seem to appreciate the differences in style. Earlier this year, when I helped judge the Champagne Deutz trophy at the Constance Festival Culinaire competition in Mauritius, I was taken aback by how many of the participating chefs seemed to regard the hugely complex William Deutz Brut 2013 (£165 Averys, The Whisky Exchange) as a simple, fresh aperitif-style fizz. Admittedly the pairing was with an amuse-bouche, but nonetheless the winning entry (by chef-owner Maurizio Oster from…

OFFBEAT ENGLAND SYLVIA WU English and Welsh vineyards offer many more grape varieties than just the Champagne trio and Bacchus – a fact I’m reminded of every year at the WineGB tasting, where the hunt for what’s new is always rewarded. Biddenden’s speciality, Ortega, displays citrussy, refreshing charm as a sweet wine (try the Late Harvest 2018, £122/37.5cl Bibbenden), but also shows potential as a dry wine, with solid peachy weight and Mediterranean perfume (Ortega Dry 2022, £14.90). The estate also makes a Dornfelder red (2022, £16.40), a juicy treat with ripe bramble berries and mineral traces. Also in Kent, Balfour Winery is always at the forefront of innovation – the first release of its Albariño (2022, £25) features smoky stone fruits with a tight, saline palate, and a touch…

EXPERT’S CHOICE TASTED NON-BLIND The dry white Semillon of Hunter Valley is one of the wine world’s greatest secrets. It has a devoted following among those consumers who have discovered it and it’s revered by the winemakers of the Hunter Valley in New South Wales; yet it goes curiously uncelebrated in much of the wider world. The Hunter Valley – a two-hour drive north of Sydney – is Australia’s oldest continuing wine region, becoming established in the 1830s. Semillon is believed to have been grown there from the start, although it wasn’t always given its correct name, its wines being labelled variously as Shepherd’s Riesling, Rhine Gold and Chablis, among others. As with Chenin Blanc in the middle Loire, Pinot Noir in Burgundy and Nebbiolo in Piedmont’s Langhe, there are few…

Classics shine at the autumn auctions globally Legendary wines have gone under the hammer during the auction houses’ autumn sales season, from Hong Kong to the US. Château Mouton Rothschild 1945, a Decanter Wine Legend, was the top-selling lot at the Christie’s Epic Cellar II auction in Hong Kong in early October. Twelve bottles in their original wooden case (OWC) sold for HK$1.25m (£123,321), including buyer’s premium (pre-sale high estimate: HK$1.1m). Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Romanée-Conti 1990 achieved the second highest price, at HK$937,500 for six bottles (OWC; high e: HK$900,000). Despite reports of cautious buyer sentiment across the market, US auction house Hart Davis Hart said its two-day auction in late September was 100% sold: all 3,174 lots found buyers. France’s 1961 red wine vintage was a highlight: 12…

ALMUDENA ALBERCA MW is a wine consultant, educator, writer and judge, with more than 20 years in vine-growing and wine production across Spain at some major producers. She is Spain’s brand ambassador for fine wine merchant Oeno FINTAN KERR is a wine writer, judge and educator. Having started out in sales in Spain, in 2015 he founded winecuentista.com, where he coordinates the Maestrazgo Wine Club, a tasting group for people living in Barcelona NOAH CHICHESTER is a freelance wine writer and educator who specialises in Galician wine. Based in New York City, he created winesofgalicia.com after spending four years in Spain immersed in the region’s wine and culture INES SALPICO is Decanter’s Regional Editor for Spain, Portugal and South America. Born in Portugal, she moved to London nine years ago…

In 1998, I won a scholarship for my results in the WSET diploma exam. The prize was an excellent – and looking back, formative – self-drive tour to wineries right across northern Spain, finishing in Barcelona. I can still recall the discussion with the organiser. He said: ‘There is a place you could visit on this trip, it’s called Priorat. But it’s all a bit new and difficult to get to. I don’t recommend it.’ Instead, I finished the journey with a terrific evening at FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium. FROM PRIORAT TO THE WORLD The football seemed sufficient reward; I didn’t realise until much later what I had missed. When I finally made it to Priorat, I was lucky enough to have as my first stop a visit to…

PANEL TASTING There are days when you approach a tasting with trepidation, not because the quality might be questionable, but because you have high expectations and desperately don’t want to be disappointed. This was one of those tastings, and with committed ‘garnachistas’ on the panel, the wines had a lot to live up to. Garnachas from Spain… such a broad remit, but gee, did it deliver! The diversity of Spain’s regions and the ability of Garnacha to adapt to different terroirs in its native environment was on show. From the rugged mountains of the Meseta to the Mediterranean, the flexibility of the grape offered light and lively wines from the Sierra de Gredos to big and bold wines from the slate soils and heat of Priorat. Diana Rollan commented that…

Wineries in Lebanon and Israel strive to bring in harvest Winemakers in Lebanon and Israel have spoken of intense pressure working under the threat of bombs and rockets amid conflict in their region. A bomb that landed near Chateau Rayak Winery & Distillery in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in late September sadly killed passersby, said winery owner Elias Maalouf. The blast also shattered many bottles of wine and damaged his and his parents’ houses. ‘We never knew that winemaking was going to become a threat to our lives,’ said Maalouf, as reported by journalist Nick Kochan in a recent article on decanter.com. Alex Haruni (pictured), CEO of Dalton Winery in the Israeli Upper Galilee, said he has a flak jacket and helmet in his car. ‘We are living day by day;…

Walking through the streets of London, the city’s ability to juxtapose a staggering variety of architecture is a joy that embraces both native traditions and global curiosity. Within a short distance of each other, we have the grey post-war Brutalist of the Barbican and the neat, symmetrical Georgian houses of Mayfair, while Gothic (or neo-Gothic) churches sit in the shade of modern glass-and-steel skyscrapers that have reached far beyond their spires. Architecture has succeeded in forging new styles beyond historical forms, challenging planning laws and innovating with materials. Yet in the deeply traditional wine world, such behaviour is frowned upon as breaking with the wisdom of the past. Our aesthetic approach to what makes wine good mainly celebrates a single, Platonic form of quality established in the 20th century. This…

From wild and rugged Aragón, this tasting of red wines took us on a journey from the most northerly DO vineyards of Somontano in the foothills of the Pyrenees to the high-elevation (up to 1,000m) vines of Calatayud and further south, to the vast, sparsely populated expanses towards Teruel. We passed through the vineyards close to Moncayo in Campo de Borja and tasted some great-value wines from Cariñena (the DO region). It was a tasting that naturally focused on Garnacha, the main protagonist of the whole region, but featured some interesting blends of Cariñena (the grape), Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and even Merlot. But let’s start with Garnacha, the native grape of Aragón. Seven of the nine highest-scoring wines (92pts and above) here are made from the grape variety, from six…

The Society’s, Cava Reserva Brut, Catalonia, Spain 2021 91 £9.76 The Wine Society This elegant fizz is deservedly one of the Society’s ‘Wine Champions’ for its price-to-quality ratio. Made with the three Cava grapes, a dash of Chardonnay and 20 months’ lees ageing, it offers crisp orchard fruit, honey cake richness and a mineral finish. TG Alcohol 12% Quinta do Ameal, Loureiro, Vinho Verde, Portugal 2023 92 £14 Eton Vintners, Givino Pure and classical, with a core of creamy citrus and white orchard fruit cloaked in bay leaf and rosemary oil. A subtle touch of green olive brine adds gentle salinity. A great introduction to Ameal’s rigorous winemaking program, focused on the Loureiro grape. IS Alc 12% Stellenrust, Stellenbosch Manor Barrel Fermented Chenin Blanc, South Africa 2022 91 £15 Tesco This is…

WORKING WINE TO 5 How did you get here? After a degree in agricultural science and a PhD in forestry, I was recruited by Australia’s national science agency CSIRO to work in the wine industry on yield estimation. This ignited a lifelong passion for wine, the industry and its amazing global network. What’s the key purpose of your role? I am focused on making sure the AWRI (Australian Wine Research Institute) has the capabilities and talent to keep up with the changing global wine sector. Solving key challenges such as consumer acceptance of no- and low-alcohol wine, sustainability and packaging means we need to adapt and evolve as an organisation to remain relevant and impactful. What’s the biggest frustration? Chasing the funding to conduct the ultra-cool science we do. It’s…

Spain is the country with the largest area of wine-producing vineyards in the world, including a significant yet undocumented high percentage of old vines. Tradition, devotion to vines passed down through generations and/or the low economic value placed on both grapes and vineyards have allowed these vines to survive. As a result, Spain is home to a huge wealth of varieties ‘frozen’ in time, often in remote locations outside the perimeter of current designations of origin (DOs). Crop specialisation and consolidation caused a considerable reduction in genetic diversity, reflecting a global pattern in recent decades. Many grape varieties and clones/biotypes were lost as producers followed market trends. Varieties with lower yields, longer growing seasons or those that were difficult to ripen – highly valued attributes today, ironically – were pulled…

20 TOP TXAKOLI WINES According to the DO Getariako Txakolina (in the Basque language, otherwise Txakoli de Getaria), the first bylaws of Spain’s northerly Basque province of Gipuzkoa were drawn up in 1397 to include item 18: anyone destroying the local vines could be sentenced to death. It is a pointer – admittedly somewhat extreme – to the historical importance of Txakoli in the Euskal Herria, or País Vasco in Castilian Spanish (Basque Country in English). There is written evidence of viticulture in this region as far back as the 9th century, and wine production continued to flourish for centuries. The loss of vineyards in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (due to the damaging impacts of the phylloxera bug and mildew in the vineyards, and economic and social…