Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2025 i Decanter

As part of my summer holiday in Italy’s beautiful Garda region, I spent one night in Verona before flying home. While packing for the trip I had remembered to grab a copy of our April 2025 issue, which features a guide to where to drink wine in Verona. I managed to visit six of the eight wine bars recommended by the author, Demet Güzey, while exploring the city on foot – including the April cover star, Osteria La Mandorla (see picture below), which is mere steps away from Piazza Bra and the famous Arena di Verona. It was a fantastic experience that included a peek into the cellars at the historic Antica Bottega del Vino, a spritz made with the region’s recioto wine outside Caffè Monte Baldo and a glass…

Let’s start with certainty: you enjoy drinking wine, and so do I. And that’s where we’ll finish, I promise. In between, though, we have an earthquake to deal with: the harmfulness of what most of us have always considered a harmless pleasure. As I mentioned in writing about wine’s consumption crisis in January this year, the World Health Organisation considers there is ‘no safe level’ of alcohol ingestion, and that a cancer risk is initiated with every sip of Mouton 1982 or Dom Pérignon 2008. This is now the medical consensus – though there are doctors, like Laura Catena in Argentina, who contest it (see indefenceofwine.com). Worse still, the cherished idea that moderate red-wine drinking has ‘positive health associations’ is now called into question. Red wine may not stave off…

The Criolla revolution of South America is still in its infancy – despite these being the oldest varieties on the continent. It was only in 2007 that the first commercial export of País (also known as Criolla Chica and Mission) wine came from Chile, and momentum has slowly built since. When I first wrote about Criolla for Decanter in 2018 (October issue, for the collectors!), it was a scramble to find enough wines to even include tasting notes. My editor generously allowed me to feature several wines not yet available internationally – it was still a nascent revival. Seven years on, the opposite is true: narrowing the list to just 15 wines was the real challenge. The Criolla renaissance is real – but its survival is far from guaranteed. Despite…

This is a story about Ted Lemon and how, 30 vintages in at Littorai, near Sebastopol in California’s Sonoma County, he’s showing us what it looks like to build something genuine that lasts, telling a story worth listening to in one of the most challenging sectors of the American economy. This isn’t, and can’t be, just another wine story. It is a story about a life lived with intention. About staying when it was hard and shifting when it mattered. About purpose and dedication – because, as psychotherapist and author Esther Perel puts it, ‘purpose is the essential dimension of meaning’. Ted has been making wine for more than four decades and growing grapes for just as long. Having attained an oenology degree at Dijon University in 1981, he worked…

Ask Decanter Each month our experts answer your burning wine questions. Email your queries to editor@decanter.com Best for bubbles? Q Which Champagne glass is your correspondent Tom Hewson’s favourite? How does he feel about flutes versus other shapes, or using different glass shapes for different Champagne styles? Anita Sanders, London A Tom Hewson replies: My absolute favourite glass is the Riedel Superleggero Champagne, but I only really use it for serious tastings as it isn’t one for crowded tables and straying elbows! Its properties, though – a mid-size tulip shape with thin glass and a sense of occasion – are what’s called for to make your glass of Champagne sing. You can also achieve this with a number of good universal glasses; among these I especially like the Gabriel Glas…

Grenache Noir, known as Garnacha in Spain and Cannonau in Sardinia, is the seventh most widely planted wine grape in the world, according to the most recent data from the OIV (International Organisation of Vine and Wine). But how often does one drink it as the star of the show? Over the centuries, Grenache has mostly been relegated to appearing in blends, sometimes in unspecified quantity, with other grape varieties. Those blends have ranged from very basic table wines to some of the most prestigious wines in the world, such as those of Priorat in Catalonia, Spain and Châteauneufdu-Pape in France’s Rhône valley. In the last 40 years, however, we’ve seen an increasing number of examples of Grenache proffered solely on its own merit. And more recently, in the last…

Champagne launch sparks global interest A first single-plot cuvée from Champagne Barons de Rothschild has recently debuted at auction in London, and offered collectors a fresh name to watch. A three-bottle collection of ‘Le Grand Clos 2019’ sold for £16,120, including buyer’s premium, via auction house Bonhams in London in July – signalling the new cuvée’s global launch. Respectively numbered 0001, 0002 and 0003, the bottles have been signed by three central members of the Rothschild family: Benjamin de Rothschild, Eric de Rothschild, and Philippe Sereys de Rothschild. Only 1,788 bottles of Le Grand Clos 2019 have been produced, by chef de cave Guillaume Lété. Grapes are sourced from a small ‘clos’ spanning 52 ‘ares’ (0.52 hectares) and acquired by Champagne Barons de Rothschild in 2013. The plot is located…

This is an important year for Decanter magazine: we’re celebrating 50 years of publication. For just over half of that time, magazine panel tastings were our primary format for judging wines. They’re closely focused and the highest scores are hard-earned, being debated between three expert judges – and (of course) they continue to thrive in the magazine and on decanter.com, too. Decanter’s scrutiny of wine, though, took a gigantic step forward with the launch of the Decanter World Wine Awards, from 2004 onwards. It’s hard, now, to imagine the magazine without DWWA. What changed in 2004? Our arms were flung wide open at that point. The competition has no tasting theme other than the search for excellence. It has no geographical circumscription: any wine is welcome to compete, no matter…

DWWA 2025: MEET THE EXPERTS At the 22nd edition of the Decanter World Wine Awards, we welcomed 248 of the world’s most respected wine authorities, from award-winning sommeliers and leading wine buyers to top critics and writers, Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers. Representing 35 countries across the Americas, Asia, Europe and beyond, our expert panel is truly a ‘United Nations’ of wine. What sets DWWA apart is not just its scale as the world’s largest and most influential wine competition since 2013, but the exceptional calibre of its judges and the rigour of its judging process (see p10). All of the judging panels are carefully composed to reflect a balance of industry perspectives, ensuring a fair and consumer-focused evaluation. At the helm of our competition are our five Co-Chairs,…

CASSANDRA CHARLICK Who? Now resident in Tasmania, Cassandra remains Decanter’s Western Australia correspondent. She is an independent and awarded wine journalist, travel and food writer, broadcaster and presenter, and her work also appears in Halliday, International Traveller and Delicious magazines, among others What, & why read? For the second year, Cassandra reports for us on the latest releases from Margaret River. She tasted 73 Chardonnays from the outstanding 2023 vintage and 55 Cabernets from 2022. Don’t miss her assessment of these five-star vintages, and 40 top picks MARIANNA HUNT Who? A freelance journalist with a focus on travel, wine and food, Marianna’s writing has appeared in titles including The Times, The Telegraph and The Spectator. Her background in finance and investment has recently led her to take on a role…

The relationship between wine and culture is discussed in two ways. First, uncontroversially, wine is said to be part of culture – associated with social, religious and institutional practices. Second, wine offers insight, it’s argued, into the culture in which it was produced. It represents it and, metaphorically, transports you to the time, the place and the society from which it originates. Let’s examine this latter claim. What, in German culture, is represented by dry Riesling? Do sweet Riesling, sparkling Sekt and red Spätburgunder represent the same part of German culture? In French culture, what changed in the 1980s to cause the shift from red to white Sancerre? How is Spanish culture represented through the wines of Rioja, which were significantly influenced by expat winemakers from Bordeaux in the 18th…

Chardonnay 2023 If 2022 was a great year for Margaret River Chardonnay, then 2023 proved to be exceptional, thanks to consistent quality across the board. Wineries that craft reliably excellent wines continued to do so, while ‘solid’ producers were gifted brilliant conditions to elevate their wines. From a total of 73 wines submitted for tasting, an astonishingly high proportion achieved gold medal level (95 points in Decanter terms) or higher. And while we can only publish a selection of them here (from p68), it’s worth noting that few entries were lower than a silver (90-94pts). I don’t consider myself a generous scorer, but I’ve given these wines multiple passes and found them expressive, powerful, textural and complex, with persistence and an excellent line of fruit. Undoubtedly, the 2023 Chardonnays are…

1 Del Maguey Vida Puebla Single Village Mezcal £35.99-£39.95/70cl Amathus Drinks, Amazon, Click N Drink, Drinkmonger, Master of Malt, The Whisky Exchange Award-winning Del Maguey was created in 1995 by American artist Ron Cooper. Its Single Village range highlights the role of terroir in mezcal production. Puebla is made near the Popocatépetl volcano in Axocopan. Fruity and smoky aromas, with notes of pear, pink grapefruit, pine and green herbs, plus a subtle hint of jamón. The palate is delicate and lifted but still with plenty of earthy spice, which lingers on the finish alongside fresh salty grapefruit. A lighter style that’s reasonably priced, it’s a useful intro to mezcal for novices. Alcohol 40% 2 Pensador Desdeya Uno Tequila Blanco £31.95-£36/50cl Bottle Apostle, Cork & Cask, Master of Malt, The Umbrella Project,…

I’m not 100% sure what I was expecting when I first opened The Cynic’s Guide to Wine (Académie du Vin Library, March 2025), but it wasn’t what I found. Perhaps I’d thought it would be more introductory, more light-hearted – more of a guide. As I started reading Sunny Hodge’s introduction, however, I realised that this was a book that deserved more serious attention. Hodge’s name may be unfamiliar (although regular readers may remember him from the A drink with... interview in the September 2021 issue). If you’ve spent time browsing lists of London’s best wine bars, however, you may know Diogenes the Dog, a bar in Elephant & Castle that offers one of the city’s most eclectic lists – and was his creation (now joined by Aspen & Meursault…

Exploring Central Otago terroir JULIE SHEPPARD A recent masterclass with New Zealand producer Te Kano drilled down into the differences between Central Otago’s Bannockburn, Northburn and Waitaki sub-regions. Introducing the area’s marginal climate, winemaker Dave Sutton noted: ‘It’s not unusual for entire vineyards to be wiped out by frost, so you need passion to make wines here.’ We tasted eight of those wines: Te Kano Land Series – three single-vineyard expressions of 2022 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – plus Landwalker Chardonnay 2023 and Pinot Noir 2023, new estate blends of fruit from all three sub-regions. Differences – determined by geology and microclimate – were clear. The richness of Bannockburn Chardonnay (sandy soils) contrasted with the mineral poise of Northburn (schist); different again from the aromatic, chalky-textured Waitaki (alluvial and limestone).…

Sainsbury’s, Taste the Difference, Crémant d’Alsace Brut, France £11.50 Sainsbury’s Sainsbury’s French crémants are a wallet-friendly alternative to Champagne. This offering from Alsace is a blend of Pinots Blanc and Gris. Fresh, toasty and well balanced, with a lively mousse and notes of fresh citrus, green apple, nuts and brioche. JS Alc 12.5% Bellingham, The Bernard Series Old Vine Chenin Blanc, Coastal Region, South Africa 2023 £13 Sainsbury’s A blend of grapes from seven old vineyards, the oldest planted in 1978. Nice palate depth, with buttery citrus and tropical fruit notes; slightly honeyed, with a sprinkle of spicy oak, too, plus vibrant acidity. JS Alc 13.5% Morrisons, The Best Grüner Veltliner, Austria 2024 £10 Morrisons Fragrant herbs and green fruits on the nose. The palate is fresh and balanced, with…

Celeb watch Jessica Biel Who and what? Jessica Biel is the latest Hollywood star to enter the wine game with her Prophet & Poet range. Family friend Jesse Katz of Aperture Cellars in Sonoma County gifted Biel a bespoke barrel of wine when she wed singer Justin Timberlake in 2012, and did the same for her brother when he tied the knot in 2019. Impressed by how both wines matured, Katz suggested creating a permanent range. The five wines are made at Aperture using grapes from vineyards owned by Jackson Family Wines, while the labels were inspired by Biel’s interest in tarot. Are they any good? Focusing primarily on Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot and Chardonnay, just 900 cases of the inaugural 2021 vintage were created. The potent Black Crown Cabernet…

Nearly 17,000 wines judged from 57 countries 30 Top Value Golds 109 in the overall Value category Medals awarded: 50 Best in Show 137 Platinum 733 Gold (Medals awarded in 2024: 50 Best in Show, 117 Platinum, 643 Gold) How the top medals were allocated, by country 248 judges from 35 countries 71 Masters of Wine 23 Master Sommeliers 50 Best in Show medals, accounting for only 0.3% of all wines tasted The top medal allocations, a global overview…

CHAMPAGNE Barons de Rothschild, Rare Collection Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut 2014 (12%) £156.50 (ib)-£221 Cru, Goedhuis Waddesdon, Millésima$299 Empire State of Wine The strength of the 2014 vintage for Chardonnay in Champagne (and notably on the Côte des Blancs) is gorgeously evident in our winning blanc de blancs. It wasn’t an easy summer (July was cold and wet) but great Champagne is made by a long, lingering and luminous growing season, with heat an almost optional extra. A fine spring and glorious September teased Chardonnay to the sort of delicate perfection that you can taste in this bottle. Even the mousse is delicate, the aromas evoking the wet stone, seashore and seaweed notes typical of extra brut rather than the sweet creaminess of luxurious brut blanc de blancs. The…

In a wine world of ever-rising prices, the thrill of finding a bottle of outstanding quality and deliciousness that is also priced below £15 is unmatched – that’s exactly what our Top Value Golds are here to celebrate. Now in its third year, the Top Value Gold selection continues to shine a light on the very best wines in the most accessible price band of the Decanter World Wine Awards. And these accolades aren’t handed out lightly. ‘Value Gold medals are more difficult to find than Gold medals in other price bands,’ says DWWA Co-Chair Andrew Jefford. ‘You need more confidence to get behind those wines. There’s always a real frisson of excitement when you find them!’ DWWA is committed to celebrating excellence in winemaking while reflecting real-world market conditions.…

Viticulture is heavily reliant on natural resources, while also being at the whim of the weather, and climate change is bringing increasing challenges to both wine-growers and winemakers. Their imperative is not only to adapt to these changes, but also to find ways of improving the sustainability of their operations and generally reducing their negative impact. But sustainability isn’t just about the environment. It’s also about preserving both social and economic resources for the future. The wines highlighted below, all of which scored 96 points or above, went through a rigorous selection process. Any claims of sustainability credentials made upon entry into the DWWA were evaluated and verified with the help of Positive Impact Concept, a company that analyses a winery’s sustainability status and offers solutions and advice on how…

Gold 95 Vilarnau, Organic Cava Reserva Brut, Penedès, Spain 2022 (11.5%) £13.50 G 96 Graham Beck, Pinot Noir Rose Brut, Western Cape, South Africa 2019 (12.21%) £22 95 Jackson Estate, Stich Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, NZ 2024 (13%) £15 95 Klet Brda, Krasno Pinot Bianco, Goriška Brda, Primorska, Slovenia 2024 (13%) £9.50 V 95 Rustenberg, Wild Ferment Sauvignon Blanc, Simonsberg-Stellenbosch, South Africa 2024 (13.5%) £15 96 Gérard Bertrand, Château Laville Bertrou, Minervois-La Livinière, Languedoc, France 2021 (15%) £30 95 Wynns, Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon, Coonawarra, South Australia 2022 (13.4%) £30 Silver 92 Heidsieck & Co Monopole, Gold Top Brut, Champagne, France 2018 (12.5%) £35 90 Boizel, Réserve Brut, Champagne, France NV (12%) £40 92 Boizel, Absolu Rosé Brut, Champagne, France NV (12%) £50 94 Marisco, The Craft Series Pride & Glory…

Huge wildfires threaten wine communities Wildfires have threatened communities in Europe and the USA this summer, and a major blaze in southern France’s Languedoc severely damaged vineyards in August. France’s largest wildfire since 1949 left one person dead, more than 20 injured and burned around 17,000 hectares of land in the Aude department. Some winemakers in the Corbières area were hit hard. ‘I have lost about nine hectares [out of a total of] 10 hectares of vines,’ said vigneron Sophie Guiraudon, of organic Clos de l’Anhel in Montlaur village. ‘All the landscape is black, without life,’ she told Decanter. Wine cooperative Cellier des Demoiselles, in St-Laurent de la Cabrerisse, created a funding page on the On Participe website after 80% of vines were affected, noting: ‘Some were more than 60…

People find solace after a bereavement in surprising places. For Amanda Gibson (age 63), it was amid the Müller-Thurgau and Bacchus vines of Warden Abbey Vineyard in Bedfordshire, where she has been volunteering for the past six years. ‘Without the vineyard I would have been completely lost,’ she says. ‘The other volunteers are so friendly: they wrap themselves around you if you’re struggling. You come to the vineyard, you concentrate on a repetitive task and you forget about your problems.’ Growing interest Gibson is just one of a fast-growing cohort of people wanting to volunteer at UK vineyards – doing so for myriad reasons. Demand has grown so quickly that many vineyards now have waiting lists of people wanting to volunteer. It’s not hard to see the appeal. Many of…

Of the many rum-producing countries around the globe, Cuba is among the most esteemed, known for its approachable, elegant spirits. Rum here dates back as early as the 1600s, but the real story arguably begins in 1862, when Spanish native Facundo Bacardí established a distillery in Santiago de Cuba. Meanwhile, the Arechabala family started a distillery in Cárdenas in 1878, leading to the creation of the Havana Club brand in the 1930s. Prohibition in the US at that time gave Cuban rum a boost thanks to thirsty visiting Americans – not to mention the potential for trade in smuggled rum until the law was repealed in 1933. By then, the US had a taste for it, but the Cuban Revolution and the embargo on trade from 1962 put an end…

While South America is still best known for its reds, this tasting proved just how exceptional the continent’s white wines have become. What made the tasting so exciting was its wide scope, highlighting the remarkable diversity of styles, varieties and terroirs shaping the continent’s white wine scene. Of the 17 Outstanding wines, seven were Chardonnay, reflecting growing refinement in the variety. As Flor Gomez noted, the best examples were ‘modern, without ever lapsing into excess’. Another standout category was Semillon and Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc blends, which scooped several top scores. ‘They were a real revelation,’ said Benjamin Gubbins, ‘with outstanding quality and character.’ White blends with Rhône and Criolla varieties (see Amanda’s Criolla article, p32) also shone, as did several Uruguayan Albariños, which Gomez described as ‘full of varietal precision and…

Burnt House, Brut, England 2021 £34 Burnt House A surprising new discovery from East Anglia. Although the grapes are from Suffolk, the wine is made by top UK sparkling producer Ridgeview in Sussex. With creamy autolytic aromas, crusty bread and buttery richness, this is a fantastic start for this young estate. NE Alc 12% Grans-Fassian, Apotheke Riesling GG, Mosel, Germany 2023 £47.90 The WineBarn From 60-year-old vines planted on warm, southwest-facing slopes. Petrol and lanolin notes open up to ripe peach. Solid freshness and zesty lime on the palate, with a pinch of peppery spice and an undertone of stone fruits. Zingy, with plenty of drive. SW Alc 12% Martin Texier, Vigne de la Carrière, Côtes du Rhône Brézème, France 2022 O £39 Newcomer Wines Beautifully aromatic, with a little…

As Decanter magazine marks its 50th anniversary, we reflect on the incredible milestones that have shaped our journey. Many of those pivotal moments have been marked by the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) over the past 22 years. Each year, we take time to review, ask ourselves what more we can improve, and celebrate the achievements of all involved. At this year’s competition, we were thrilled to welcome a record number of Master of Wine (71) and Master Sommelier (23) judges, including one who holds both qualifications, but what truly excited us was the growing diversity of international judges from across the wine industry (see ‘Meet the experts’, from page 12). It is the judges’ expertise, insights and passion that make DWWA the leading competition it is today. Sustainability has…

At the heart of the Decanter World Wine Awards is a commitment to championing regionality. As Co-Chair Andrew Jefford often says, judging at the DWWA is ‘a treasure hunt, not a game of whack-a-mole’. Wines are assessed first and foremost within categories defined by their regional origins, by judges with deep expertise in that region’s styles and typical characteristics. The first round of 2025 judging took place from Tuesday 6 to Saturday 10 May at the ExCeL London convention centre. All DWWA entries are grouped to be presented to regional judging panels and further organised into flights of just 10-12 wines, arranged by country, region, grape variety, style, vintage and retail price band (see below). This ensures that wines are judged in context of their region and style, giving each…