There’s increasing interest in and demand for low- and no-alcohol beverages that might offer a good alternative to wine, beer and spirits in times of moderation. The category still causes confusion though, with consumers puzzled by the terms used and the processes involved in the production of alcohol-free products.

When it comes to alcohol-free wine the fundamental question is whether it is even wine at all. Ask Decanter answers below.

It all starts as wine

Alcohol-free wine starts its life as a regular wine.

Grapes are harvested, pressed, juice is separated from the skins (if applicable – note that red and orange wines are fermented on the skins), and fermented. During the fermentation process the sugar is transformed into alcohol, aroma and flavour compounds are integrated, and tannins and colour are extracted. The beautiful alchemy of all these elements combined is what we call wine.

An alcohol-free wine is produced through the removal of alcohol from a base wine which results, as described above, from the alcoholic fermentation of grape juice. It should not be confused with other alcohol-free beverages, notably fresh (i.e. unfermented) grape juice, whose production does not actually involve the production of wine at any point.

From a legal point of view ‘alcohol-free wine’ is not defined as a category or product in itself. Confused? You are not alone.

The term “wine” can only be used on products resulting from the alcoholic fermentation of grape juice, with an alcohol content of 8% abv or more (except for specific PDO, Protected Designation of Origin, where the minimum is below 8% abv).

Low and non-alcoholic products may be referred to as a “wine based drink”, used alongside one of the descriptors:

• Alcohol-free – can only be used to label a drink from which alcohol has been extracted and contains no more than 0.05% abv
• De-alcoholised – term used to label a drink from which alcohol has been extracted and contains no more than 0.5% abv
• Low-alcohol – the drink must be 1.2% abv or below and the label needs to indicate clearly the maximum abv.

Note that non-alcoholic cannot be used in conjunction with a name commonly associated with an alcoholic drink, in this case wine. (There is an exception, however, for non-alcoholic ‘wine’ derived from unfermented grape juice used solely for sacramental uses.)

Removing alcohol from the base wine

After the wine has been produced, following all the usual vinification steps – including, in some cases, ageing – alcohol needs to be removed.

There are three main processes through which this is commonly made:

• Vacuum distillation – High temperatures can severely damage flavour and aroma compounds. With vacuum distillation (distillation conducted within a vacuum chamber), the heat needed to remove the alcohol is considerably lower, therefore causing less damage to flavour and aroma. Still, most of the more delicate aroma compounds do volatilise along with the evaporating alcohol. Most alcohol-free wines made through this process notably lack the more subtle, floral aromas.
• Reverse osmosis – This is in fact a combined process of filtration followed by distillation. First, the aroma compounds and phenolics are filtered effectively creating a wine concentrate. The alcohol is then distilled from the liquid. Finally, the water (i.e. the liquid from which alcohol was removed) is added back to the wine concentrate. This is a laborious process and it can take up to four passes for all the alcohol to be removed.
• Spinning cone – the basis of this technology is breaking the wine’s multiple components apart and then reassembling them without the alcohol. Again, quite a complex process that needs to be handled carefully and involves different, consecutive steps. Repeated evaporation and condensation cycles at low temperatures using inverted cones and centrifugal forces separate the constituent elements in iterative steps. They are then blended together again (without the alcohol) in a process very much akin to making a wine’s final blend, to retrieve the balance of sugar, acidity, weight, texture and flavour.

Diagram explaining Reverse Osmosis

For balance to be achieved, some elements are sometimes added after dealcoholisation, in an attempt to compensate for the loss of aroma, flavour and texture. Sugar (usually concentrated grape must), botanicals and tannins (either synthetic or from, for example, tea leaves) are among the most common.

But why is it so expensive?

Alcohol-free wine is not categorised as an alcoholic beverage and therefore not subject to alcohol duty.

On the other hand, the equipment and technology used to remove alcohol from wine are complex and expensive. The economy of scale is not there either, at least yet. While a winemaker might produce thousands of bottles of a given wine, only a small percentage will be used to produce an alcohol-free version, which will then be packaged and marketed separately.

The additional costs of the dealcoholisation process, logistics and dedicated marketing significantly surpass the alcohol duty. So you can easily expect to spend more, rather than less, for a low or no-alcohol wine.

Passing the taste test

One of the main issues raised by consumers has been that alcohol-free wine simply doesn’t pass the taste test.

This is not because it is, necessarily, a lesser quality product. But the fact is the processes through which alcohol is removed also extract aroma, flavour and textural components, thereby affecting the complexity and depth of our final, alcohol-free drink. Even distillation at a very low temperature will cause the subtler, most volatile aromas to be extracted along with alcohol. The initial filtration process in reverse osmosis, on the other hand, removes tannins and other bigger phenolic molecules which are key elements

This is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges for the production and market-placement of dealcoholised wine. Existent technology, albeit much more advanced than a few years ago, still doesn’t allow the production of a drink that is as complex and deep, but simply free of alcohol.

Moreover, alcohol plays a key role in how we experience all the other components in wine. As it evaporates in the glass it acts as a vehicle for aromas. It also adds body and texture, while giving structural support to other textural elements, such as phenolic compounds.

Producing a good alcohol-free ‘wine based drink’ is not an easy task and certainly comes at a cost for both producers and consumers.

You can read the complete legal guidelines on low-alcohol descriptors on the UK Government’s website. 

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Does investing in Rioja wine make sense? Yes, but it is still very much a name game.

While pre-1970s Riojas have had a solid fan base for decades among vintage wine lovers in Germany, Scandinavian countries, the UK and the US in particular, until very recently no wine investment fund in its right mind would have considered buying newly released Rioja wines.

But the times they are a-changing…

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While the sunny state of Arizona is most often associated with jagged red-rock formations, cacti and tumbleweeds, it has garnered quite a bit of attention of late for its wine. The state is home to three official AVAs. The first two, Sonoita and Willcox, are both near the Mexican border in the south. Meanwhile the Verde Valley, which received its formal designation in November 2021, is in central Arizona’s Yavapai County, about an hours’ drive southwest of Flagstaff, near Sedona.

For years the Verde Valley was a sleepy part of the state, often overlooked by travellers on their way from Phoenix to Sedona, but the growth in its wine industry has seen a significant uptick in tourism, ushering in a revival for communities such as Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Cornville and the historic mining town of Jerome.

The Verde Valley Wine Trail. Credit: vvwinetrail.com

The Verde Valley boasts high elevations averaging 1,200m and a diurnal temperature variation that can be more than 25°C in the middle of the summer growing season. The area receives good rainfall, with the summer rains fed in on tropical currents from Mexico. These dramatic monsoon rains are marked by lightning, thunderstorms, wind and torrential downpours – a significant challenge during harvest.

Relatively small compared to better-known growing regions in the US, the Verde Valley has about 40ha under vine. The free-draining soils are volcanic and sandy loam, with layers of calcium-rich caliche – a defining characteristic of the subsoil here, believed to bring particular minerality to the wines.

Verde Valley, Arizona: wineries to visit

Maynard James Keenan of Caduceus Cellars. Credit: Paul Markow

Caduceus Cellars

Showcasing premium fruit primarily from the Verde Valley, the wines of Caduceus Cellars offer an authentic taste of Arizona. Owned by Maynard James Keenan, one of the state’s leading industry champions and the lead singer for Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, the winery sources fruit from the eight vineyards that Keenan manages throughout the state (seven of which are in Verde Valley).

Single-varietal favourites include the Nagual del Agostina Monastrell (aka Mourvèdre) and the Nagual del Judith Tempranillo, as well as blends like the Nagual del Sensei, a combination of Sagrantino and Souzão. Keenan’s other winery, Merkin Vineyards, champions the wines of the Willcox AVA but also has a tasting room in the Verde Valley city of Cottonwood (see ‘Where to eat and drink’, below).

• Address: 158 Main St, Jerome, AZ 86331
• Open: Daily 11am-6pm
• Contact: (928) 639 9463

Chateau Tumbleweed

This whimsical brand is a partnership among four friends, each with previous experience from Page Springs Cellars, Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards. The concept initially launched as one of the projects at the Four Eight Wineworks incubator but in 2015 the brand had grown to warrant its own facility in Clarkdale.

Laidback and casual, Chateau Tumbleweed’s tasting room reflects its wine: fresh, creative and youthful. Rhône and Italian varieties take centre stage, with Grenache, Sangiovese, Vermentino and Picpoul among the standouts.

• Address: 1151 West State Route 89A, Clarkdale, AZ 86324
• Open: Daily 12pm-7pm
• Contact: (928) 634 0443 or info@chateautumbleweed.com

A great tasting room visit is assured at Page Springs Cellars.

Page Springs Cellars

Founded by one of Arizona wine’s trailblazers, Eric Glomski, Page Springs Cellars is one of Verde Valley’s top tasting room visits. Here you’ll find wines focusing on Rhône varieties, including Grenache, Mourvèdre, Counoise, Vermentino (Rolle) and Roussanne.

Glomski has taken a particular interest in different Syrah clones, cultivating plantings in both the Verde Valley and in the southeastern part of the state in the Chiricahua Mountains. Reservations recommended.

• Address: 1500 North Page Springs Rd, Cornville, AZ 86325
• Open: Sunday to Friday 11am-7pm, Saturday 11am-9pm
• Contact: (928) 639 3004

Southwest Wine Center

Part university course attached to the Yavapai College and part full-scale winery, the Southwest Wine Center is an essential player in Verde Valley. In 2010, the syllabus was launched to offer a formal wine education modelled after the University of California Davis viticulture and oenology programmes.

The building includes a state-of-the-art winery, cellar and a modern tasting room for guests to sample students’ efforts – many award winning. One-hour tastings are by advance reservation only, via the website.

• Address: 601 Black Hills Dve, Clarkdale, AZ 86324
• Open: Thursday to Sunday 12pm-6pm
• Contact: (928) 634 6566

DA Ranch
https://daranch.com
Established by the Petznick family in 2002, DA Ranch is a family-owned estate vineyard. Original plantings on the high-desert property include 2.8ha of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Tannat and Seyval Blanc. In 2014, the Petznicks partnered with Chateau Tumbleweed to help manage the vineyard and produce their 100% Verde Valley wines. With production of just 750 cases annually, the wines are worth experiencing at the property – particularly the earthy Tannat, savoury Syrah and floral Seyval Blanc.
Address: 1901 Dancing Apache Rd Cornville, AZ 86325
Open: Select days 11am-6pm, check website for details
Contact: (928) 301 0791 or info@daranch.com

Javelina Leap Vineyard & Winery
https://www.javelinaleapwinery.com
Founded in 1999 by Rod and Cynthia Snapp, today Javelina Leap is a key player in Verde Valley. Though winemaking was virtually non-existent in the region at the time, the Snapps were convinced they could make it work. Named for a small, native wild boar-like creature, Javelina Leap is a 4ha estate vineyard overlooking the Oak Creek greenbelt, planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Tempranillo, Sangiovese and Barbera. Try the Legacy Zinfandel and rustic, tobacco-scented Tempranillo.
Address: 1565 North Page Springs Rd, Cornville, AZ 86325
Open: Daily 11am-6pm (Tuesdays to 5pm)
Contact: (928) 649 2681 or javelinaleapwinery@gmail.com

Verde Valley, Arizona: where to eat and drink

Merkin Vineyards Osteria offers a true taste of Arizona.

Merkin Vineyards Osteria

Employing a traditional farm-to-table mentality, this Cottonwood eatery offers a true taste of the region, using locally grown produce from Verde Valley orchards and farms along with house-made bread and pasta and sustainably sourced meats and fish. It also doubles as a wine tasting room for Merkin Vineyards. Try the creamy cavatelli pasta shells with ricotta, goat cheese and seasonal pesto. Weekend brunch is a must, especially the duck-egg quiche and seasonal veggies.

• Address: 1001 North Main St, Cottonwood, AZ 86326
• Open: Monday to Saturday 11am-9pm, Sunday 10am-9pm (brunch 10am-2pm)
• Contact: (928) 639 1001

Tavern Grille

Located in a former 1920s theatre, this casual, neighbourhood restaurant in Cottonwood serves up classic American fare with everything from Buffalo chicken wings and spinach-artichoke dip to hearty cheeseburgers, meatloaf and a generous serving of slow-roasted prime rib with mashed potatoes and gravy.

• Address: 914 North Main St, Cottonwood, AZ 86326
• Open: Daily 11am-9pm
• Contact: (928) 634 6669

The Asylum restaurant is part of the reputedly haunted Jerome Grand Hotel.

The Asylum

Fans of haunted experiences will want to book a room at the historic Jerome Grand Hotel. Only hotel guests are allowed a guided tour but dining at the restaurant can be just as fun. The limited yet flavourful menu includes creamy crab-artichoke dip, cheeseburgers and grilled ribeye steaks.

• Address: Jerome Grand Hotel, 200 Hill St, Jerome, AZ 86331
• Open: Wednesday to Sunday 11am-9pm
• Contact: (928) 639 3197

The Flat Iron

The Flat Iron in Jerome is the place for delicious single-origin coffee and satisfying brunch fare. For breakfast, try a Mr Egg Sandwich: fluffy scrambled eggs and cheese on a toasted bagel. Lunch sandwiches are big and range from roast beef and horseradish aioli to chickpea and roasted veg, or tuna salad on whole-grain bread.

• Address: 416 Main St, Jerome, AZ 86331
• Open: Thursday to Monday 8.30am-3.30pm
• Contact: (928) 634 2733

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Ideas for pairing wines with haggis on Burns Night:

• Syrah / Shiraz
• Shiraz-Grenache blends
• Viognier
• Beaujolais Cru (Gamay) 
• German Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir)
• Chilean País

There are a few different avenues to explore if you’re looking to pair wines with haggis, which sees its star quality celebrated at Burns Night supper with the traditional reading of Robert Burns’ poem, ‘Address to a Haggis‘.

Made well, and from a quality source, haggis offers a rich combination of meaty flavours with peppery and herby characters, as well as bit of spice. If you’re unsure, why not ask your local butcher for advice?

Vegetarian haggis also exists; haggis maker Macsween of Edinburgh celebrated Burns Night 2020 by shipping vegetarian haggis to the US – its first export to the country in 50 years.

Food safety officials in the US prohibited haggis imports in 1971, citing the traditional inclusion of sheep’s lung.

Scotch whisky and Burns Night go hand-in-hand, but Robert Burns did write about drinking a ‘pint o’ wine’ in his song ‘The Gowden Locks of Anna’.

A pint is perhaps pushing it, especially for a Tuesday evening, but there are plenty of styles to explore.

‘I’m always surprised at how peppery haggis is – not spicy, but peppery,’ said Tina Gellie, Decanter content editor, who offered her advice ahead of Burns Night 2018.

‘And of course it is also dense, rich and meaty. As most people do on Burns Night, I have always paired my haggis, neeps and tatties with whisk(e)y, but if I were to choose a wine, I’d probably go for a juicy, fruit-driven red, where the tannins wouldn’t compete too much,’ said Gellie, who is also regional editor for the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

‘Maybe a cru Beaujolais, a fashionable Chilean Pais or Carignan or Australian Shiraz-Grenache blend,’ she said.

Fruit-driven red wines with good acidity are likely to be a better bet than bottles with heavily pronounced tannins or oak, which could overpower the flavours of the dish.

Natalie Earl, Decanter associate editor, said she would enjoy vegetarian haggis with a German Spätburgunder.

‘Both have an earthy, savoury character, and the Spätburgunder is light enough not to make the whole combination too rich,’ she said.

If you’re looking for white wines to pair with haggis, refreshing acidity can still help to lift the dish but think about a trying a style with enough richness to stand up to the flavours. Options could include riper styles of Viognier, as well as Chardonnays with a touch of oak or creamy texture from malolactic fermentation.

If you’re planning to stick to spirits, here is our guide to Scotch whisky for Burns Night.

This article was updated in January 2022, and was first published in January 2018. 

Wines to drink with haggis: Recent reviews by our experts

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As the hottest vintage in Burgundy since the start of the century, it’s no surprise that the wines are showing a high concentration of fruit, with high levels of tannins in the reds and richness, density and ripeness in the whites, particularly in the Côte Chalonnaise.

This was the first year for Pouilly-Fuissé’s premier crus and Charles Curtis MW found it was a resounding success, producing ripe wines that ‘retained a lively acidity’, he said.

Burgundy 2020 en primeur: Full report plus top-scoring wines

See further analysis and top-scoring wines of the following areas:

Côte de Beaune | Côte de Nuits | Mâconnais | Côte Chalonnaise

Morey-St-Denis | Meursault | Gevrey-Chambertin | Chambolle-Musigny | Pommard and Volnay | Vosne-Romanée

Charles Curtis MW’s top 10 value white Burgundy 2020 wines

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Best value red Burgundy 2020 en primeur to buy

Burgundy 2020 en primeur: Full report plus top-scoring wines

The post Best value white Burgundy 2020 en primeur to buy appeared first on Decanter.

Charles Curtis MW tasted over 1,200 wines for his Burgundy 2020 en primeur report and despite it being yet another hot year, he discovered some sublime wines from producers that have managed to tame the concentration of fruit.

‘The results are delicious, but they hardly conform to many wine lovers’ idea of what Burgundy is’, he said, as aromas and flavours in the reds tended more towards black fruit than red.

Burgundy 2020 en primeur: Full report plus top-scoring wines

See further analysis and top-scoring wines of the following areas:

Côte de Beaune | Côte de Nuits | Mâconnais | Côte Chalonnaise

Morey-St-Denis | Meursault | Gevrey-Chambertin | Chambolle-Musigny | Pommard and Volnay | Vosne-Romanée

Cool nights, wind, early harvesting and sorting for sunburn has allowed producers to craft some excellent wines despite such dry conditions.

If money is no object, Charles Curtis MW recommends seeking out reds from Bonnes-Mares, Richebourg, Ruchottes-Chambertin or Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts.

However, Charles has also compiled a list of top value reds, featuring wines from appellations such as Santennay, Marsannay and Chorey-les-Beaune.

Charles Curtis MW’s top 10 value red Burgundy 2020 wines

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Best value white Burgundy 2020 en primeur to buy

Burgundy 2020 en primeur: Full report plus top-scoring wines

The post Best value red Burgundy 2020 en primeur to buy appeared first on Decanter.

The ColleMassari estate, owned by siblings Claudio Tipa and Maria Iris Bertarelli, lies just south of Montalcino in Tuscany’s bucolic Maremma region, the hilly coastal area that forms the new frontier for Tuscan wines.

ColleMassari has 1,200 hectares of land of which 10% are under vine. Existing vineyards were immediately converted to organic by Tipa after he purchased the estate and all new plantings have been organic from scratch. Bar 90 hectares planted with olive groves, all remaining land is wild habitat.

In 1999 the family purchased the 13th century castle and ancient hamlet of Montecucco, allowing the ColleMassari estate to extend its hospitality activities in a charming rural location.

Winemaking: Montecucco Sangiovese on stage

Trials showed ColleMassari’s main grape variety, the enigmatic Sangiovese, was best aged in large vats of French and Slovenian oak, rather than in smaller barriques. The bigger format, tighter-grained oak regime means Sangiovese wines retain greater typicity, freshness and longer drinking windows.

Head winemaker Luca Marrone says

“Montecucco provides Sangioveses with deeper colour than other regions. The wines have distinct spice and menthol notes too, which barrel ageing would have muted.”

The wines are fermented in a spacious, four-level eco-friendly cellar dug into a cool, rocky hillside. Its design and location allow for all work to be conducted by gravity, providing a cost-free, natural, and environmentally sensible alternative to pumping. The cedar wood roof paneling carries organic compounds that combat mould naturally.

Claudio Tipa with head winemaker, Luca Marrone

Organic viticulture

What is interesting about ColleMassari is that its range comprises smooth and even-textured wines, yet the micro-climates can be very varied. There are hot dry spots in higher altitudes, plus sunny, windier, self-draining vineyards and cooler, wetter, slower-ripening conditions on lower sites where water drains less easily.

‘To even things out we sow cover crops between the vine rows for biodiversity and as a tool to even discrepancies out,’ says Luca Marrone. ‘On higher self-draining sites, broad beans (Vicia faba) provide nutrients for the vines, protective shade for the soil, and organic matter for overall vine and vineyard health. Only every other row is cover cropped to avoid excess vigour or stress. Cover crops are not needed on mid-slope sites which can hold enough water for wild plants to thrive without human intervention. Sowing fescues on lower, more fertile sites provokes light vine stress by stealing moisture. The big win is more homogeneous ripening. You can then pick in a single pass rather than two passes, saving time and tractor diesel. And we get easier drinking wines with enhanced drinking windows. These little victories lead to bigger wins for all.’

Red wines: freshness with ageing power

Rigoleto Montecucco Rosso DOC, ColleMassari’s everyday red is made from Sangiovese for freshness, Ciliegiolo for its violet notes, especially vivid due to the sea air, and Montepulciano for staying power. This makes Rigoleto an everyday wine that is capable of ageing, too.

ColleMassari’s signature wine is its SuperTuscan, Rosso Riserva Montecucco DOC, made from 80% Sangiovese and 10% of both Ciliegiolo and Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine ages mainly in large barrels, plus French barriques for the Cabernet, for around 14 months. Bright in colour with well-judged oak, broad appeal and a wide drinking window.

ColleMassari’s flagship single-vineyard red is the Poggio Lombrone Montecucco DOCG Sangiovese Riserva, made from heritage strains or biotypes of Sangiovese. This means each individual vine is genetically similar to all the others, but all are nevertheless also naturally diverse showing slightly different behaviour.

These original Sangiovese grapes used for Poggio Lambrone, already part of the property when it was taken over by the Tipa family, have adapted well to gradual climate change, which is possibly part of the reason for the lack of any sense of stress in this Brunello-esque wine.

Poggio Lambrone’s complexity derives from traditional fermentation in open wood vats followed by at least 30 months ageing in oak barrels. This gives the wine a notable array of subtleties in terms of texture, colour, and of course, flavours and aromas.

Interestingly, all ColleMassari’s Sangiovese plantings derive from cuttings taken from Poggio Lombrone’s now fifty-five-year-old vineyards.

White wines: Vermentino kissed by the sea

ColleMassari overlooks the Tyrrhenian Sea whose buffeting winds bring out the best in the Vermentino grape.

The smooth and salty undertow in both of its white wines comes not from Poseidon but from a jigsaw of small, diverse and individually expressive plots, and the natural freshness which is imparted by having the vines at altitudes of 300 metres.

Montecucco DOC Vermentino Melacce is a deliciously engaging mid-weight dry white whose mix of yeasty savouriness and lively lemony-orange fruit makes it so mouth-watering that it is salivatingly hard to put down.

Montecucco DOC Vermentino Irisse is an off-beat one-of-a-kind bone dry Vermentino with the addition of 20% Grechetto di Todi grapes originating from neighbouring Umbria. Vermentino delivers its almost oily but layered yellow fruit richness whilst the Grechetto di Todi provides its customary fresh lemony acidity, creating mouth-watering inner tension.

Discover more about Castello ColleMassari here

Connect on: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter |  YouTube |

The post Castello ColleMassari: Flagship of Tuscany’s Montecucco DOC appeared first on Decanter.

Rioja can be a complex region to describe – particularly in relation to other fine wine territories. With many different climates and soils, as well as vineyards with every possible exposure, it does not follow clear geographical guidelines in the way that, say, Bordeaux does.

In addition, Rioja producers have traditionally blended several different grape varieties, which puts them far from monovarietal Burgundy.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 12 top Riojas from the 2001 and 12 from the 2010 vintage

What’s more, there’s no ‘typical’ Rioja producer, but instead a mix of large companies, family-owned wineries, cooperatives and small growers that moved into winemaking. All of them operate across almost every price segment, which is idiosyncratic.

Wine lovers can find Rioja at a wide spectrum of prices, from everyday bottles at £5 to exclusive jewels costing more than £200. And all of them share the name, Rioja – quite unusual when compared with other appellations.

The taste of two decades: 12 top Riojas from 2001 and 12 from 2010 

Wines are listed in score order starting with the 2010s

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Premium wine sales enjoyed a spike in the US last year, continuing a general trend towards higher-priced bottles, suggests data in the latest state of the industry report from Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) wine division.

It reported a sales growth rate of 21% in 2021, based on figures from premium wineries in its database. That’s the biggest rise since 2007, it said, adding that the average case price among this group was $271 in 2021, up from $241 in 2020 and $262 in 2019.

The increase was propelled by a reopening of restaurants and tasting rooms – closed due to Covid-19 – and ongoing strong online sales, SVB said in its report.

In a survey by the bank, nearly 30% of premium wineries described 2021 as their best year on record. SVB said it expected another good year for premium wine in 2022, albeit with slower growth.

Yet the wider wine market hasn’t been so rosy. In 2021, ‘total wine sold through wholesale declined through most of the year, despite tasting rooms, restaurants, hotels and travel resuming business’, SVB said.

Looking longer-term, it returned to a key theme of its reports in recent years by highlighting concerns that younger consumers are not showing the same preference for wine as older generations.

Baby boomers have driven significant growth for wine in the US in the past few decades, but more of this group are reaching retirement age and wine overall is losing market share to spirits, SVB said.

It also highlighted the challenges posed by climate change.

‘The wine industry overcame numerous hurdles to achieve a hard-earned, solid year of sales,’ said Rob McMillan, founder of Silicon Valley Bank’s wine division and author of the report.

‘That said, looking at the long-term trends, this year reveals issues with both consumer demand and the ongoing climate crisis that may impact business conditions for the industry in the years to come,’ he said.

‘The lesser interest in wine among younger consumers, coupled with the encroaching retirement and decreasing wine consumption of wine-loving baby boomers, poses a primary threat to the business.’

On climate, McMilland added: ‘More frequent drought, fires and hurricanes – triggered by climate change – will have a trickle-down affect across the industry, impacting everything from harvest to insurance.

‘The wine industry has to consider these issues seriously, as the negative consequences are increasingly evident.’

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‘Freedom an’ whisky gang thegither,
Tak aff your dram!’

Robert Burns is Scotland’s national bard, known the world over, centuries after his death, as a passionate ambassador of Scottish culture. And he loved writing about – and drinking – whisky.

Scotch is a golden thread running through Burns’ writing. It is mentioned in political poems – such as The Author’s Earnest Cry and Prayer, which is quoted above – as well as lighter celebrations of the joys of ‘John Barleycorn’ (his personification of whisky).

Burns died in 1796, but his name lives on thanks to Burns Night, the annual celebration held on 25 January, his birthday. What began as a low-key gathering of a few friends has mushroomed into a global extravaganza of bagpipes, haggis and – of course – whisky.

Choosing the ‘right’ dram for Burns Night depends on personal taste and purpose. If you’re looking for an accompaniment to haggis, neeps and tatties, you might want something powerful enough to stand up to all those rich flavours.

But Robert Burns was nothing if not a champion of free thinking – so the rules are definitely there to be broken. This selection of single malts and blends below will give you some inspiration.

Best Scotch whiskies for Burns Night

Ardbeg Wee Beastie 5 Year Old

Young Ardbeg bottlings are hardly unprecedented – there were several as the distillery was resurrected during the 2000s – but there’s a irresistible feral charm to this five-year-old Islay malt. All the meaty smoke and maritime grime that you’d expect, but at this age the bright charm of Ardbeg’s juicy fruits also shine through. Alcohol 47.4%

Balblair 18 Year Old

One of Scotland’s most photogenic distilleries produces one of its fruitiest spirits – a sumptuous style that needs time to find its poise. A judicious combination of ex-bourbon and ex-Sherry maturation adds richly spiced, raisined layers to luscious dessert apple, with just a suggestion of stronger, darker flavours in the background. Alc 46%

Compass Box Hedonism

An iconoclastic blended grain whisky that’s become a modern classic more than 20 years after its initial release. A velvet smoking jacket of a dram: silkily decadent and smooth, mingling coconut milk, white pepper and vanilla ice cream. There’s a nagging nutty edge that stops all that sweetness from becoming sickly. Alc 43%

Craigellachie 17 Year Old

A Speysider famed for its sulphurous stink, Craigellachie mellows with age, without entirely losing the funk. After 17 years, it’s practically polite, with ripe tropical fruits to the fore and vanilla-accented sweetness from the cask. But there’s a smidgeon of spiced meatiness and charry smoke lurking in the background. Alc 46%

Glenfarclas 105

Bottled at a take-no-prisoners 60% abv, this requires a drop of water – or a little bravery – but its richly spiced, toffeed delights are ample reward. Syrupy orchard fruits, whispers of savoury smoke, the plush scents of fine Sherry casks… The quintessential expression of a classic single malt. Alc 60%

James Eadie’s Trade Mark X Blended Scotch Whisky

A painstaking recreation of a family recipe from Victorian times, and a time capsule back to an era of full-flavoured blends of real character. Richness runs through this, but its genius lies in the juggling of the sweet and the savoury: honey roast ham, black cherry and a background aroma of freshly swept chimney. Alc 45.6%

Kilkerran 12 Year Old

Produced at Glengyle distillery, this is a well-spoken reinterpretation of classic Campbeltown – lightly smoky and oily, but never heavy. Sugar-dipped doughnuts, clear honey and bright citrus never entirely dominate the savoury elements. Increasingly hard to track down, but well worth the effort. Alc 46%

Mortlach 16 Year Old

Part of a reconfigured range launched in 2018, this is a richly Sherried take on Mortlach’s famously meaty, weighty character, which has earned it the moniker ‘The Beast of Dufftown’. Seamlessly spicy, with oodles of dried fruit and bitter dark chocolate. Put the water aside to get the full effect. Alc 43.4%

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The post Best Scotch whiskies for Burns Night: eight to try   appeared first on Decanter.

Choosing a single Rioja wine from the entire line-up of producers and vintages is an almost impossible task. In Spain, Rioja features on practically all wine lists – and the same is broadly true worldwide. The great variety of styles in the region adds diversity: red, rosé, white, sparkling and sweet. Everything is possible.

As a sommelier, I was always aware that it is important to seek a balance between the historic brands that put Rioja on the map and smaller emerging producers. Of course, it is desirable to have older vintages. Some, such as the 1964, are a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But quality keeps improving and more recent vintages such as 2010, 2004 and 2001 are extraordinary.

Personally, I couldn’t choose just one Rioja wine, so I have selected some of the world’s top sommeliers to help me with this dilemma. The results are like the region: diverse, eclectic and fascinating…

Jose Félix Paniego

[pictured above]
Paniego, known as ‘Chefe’, is the knowledgeable head sommelier at Hotel Echaurren, a haven of peace within La Rioja, located in the stunning Spanish village of Ezcaray.

‘My choice, López de Heredia, Viña Tondonia Blanco 1947 , is probably not very easy to find today, although the vintage was rated as very good. This white has become something special for me, not only because of the liveliness and tension it still retains after being uncorked, but also because it was the wine I recently drank with my father, Félix.

‘Both he and my mother were good friends with late owner Pedro López de Heredia and his family. My father is about to turn 95, so it was a pleasure to see him savour this excellent white and capture the aromas of a not-so-distant past – as well as the memories of a lifetime. The lucky thing for us Riojanos is that these wines continue to be made with care and affection, and excellent vintages continue to appear all over the region.’

María José Huertas

Head sommelier of two-star Michelin restaurant Paco Roncero in Madrid.

‘My choice would be CVNE, Viña Real Gran Reserva 1994 . The Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España (CVNE) was founded in Haro in 1879; today, the same family remains faithful to this winery, with the affection that five generations have given to it. In all, it is a very fine ambassador for this emblematic wine region of Spain. CVNE has produced great classics that have made history and renewed traditions, always with the same commitment to quality.

‘Wineries such as Imperial, Viña Real, Monopole and Contino have accompanied me since I set out, as well as being among the first I visited. I have been lucky enough to return on many occasions. There has always been real excitement when tasting some of the very old treasures in their cellars, and always a warm welcome.’

Pierre Eguiazabal

Eguiazabal runs wine cellar and wine bar-cum-restaurant Maison Eguiazabal. Founded in 1923, it’s based in Hendaye, in the southwestern corner of France, on the border with Spain.

‘I would choose Bodegas Sierra Cantabria, Señorío de San Vicente 2017, described by resident winemaker and viticulturist Marcos Eguren as follows: ‘It is a vineyard, Finca La Canoca; a variety, the “hairy” Tempranillo Peludo; and a winery, Señorío de San Vicente.’ It is a clear example of balance between complexity and elegance, fusing freshness and ageing notes. Pair it with a confit de canard de Landes with piquillo peppers from Lodosa. The tannins of the wine blend perfectly with the fat of the confit, and the fruitiness harmoniously accompanies the sweetness of the piquillo pepper, while the roasted and spicy tones of the dish match the toasted and balsamic notes of the San Vicente. A perfect symbiosis between products and cultures.’

João Pires MS

Director of wine at Melco Resorts & Entertainment in Macau, southern China.

‘I met Telmo Rodríguez here in Macau and he told me the story about Remelluri and long trips with his father to find its forgotten vineyards. Listening to him speak was inspiring and enchanting. Later, he invited me for dinner, and I was lucky to drink Bodega Lanzaga, Las Beatas 2011 (his first vintage) for the first time.

‘This wine is all about finesse and complexity, impressive delicacy and silky texture – it’s intense and profound, with an earthy undertone. I would match it with a simple but quite refined dish from our three-star Michelin restaurant Jade Dragon in the City of Dreams: stir-fried shredded Ibérico pork with bamboo shoot and hot pickled mustard root. The pork is succulent and fatty without being sticky, with a crispy skin that goes well with the lively acidity of Las Beatas. The wine cuts through the fat and explodes in the mouth, creating a wonderful salivary reflex. The earthy notes complement the crunchy bamboo shoots with a subtle flavour that’s woody and slightly nutty.

‘The spiciness is a challenge, but the wildness from an old terroir results in such intensity of flavour, while the field-blend grapes contribute to the wine’s huge complexity and immense length. The Tempranillo, with its vibrant fruity aromas, coupled with the Graciano’s high acidity and the high alcohol of Garnacha, help to “clean” the spice.’

Heidi Mäkinen MW

Already a sommelier, Mäkinen became a Master of Wine in 2019. She is portfolio manager and a partner of Finnish wine importer Viinitie and president of the Finnish Sommelier Association.

‘It feels almost impossible to choose one bottle above all others from a region that is so profoundly rooted in the history of wine, yet increasingly captivating and ever-changing. As a lover of all things classical, there are many valued red Riojas I could have chosen. However, I decided to wave the flag for one of the region’s white wines, showing what is possible when the right site is chosen to grow the indigenous Riojan varieties. Bodegas Nivarius, Edición Limitada 2016 is a blend of 60-year-old Viura and rare Maturana Blanca grown in high-altitude vineyards, which bring ageworthy concentration and freshness. Fermented and aged in large oak casks, this wine is exceptionally good value, beating many other richer-styled whites when it comes to gastronomic potential.’

Mohamed Benabdallah

Benabdallah is head sommelier and maître d’ of one-star Michelin restaurant Asador Etxebarri, in the small Basque village of Atxondo.

‘I’ve chosen a wine from Abel Mendoza because he represents the true meaning of the word vigneron. He and his wife Maite prove that with effort, sacrifice and a lot of work, you can make something great without losing the artisanal aspect. Abel has stayed true to his philosophy and style despite fashions and trends. My choice is Abel Mendoza, Grano a Grano Graciano-Garnacha, made from two grape varieties that, in my opinion, have never been given their proper place in La Rioja but are given full prominence here. It’s a perfect combination.’

Paz Levinson

Wine and beverage director of the Anne-Sophie Pic group (eight Michelin stars across five restaurants), Levinson was born in Argentina. When conditions permit, she is the DWWA Regional Chair for Argentina.

‘DSG, Phincalali 2010 takes me to Sweden, to an internship I did in 2016. That was when Rubén Sanz Ramiro (head sommelier at PM & Vänner in Småland) introduced me to this wine. Only 1,000 bottles of the 2010 were produced, so I’m privileged to have tasted it. A Tempranillo with Graciano and Viura, it’s a wine with aromas of herbs, garrigue, clove, mint and nutmeg, very balanced in the mouth and very fresh. A wine that made me rethink what I had learned about Rioja. Later, on a cold night in August 2017 in the Uco Valley, Chile, winemaker Matías Michelini gave me a special bottle to open, a Marqués de Murrieta, Castillo Ygay Reserva 1950. There was a silence in the room, a moment of reflection, of emotion. Across the years, that bottle spoke to us so lucidly, so expressively, so vividly.’

Mark Bright

Wine director and co-owner of two-star Michelin restaurant Saison in San Francisco.

‘I love Bodega Lanzaga, La Estrada by Telmo Rodríguez. I first sampled it at Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo, and it blew me away. It has acidity and aromatics, all in top form, and amazing balance. I am a Burgundy drinker, and this is in that same line of purity when it comes to fruit. The single-vineyard parcel philosophy is also very Burgundian, and I understand that. I’d love to drink this wine with a roast duck in its jus and some sort of red-fruit compote.’

Roberto Duran Herrera

Duran Herrera is currently assistant head sommelier at private members’ club 67 Pall Mall in London and soon to be head sommelier at 67 Pall Mall Singapore. He has worked in hospitality for 17 years and was named Sommelier of the Year Spain in 2015.

‘I really like the classic styles of Rioja, and I particularly enjoy the more modern Riojas, among them Remírez de Ganuza. Few managed well in the very cold vintage of 2007; Pujanza did, and so did Remírez de Ganuza. The Remírez de Ganuza, Gran Reserva 2007 is out of this world: linear, structured, black fruited, spicy and crunchy. I called José [Ramón Urtasun, whose family owns the winery] this morning to order big formats for Singapore when we open the Club there.’

Audrey Doré

Doré is head sommelier of three- star Michelin restaurant El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain.

‘Only the 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016 vintages from Bodegas Pujanza have had the required climatology for winemaker Carlos San Pedro to offer us the vibrant great white Bodegas Pujanza, Añadas Frías. It is a unique proposal among the region’s white wines: its youth reveals an electric straightness, aromatic complexity and weight in the mouth, while its freshness is closer to northern Europe – as opposed to the opulence of many whites from the area. But the revelation comes with a few years of bottle rest. I was able to retaste the first vintage recently and was amazed at the stature it had acquired after 14 years.’

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The post My favourite Riojas: sommelier picks appeared first on Decanter.

Among Italy’s most successful and sought after wines, Amarone has elevated its home, Valpolicella, to one of the country’s most important wine regions.

Amarone’s triumphant rise began almost 60 years ago when a barrel of sweet Recioto was left to ferment until it became sour (amaro in Italian). The pleasant intensity of the wine exceeded expectations, prompting the exclamation: ‘this is not an amaro, it is an amarone!’

This was not a product of a forgetful mistake, as the locals claim, but a purposeful experiment, conducted in the historic Bertani cellars.  Founded in 1857 by brothers Giovan Battista and Gaetano Bertani in the locality of Quinto di Valpantena, Bertani has long been a symbol of pioneering excellence.

Bertani was one of the first to introduce monovarietal vineyards, to employ new vine-training systems and, above all, to bottle its own wine (rather than selling grapes or selling it bulk) in a quest for precision and quality.

The unique vineyards of Tenuta Novare 

At the end of the Second World War, Bertani purchased Tenuta Novare in Arbizzano di Negrar: 200 hectares in the heart of the Valpolicella Classica. The estate’s hillside vineyards rest on red and white limestone soils, and also on basalt, a unique feature of just a few sites in Valpolicella Classica.

One of the special cru vineyards featuring this unique volcanic soil is La Colombara, where most of the grapes for Bartani’s Amarone della Valpolicella Classico hail from. The basaltic terroir gives lightness, minerality, pale hues and a certain smokey character to the wine. By contrast, grapes picked from plots on white limestone give notes of white pepper and cherries, combined with a distinctive salinity.

Corvina is the key grape in Bertani’s Amarone della Valpolicella Classico, with Rondinella never accounting for more than 10%. The company has now started a project to improve its own clone of Corvina,  Corvina Novare, starting with a massal selection of existing vines to maintain biodiversity intact.

Making Amarone – Bertani style

Only the best bunches (around 30%) from the top vineyards are selected for the production of Bertani’s Amarone. Once harvested, the grapes remain in plastic cases for a week, to dry thoroughly before being laid out on straw mats. During this period there’s also a second selection, for maximum quality, and any damaged grapes are removed.

Laying the grapes on the straw mats is still called a “messa a riposo”, or “laying out to rest”, the old, original name for the process, symbolic of its reliance on time, patience and silence. No artificial ventilation or machinery are used to regulate humidity. Today, as in the first Amarone vintage in 1958, the process is entirely natural. Which means that climatic conditions from September to December, when the grapes are resting, are crucial to impart a specific vintage character to Bertani’s Amarone.

Another distinctive feature of the house’s Amarone della Valpolicella Classico is the long ageing process: almost eight years in old Slavonian casks, on the lees, with no racking. Not many wines in the world undergo this extensive ageing.

The whole process produces wines that have a sophisticated balance between primary (red cherry), secondary (peppery), and tertiary (tobacco and chocolate) aromas, plus a nervy acidity with soft tannins and very long, savoury finish.

Discover more about Bertani here

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The Barton family announced yesterday (19 January), ‘We have the immense sadness to inform you that our beloved Anthony Barton passed away at the age of 91 years old.’

Known as the ‘gentleman’ of Bordeaux wine and admired for his sense of humour and charisma, Anthony Barton was also widely respected for modernising family estates Léoville Barton and Langoa Barton – the respective 1855 second and third growth châteaux in the St-Julien appellation.

Barton was credited, too, with maintaining a relatively modest pricing strategy during a major period of growth for Bordeaux wine in the world.

After Barton won Decanter’s ‘Man of the Year’ award in 2007, Jonny Goedhuis, then MD of UK merchant Goedhuis & Co, said, ‘Anthony has not only made great wines…but has priced them at a level that one can afford to drink.’

Barton told Decanter at the time, ‘We’re making a very good living as it is. How many new cars can anyone buy after each vintage?’

Goedhuis, now chairman of Goedhuis & Co, was among those across the wine world paying tribute to Barton this week. ‘It was with great sadness that I heard yesterday evening about the death of Anthony Barton,’ he said today (20 January). ‘What a wonderful inspiring man who I can certainly blame, in part, for my career in this great industry of ours.’

Goedhuis added, ‘He was one of the first people I met when I was dispatched to Bordeaux in the early 70s as a callow youth. So for nearly 50 years he has been a friend, advisor and, of course, supplier of the wonderful wines he crafted at Châteaux Langoa and Léoville Barton.’

Jancis Robinson OBE MW remembered Barton’s entertaining and insightful company in a tribute this week, and added, ‘He was one of relatively few Médoc château owners to live above the shop, in his case the cellars in which both Langoa and Léoville Barton are made.’

Barton’s route to becoming a legendary figure of Bordeaux wine was somewhat circuitous.

While the family has been active in the Bordeaux wine trade since the early 18^th century, and has owned Langoa Barton and Léoville Barton since the 1820s, Anthony Barton was born at the family residence in County Kildare, Ireland, in 1930.

He moved to Bordeaux in 1951, where the family’s estates belonged to his uncle, Ronald. Finances were tight and the family previously reported that Ronald told his nephew after the 1951 crop, ‘Another harvest like this and I will have to sell’.

Over the next years, Anthony Barton worked at family merchant business Barton & Guestier, and continued as export director after it was acquired by Seagram, before founding his own company, ‘Les Vins Fins Anthony Barton’, in 1967.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that he inherited the family wine estates from his uncle, and began playing a more active role in their development. He lived on-site with his wife, Eva, from 1986 onwards.

Fresh investment and critical praise for the wines followed. The late, great Steven Spurrier chose a Léoville Barton 1989 as one of his favourite Bordeaux wines of all time.

Yet Barton will also be remembered for his warm personality. ‘Anthony had so many qualities: hugely charming, interested in everything and everybody, an amazing host, all combined with being tremendously good fun,’ said Jonny Goedhuis this week.

‘That large dollop of Irish blood, of which he was immensely proud, made him a great raconteur and all of us who were lucky enough to know him will today be remembering some of his finest stories.

‘As I walked to the office this morning it made me think of our next visit to Bordeaux. Driving up and down, past the gates of Château Langoa Barton, I will feel extremely sad but I am also sure that I will smile, grateful that I knew Anthony and also hopefully recalling some of his more extraordinary anecdotes. I will also certainly stop to see Eva, Lilian, Mélanie and Damien.’

Anthony’s daughter, Lilian, worked with him for several decades, and her husband, Michel Sartorius, also joined the family business. Lilian has taken over the running of the family estates in recent years, and has been joined by her children, Mélanie and Damien.

In 2011, the family bought Château Mauvesin in Moulis-en-Médoc, renaming it Mauvesin Barton.

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The post Anthony Barton: tributes paid to Bordeaux wine great appeared first on Decanter.

Fifty years since their inception, the wines known widely as SuperTuscans represent some of the top expressions of Italian winemaking today.

Produced outside Tuscany’s most reputable denominations, sometimes using grapes not authorised within those DOC or DOCG regions, often – in a wider region well known for the typical large Italian botti – aged in small French barrels, and always having been sold at incredibly high prices, SuperTuscans have faced something of an uphill battle.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for six top SuperTuscan top six recent releases

Defying authority

The term SuperTuscan was first coined in the mid-1980s by the English journalist and Master of Wine Nicolas Belfrage and was then adopted by the English and American press.

‘Super’ – literally ‘above’ – referred to their superiority in both concentration and quality over other Tuscan wines at the time.

Taste of the top: Fiordelli’s SuperTuscan top six recent releases

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The Decanter World Wine Awards is pleased to announce Simon Field MW as the newest appointed Regional Chair for the UK at the 2022 competition.

Regional Chairs are vital to the rigorous Decanter World Wine Awards judging process. Experts in their field, Regional Chairs oversee their respective panels of judges, help settle any score discrepancies, and re-taste all Silver and Gold wines for consistency; before the Co-Chairs confirm Gold winners for final endorsement.

In our exclusive interview with Simon Field MW, find out how he got into wine, who his biggest inspirations are, his thoughts on wines from the UK, wine regions to discover in 2022 and more…

Tell us a little about yourself – how did you get into wine?

Along with many others I succumbed to the delights of Chartered Accountancy in the City immediately after university. It wasn’t really my thing, but I was determined to pass the exams, which I have to say I found a good deal more challenging than those for the MW; and with no wine to taste every morning either.

Anyway, pass them I did and then spent a few years working mainly in France (my degree was in French) musing over wine lists when I should have been studying balance sheets. Thence to Oddbins for a couple of years and then two decades at Berry Bros, buying wines from all around Europe with a focus once more… you have guessed it… on France.

What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned while working in the wine industry?

As a buyer, a sense of humility and the ability to listen. The maths bit was quite easy after my accountancy training; the forging and development of relationships less so, but infinitely rewarding. If you understand the vigneron, then you will understand his wine; hardly the most original of aphorisms, but it’s really as simple as that.

Who has been your biggest inspiration during your wine career?

Writing takes up a lot of my time now and, again, it is a skill which also requires humility and a capacity to listen. The two writers who I have really appreciated over the years have been Hugh Johnson, for his magisterial sweep and luminous wisdom, and Andrew Jefford, for the same reasons really, maybe with a little more poetic spice added to season his fare.

As the new Regional Chair for the UK, what do you find most exciting or interesting about wines from the UK?

It is becoming increasingly clear (this is Chair for the UK and not for England alone) that the domestic vison stretches beyond the chalky furrows of the South of England; Scotland less so maybe, but who knows! Wales certainly and also ‘inland’ sites from beyond the Home Counties. And, if it is axiomatic that UK sparkling wine has ‘arrived’, further excitement can surely be garnered from monitoring, with no lack of pride, the strides being made by the still wines of both colours.

There is great potential all around, but also a good number of producers who have got beyond this stage and who have now achieved international recognition. The juxtaposition of those who have arrived and those who are still en route can not fail to galvanise the broader industry and to accelerate progress even more. This, in turn, cannot fail to be exciting!

What advice do you have for new people just starting out in wine?

Look and listen, taste, then taste again; record, enquire, enjoy and then enjoy again.

Which wine-producing areas do you think should be given more attention in 2022?

Well, needless to say, the UK vineyards, most especially those outside the established homestead of  Sussex, Hampshire and Kent; but further afield, the lesser known vineyards of Spain, especially those in Galicia and Catalonia. What about greater Austria in both colours and some of the apparently unfashionable enclaves in the Languedoc, Fitou and Faugères for example?

Which wines are you drinking at home at the moment?

UK wines make more frequent appearances on the rostrum; reds and still whites as well as the magnificent sparklers. Lighter reds too; Spätburgunder from Baden for example, or Cabernet Franc from Bourgeuil. It is always a pleasure to unearth unfamiliar Grower Champagnes, and I am usually delighted to be re-introduced to the seemingly bottomless well of excellent less-well-known Italian whites…

Finally, you’ve been a judge at DWWA since 2005 – what are you looking forward to most about being the Regional Chair for the UK at this year’s competition?

Camaraderie is so much purer when unalloyed by the medium of the Zoom call, especially with the meeting of so many like minds; I love the discussion and the debate, that moment of tension when one presents a potential Gold to one of the Co-Chairs…. they swirl, they taste, their facial expressions run a vastly unpredictable gamut, which could just as easily signal appreciation as rejection…. then they adjudicate. Always a dramatic moment as a wine forges its way towards Platinum or Best in Show!

More about Simon Field MW

The post Meet the judges: Q&A with Simon Field MW appeared first on Decanter.

An old marketing slogan defined Rioja as ‘The Land of a Thousand Wines’. Such a claim may sound exaggerated, especially if you think of the big-brand, cheap and cheerful crianzas lined up on supermarket shelves, but it feels less ridiculous once you discover the region’s diversity, which goes well beyond its wines.

Rioja travel guide: Getting around

Spanning 150km west to east along the Ebro river, Rioja is best visited by car.

Driving offers you the chance to properly explore the vineyard-lined roads that traverse the region’s seven river valleys, meander through hilltop towns set against two mountain ranges and admire the award-winning architecture and ancient monasteries straddling the Camino de Santiago pilgrims’ trail.

If you’d prefer to relax and let others do all the work, local guides such as Riojatrek or Amelí can do the organising for you.

Direct your efforts, instead, towards indulging in the rich food scene, whether that be dining at a top-class restaurant or a lower-key experience sampling tapas and a glass of local vino in Logroño’s famous Calle Laurel or the busy Tastavin wine bar nearby on Calle San Juan.

As there are no great distances involved, it is easy to get to charming villages off the beaten track such as Labraza, in the far east of Rioja Alavesa.

Heading west, Sajazarra has a beautifully preserved castle and is among the prettiest villages in Spain. In 1899, the remains of its medieval walls were witness to the first outbreak of phylloxera in Rioja, in a local vineyard.

When to visit Rioja wine country

Whether you choose the buzz of the city or the peaceful atmosphere of pretty villages such as Samaniego or Briñas for your stay, spring and early summer are probably the best seasons for travelling to the region.

Alternatively, plan your trip to coincide with the grape harvest in September and October.

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Rioja wineries to visit and things to do

Credit: Maggie Nelson / Decanter

To enjoy a bird’s-eye view of the region, there’s nothing like driving up the A-2124 on a clear day, towards the summit of the Sierra de Cantabria mountains. Stop at the Balcón de la Rioja lookout for panoramic views of the vineyards and villages on both sides of the river.

If this view is key to understanding the geography of Rioja, then the medieval hilltop town of Laguardia offers a different outlook – a stunning panorama of vines and wineries set against the backdrop of the mountains.

Bodegas Ysios and its wavy metal roof provide the perfect Instagram-ready shot, especially if you manage to catch the clouds sliding over the crest of the Sierra Cantabria down the slope for that Foehn effect. Daily ‘winecar’ tours, vineyard walks, and tutored tastings can be booked online.

If you’d prefer to enjoy this view from a chaise longue, glass of wine in hand, the place to go is the stylish new wine bar outside the gates of Bodegas Javier San Pedro Ortega.

Javier, a fifth-generation grower, makes a diverse range of wines, from aromatic whites to serious single-vineyard reds. Daily visits to the winery can be booked online, or enjoy a ‘quick guided tasting’ (with tapas) in the bar.

Architecture and wine are deeply entwined in Rioja, from iconic modern buildings such as Frank Gehry’s Hotel Marqués de Riscal in Elciego to traditional wineries, including Conde de los Andes in Ollauri with its intricate maze of underground cellars housing dozens of historical vintages.

Few people know more about this than architect-turned-winemaker Javier Arizcuren. As well as restoring Conde de los Andes and building modern wineries such as Finca de los Arandinos, he makes a handful of quality wines from his family vineyards in Rioja Oriental.

Arizcuren may one day restore his ancestors’ cellar in Quel’s 18th-century bodega district but, for now, he works in a garage winery – the only one in the centre of Logroño that is open to visitors. Check the website for details.

Marqués de Riscal Hotel, designed by Frank Gehry.

Like those in Quel, most of Rioja’s historic caves are now used as private leisure spaces, but a few still operate as fully fledged wineries. A typical example is Bodegas Lecea, one of 300 underground cellars created in the 16th century in San Asensio.

The Lecea family makes genuinely traditional wine, including its carbonic maceration red Corazón de Lago. Anyone visiting at the end of the harvest is invited to join in the fun and tread the Tempranillo grapes with their feet in the old stone press.

Otherwise, bookable tours are available: a standard ‘English’ option (Monday to Friday only); a daily ‘premium tour’, which offers visitors the chance to help out in the vineyard (sustenance included); and a ‘gastronomic visit’ complete with a Rioja lunch.

Haro Station Wine Experience

For a touch of glamour, Haro’s famous Barrio de la Estación (railway station district) hosts the biennial Haro Station Wine Experience. No visit to Rioja is complete without going to the Barrio, with its seven centuries-old wineries, but if you plan your trip for June 2022, you will have the chance to visit six of the prestigious bodegas in the barrio:

• La Rioja Alta
• Muga
• CVNE
• Bilbaínas
• Roda
• Gómez Cruzado

You can taste their full range of wines paired with pintxos prepared by some of the region’s famous chefs. Tickets are available to buy from the Haro Station website.

Note that López de Heredia Viña Tondonia, the Barrio’s oldest neighbour, is no longer open to visitors, but you can still peek into its decanter-shaped store built by Zaha Hadid and buy its wines – apart from the cult releases.

The annual Rioja ‘wine battle’

Staged not far from Rioja’s golden mile, the Batalla del Vino or ‘Wine Battle’ is a raucous annual party which involves hundreds of people happily throwing wine at each other.

It normally takes place on 29 June, although Covid-19 put a stop to all that. However, given its popularity, the Battle is likely to return soon.

Rioja travel guide: My perfect day in wine country 

Nublo restaurant

Morning

After an invigorating sleep and breakfast at the tranquil Palacio Tondón in Briñas, complete with views of the Ebro river and the vines of Viña Tondonia, grab your walking shoes and hop in the car for a 10-minute drive to Remelluri.

The estate is not open for tours, but visitors are welcome to enjoy a self-guided walk through its organic vineyards, taking a peek at the 10th-century necropolis and ancient stone lagar (wine press), carved from a huge granite boulder among the vines.

A short drive southwest is Haro and its Barrio de la Estación (railway station district). You’ll be spoilt for choice, but regardless of whether you go to CVNE, with its ageing cellar designed by architect Gustave Eiffel, or to Gómez Cruzado (gomezcruzado.com), the smallest of the seven wineries, fun is guaranteed.

Lunch & afternoon

If you want to combine a winery tour with a tasting and a bite to eat, Bodegas Roda in Barrio de la Estación offers just that with its lovely balcony overlooking the river.

Alternatively, you can drive for 30 minutes to Laguardia with a stopover at the San Vicente lookout in Elciego to take in the views of the Marqués de Riscal Hotel and its multicoloured roof standing in contrast to the surrounding landscape.

Once in Laguardia, head to Amelibia outside the city walls, for a delicious meal prepared with seasonal ingredients and a wine list featuring small Rioja producers.

Wandering through the streets of Laguardia is a joyful experience, particularly outside the peak holiday season. Another nearby hilltop town, San Vicente de la Sonsierra is also dotted with imposing buildings such as the Bodega Teodoro Ruiz Monge, which is run by an artisanal grower who will happily show you around the family’s centenarian cellars and vineyards.

Evening

For dinner, drive back to Haro, but this time head to the old town. In one of its many squares, you will find Nublo, a restaurant set in a 16th-century palace where all the food is cooked over open flames.

Rioja travel guide: Top restaurants and where to stay 

Accommodation

Old meets new at the Hospedería de los Parajes

Hospedería de los Parajes

Located in Laguardia, this hotel has spacious rooms, a bar in a 15th-century cellar and two restaurants offering generous, traditional dishes.

Hotel Calle Mayor Logroño

Set in the town’s historic centre, this small hotel is handy if you want to enjoy the tapas and wine bars a few blocks away without having to drive. Helpful staff and excellent breakfast.

Palacio de Samaniego

Luxury rooms in a 17th-century palace owned by the Rothschild family. Expect an outdoor lap pool, creative dishes in the restaurant and the chance to visit the Macán estate, co-owned by Vega Sicilia.

Restaurants

Héctor Oribe

Family-owned, this restaurant offers one of the best lunchtime menus in Rioja Alavesa, hence its popularity among wine producers. Oribe’s traditional food is matched by a cellar containing more than 100 wines.

Ikaro

Run by a young Spanish-Ecuadorian couple, this ‘fine dining’ one-star Michelin, but moderately priced, restaurant offers a creative vision of local gastronomy combined with some fusion dishes.

Venta Moncalvillo

A one-star Michelin restaurant owned by brothers Ignacio and Carlos Echapresto. Many of the ingredients are sourced from their vegetable garden, visible from the dining room. The wine cellar boasts more than 1,300 cuvées, with a focus on Rioja.

Places to visit

Erroiz

Few people are aware that Rioja also produces some excellent olive oil. At this mill in Lanciego, you can see old groves and sample extra-virgin oils.

Vivanco Museum of Wine Culture

Next to the Vivanco winery in Briones, this museum houses a grapevine garden with more than 220 varieties, a vast wine-themed art collection with works by the likes of Picasso and Warhol, and one of the world’s finest collections of corkscrews.

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“Share the past to determine the future.” These words from Etile Carpenè, the fourth generation of the longest-lived Italian Sparkling Wine Dynasty, sum up the quintessence of a strategic decision that has brought the company back to prominence through a restyling of this historic brand, strongly inspired by its philosophy at the time of foundation more than 150 years ago.

The new restyling is designed to reflect Carpenè-Malvolti’s founding values and to testify, today more than ever, to the strength of its bond with its past. The message is that the road travelled is an essential basis for projecting the Company’s activities
into the future.

The restyling project itself is the result of research and reinterpretation in the context of increasingly dynamic and demanding markets, and shows the brand taking on increasingly strategic connotations in their various distribution dynamics. The intention is to communicate excellence both in terms of reliability and recognisability, as well as to convey with a single, emblematic image, all the Company’s values.

In a single image with a strong visual impact, Carpenè-Malvolti aims to reflect 154 years of company history, using a lighter and more modern styling, after having undergone many profound changes over the years, but never compromising on the identity of the brand. The company’s history continues to be communicated in ways that are ever more innovative, and indeed bring the company into the cutting edge of modern Prosecco production and marketing.

Experimentation and repositioning are bringing the range of sparkling wines and distillates the company produces, and have made history, into the modern era. These include:

• 1924 Prosecco,  named after the first year that the word Prosecco appeared on a label, which encapsulates the characteristics of the original product;
• 1868 Prosecco,  produced in a series of territorially specific cuvées to celebrate the region and its historic bond with the company.

New premium Prosecco wines: heroic viticulture on the slopes – 1868 Rive

Even in times like the present, the Company has never stopped planning new developments, especially in terms of production. In fact, Carpenè-Malvolti has recently enhanced its list of Prosecco Superiore wines with more selections using that special method of sparkling wine vinification first developed by the founder, Antonio Carpenè.

The most prestigious example of this is the 1868 Rive from San Pietro di Barbozza, a true DOCG Prosecco cru area, commemorating the year of the company’s foundation. This is a single-vineyard wine made with Glera grapes coming from steep slopes in the hills in San Pietro di Barbozza, part of the commune of Valdobbiadene. The Rive denomination of Prosecco Superiore gets its name from the steep slopes of the hills in this historic Prosecco area. They are almost vertical, so much so as to require “heroic viticulture”, managed entirely by hand.

Vineyard at San Pietro di Barbozza

This wine is totally consistent with the company’s philosophy, which always places the place of origin and the particular method of growing and harvesting the grapes at the centre of its strategy. Fresh, delicate, dry and harmonious, the 1868 Rive di San Pietro di Barbozza Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG has a pale straw-yellow appearance, a fine and persistent perlage, and an elegant and refined bouquet with delicate fruity, floral, balsamic and mineral notes. The grapes bring reflections of the territory into the wine,  as each Riva reflects the ancient morphological origins and history of the hamlet where it is produced.

With the pioneering and innovative entrepreneurial spirit that has distinguished Carpenè-Malvolti since 1868, the company has chosen 1868 Rive to look to the future by focusing on the special characteristics of a rural territory that is atypical in terms of management. It’s the home of hundreds of vignerons, who for generations have taken care of it while respecting the roots and the history of Prosecco Superiore. It’s also a landscape of surprising beauty, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2019.

Rosanna and Etilia Carpenè

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Bordeaux Index said its sales jumped by 47% in 2021 to reach $174m (£128m), a new record for the company.

Its results reinforce the sense of a strong 12 months for the global fine wine market, led by famous ‘blue chip’ labels in particular.

Yet the UK-based merchant also pointed to new customer sign-ups and the success of its LiveTrade trading platform as contributing to company-specific growth.

Its client base expanded by around 30% year-on-year, with trading by value on LiveTrade up by 55%.

Bordeaux Index founder and CEO Gary Boom said, ‘While activity in the wine market – just as in other luxury assets and collectibles such as art – has no doubt been high, we believe our outsized growth is a clear vindication of our strategy to improve market access and transparency alongside providing best-in-class product expertise.’

Growth mostly came from the US and Asia, but the merchant reported ‘pronounced gains’ in the UK, too.

Prestige Champagne has been a standout performer in terms of wine categories, with top Bordeaux – especially younger vintages of First Growths – and SuperTuscan wines also seeing strong demand.

Matthew O’Connell, CEO of LiveTrade who spoke to Decanter about general market trends before Christmas, also highlighted ongoing high prices for famous Burgundy wines – a feature of the wider market in 2021.

Boom said he was upbeat about the year ahead. ‘Looking ahead to 2022, there is certainly room for an optimistic outlook, with the global pool of wine collectors on a different scale to a decade ago, and also investors increasingly looking towards hard assets such as wine which deliver consistently strong performance, capital preservation and protection against inflation.’

The group said it had invested to expand its LiveTrade platform this year, to allow users ‘to trade the full spectrum of fine wines rather than the core set which LiveTrade has focused on to date’.

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Darrel Joseph joins as the new Joint Regional Chair with Caroline Gilby MW for North, Central and Eastern Europe at the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) 2022.

Darrel Joseph

Darrel Joseph is based in Vienna and began writing about the wines of Central and Eastern Europe in 1995, after his palate was captured by Hungary’s Tokaji and Austrian Grüner Veltliner and Riesling.

Since then, his specialization broadened to include Croatia, Serbia and all other Balkan wine countries, plus Russia and the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan).

Over the years, Joseph’s writing has appeared in Decanter, Wine Spectator, Meininger’s Wine Business International, Harpers Wine & Spirit, Wine-Searcher.com and more. He has also contributed to a number of books and guides, including Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book and Gault & Millau (Austria).

Besides his writing, Joseph judges in wine competitions in Europe and Asia, conducts masterclasses and seminars internationally, and lectures for the International Wine Business programme at IMC/University of Applied Sciences in Krems, Austria. He also translates a wide range of wine texts from German to English. As a professional voice-over speaker for more than three decades, he also narrates films about wineries and wine regions. He is currently working on a book about the wines of the Balkans.

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Ministers have said plans to link duty tax more closely to alcohol levels (abv) from February 2023 will create a simpler and fairer system, but UK wine trade leaders have called for a government rethink.

The issue is coming to a head as a government-led consultation period nears its 30 January deadline.

While plans to abolish the premium tax rate on sparkling wine have been widely welcomed, the new system would see duty increase on some still and fortified wines.

This could lead to price rises, according to the Wine & Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) and others.

‘We have consulted our membership and written a comprehensive response to the consultation, in which we make it very clear that the current proposals fail to take advantage of an opportunity to reform an outdated and unfair tax,’ said Miles Beale, WSTA’s CEO.

‘Far from being more economically rational, the proposals would embed and increase the illogical and unfair treatment of spirits and wine while taxing beer and cider even more lightly than now.’

Beale also said the plans were ‘unworkable’ for wine specifically, because factors like growing season conditions make it more difficult to control alcohol and hit consistent abv levels, compared to beer and spirits.

He said that he hoped the problems were ‘unintended consequences’ and that ministers will modify the reform plans.

Importer and distributor Liberty Wines said linking duty to abv would distort the market for premium wine at a time when more people are drinking ‘less but better’. It also said the plans ‘will limit the diversity of wine sold in the UK’.

Some premium wine styles naturally have a higher or lower abv, it said. ‘A 14.5% abv Barolo does not result from a decision to produce a higher-alcohol wine but instead reflects the grapes the wine is made from, [and] the climate those grapes were grown in.’

Liberty said it would be better to have flat rates of duty per volume for wine and fortified wine, regardless of abv. ‘The definitions of wine and fortified wine should continue to correspond with international standards (8.5%-15% abv and 15%-22% abv respectively),’ it said.

Currently, still wines between 5.6% and 15% abv have the same duty rate. Current reform plans would mean all products between 8.5% and 22% abv ‘taxed at a single flat rate per litre of pure alcohol’, according to the government.

It’s expected that a still wine at 11.5% abv would see little change, but many wines’ abv is higher than this. ‘We expect still wine duty to rise across our business by an average of 18p a bottle (+8%),’ said Liberty.

A still wine at 15% abv would see its duty tax increase by 68p, to £2.91, said the WSTA after the chancellor’s Budget speech last year.

Helen Whately MP, exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said in the government’s consultation document, ‘The system we are setting out today represents a pragmatic balance between the social, economic and fiscal considerations that affect alcohol duty.’

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