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Highlights: two affordable orange wines from Bertrand and Cramele Recas
Tried these two orange wines side by side. It’s interesting to see this category of skin-fermented whites (often called orange or amber wines) entering the mainstream. Interestingly both are organic,...
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Arribas Wine Co: exciting low-intervention wines from Trás-os-Montes, Portugal
Website: https://arribaswine.com/ Ricardo Alves and Frederico Machado (pictured above) began the Arribas Wine Company in 2017. They are based in the village of Bemposto in the municipality of...
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Etna, Sicily: Tenuta Boccarossa
Website: http://www.tenutaboccarossa.it/ Michele Calabretta was working in the car industry, and it led him to Germany where he met his wife Claudia. But he has roots in Etna: the Calabretta Family...
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Etna, Sicily: Palmento Constanza
Website: https://www.palmentocostanzo.com/en/ I’m very excited by this producer, currently making some of the best wines on the island. Organic with some biodynamic practices, farming a sizeable 18...
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Restless River, one of South Africa’s most singular and interesting wine...
Treve Ring and I visited Restless River for the second time in October 2022, on a sunny but cool and blustery late afternoon. It’s a really interesting project, and now the vines are established and...
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Rhône discovery (1) Les Chancel, Ventoux
Website: https://www.leschancel.com/ Pierre Chancel was working for Sanofi, a drug company, in his previous life. At one point he was CEO of the UK and Ireland, and later headed up the global diabetes...
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Etna, Sicily: Torre Mora
One of the estates owned by Piccini, Torre Mora has 13 hectares of vines at altitudes between 600 and 700 m. It has been farmed organically since 2015, certified in 2018. Torre Morra Chiuse Sparkling...
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The debut releases from Walgate & Co, some of England’s most interesting...
Website: https://walgate.eco/ This was a chance to taste the debut release from Ben Walgate’s new venture, post leaving Tillingham. ‘In some years the wines suffered from me doing too much...
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New releases from Gilvesy, Balaton, Hungary
Website: https://en.gilvesy.hu/ Robert Gilvesy grew up on a farm on Lake Erie in Ontario, Canada. His parents were Hungarian, and he visited for the first time aged 15. The lure of his homeland was a...
View ArticleHighlights: Prophet’s Rock Home Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021 Central Otago, New...
Website: https://www.prophetsrock.co.nz/ Prophet’s Rock Home Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021 Central Otago, New Zealand13.5% alcohol. Since 2005, Paul Pujol has been making wines at Prophet’s Rock, in the...
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Alsace adventure (1) Domaine Weinbach
Website: Weinbach Weinbach is one of the great names in Alsace, and this was my second visit. This time it was with Eddy Leiber-Faller, who with his brother Théo run the domaine alongside their mother...
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Giacomo Baraldo, a new star from southern Tuscany
Website: https://www.giacomobaraldo.it/ Giacomo fell in love with wine and went and gained experience around the world, including stints at Greystone in New Zealand’s Waipara region, and de Montille...
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Chianti Classico deep dive (7) exciting newcomer Cigliano di Sopra
Cigliano di Sopra is really interesting project. It’s a partnership between Maddelena Fucile and Matteo Vaccari that began in 2016 (when she was 21 and he was 23), and the first wines were bottled in...
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Highlights: the white and rosé Nyetimber 1086 wines, icon-level English...
Nyetimber’s presige cuvées are named 1086, referencing the date of the Nyetimber manor’s inclusion in the Doomsday book. They are selections of the best wines, and are only made in certain vintages....
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Alsace adventure (2) the brilliant wines of Emile Beyer
Based in Eguisheim, Emile Beyer is a really exceptional producer, and I visited with Christian and Valerie Beyer. Eguisheim is a historic wine village in Alsace that was making wines in the second...
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Chianti Classico deep dive (8) Castello di Volpaia
Castello di Volpaia Website: https://volpaia.com/en/#volpaia It was a chilly October evening as we trudged around a beautifully preserved small hilltop village. Most of the village is the property of...
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Rhone discovery (2) Domaine Aymard, Ventoux
Website: http://domaineaymard.fr/ When it began bottling its own wine in 1979, Domaine Aymard was one of the first private cellars in Ventoux, which had previously been exclusively about negociants...
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Rhône discovery (3) Domaine Souleyrol, Ventoux
Website: https://domaine-souleyrol.com/ Souleyrol is a beautiful property in Ventoux. It’s a mixed farm with cherries, olives, apricots, table grapes and truffle trees as well as wine grapes. Renaud...
View ArticleHighlights: Exton Park Blanc de Noirs 2014 England
Website: https://extonparkvineyard.com/ Exton Park Blanc de Noirs 2014 Hampshire, England11.5% alcohol. Pinot Noir, 7 years on lees, disgorged in 2022. This is tart and bright with keen lemony acidity...
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Rhône discovery (4) Château Pesquié, one of the leading lights in Ventoux
Website: https://chateaupesquie.com/en/welcome/ The Chaudière family farm 100 hectares of vines in Ventoux. They are based in the village of Mormoiron in the heart of Ventoux. The current generation,...
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