Ines Salpico
Partners in life and business, Nuno Morais Vaz and Daniela Matias are the talented duo behind Portuguese project Geographic Wines. I’ve known Morais Vaz since before the project’s inception, and it has been a pleasure to see his partnership with Matias flourish and come into focus; her clear-headedness and low-intervention approach are a clear complement to his winemaking abilities, passion for terroir and bonhomie. Together, they’ve built an intriguing portfolio of expressive wines, of great purity and typicity, in Bairrada, Vinho Verde and the Douro, with the potential to become benchmark, contemporary examples of each of those regions.
It’s not easy to find standouts, such is the consistency of the collection, but some of my favourites among their latest releases are the elegant and nuanced Inóspito Touriga Nacional 2022, the crystalline Landcraft Alvarinho 2023 (£17.50 Stone Vine & Sun), the Burgundian Inóspito Rabigato 2022 (£21.50 Stone Vine & Sun) and the utterly delicious La Volée Rosé Brut Nature NV. Here’s hoping that more of their wines become consistently available beyond Portugal’s borders.
Abruzzo in the limelight
James Button
UK importer Armit recently arranged a small lunch at Noble Rot (yum!) with winemaker Cristiana Tiberio. I couldn’t help but get drawn in by her recollection of restoring two abandoned vineyards that her father Riccardo purchased in 2000. Together with him and her brother Antonio, they removed all the overgrowth and carefully pruned the old, ungrafted vines every winter until, in the fifth year, they finally bore fruit again. The vines turned out to be the rare Trebbiano Abruzzese variety, rather than the much more common Trebbiano Toscano – reportedly, only Valentini was making wine with Abruzzese at the time. ‘Trebbiano Abruzzese had disappeared over the years, because it’s a very delicate grape,’ Cristiana explained.
Tiberio’s vineyards are ideally placed near the medieval hilltop town of Cugnoli, where the vines benefit from the sea breeze in front and cool mountain air from behind, while the dense canopy of the traditional local double-pergola provides shade for the bunches. Today, run by the two siblings, Tiberio makes some of the region’s most exciting wines, including an old-vine Pecorino (2023, £21 Hic) and Fonte Canale (2021, £80-£85 Hic, Vinvm), made in small quantities from the fruit of the old mother vines of Abruzzese.
An unexpected discovery
Natalie Earl
It was -10°C and the frigid air bit at our rosy cheeks as my partner and I scurried along the snowy back streets of Brooklyn, searching for the warm glow of the Grimm Artisanal Ales brewery. New York in January is bitterly cold, and we were after a comforting stout or barrel-aged sour beer and a slice of pizza pie. Pint and slice acquired, we were delighted to discover that the brewery is also the home of Physica Wines, Grimm’s experimental sister winery. The team sources grapes from the North Fork of Long Island and vinifies them in the brewery.
The wines, like some of the beers, are spontaneously fermented, with no added sulphur, and bottled in cute 50cl crown-capped bottles. We tried the Shade Cabernet Franc 2022, which was surprisingly serious, with plump blackcurrants, racy acidity, low alcohol (10.2%) and, perhaps unsurprisingly given its role in barrel-aged beer, an inoffensive hint of brett. The Panacea Pinot Noir 2022 was red-fruited, high acid, wild and funky. Physica is an innovative project exploring a hyper-local, fun, wild side of wine. Needless to say, we left much warmer than we arrived, and no less rosy-cheeked.
Tasting with the Chenin King
Julie Sheppard
A recent visit to South Africa included an opportunity to taste with Chenin Blanc specialist Ken Forrester at the Stellenbosch wine estate he purchased in 1993. At the time, people advised him to grub up the old Chenin vines planted on the estate;…
Source : https://www.decanter.com/wine-reviews-tastings/editors-picks-march-2025-551582/