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Uncork the spirit of the season with a selection of world-class festive fizz, perfect for festive gatherings and gift-giving alike. Featuring 15 standout choices, each rated highly by Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) experts in 2024, this guide offers recommendations you can trust, ranging from the timeless elegance of Champagne to vibrant surprise expressions from lesser-known regions. DWWA Co-Chair and …

December 4th is International Cabernet Franc Day, honouring one of the wine world’s most important, yet often understated, red grape varieties. Although frequently found in the shadows of the more popular Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc has an equally big, if not bigger, role to play in the world of viticulture. In addition to parenting Cabernet Sauvignon (in conjunction with Sauvignon …

Inside the December 2024 issue of Decanter magazine: Features Interview: Alexis Leven-Mentzelopoulos The CEO of Bordeaux first growth Cha?teau Margaux talks to Georgie Hindle 25 top Syrah/Shiraz reds The southern hemisphere offers a wealth of interpretations of this grape, as Amanda Barnes explains Looking back, looking ahead Eight Decanter contributors reveal their most memorable wine experiences of 2024 and what …

For many of my readers, Cathy Corison needs no introduction (see Tasting Integrity: 25 Years of Corison Napa Cabernet). Quite to the contrary, for many of us, this legendary winemaker and her wines sit firmly in the pantheon of Napa’s greatest talents and greatest expressions of place. All of Cathy’s wines are excellent, but one of them stands apart from …

Until 11:45 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Dec. 3—Giving Tuesday—wine lovers have the chance to bid on rare bottles of Burgundy, Beaujolais, Napa Cabernet and more, all for a worthy cause. Proceeds from the auction, organized by Edouard Parinet of Château du Moulin-à-Vent in Beaujolais, will support Wine on Wheels, the nonprofit founded by New York City sommelier Yannick Benjamin. Co-founder of …

Asti is perfect for food pairing over the festive season As we race head first into the party season, a celebratory glass of fizz is never far from the mind. Consider taking a closer look at the sparkling wines of the Italian region of Asti this festive season: you’re bound to be surprised and enchanted by what it has to …

Nestled among Tuscany’s vineyards and forests, the tiny medieval village of Larniano lies just a short distance from San Gimignano and its UNESCO World Heritage Site. The patchwork of tall towers and hilltop villages harks back to when the Medici dynasty ruled these lands as part of the medieval Republic of Florence. Panizzi, the historic producer that calls Larniano home, …

Few pairings are more evocative of cold nights by the fire, with festive tunes playing in the background, than Port and cheese. Indeed, most Port sales happen in the lead up to Christmas – a real shame as Port surely deserves a place at the table all year round, not least as the refreshing, and utterly delicious, Port & Tonic …

Vineyards in Condrieu.Côte-Rôtie Producers were happy with both quality and quantity in Côte-Rôtie in 2023, and there’s no doubt it was the best performing appellation this year. Not a subscriber? Sign up today to read the Rhône Report and all Premium articles. Use the code RHONE2023 at checkout to get 20% off your first… Source : https://www.decanter.com.master.public.keystone-prod-eks-euw1.futureplc.engineering/premium/cote-rotie-condrieu-2023-report-and-top-scoring-wines-543860/

More than 1,600 wines are available at online supermarket Ocado. Online supermarket Ocado has finally joined the UK’s other high-street retailers in showcasing its seasonal wine highlights. Despite having more than 1,600 wines, a recent autumn/winter tasting focused on ‘a small snapshot’ of just 27: 11 reds, nine whites, four sparklings, two rosés and one fortified. Being free of shelf …

Hello and welcome to my weekly roundup of the wine stories that I find of interest on the web. I post them to my magazine on Flipboard, but for those of you who aren’t Flipboard-inclined, here’s everything I’ve strained out of the wine-related muck for the week. The 2024 Eye-Roller’s Guide to the Wine Enthusiast Holiday CatalogEverything you don’t need for …

Reims Cathedral Driving through the countryside of Champagne, I try to put a name to the exact shade of rapeseed yellow that intersperses the lush green of the vines. Sadly my wine-shade lexicon proves unhelpful in this situation and I have to settle on the rather underwhelming: vivid. Vivid, as it turns out, is a rather good description of the …

Hommage au Baron Philippe – the label for Château Mouton Rothschild 2022, illustrated by Gérard Garouste. The label pays tribute to the 100th anniversary of Baron Philippe de Rothschild’s arrival at the family-owned Bordeaux winery in 1922. In his 1981 autobiography, Vivre la Vigne, Baron Philippe wondered whether anyone would celebrate his centenary. That question has now been answered, as …

Almudena Alberca MW is a judge at the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA). DWWA Judge, Almudena Alberca MWAlmudena Alberca MW Almudena Alberca MW is the first woman in Spain to achieve the title of Master of Wine. After graduating in agriculture engineering, she continued her studies gaining a degree in oenology and a master in viticulture. Her first harvest was …

Gate at the premises of Barton & Guestier French wine distributors It wasn’t an easy time to be a négociant, in eighteenth-century France. Years of overproduction had brought the wine market to its knees – it’s said the French Government ordered producers to rip up their vines, in a desperate effort to protect plummeting prices. Yet Irish-born Barton saw the …

Château Sainte Marguerite’s palm-ringed farmhouse Brigitte and Jean-Pierre Fayard’s decision to buy Château Sainte Marguerite in 1977 was very much made with the heart. The palm-ringed farmhouse and its seven hectares of vines, although charming, needed some love and attention. The easy choice would have been to settle for making something simple and easy-drinking. But instead, the couple committed from …

New figures from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) suggest that global wine production will reach just 231 million hl this year. Giorgio Delgrosso, head of statistics at the OIV, said: ‘This would represent a 2% drop from the already historically low 2023, and a 13% decline compared to the last 10-year average. ‘To find a smaller vintage than …

Northern Rhône overall vintage rating: 3.5 / 5 Fresh, supple and drinkable reds at the southern pole; more concentration in the northern reaches, making for some very fine Côte-Rôtie. Vibrant, fresh whites, particularly good in Hermitage. Red wine of the vintage: Stéphane Ogier, Lancement, Côte-Rôtie 2023 White wine of the vintage: M Chapoutier, L’Ermite, Hermitage 2023 Not a subscriber? Sign …

Exploring Alentejo – It’s Évora Waiting for a flight with fellow wine writers, Évora, Portugal was patiently waiting. So many events had our names on them, more than we could have imagined. This trip was clearly well planned by Tiago Caravana, the director of the Vinhos do Alentejo. We were about to be really well […] The post Exploring Alentejo …

Querol grapes at Familia Torres, whose technical team found the variety in Penedès in 1998. As a result, Spain is home to a huge wealth of varieties ‘frozen’ in time, often in remote locations outside the perimeter of current designations of origin (DOs). Crop specialisation and consolidation caused a considerable reduction in genetic diversity, reflecting a global pattern in recent …