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Pascaline Lepeltier This year’s Decanter Rising Star combines academic diligence of the highest level with a deep sensitivity for nature. One of the world’s best sommeliers, Pascaline Lepeltier has brought a wealth of knowledge and love for wine to her guests over the past two decades. In 2022, she published Mille Vignes, her first wine book written as a sole …

More than 3.7 million people visited America’s premier wine region last year, according to a recent economic study, and those visitors are becoming younger and more diverse. That’s good news for Napa Valley wineries just four years after the pandemic shut down almost all visits and at a time when many worry that visiting Napa is becoming increasingly expensive and …

The Glenlivet Eternal Collection, First Edition: 55 Year Old. The Glenlivet 55 Year Old is the oldest whisky that the distillery has released since it was established in 1824. Just 100 bottles of this limited-edition single malt will be available for purchase, and each bottle has a recommended retail price of €50,000 (£41,710), said the distiller this week. It said …

A view of Rutherford. Napa Cabernet 2021: Full vintage report and top-scoring wines Rutherford The 2021 growing season turned out an ideal vintage for Napa Valley’s Rutherford producers and an especially good year for those who love the region’s calling card, ‘Rutherford dust’ spice aromas and grainy-dusty tannin profile. In this dry year, Rutherford growers fared among the best of …

Asda is known to put good value at the top of its list – but along with the low price tags, the supermarket also offers a range of wine styles from around the globe. Receiving an impressive array of medals at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA), below is a selection of some of the most notable performers from …

Kate Payne Brown. Ambar Estate: Dazzling Chardonnay Clive Pursehouse While the Pinot Noirs of Oregon have taken their rightful place alongside the world’s most revered wines, the Chardonnays are following close behind. At Ambar Estate in the Dundee Hills, the first regenerative organically certified vineyard in the Willamette Valley, winemaker Kate Payne Brown is making some of the region’s most …

Steve Jacobson was not about to throw away his shot to win Wine Spectator’s annual video contest for a third time in a row. While the 2024 competition was incredibly close, “I Just Want a Zinfandel” (a parody of the opening number to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s boundary-breaking Broadway musical Hamilton) won the viewers’ votes and cemented Jacobson’s “Hall of Famer” status …

Casa Real 2021, from Chilean winery Santa Rita, is set to be released via the prestigious La Place de Bordeaux marketplace from September 2024. Expectations are high: it looks to be a phenomenal year for Chile and for this legendary Cabernet Sauvignon from the Alto Jahuel area of Maipo. Perfect conditions With the ideal combination of cool nights and warm, …

Balkan winemaking at a glanceAlbania Albania is the Balkans’ rough but stunning diamond: a growing winemaking sector blending the modern with the charmingly rustic. Roughly 8,000ha of vineyards are planted here, producing almost 3 million litres of wine, 65% of it bottled. Most Albanian wine is consumed domestically; just 20% currently goes abroad. This is sure to rise, however, with …

Vineyards of Côte-Rôtie. No matter how carefully you study a region, sometimes it’s luck, spontaneity or serendipity that leads you to the most exciting discoveries. I was reminded of this during my last visit to Côte-Rôtie. Les Epicurieux in Ampuis is one of my favourite local places to eat and drink, it’s a wine bar, restaurant and shop all rolled …

Village of Neive in Langhe. Whether you eat at a white tablecloth restaurant or a humble trattoria or osteria, you will find numerous dazzling wine and food combinations in Barbaresco, typically at very reasonable prices. Offering among the finest dining experiences in all of Italy, the quality of the local ingredients is the equivalent of the zone’s most revered wines. …

When cooking with fruit, let simplicity be your guide. Honest cooking begins with fresh, flavourful ingredients. It’s easy to improve almost any dish by tasting the ingredients first. In the case of fruit, this means tasting for ripeness and flavour. In the opinion of a dear friend who’s a sommelier, the best way to learn about wine is to drink …

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. How Was Wine Blindsided by Recent Trends in Consumption and Demand? Pick a Reason.Jeff …

Even in a theoretical future dramatically reshaped by climate change, it seems unlikely for Napa to lose its pre-eminence as the home of California’s most beloved Cabernet Sauvignons. Though the spotlight seems destined to remain trained on the ever-more-rarefied Napa, outside the gilt-edged glare of that performance, an understudy diligently waits in the wings, working twice as hard for half …

Vineyards in France. France’s agriculture ministry has announced plans for a new scheme that would pay winemakers to uproot vines in the country. Global wine production outstripped demand by 10% in 2023, according to figures from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV). That has contributed to a significant wine surplus, which has pushed down prices and threatened the …

The sun-drying of grapes for the production of Monemvasia-Malvasia wines. It seems that everywhere you turn in the wine world, you’ll find a grape called Malvasia – according to the ultimate scientific grapevine database VIVC.de, there are as many as 290 of them. And many are delicious, so are definitely worth exploring. The name ‘Malvasia’ is widespread across the Mediterranean …

Chardonnay harvest is underway in the Willamette Valley. Living in the Pacific Northwest, I think of 2024 as a relatively steady, somewhat cool summer, with a few hot days but no notable anomalies. I recognise that the weather where I live in Seattle is a bit different than that they receive in the Willamette Valley, and vastly different than that …

The village of Laudun in the Rhône Valley. French officials have recognised Laudun as a communal appellation, and 2024 will be the first vintage for this new cru of the Rhône Valley. Classified at the lower level of Côtes du Rhône Villages with geographical designation since 1967, Laudun was promoted to cru level by the National Committee of the French …

Pickers went to work at the Margaux third growth Château d’Issan this week (19 September), harvesting the crop for a new white wine due to be released next year. However, rather than picking Sauvignon Blanc or Sémillon, the two staple white grapes found in and around Bordeaux, they were instead collecting bunches of Viognier, Marsanne, Roussanne and Rolle (Vermentino) – …

Hot air balloons over Napa’s Oak Knoll. Napa Valley Cabernet 2021: full vintage report and top-scoring wines The ‘OKD’ as Oak Knoll District is commonly referred to in Napa, is also considered by growers to be the Valley’s ‘Goldilocks’ AVA, located as it is in a sweet spot at the southern end of the Valley, typically marked by a long …