Elisabetta (r) with daughter Clara (l) and Ettore (c). Le Pupille has been a leading name in the Maremma area of southern Tuscany since the mid-1980s, when Elisabetta Geppetti and her then-husband took over her family’s estate. The consultant enologist at the time was Giacomo Tachis (recipient of Decanter’s Hall of Fame award in 2011), a family friend. Architect of …
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Vinography Images: Jaunty Vines
Notions of terroir keep us thinking about a vine’s relationship to the earth, and we imagine its roots questing into the soil and stone below. But a vine’s most important relationship is with the sky, its source of sustenance. As I walked through this beautiful vineyard in the Hawke’s Bay region of New Zealand’s North Island, I was struck not …
Read More »Decanter luxe list: Summer 2024
It hasn’t always felt especially summery so far this year, but don’t let the cool, grey skies dampen your holiday mood. This summer is certainly going to be an eventful one in Paris – and France as a whole – with the Olympics, so get ready for a slew of gastronomic happenings around town. Summer is truly the season of …
Read More »The best whisky bars in Edinburgh: 15 to try
Johnnie Walker Princes Street While Speyside or Islay will quite rightly lay claim to being the beating heart of Scotland’s whisky industry, Edinburgh could make a great case for being its soul. Its harbour at Leith once imported the Sherry casks that are so essential to many Scotch whisky labels, and then exported bottle after bottle of Scotland’s national drink …
Read More »Blenheim Palace unveils vineyard plan for English wine
An aerial view of Blenheim Palace and its surroundings. Blenheim Palace estate said it is seeking an established winery partner to plant a vineyard on 60.7 hectares (150 acres) of prime south-facing land, with a view to producing ‘world-class’, co-branded English wine. It’s a rare opportunity within the thriving UK vineyard scene, according to property consultancy Knight Frank, which has …
Read More »Rezdôra Team Opens Massara in Manhattan
Who’s behind it: Restaurateurs Stefano Secchi and David Switzer co-own Manhattan’s acclaimed Rezdôra, in the Flatiron District, which earned a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence in the 2024 Restaurant Awards. After more than a year of planning, they expanded by opening a new Italian restaurant, Massara, on Broadway, around the corner from Rezdôra’s location on East 20th Street. …
Read More »2024 Wind to Wine Festival: Petaluma, Saturday 8/10
Petaluma is hot right now. And I’m not talking about this heat dome we’re under. The once-sleepy town best known for chickens, eggs, and homegrown star Winona Ryder has become a hip foodie extension of Sonoma Wine Country, with gourmet restaurants, charming boutiques, and ever-escalating real-estate prices. In truth, this gentrification has been going on for a while, but starting …
Read More »Bordeaux oenologist recommends Refošk grape for climate change
Left to right, Vinakoper head winemaker Boštjan Zidar; Vinakoper winemaker Rok Jamnik; wine label designer Pierre Martin; wine consultant Nicolas Vivas Bordeaux oenologist and wine consultant Nicolas Vivas has recommended adding the Refošk grape to a list of varieties allowed in the famous French region’s wines. His comments came three years since six ‘new’, non-Bordeaux grape varieties were approved for …
Read More »DWWA judge profile: Catherine Yen
Catherine Yen, a wine educator based in Hong Kong, is a judge at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2024. Catherine YenCatherine Yen Catherine Yen is a WSET Diploma holder and won the McNie Tasting Trophy in 2013. Also a WSET Wine Educator, Catherine is qualified to teach up to Level 3. Catherine is a qualified “Wine Expert” in Japan and …
Read More »Malu Lambert’s favourite South African white blends
A vineyard in the Cape. Credit: GettyImages/Vicki Jauron/Babylon and Beyond Photography Contrary to popular belief – and if the 20 wines selected here are anything to go by – you can taste terroir through the lens of a blend. In South Africa’s case, white cuvées are the most transparent, with imaginative winemakers building a picture of place from a range …
Read More »The Flavor of Family: Tasting the Wines of the Primum Familiae Vini
The Primum Familie Vini is an organization uniting 12 prestigious, multi-generational, family-owned European wine companies. Each one makes one (or more) of the world’s greatest wines. But what exactly is the purpose of this exclusive collection of some of the world’s top wine companies? In many ways, they’re still trying to figure that out. The members of the PFV are: …
Read More »Wine Spectator Refuses to Compromise Blind-Tasting Standard for Bordeaux First-Growths
Reviews of recent releases from the first-growth châteaus of Bordeaux—Lafite Rothschild, Margaux, Haut-Brion, Latour and Mouton-Rothschild—have been conspicuously absent from the pages of Wine Spectator. In a free-ranging discussion between legendary Bordeaux and Napa winemaker Christian Moueix and Wine Spectator editor and publisher Marvin R. Shanken, the reasons are laid clear. During a recent lengthy interview by Shanken for the …
Read More »Dinosaur extinction set scene for grapes, suggests study
Fresh analysis has offered new evidence of plants from the grape family becoming more prominent after the extinction of the dinosaurs, and researchers suggested this was possibly aided by vines growing relatively undisturbed in forests. It’s a hypothesis that followed the discovery of fossil grape seeds ranging from 19 million to 60 million years old in modern-day Colombia, Panama and …
Read More »Pasqua Wines – Trailblazing wines in dialogue with art
Pasqua winery cellars in Spain Steeped as the wine industry is in history and tradition, championing innovative winemaking takes a singular vision. As it nears its centenary, Veneto’s esteemed Pasqua Vigneti e Cantine – renowned enough to be known simply as Pasqua Wines – is looking boldly to the future, embodying its identity as a ‘House of the Unconventional’ and …
Read More »Realm Cellars and Napa Valley’s last fairytale founding
Benoit Touquette (left) and Scott Becker of Realm. Credit: Realm. The days of valley-newcomer and family-founded winery projects like Warren Winiarski’s Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars or Jim Barrett’s Chateau Montelena and their self-made tales of slow growth into the storied brands of Napa seem about as anachronistic today as an eight-track cassette player. The door for such start-up wineries in …
Read More »Wine books: Pour yourself a good read for summer
Good wine books are few and far between. There are brilliant reference guides and a few classics that deserve to be read in full, but it’s rare to find a wine book that you want to dip into before bed, sink into an armchair with, or bask under on a sunny day. A handful of recent releases, however, break the …
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