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Istrian olive oil producer and owner of Mate, Aleksandra Vekic Since the early 1990s, when Croatia and Slovenia gained independence, the region’s traditional craft of olive oil making has been rediscovered and revolutionised. The exceptional quality of Istrian olives and of the oil made here – artisanal, favouring quality over quantity – is now widely recognised, and in recent years …

Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of the better bottles that have crossed my doorstep recently. This week included a bunch of really excellent white wines, including quite notably, one of …

Chablis vineyards in autumn (2023). Miserable weather during the growing season means that many Chablis winemakers saw a relatively small 2024 harvest. Figures were still being finalised, but the overall Chablis 2024 harvest was likely to be less than half of the level seen in 2023, said Paul Espitalié, president of the Chablis Commission, which is part of the regional …

You could almost hear the vineyards gurgling with pleasure: this April drench came after three years of drought. A pair of trail runners emerged from a path through the bushes just beneath us, their 400m climb over, sodden, panting, beaming. ‘All that effort for nothing,’ lamented one of the wine- growers, shaking his head in wry amusement. ‘And we can’t …

For Wine Marketing Nerds ~ Enolytics Cathy Huyghe, of Enolytics, reveals her soul this week. She wrote, “It is a h*ll of a lot harder than it looks. To build it, for starters. To keep the data private and safe. To update the technology. To test new features so that they can be released securely. […] The post Best Press …

Etna DOC wine, Alto Adige wine, Pecorino Romano cheese European Union (EU) quality labels, including Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) for wines from Italy and Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) for food, offer consumers a guarantee of origin, quality and safety of the products they choose. The label is a clear indication that products are representative of their region and …

Winemaker Andrew Thomas sampling the latest vintage of Thomas Wines Semillon. The dry white Semillon of Hunter Valley is one of the wine world’s greatest secrets. It has a devoted following among those consumers who have discovered it and it’s revered by the winemakers of the Hunter Valley in New South Wales; yet it goes curiously uncelebrated in much of …

Beth Willard, Valentin Radosav and David Williams tasted 77 wines, with 2 Outstanding and 24 Highly Recommended. Aragón reds: Panel tasting scores 40 wines tasted Exceptional 0 Outstanding 2 Highly recommended 24 Recommended 47 Commended 4 Fair 0 Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit current-release, still red wines from DOs Calatayud, Campo de Borja, Cariñena and …

Ripened Riesling ready for harvest in Ontario. The 1970s marked the quality wine movement for Ontario and Canada at large. Riesling was there from the start, with the first vines planted in 1976. As Canada’s largest viticultural area, Ontario currently has 18,000 acres (7,300ha) under vine. Riesling makes up approximately 1,600 acres of this, neck and neck with Chardonnay. The …

Vines look out on the Hauraki Gulf from their home perched on a hill on Waiheke Island, a short ferry ride from Auckland, New Zealand. A popular site for weekenders and tourists alike, Waiheke possesses a unique and distinctive wine region of its own, and plays host to a number of high-quality wineries. INSTRUCTIONS:Download this image by right-clicking on the …

We’re wrapping up season 2 of Wine Spectator’s Straight Talk podcast by counting down the Top 10 Wines of 2024 with senior editor and host James Molesworth. But before James reveals this year’s 10 most exciting wines, including Wine Spectator’s 2024 Wine of the Year, we’re taking a look at the economic state of the wine industry with longtime industry …

Justin Smith and his son Colin, Saxum Vineyards. After a near-perfect 2021 vintage in Paso Robles, on the Central Coast, the 2022 harvest came in hot. It was a vintage defined by a relentless 10-day heat spike of 40°C or hotter from 31 August through 9 September, forcing vintners into a sprint to pick early, resulting in a compacted harvest …

The growers congregated outside Lidl supermarkets in Orange and Bagnols-sur-Cèze to vent their anger at wines allegedly being sold at a loss. They smashed several bottles of Côtes-du-Rhône wine, which retails for just €1.69 (£1.41) per bottle at Lidl, as the protests mounted. Jordan Charransol, president of the Young Farmers of Vaucluse, accused retailers of carrying out ‘a downgrading’ of …

Last month, France’s agriculture ministry unveiled a plan to pull up 30,000 hectares in a bid to tackle a significant supply-demand imbalance. The government offered to pay grape growers €4,000 for each hectare (ha) they uproot, and it earmarked €120m for the scheme. The window for applications has now closed, and the ministry revealed that 5,418 growers have agreed to …

Organic whiskies Whisky legend the late Dr Jim Swan once described organic barley as an expensive waste of time. That was almost a decade ago and he was talking mainly about distillery economics. But did he have a point? We know organic farming increases biodiversity and improves soil health. ‘If you’ve ever visited an organic farm and a non-organic farm, you …

Finding suitable gifts for a serious wine lover can be tricky. If they’re serious enough, they’ve already got most of what they want or need when it comes to wine. That’s why I put together a gift guide each year filled with things that are excellent gifts for the wine lover who already has everything. There are always two things …

Sometimes even the world’s best-known chefs need to return to their roots, and that includes Emeril Lagasse. The chef’s latest endeavor, 34 Restaurant & Bar, opened in New Orleans’ Warehouse District last month near his Grand Award–winning flagship Emeril’s, the restaurant that solidified Lagasse’s place as an icon of Creole cooking. But this new restaurant represents a significant shift: Lagasse …

At Future Publishing we rely on advertising to keep bringing you the content you love to read. The majority of the content on Decanter.com is created solely by our editorial team, but on occasion we also work with external partners to create content we hope our readers will find interesting and useful.  In some cases, advertisers support us in producing content. …

It’s hard to keep up with the increased pace of change at Lidl: this year, the supermarket has moved from wine range refreshes every two months to every month. Each refresh has a different theme, ensuring new and interesting wines are always available in store. But it also means that you need to act quickly as they don’t hang around …

Vineyards in Oeiras, used for the production of Carcavelos, standing proud against the urban sprawl The undulating 20-mile stretch between Lisbon and Cascais – known as Estoril Coast (after the coastal town of the same name) and dubbed ‘the Portuguese Riviera’ – is fêted for having 18 sandy beaches and one of Europe’s highest concentration of world-class surf. However, during …