A year on: How the wine world is coping with coronavirus

It’s been 18 months since the Covid-19 pandemic took its grip on the world and changed life as we know it. In April last year, we asked members from around the world to tell us what was happening in their country, and this month we’ve done the same.   EUROPE Italy Michèle Shah reports on how Italy and its wine industry is coping with Covid, which wreaked havoc on the Mediterranean count...
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Re-romancing Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc
Friend of the Circle, Richard Lane rekindles an old flame in the form of the elusive, enigmatic and less widespread Cab, and may not be that much the wiser, but is more than happy to go back. It was around 15 years ago when I first fell in love with Cabernet Franc. All I recall is the name Chinon, and the wine’s haunting aromas of violets, pencil shavings and succulent red and black fruit, beaut...
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Felicity Carter tackles Clean Wine in the Circle’s “Let’s Talk About” webinar

Meg Houston Maker reports on the implications of this new commercial ‘cleaner than thou’ vinous phenomenon, as sketched out by the wine journalist and editor, who sees it as possibly being hugely harmful and offers a wake-up call for the wine industry. Felicity Carter’s been writing about wine for 20 years. “In all of that time,” she says, “I haven’t seen anything as potentially damaging and dan...
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CWW virtual tasting: Let’s taste… JING Tea

Janet Wang on the CWW May virtual tea tasting and reflections on why wine writers should know more about tea! I love the diverse range of topics discussed in the various CWW forums, so when the latest ‘Let’s taste…’ series offered a chance to try fine teas from the specialist house of Jing, I was surprised and delighted. It was straight into the diary in permanent ink. When the tasting set arri...
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Mornington Peninsula not a million miles away from home

Moorooduc Estate
Liz Sagues reports on the first of the Circle's May 2021 Let's talk about... webinars, presented by Kate McIntyre, marketing and business development manager at Moorooduc Estate. Time and again, as Kate McIntyre described viticulture and winemaking on the Mornington Peninsula, I thought: I've heard this before, but from somewhere far across the world from Australia. The story of that cool, windy,...
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The fatal spring 2021 frost in France

From Burgundy to Southern France, vine growers are grappling with the catastrophe of precocious budding cut short by sub-zero temperatures from April 5-8, reports L.M. Archer. “C’est reparti (Here we go again),” posted Véronique Drouhin-Boss on Instagram April 5 Her image, of a hazy night sky punctuated by hundreds of smudge pots flickering amidst frozen vineyards, foretold the unfolding guerre d...
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Meet the Friend: Donald Ziraldo

Donald Ziraldo needs no introduction to most wine writers around the world as one of the most influential figures in Canadian wine. After starting his career with a vine nursery, he became involved in winemaking with the founding of Inniskillin in 1974, remaining there until 2006, and later moved on to create his own independent label Ziraldo, planting his own vineyard in 2007. As a Friend of the ...
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Perusing premium Nebbiolo

To access this post, you must purchase Friend of the Circle (inc one-off joining fee), Corporate Friend of the Circle (inc one-off joining fee), Friend of the Circle (renewals) or Corporate Friend of the Circle (renewals), or log in.
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Stepping out of the Laguedoc’s shadow: The Wines of Roussillon

The wines of Roussillon by Rosemary George MW
Rosemary George MW shares why she believes that Roussillon deserves to be recognised as its own distinct wine region, no longer only an appendage to Languedoc, and how she researched her latest book on the region, The Wines of Roussillon. Why write a book on the wines of Roussillon? For the simple reason that Roussillon stands alone, proud and independent. For so long it has suffered a union of...
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