Highlights Archives - Page 4 of 26 - Circle of Wine Writers

Leonardslee Family Estates launch and Defined Wine tasting

Posted on July 30, 2024 by Liz Sagues

Liz Sagues tells the rags-to-riches tale of Penny Streeter, whose English venture has just released its first wines, and catches up with a contract winemaking company and some of its clients. The story is a PR dream: rags-to-riches South Africa-based woman entrepreneur buys crumbling English country house with totally neglected Grade I-listed gardens, plus nearby golf course with hotel, spends h...

Hybrid grapes take Taiwanese wine to the world

Posted on July 30, 2024July 31, 2024 by Leona De Pasquale

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From the Chair: Wine writing reimagined

Posted on July 30, 2024February 5, 2025 by Meg Maker

Circle Chair Meg Maker reflects on the changing world of wine writing in her inaugural column for The Circular. Wine and spirits writers are a creative lot. We’re cultural commentators, observers who tap into the shape-shifting zeitgeist, so we can frame the product in ways that connect. We imagine new words to meet the moment, modifying or inventing language to say what we mean. All languages...

The soaring story of Etna and Contrade dell’Etna

Posted on June 27, 2024 by Michèle Shah

Michèle Shah attends the 15th edition of the Contrade dell'Etna, which has developed exponentially since it started as a convivial gathering of local winemakers. In tandem, she describes the remarkable re-emergence of Etna’s elegantly energetic wines. In 2008, Andrea Franchetti, a visionary and eclectic wine pioneer — owner of the Passopisciaro estate on Etna and Tenuta di Trinoro in Tuscany — ig...

Cherishing a Cape classic and more

Posted on May 28, 2024May 31, 2024 by Colin Harkness

Colin Harkness calls in on Klien Constantia, meets winemaker Matt Day, himself fresh from fixing the date for the start of the harvest, and savours the sumptuously sweet Vin de Constance, dry Sauvignon Blancs and a red from Stellenbosch. Jane Austen is in some rather A-List company when she mentions the luscious dessert wine, Vin de Constance, from Klien Constantia Wine Farm, near Cape Town, Sout...

Reuse rather than recycle — the greener bottle solution

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Liz Sagues

Liz Sagues summarises the learnings and challenges presented in the recent Let's talk about... webinar, featuring three members of Porto Protocol — Diana Snowden Seysses, Marta Mendonça and Muriel Chatel, and moderated by L.M. Archer. Is it idealistic fantasy that the wine bottle you're pouring from now could, over months or years to come, be refilled again and again rather than ending up in a ...

Prosecco: what’s in a name?

Posted on April 22, 2024 by Marc Millon

Marc Millon rediscovers the joys of the now hugely famous sparkling DOCG that hails from hills that lie between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene. He encounters such complexity of terroir that different sub-zones and even single vineyards can express their own characters and personalities. I first visited the wine hills between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene more than 40 years ago in search of a wine I’...

The wines of Cyprus: Circle of Wine Writers trip report 2024

Posted on March 28, 2024March 28, 2024 by Amanda Barnes

This month our edition is dedicated to the Circle’s trip to Cyprus and we hand over to members to report on their highlights while exploring this Mediterranean wine island in February 2024. Christine Austin sets the scene with the first visit of the trip, sharing intriguing nuggets of information on the Cyprus wine culture and history (did you know phylloxera never arrived to the island? You will...

Meet the Member: Paula Redes Sidore

Posted on February 28, 2024February 28, 2024 by Paula Redes Sidore

Paula Redes Sidore is best known for her work communicating the wines of Germany although, as Amanda Barnes discovers in this interview, her journey in wine started with a few inconspicuous drops of White Zin. Paula also shares what wines and styles are enticing her at the moment, and why she decided to launch TRINK —the world's first English-language magazine focused on the ‘German-speaking wines...

Spectacular Temecula can do good wine too

Posted on February 28, 2024 by Becky Sue Epstein

Next time you’ve got an extra couple of days in Los Angeles or San Diego, Becky Sue Epstein recommends a visit to the Southern California wine region, which she recently visited after a long absence and found the wines are a changing for the good. If wine grapes have been grown in California’s Temecula Valley since the 1820s, why are we only hearing about it now? And what are the wines like? Tha...