Opinion Archives - Page 12 of 23 - Circle of Wine Writers

The transformation of txakoli

Posted on November 9, 2020November 12, 2020 by Amaya Cervera

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Ingesting España from afar with Eat Spain, Drink Spain

Posted on November 8, 2020November 12, 2020 by Liz Sagues & Amanda Barnes

Liz Sagues and Amanda Barnes delight in and devour some Spanish delights as they 'Eat Spain, Drink Spain’ in the nationwide November campaign. Pairing Spanish delicacies from dish to glass Suitably prepared with a pre-delivered hamper stacked with Spanish food and wine goodies, Liz Sagues gets in on some perfect pairings that nevertheless don’t quite please everyone. A big thank-you is ...

Seminal Semillon

Posted on October 9, 2020 by David Kermode

Ken Gargett’s top wine picks from Down Under

Posted on October 7, 2020October 9, 2020 by Ken Gargett

In our Australia special this month, Ken Gargett shares what he's been drinking recently and couple of recommendations on new releases to try. As with the rest of the world, the pandemic has meant many changes in the way critics Down Under are evaluating wines. Interstate visits to wineries and regions for tastings and new releases have been almost non-existent. Zoom meetings for local and offsho...

How Pouilly-Fuissé finally got Premier Cru recognition

Posted on October 7, 2020 by L.M. Archer

James Halliday’s overview of Australian wine moments in the last 30 years

Posted on October 6, 2020October 6, 2020 by James Halliday

Australia’s eminent wine critic James Halliday is featured in our Meet the Member interview, and he also shares with us his greatest moments and milestones in Australian wine. In the last 50 years there have been monumental changes in styles, varieties and regions of Australia. Over this timeframe, there has been no consistency per se. A rough chronology of change goes thus: 1955 The ferm...

The wonderful old Grenache vines of Oz

Posted on October 6, 2020October 9, 2020 by Liz Sagues

Liz Sagues gets in a wonderful webinar with Yalumba, as she is catapulted off virtually, with wine in her glass, to the Barossa Valley. This is a much-expanded development of an article that originally appeared in the Ham & High series of newspapers in north and northwest London. This article was inspired by one of the many fascinating webinars that have so much increased wine communicators' ...

Finding a way through phylloxera

Posted on October 6, 2020 by Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams discovers how Yarra Valley growers are actually embracing the challenge posed by the dreaded vine root-devouring louse as an opportunity to prepare for another epic cultivation challenge – climate change, as well as using other innovative methods to temper the tiny aphid’s terrible threat. “Phylloxera is having a significant impact in the Yarra Valley,” laments Sandra de Pury o...

Bükk buckles down

Posted on September 6, 2020September 9, 2020 by Robert Smyth

Robert Smyth finally frees the shackles of lockdown on his first post-Covid wine trip, and finds winemaking momentum building in the mountains around Miskolc, in north-eastern Hungary. A version of this article earlier appeared in the Budapest Business Journal. It was a welcome change to return to Hungarian wine country in June, to witness a barely-known cum less prestigious wine region take stri...

Promise amongst the peaks and the pumice

Posted on September 6, 2020September 9, 2020 by Wink Lorch

Continuing on from her introductory article in August’s Circular on the Côtes d’Auvergne region in the Puy de Dôme department, within the volcanic part of France’s Massif Central, Wink Lorch visits producers big and small, and finds plenty of potential in the region that has altitude and ash to its advantage. With only about 400 hectares (ha), Côtes d’Auvergne inspired me to think once again abou...