Modern Malbec and the Mendoza matriarch

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Dr Richard Smart calls for carbon capture

Dr. Richard Smart, the renowned viticulturist who now calls himself a ‘carbon conscious’ vine doctor rather than the ‘flying’ vine doctor, looks back at the events of 2020 so far. While coronavirus is very bad, it will eventually go away, but the climate crisis is becoming increasingly critical and calls for urgent action from the wine industry, he argues. He asks us as wine writers to start to ho...
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An extremely expensive endeavour

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The Cape Crusader: Rosa Kruger & The Old Vine Project

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A cautionary tale of canfinement

An increasingly despairing Tony Harries loses it during lockdown and runs out of supplies. Faced with a difficult choice between two foraged cans of beer and one old bottle of wine that’s way past its best, which will serve to quench our hero’s thirst?    I’m going to share a first-world tale of a wine writer. It might shock, it might make you laugh and there might even be one or two who are reac...
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Soaking up sake

sake
Ever the keen learner, on his cruise to the Far East, Jochen Erler takes time out to sip some sake at source. As a professional taster of wine and spirits, with some experience as a beer taster in competitions, I have long been intrigued by the similarities between producing beer and whisk(e)y on the one hand, and sake (rice wine) and its distillate on the other. Both have water and grain as thei...
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Clearly Bardolino

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A look at 2019 Chianti Classico

Chianti wine region
John Salvi MW attends Chianti Classico Collection 2020 and crafts his conclusions on the 2019 vintage by digging deep into the factors that have delivered a generous yield of wonderful wines.  A record number of producers turned out at the 2020 edition of Chianti Classico Collection, and more than ever before showed their new vintage – the 2019. There were 56 producers pouring 2019s at the Stazio...
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Pack up your bottles in a bag in box?

Jancis Robinson Circle of Wine Writers member on wine bottles and climate change
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Living it up at Livres en vignes

Jon Wyand shows what to expect on bringing out a wine book with a French publisher as he goes under a hedonistic house arrest at Château du Clos de Vougeot. One benefit of struggling through the production of a wine book with a French publisher is that you’ll probably be invited to Livres en Vignes, when it has been published. It’s a kind of house arrest at Château du Clos de Vougeot, where you s...
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