Features Archives - Page 7 of 64 - Circle of Wine Writers

The tricentennial Bolgheri birthday bash

Posted on November 30, 2024November 30, 2024 by Filippo Magnani

Sitting at a one-kilometer long Super Tuscan table, Filippo Magnani celebrates three decades of the daring DOC, which shook up the wine world for ever, and continues to set the highest of standards. He also gets in a sneak preview of the 2022 vintage. On September 4, 2024, Bolgheri, the small yet iconic wine region on the Tuscan coast, commemorated a significant milestone: 30 years of the Bolgher...

From the Chair: Why keep writing about about wine?

Posted on October 29, 2024February 5, 2025 by Meg Maker

Circle Chair Meg Maker ponders on what it means to be a 'wine writer' today, in an increasingly challenging professional environment. The Circle is a guild of professionals who’ve earned the moniker ‘wine writer.’ That writing may appear in the form of article, blog, or book, or may be in service of podcast, broadcast, social post, lecture, or curriculum. (And yes, we do have photographers; they ...

Natural Trailblazers should stop us in our tracks

Posted on October 29, 2024October 30, 2024 by Valerie Kathawala

Valerie Kathawala is inspired by Natural Trailblazers, a recently-published book that profiles European winegrowers who are pioneering ways of reducing wine’s environmental impact. She argues that there are implicit lessons about how we wine journalists might rethink approaches to our own work. ‘What guides me is the idea of less,’ says Alsatian winegrower Yannick Meckert. “Less, less, less.” M...

New Wine Writing Awards: Bumper crop of CWW winners

Posted on October 29, 2024October 30, 2024 by Wink Lorch

Wink Lorch reports back from the inaugural 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicators Awards, in which members took home a clutch of awards and nominations. Friday September 6th at midday saw a glittering collection of wine communicators and trade gather at St John’s, Smith Square also known as the Sinfonia Smith Square, in Westminster, London. We were there for the inaugural gala awards ceremony fo...

Go Turkiye go

Posted on October 29, 2024 by Lindsay Oram

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A classical combination at Grafenegg

Posted on October 29, 2024December 10, 2024 by Jochen Erler

The time is nigh for Tardif et al

Posted on October 1, 2024 by Liz Sagues

Liz Sagues discovers once-abandoned grape varieties from south-west France and sees their new and growing importance in mitigating the climate crisis. For too long, south-west France has been in the shadows when there's discussion on indigenous grape varieties. But with ever-increasing recognition of the effects of the climate crisis, there is new focus on a region with a unique vine heritage. An...

From the Chair: Ask three questions

Posted on October 1, 2024February 5, 2025 by Meg Maker

Circle Chair Meg Maker shares a simple technique to prompt good storytelling for her column this month. Readers want stories. But how do we, as interviewers and interpreters, tease stories from people who aren’t natural storytellers? Before speaking with a producer, we arm ourselves with facts, the essentials of their biography. We pore over their website for details about family, place, wines, ...

The secrets to Istrian Malvasia: Dimitri Brečević interview

Posted on October 1, 2024 by Amanda Barnes

Amanda Barnes shares her video interview with winemaker Dimitri Brečević, one most celebrated producers in the region of Istria. Making his own wines under the Piquentum brand and consulting to Clai d.o.o., this video interview focuses on the particularities of Istrian Malvasia. One of the most important native grapes in Croatia, the Malvasia from Istria is unique in form and flavour, and requ...

Golden Slavonia and its gorgeous Graševina

Posted on October 1, 2024 by Dijana Grgić

Dijana Grgić calls in on Kutjevo, the Croatian heartland of the grape variety that has nothing to do with Riesling, as well as the neighbouring strongholds of Pakrac and Požega-Pleternica, and also takes the Rose and Wine Road. Požega-Slavonia County is home to three notable sub-regions and is the home of Croatia's most important white wine variety, Graševina. The vineyards of Kutjevo, Po...