Decanter

EDITOR’S LETTER You’ll notice the move away from polythene wrap to a paper bag for our issue this month. And our new monthly column on sustainability in wine, by Regional Editor Natalie Earl (this month on p130). It’s not intended to be preachy, just an attempt at giving readers a deeper understanding of the issues, in case it’s something you would like to factor into your wine-buying decisions. It’s also an opportunity to give a shout out to some of those producers who go above and beyond in their efforts to make wine as sustainably as possible. It’s a very nuanced subject and I hope we manage to get some of that across in the limited space available. For instance, very heavy ‘vanity’ bottles are a bugbear of mine (I…

AMANDA BARNES is a writer and presenter specialising in South American wine and travel. A DWWA judge, she is author of the award-winning South America Wine Guide (£35 southamerica wineguide.com) BEN BERNHEIM specialises in the wines of southern France and rosé wines. He has worked in vineyards and as a hotel sommelier, and is co-author with his mother Elizabeth Gabay MW of Rosés of Southern France (£22 Amazon) LAURA CATENA is managing director of Catena Zapata and Luca Wines in Mendoza, and founder of the Catena Institute of Wine. She is a Stanford Universitytrained medical doctor and a graduate of Harvard University JONATHAN CRISTALDI is Decanter’s Napa Valley correspondent. Based in California, he is a widely published writer on wine, spirits and beer, and is editor-at-large for both The Somm…

French growers braced for further harvest woe This year’s wine harvest in France could be one of the smallest of the past 100 years, thanks to the widespread effects of spring frost, hail and downy mildew, according to official forecasts. The French agriculture ministry’s Agreste statistics unit predicted that wine production in 2024 could be 16% lower than in 2023, with unusually rainy conditions during flowering affecting fruit set, plus a wet early summer sparking outbreaks of downy mildew from Bordeaux to Alsace. Predicted production levels of 40m-43m hectolitres this year are the latest manifestation of the significant challenges facing French winemakers from extreme or unusual weather patterns: frost in both 2017 and 2021 pushed production below 40m hl. Volumes fell below that level only six times in the past…

It was 3 June 2024 – or ‘Hangover Monday’, the day that follows Sanlúcar de Barrameda’s six-day Feria de la Manzanilla celebrations. Casa Bigote, by the mouth of the river, was one of the few bars still open. We ordered a half-bottle of manzanilla (priced just €7) while we waited for Thomas de Wangen of Sotovelo. The copas glistened; the wine in them was steel-green. ‘Oh no,’ said de Wangen, walking in a few minutes later. ‘Look at that colour!’ The remark shocked me. His glance told him that the wine had been filter-stripped before bottling, eviscerating its character. At that moment, it sunk in. Yes, the Sherry world has changed. Here’s an intriguing story. Twelve years after founding a wine-importing company in Shanghai, de Wangen sold it (in 2019),…

Many people dream about working in a job they truly love, and on that front I am lucky. Wine has always been full of wonder for me. I admire the romanticism associated with it, and find it fascinating to discuss the aromas and characters of wine. My curiosity grew with age and led me to sign up to my first wine course. Years later, I was determined to transform my interest in wine into a career. Naively, I assumed that passion would be enough, but soon realised that it wasn’t so. My lack of experience as a sommelier resulted in countless application rejections and unsuccessful interviews. But, just like in the movies, the proverbial doors of the industry finally opened for me. I was filled with excitement at what was…

CAB SAUV IN SOUTH AMERICA Malbec and Carmenère may have become South America’s most emblematic red varieties, but in keeping with the rest of the wine world, the most-planted wine grape is actually Cabernet Sauvignon. With 50,677ha of vines in Chile and Argentina alone (2022), according to government data, this Bordeaux variety has been the darling of the continent since its arrival some 180 years ago. In the newly independent South American republics in the mid-19th century, the wealthy elites had a penchant for European fancies. It became a rite of passage to take a ‘Grand Tour’ around Europe, during which many developed a taste for the wines of Bordeaux. This was the catalyst for developing the wine industries of Chile and Argentina – to recreate the sophisticated flavours experienced…