For as much buzzy jargon as there is in the world of wine – small production, sustainable, organic, New World, natural, among them – the terms are quite definitive. In the last decade, however, the increasingly popular discussion around a new phrase has caused some confusion among consumers and even winemakers: minimal intervention.

Many winemakers believe that for a wine to be considered low or minimal intervention, it all starts with vineyard practices to optimise the terroir and purity of the fruit, which is emphasised by implementing organic and sustainable practices.

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Seeking specificity

In Virginia, Maya Hood White, winemaker at Early Mountain Vineyards, views the term ‘minimal intervention’ as encompassing the whole process from farming through to the cellar; for the former, she stresses the minimisation of aggressive chemicals, mindfulness of fuel usage and tractor passes.

‘Irrigation is also an intervention that alters the essence of the fruit and then the wines,’ says Paul Sloan, winemaker at Small Vines. Their high-density planting allows Small Vines to dry farm, which translates to a ‘more pure sense of place’, according to Sloan.

While these farming practices aren’t new, the attention surrounding their influence on low or minimal-intervention wine is what’s bringing them to the forefront.

Sam Bilbro from Idlewild Wines explains: ‘If we make really good vineyard decisions, we can make very few touches in the winery because we have beautiful and healthy fruit to work with in the cellar.’

Gentle farming at Small Vines. Credit: Small Vines

There’s no wine without some intervention

This is probably where we should acknowledge that winemaking, by definition, is intervention.

‘The grapes neither jump from the vine into a vat nor from vat to barrel to bottle,’ says Maggie Harrison, winemaker at Antica Terra, about the necessary go-between of human action that’s been part of winemaking since the beginning of time.

Perhaps this is why it’s so challenging to define – with no precedent or global regulation surrounding the term, low or minimal intervention means different things to different people. ‘It’s a spectrum,’ says Hood White, much like many things in life, which makes it. ‘A delicate balance explaining what we do or don’t do in our production processes while not looking to project judgement on other producers.’

As technology and science have advanced, winemakers have realised that a subpar harvest can still be salvaged; imbalances can be solved through manipulations such as fining, filtration, chaptalisation, stabilisers and additives.

‘It is easier, cheaper and less laborious to intervene afterwards in the cellar with chemistry than to farm well in the first place,’ says Sloan. Since many wineries don’t control their vineyards: ‘The only way they can compensate for flaws is with chemistry.’

For this reason, Sloan reverts to why low-intervention practices should start in the vineyards. ‘We choose to prevent problems in advance by farming well, using proper site selection, trellis design, tight spacing and prompt harvest date decisions.’

Recognising that every wine has its challenges, Bilbro echoes Sloan. As winemakers, he says, it is their job to locate the potential problem points of each variety and mitigate those issues.

He adds that in conventional winemaking, if a wine is prone to stalling at the end of fermentation, they could add synthetic products to aid the yeast. However, in minimal intervention winemaking: ‘We could stir the wine to suspend the remaining active yeast and keep it warm (bring it out to the sun a bit each day) to help keep the yeast active through the finish.’

A fuzzy definition

Though Bilbro is aiding the process, it still fits into Sloan’s definition of minimal intervention. ‘Having the lowest amount of human-made or artificial inputs or enhancements in both the farming and the winemaking process.’

While this definition broadly summarises minimal intervention, the term can still be confusing for most consumers who don’t understand what is regulated or legal to use in farming and wine production.

This is why the term is often misused and misrepresented by consumers. ‘It is so disappointing to listen to a producer talk about their low intervention winemaking when you know the high input, commercially farmed vineyards they are purchasing their fruit from,’ says Hood White.

This is why she encourages consumers to ask questions and emphasises the message of how a lower intervention approach ‘always begins with farming’.

Harvest at Small Vines. Credit: Small Vines

Purity remains elusive

Even still, large-production wineries aren’t the only ones that ultimately might adjust their wines post harvest.

Harrison explains that if a winemaker is adding acid it’s ‘because they truly believe it will make the wine in our glass more balanced, longer-lived, more complete’. It’s part of the winemaking process, and if a winery isn’t fortunate to have estate vineyards they can meticulously watch over, decisions must be made.

As winemakers are craftspeople, adds Harrison, they shouldn’t be chastised for doing their best work, even if that includes making adjustments in the cellar.

Until minimal intervention is globally defined or regulated, each winemaker will have their personal perception and ability to label their wines based on what this term means to them and how they produce wine according to it.

For the time being, it’s up to the consumer to engage with producers they prefer to help inform their own understanding of terms like minimal intervention and what they expect in wines that use that sort of marketing or labelling.

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The post What does minimal intervention really mean? appeared first on Decanter.

Château Figeac 2023 has been released more than 40% below the debut offer for the 2022 vintage debut last year, making it one of the biggest discounts in a Bordeaux 2023 en primeur campaign that has taken place amid challenging market conditions.

Other highly prized wines released in the past 24 hours include Château Montrose, Château La Conseillante and Château Beauséjour, giving consumers plenty to ponder in the final days of the campaign.

Latest releases at a glance:

• Château Figeac 2023 | 98pts (Decanter) | €150 per bottle ex-négociant, down 40.5% versus 2022 | UK price £1,788 per 12x75cl in bond (IB)
• Château La Conseillante 2023 | 98pts | €150 per bottle, down 32.4% | UK price £1,788 (12x75cl IB)
• Château Montrose 2023 | 98pts | €120 per bottle, down 16.7% | UK price £1,428 (12x75cl IB)
• Château Beauséjour 2023 | 98pts | €108 per bottle, down 10% | UK price £1,284 (12x75cl IB)
  Price data source: Liv-ex.

While Figeac’s discount is sizeable, the 2022 vintage was relatively expensive on release. A potential 100-point wine, it was the first release after Figeac’s promotion to Premier Grand Cru Classé A in the revised St-Émilion Classification.

Although it remains too soon to draw conclusions about sales, some early analysis has suggested a muted overall response to the campaign, despite several success stories among top-rated wines.

Decanter Premium members can read more analysis below.

See Decanter’s full verdict on the Bordeaux 2023 vintage, plus ratings and tasting notes on the top-scoring wines

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The post Bordeaux 2023 market analysis: Figeac drops 40% in price appeared first on Decanter.

The Sonoma American Viticultural Area (AVA) known as the Moon Mountain District presents a paradox. It is both a rough-and-tumble locale with rogue characters who flout convention, and a land of pristine beauty that produces some of the finest wines in Sonoma County.

Nestled within the larger Sonoma Valley AVA, Moon Mountain District was granted AVA status in 2013. It spans just 800 hectares (of Sonoma’s 7,000ha) at elevations between 120 and 716 metres, all within a 15 kilometre stretch.

The region’s hallmarks, that helped it gain its AVA status, are its hill and mountainside vineyards and red volcanic soils. These include some of the oldest vineyards in California too, including Hanzell’s 1953 Ambassador vineyard and the storied Monte Rosso.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for selected wines from producers on Moon Mountain

Wines from four featured Moon Mountain producers

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Is salmon on the menu tonight? Whether you’re cooking at home or eating out, salmon is a versatile ingredient that can be cooked in several different ways. Think poached, grilled, seared, barbecued or smoked to name but a few – and it can even be enjoyed raw in sushi and sashimi.

But what wines should you pair with salmon? There’s an array of grapes and wine styles that will happily match salmon; from crisp whites and sparkling wines to elegant rosés and light reds. It all depends on how the salmon is prepared, as this will influence both the texture and flavour of the fish.

The table below gives a quick guide to some reliable pairings, but the list is by no means exhaustive. Read on for more tips and ideas…

Styles to choose when pairing wine with salmon:

What to drink with smoked salmon

Credit: ahirao_photo / iStock / Getty Images Plus

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From canapés and light summer lunches, to Christmas mornings and Scandinavian gravlax, quality smoked salmon is a classic ingredient. Champagne makes a luxury match for smoked salmon; its high acidity cuts through the richness of the fish, while its bubbles refresh your palate. But French crémants can also do the same job at a more wallet-friendly price.

Other sparkling styles will work just as well. Consider Spain’s flagship fizz Cava or Tasmanian sparklers, as well as South Africa’s Cap Classique. Matthieu Longuère MS, wine development manager of Le Cordon Bleu London, suggests a vintage English sparkling wine wine with smoked salmon canapés. ‘Thanks to its high acidity, it should also handle the saltiness of smoked salmon,’ he says.

Sparkling wines made with Chardonnay in a blanc de blancs style, are a particularly good choice with smoked salmon. But Chardonnay is not the only go-to grape. ‘For a classic smoked salmon dish with onion, capers and a slice of lemon, a Riesling will be great,’ says Jolanta Dinnadge, wine buyer at The Biltmore Mayfair.

Meanwhile for smoked salmon served Scandi-style as gravlax, Austria’s Grüner Veltliner will be a winning match. Its fresh citrus and herbal notes will complement the dill, while a kick of white-pepper spice adds interest to the pairing.

What to drink with salmon and cream sauces

Credit: sandoclr / Getty Images

As with other fish dishes, a creamy sauce can be more of a wine pairing challenge than the main ingredient itself. You could choose a wine with brisk acidity to cut through the creaminess, or for a more subtle match choose a wine that has both fresh acidity and a touch of creaminess on the palate from oak or time on lees.

‘If the salmon is accompanied with butter and cream, you should go more for a Chardonnay with a bit of oak to highlight the fish,’ explains Wilfried Rique, formerly restaurant general manager at Hilton Hotels.

Greek Assyrtiko with its electrifying acidity, is a great foil for salmon in creamy sauces or salmon cooked in butter. An unoaked Chardonnay, such as Chablis is a reliable choice, so too bone-dry Muscadet from the Loire Valley. A pale pink Provence rosé can also work beautifully. 

What to drink with salmon and citrus flavours

Fish and citrus are often served together: think seared salmon fillet with a squeeze of fresh lemon. For me, Italian whites are a natural match here. As well as the ever-popular Pinot Grigio, look for grapes such as Vermentino, Fiano and Grillo, which makes fresh, lemony wines. Island whites from Sicily and Sardinia sometimes have a fresh salty tang that works well with simply grilled salmon too. 

Fresh whites from coastal wine regions are always a safe bet with fish and can naturally complement citrus flavours. Try Portuguese Vinho Verde, featuring the Alvarinho grape, or its Spanish cousin Albariño from Rías Baixas. 

If fresh herbs also feature in your citrus salmon dish, one other grape is a safe bet. ‘The minerality and herbaceous notes of a classic Sauvignon Blanc will match well with a salmon cooked with fine herbs and citrus,’ says Rique.

What to drink with spicy salmon

Credit: Carlo A / Getty Images

Pairing wine with spicy food doesn’t have to be tricky. This could mean salmon prepared with Japanese flavours such as wasabi and teriyaki sauces, as well as oriental spice combinations involving ginger and garlic.

‘We like to choose a Riesling from Germany or a Pinot Gris from Alsace to enhance the flavours of salmon cooked with some spices,’ advises Rique.

There are also spicy South American salmon dishes such as salmon tacos with jalapeño or vibrant salmon ceviche with chilli spice. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc will complement the zesty flavours of ceviche. It’s also a good choice for tacos, though Grüner Veltliner or an exotic Riesling would work too.

What to drink with salmon sushi

Mineral whites such as Chablis and Muscadet (see above) make a reliable – and classic – pairing with salmon sushi and sashimi. But don’t forget Japan’s signature grape Koshu as well. Its delicate, clean-fruited wines can perfectly complement the pure flavours of sushi.

‘For sushi, as it is a small bite, I would recommend a crispy and citrusy wine, such as a Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay,’ says Rique. ‘Sancerre is a good go-to as it balances well with the acidity of the salmon but has enough strength to match with the bold note of the rice.’

Meanwhile Natasha Hughes MW recommends fino and manzanilla with sushi and sashimi in her article on pairing Sherry with Eastern flavours.

Can you drink red wine with salmon?

While it’s a myth that red wine never matches with fish, it’s generally better to avoid bolder styles brimming with tannins. ‘An absolute no is to pair a full-bodied red wine with salmon as this will kill both the wine and the fish’s flavours,’ says Dinnadge. Opt for lighter styles such as Beaujolais and New World Pinot Noir.

High consumer demand means that farmed Atlantic salmon has become much more prevalent on dinner tables, and farmed varieties also tend to have a fattier texture than their wild cousins.

For seared salmon, and particularly farmed varieties, ‘the obvious choice is a chilled Pinot Noir’, says Beckett. ‘Pinot picks up perfectly on the richness of the fish and the caramelised crust,’ she explains.

This article has been fully updated in June 2024, including new wine reviews. It was originally published in 2019. 

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Troplong Mondot, Haut-Bailly and Vieux Château Certan were the latest major names to release 2023-vintage wines en primeur, on Tuesday morning (11 June).

New releases at a glance:

• Château Troplong Mondot 2023 | 97pts (Decanter) | €90 per bottle ex-négociant, down 11.8% versus 2022 | UK price £1,068 per 12x75cl in bond (IB)
• Château Haut-Bailly 2023 | 96pts | €90 per bottle, down 25% | UK price £1,080 (12x75cl IB)
• Vieux Château Certan 2023 | 98pts | €186 per bottle, down 32.6% | UK price £2,220 (12x75cl IB)
  Price data source: Liv-ex.

As the campaign nears its end, early market reports and merchant feedback have continued to suggest a mixed response from consumers to Bordeaux 2023 wines in general.

Most wines have been cheaper than the 2022-vintage releases last year, but a key consideration is also the price of other well-regarded recent vintages that remain available on the market.

See Decanter’s full verdict on the Bordeaux 2023 vintage, plus ratings and tasting notes on the top-scoring wines

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The post Bordeaux 2023 market analysis: Troplong, Haut-Bailly and VCC released appeared first on Decanter.

This morning’s (10 June) release of Château Smith Haut Lafitte 2023 (97-points, Decanter) maintained the trend for price cuts versus the 2022-vintage en primeur campaign last year. 

Yet the wine is more expensive than some of the Pessac-Léognan estate’s back-vintages, according to Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade.

It reported that the wine was released at €91.2 per bottle ex-négociant, down 20% versus the 2022 release, and with a UK offer price £1,188 per 12x75cl in bond (IB). However, initial prices varied; Farr Vintners and Bordeaux Index were offering the wine at £1,080 (12x75cl IB).

St-Émilion’s Château Larcis Ducasse 2023 (95pts) was also released, with a recommended UK price of £50 per bottle (IB), according to consultancy group Wine Lister.

Both releases follow a busy week for the en primeur campaign, which saw offers for first growth Château Margaux, among many others. See our scores and prices table for other Bordeaux 2023 en primeur releases.

See Decanter’s full verdict on the Bordeaux 2023 vintage, plus ratings and tasting notes on the top-scoring wines

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The food in my new book Michel Roux at Home is the food I eat with my family, particularly at my house in France. My family is from the north of France and Burgundy, where the cooking is rich in butter and cream, but these days I find myself gravitating to the food of the south, featuring olive oil and fresh fruit and vegetables. My home is in the south, in Ardèche, and that’s my style of cooking now.

Some people still see French food as fine dining, haute cuisine, but I want to show that French home cooking is very different from that and doesn’t have to be complicated. Like Italian cooking, it’s all about using good seasonal ingredients and letting them shine by not messing around with them too much. And that’s exactly what I do at home – I’m not into fuss or fancy frills.

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Spiced lamb shoulder with couscous

The inspiration for this dish comes from North African cooking and I use spices normally associated with tagines. The lamb does have to be marinated for up to two days and needs long, slow cooking, but you are rewarded with flavourful meat that’s falling off the bone. Perfect with the couscous and chickpeas.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 lemon, quartered, pips removed
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 lamb shoulder
• 2 red onions, cut into wedges
• 1 litre pomegranate juice
• 200ml lamb or chicken stock
• 150g couscous
• 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 100g tub of pomegranate seeds, or seeds from 1 fresh pomegranate
• Small handful of mint leaves, chopped
• 100ml olive oil
• 2 tbsp clear honey
• 50ml lemon juice

Garnish: Extra pomegranate seeds and mint leaves

Method

1. Put the garlic, cinnamon, cumin, oregano and lemon quarters in a blender with the salt and black pepper, then blend until smooth. Put the lamb shoulder in a large roasting tin and tip the marinade over the top. Massage the marinade all over the lamb and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours or up to 2 days.
2. Remove the lamb from the fridge about an hour before cooking. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Scatter the onion wedges around the lamb, tucking some underneath, then pour
over the pomegranate juice and the stock. Cover the lamb with a piece of baking paper, then some foil and cook for 4 hours until the meat is nice and tender. Remove the lamb
from the oven and set it aside to rest. Reserve the cooking juices.
3. Put the couscous and chickpeas in a mixing bowl and add 300ml of the lamb cooking juices. Leave to stand until the couscous has absorbed all of the liquid, then break it up with a fork. Add the pomegranate seeds and mint leaves, and stir in the olive oil.
4. Drizzle the honey and lemon juice over the lamb, garnish with pomegranate seeds and mint leaves, and serve with the couscous and chickpeas.

Michel Roux at Home was published in August 2023 (£26 Seven Dials)

Michel Roux Jr is one of the world’s most respected chefs. Le Gavroche, which he ran from 1991 until it closed earlier this year, received recommendations for excellence in every food guide. His latest TV series Michel Roux’s Provence Masterclass first aired in March 2023 and is available to stream on Discovery+.

The wines to drink with spiced lamb shoulder with couscous

By Fiona Beckett

Even though the lamb is spiced, this is still a versatile dish to pair with wine. Normally I’d recommend a southern French Grenache-Syrah blend, but there are a couple of ingredients – the pomegranate juice and the honey – that will make the dish sweeter than you might imagine given the North African spicing, so I’d be tempted to look beyond that. Grenache on its own, particularly young Grenache, has a sweetness that should chime in nicely – there are great examples from Rioja and Navarra these days and, further afield, from South Africa and South Australia. Graciano-based Rioja with its exotic sweet edge should also work. I’m not sure this is a white wine dish, though you could try a Viognier or a Rhône-style Viognier blend – but I’m tempted by the idea of a dark rosé. Tavel would be the obvious candidate, but a Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo from Italy would be a fun summer choice. Or a big, ripe rosé from South Australia (thinking of Charles Melton’s fabulous Rose of Virginia).

Wines selected by our Decanter experts

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The post Perfect Pairing: Spiced lamb shoulder with couscous appeared first on Decanter.

The best Rioja wines are designed to be aged, first in barrel and then in bottle, for many years. Some of these wines, produced in exceptional vintages, develop great complexity over decades and stay in pristine shape even after a century or more. Such acclaimed vintages from the 20th century include 1948, 1952, 1955, 1964, 1982, 1994 and 1995.

The 21st century began with one of the greatest vintages ever, 2001, and since then it has produced other top vintages such as 2004, 2005, 2010 and 2012. Among the most recent vintages, 2021 and, most of all, 2019, are presented as great, but we’ll need to wait a couple more years to see if that promise becomes a reality.

The vintage guide below should be considered as a general guide. The region is large and diverse, and some producers will perform very well in lesser vintages.

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St-Émilion’s Château Beau-Séjour Bécot and Margaux-based Château Lascombes released their 2023 wines this morning (7 June) after achieving high scores relative to previous vintages.

Pomerol-based Clinet 2023 was also released this morning, and all three estates continued this year’s theme of dropping prices versus last year’s campaign for the 2022 vintage (see more analysis below).

Three releases today:

• Château Beau-Séjour Bécot 2023 | 97pts (Decanter) | €43.2 per bottle ex-négociant, down 24.2% versus 2022 | UK price £516 per 12x75cl in bond (IB)
• Château Lascombes 2023 | 94pts | €49.2 per bottle, down 21.2% | UK price £595 (12x75cl IB)
• Château Clinet 2023 | 93pts | €57.6 per bottle, down 29.4% | UK price £690 (12x75cl IB)
  Price data source: Liv-ex.

Friday’s releases follow the launch of first growth Château Margaux yesterday (6 June). Before that, the market saw the release of châteaux Canon, Rauzan-Ségla and Les Carmes Haut-Brion yesterday, Pavie, Pichon Baron and L’Eglise Clinet on Tuesday, and Pichon Comtesse and Palmer at the beginning of the week.

See Decanter’s full verdict on the Bordeaux 2023 vintage, ratings and tasting notes for all the top-scoring wines

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It’s a bit like one of those bad dreams. There you are, with a line-up of glasses half full of red wine laid out in front of you. You know that you are going to be asked to identify the origins of those wines. No one will give you the slightest clue. And you’ve only got a few minutes per wine to do the job.

Nightmarish as this sounds, the scenario will be familiar to anyone who’s ever sat a blind-tasting wine exam. But let’s make the task a little bit easier, shall we? Let’s assume that you’re told that the wines all come from within the Bordeaux region.

Even then, trying to pin down the source of each of them is no easy task. Nevertheless, every glass of wine contains clues – the question is, what’s the best way of making these clues add up to a strong conclusion?

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We’ve all done it. Friends drop in unexpectedly and you have no fizz or white wine to hand in the fridge. Or you just want to quickly cool down a light red to serve at your summer barbecue.

You pop a bottle in the freezer, assure yourself you’ll remember about it, and then go back to your guests, find something else to quench your thirst and get caught up on conversation or hosting duties.

And later that evening or the next day, when you go to get an icecube for your cocktail or to defrost the sausages, you discover a frozen wine slushie.

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What’s the best advice?

It might seems that the best advice is to never put a bottle of wine in the freezer. But, in fact, so long as you remember it’s there, a freezer is one of many handy methods to quickly chill down your wine (see below for others).

Matt Walls, Decanter‘s Rhône correspondent, recommends putting your wine in the freezer for 22 minutes for lightly chilled, and 28 minutes for fully chilled.

Master Sommelier and restaurateur Xavier Rousset MS shared a top tip for speeding it up further: ‘Wrap the bottle in a wet cloth then put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes.’

The most important thing is not to forget about it. Set a timer on your phone or watch so you don’t leave the bottle in there.

Can you put sparkling wine in the freezer?

You can put your sparkling wine, such as Champagne, Prosecco, Cava or Crémant in the freezer. But it’s even more important not to forget about it.

Sparkling wines are more risky, and liable to explode (or at the very least push the cork out) if left in the freezer for too long, due to pressure created by the carbon dioxide, which gives them their bubbles.

That’s why it is probably best to give them a bit less time – a quick 20 minutes in the freezer can help to chill your bottle of Champagne. 

When wine in the freezer is forgotten

Members of the Decanter team have all had their own disasters after putting wine in a freezer.

‘I put a bottle of Champagne, that was an engagement present, in the freezer hoping to drink it that evening,’ said James Button, Decanter’s Regional Editor for Italy. ‘Alas, opened the freezer door about three hours later to discover the neck had parted ways with the body.’

The same thing occurred with a colleague’s birthday present bottle of Laurent-Perrier rosé, which ‘shattered into a million pieces and turned the freezer pink’.

And it’s not just sparkling wines that have potential to burst in the freezer. A 1997 Frédéric Emile Riesling from Alsace house Trimbach became ‘a Riesling and glass ice lolly’ for another unfortunate Decanter staffer.

The fastest way to chill a bottle

You might think freezers have the advantage of speed, but in fact an ice bath is actually a more effective method for quickly cooling down a bottle of wine – in just half the time, in fact.

The key advice is that you shouldn’t just fill a whole container with ice cubes and expect to chill wine in record time. If you use roughly 50% ice and 50% cold water then the chilling process will happen more quickly. The water will help to transfer heat from the bottle.

‘Use plenty of ice cubes (ideally crushed ice) in a bucket with some cold water and lots of salt – yes, salt,’ said Rousset. The salt melts the ice so the water will be cooler faster; salty water also cools faster than pure water.

‘Make sure the bottle is submerged to the top to be more efficient,’ adds Rousset. ‘Your wine should be cool in about 15 minutes.’

Other ways to chill wine

There other ways to keep your wine cool, but these are more effective if the bottle has already been chilled:

• Ice sleeves are great to keep an already chilled bottle at a cool temperature. It’s worth always having a few in your freezer, ready to go.
• There are icicle-shaped gadgets you can pop in the neck of your bottle which cools the wine as you pour, though these can be messy.
• An easy solution is to keep some grapes frozen in your freezer, and pop these in your glass, says Peter Richards MW. They’ll work like ice cubes in wine, but without diluting the wine.

Originally published in 2017 and updated in May 2024. 

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Château Margaux 2023 was released this morning (6 June), alongside the estate’s Pavillon Rouge and Pavillon Blanc labels, with Gruaud Larose and Calon Ségur also joining the day’s offerings.

Releases at a glance:  

• Château Margaux 2023: 98pts (Decanter) | €360 per bottle ex-négociant, down 30.2% versus 2022 | UK price £4,320 per 12x75cl in bond (IB)
• Pavillon Rouge 2023: 93pts | €120 per bottle, down 20% | UK price £1,440 (12x75cl IB)
• Pavillon Blanc 2023: 96pts | €240 per bottle, down 9.4% | UK price £2,880 (12x75cl IB)
• Château Gruaud Larose 2023: 97pts | €60 per bottle, down 13.8% | UK price £716 (12x75cl IB)
• Château Calon Ségur 2023: 96pts | €78 per bottle, down 23.5% | UK price £936 (12x75cl IB)*
  Price data source: Liv-ex.

Château Margaux’s appearance means that all of the Left Bank first growths have now released their 2023 wines, except Château Latour, which no longer participates in en primeur.

It follows the launch of châteaux Canon, Rauzan-Ségla and Les Carmes Haut-Brion yesterday, Pavie, Pichon Baron and L’Eglise Clinet on Tuesday, and Pichon Comtesse and Palmer at the beginning of the week. 

A trend for year-on-year discounts has continued, but analysts have also highlighted potential opportunities for buyers interested in back-vintages.

See Decanter’s full verdict on the Bordeaux 2023 vintage, plus ratings and tasting notes on the top-scoring wines

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Selecting favourites among Chianti Classico’s new releases is like splitting hairs: so many deserve a place at the dinner table and/or in the cellar.

Given different ageing regulations within Chianti Classico’s three-tiered classification, a wide range of vintages is released every year. A first peek at the ‘saved-by-August-rain’ 2022 is restricted to the ‘annata‘ level, while the preliminary 2021 Riserva and Gran Selezione, together with longer-aged annata, provide a comprehensive picture of what has shaped up to be an excellent vintage.

Add to this some stunning late releases from 2020 and 2019, and the choices multiply further.

My recommendations below attempt to represent the exceptional value and incredible diversity the denomination offers.

See the score table with Michaela’s tasting notes and scores for 180 new Chianti Classico releases 

Featured in this article:

See the wines featured in this article, arranged by score. To see all wines tasted, including all the top scorers, view the score table.

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What we have in mind when we talk about ‘fine wine’ is European – bottles of French, maybe Italian, maybe Spanish origin. Even in the US, a country not lacking in ego, European wines have long been hailed as the hallmark of quality.

‘Wine has never been embedded in the American lifestyle the way it is for so many Europeans. It’s a luxury product, not an art form tethered to day-to-day life,’ says Axel Borg, the distinguished librarian emeritus for food and wine at the UC Davis Library (a title just as hard-won and venerable as it sounds).

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It goes without saying, however, that American wine arrived on the scene at a bit of a temporal disadvantage. European winemakers began to cultivate vines and generational traditions long before we’d even entered the arena, but in addition to the timing deficit we also have Prohibition to blame – essentially an involuntary reset button for much of the US wine industry.

‘Wine has always had cultural cachet, cultural value, cultural capital,’ says Borg. ‘And after Prohibition, the state of domestic wine was so abysmal that it had the opposite effect.’

A fleet of trucks outside the California Wine Tonic Co premises in Los Angeles, 1931. Credit: Dick Whittington Studio / USC Libraries / Corbis via Getty Images

Lasting damage

Say what you will about Prohibition – call it destructive, misguided, generally disastrous – its impact on the American wine industry was catastrophic. And, with regard to the reputation of domestic wine in particular, it’s entirely possible that we’ve yet to undo that damage.

‘By the 1880s, it was no longer disputed that California had the potential to produce great wine. And by the start of Prohibition in 1920, there were hundreds of wineries – 719, to be specific – in operation,’ says Vanessa Conlin MW, global head of wine at Sotheby’s.

‘Then, with the start of the Volstead Act, aka Prohibition, quantity became more important than quality to grape buyers. Prohibition all but killed the wine industry in a number of major production states.’

When the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified in 1919, prohibiting the sale of ‘intoxicating liquors’, Californian wine had been on a rather shiny trajectory. By the time the Volstead Act (formally the National Prohibition Act), which executed the amendment, came into effect the following year, local winemakers had well over 600,000hl of wine ready to go (1919 had, ironically, yielded quite an impressive harvest). Tragically, however, they had no way to sell it… not legally, anyway.

A group of men dump wine from barrels into a drain in Chicago in 1921 during Prohibition. Credit: Chicago Sun Times / Chicago Daily News Collection / Chicago History Museum / Getty Images

‘My great grandfather came over here in the 1870s, and he was a true pioneer in terms of growing grapes,’ says Darek Trowbridge, owner and head winemaker at Old World Winery, a low-intervention wine producer based in Sonoma County. ‘And when Prohibition came about, he came home one day to find that government officials had padlocked his barn shut. It seemed like he’d simply lost access to his property and his equipment – his livelihood.’

Fortunately, there were loopholes available to those crafty enough to risk dispensing their goods illegally (wine dealing, if you will). ‘The Volstead Act prohibited the sale of alcohol, but not its consumption – which left room for “home winemaking”, as well as wine that could be made and sold for sacramental purposes, or prescribed by medical professionals,’ says Borg. And as he explains it, plenty of archival data regarding wine prescriptions lives on (Paul Masson Mountain Winery in Saratoga, near San Francisco, for example, was specifically permitted to continue producing ‘medicinal champagne’ – the medical merit of which surely still holds up).

Sizeable quantities of grapes were still being shipped across the country, thanks to the ‘home winemaking’ loophole. But needless to say, fine, commendable wines were not the goal. Instead, merely potable alcohol would do – and in turn, vineyards grubbed up their higher-quality grapevines and replaced them with varieties whose fruit was sturdier and capable of surviving shipping without visible damage.

Consequently, when repeal took place in 1933, wineries were hardly equipped to bounce back. In fact, to meet the post-Prohibition demand for California wine, local producers began to turn out deeply flawed wine using sub-par grapes and tainted or antiquated equipment. ‘It’s fair to say that the wine was, well, appalling,’ says Kathleen Burk, professor emerita of modern and contemporary history at University College London. According to her research, in the year following repeal the number of operational wineries surged, only to plummet again to just a couple of hundred within four years. Which was to say, California’s prodigal return to the wine world was tepid at best – humiliating at worst.

A tractor from the New York-based National Liberal Alliance, which campaigned to modify the Volstead Act to allow people to drink ‘light wines and beer’, gathering petitions in Washington DC in April 1926. Credit: George Rinhart / Corbis via Getty Images

A new normal

There was, however, a silver lining. ‘It was only after repeal that folks in California – UC Davis in particular – decided to allocate resources towards rebuilding the local wine industry to its former glory – maybe beyond its former glory,’ says Borg.

After it was established in 1935, the current Department of Viticulture & Enology at UC Davis focused on combining the more scientific tenets of viticulture with the more sensory elements of oenology. According to Borg, the department was deeply invested in exploring the relationship between regional grapes and climate, as well as analysing local grape varieties to determine which were worth using. He cites an extensive study by professors Amerine & Winkler, published in the Hilgardia journal in 1944, for which they produced thousands of wines from grapes grown all over California, eventually concluding that the majority of the varieties in question were not viable for commercial
winemaking. ‘Whether they’ll admit it or not, many of those scientific findings are also likely used by European winemakers today,’ he says.

By the late 1930s, another stakeholder had come into play: the media. And at the forefront of wine publishing was a writer by the name of Julian Street. ‘Not only was Street a major wine educator at the time, but throughout his work, you could find his plea for the American public to take wine seriously when most were solely drinking beer and spirits,’ says Audrey Russek, food and wine archivist at UC Davis Library.

As she puts it, Street’s work was centred on the notion that many European countries had grown to consider wine as a quotidian pleasure, practical as much as aesthetic – while in the US, it never occupied such a role. Instead, it was decadence manifest, hardly meant to be incorporated quietly into the machinations of day-to-day life.

‘When we talk about alcohol consumption for early colonists, it’s about “taking the edge off”. It’s medicinal or it’s numbing,’ says Russek. ‘We became a spirits country because drinking was always a means to an end.’

A corner turned

Credit: Susanna Blavarg

By the 1960s, California wine had begun to grow legs again (forgive the pun). ‘In the 1940s and ’50s, sweet wine, often fortified, outsold dry wine three to one, and Americans were drinking mediocre, sweet wine rather than dry,’ Russek says. ‘But by the 1960s, as the wine continued improving, the regional palate skewed back towards drier and more balanced wines.’

In terms of PR, few events boosted the American wine ego quite like the Judgement of Paris tasting, the highest-drama occasion in the US wine world since, well, the ratification of Prohibition. ‘When Chateau Montelena won the Judgement of Paris in 1976, we’d only been rebuilding under that name for a few years – it was our 1973 vintage,’ says Matt Crafton, the current head winemaker at Chateau Montelena. ‘We were still finding our own feet – but that gave us so much optimism.’

In any case, despite Chateau Montelena’s very public victory, as well as the continued evolution of the wine media, we’ve yet to fold American wine into our conception of patriotism; it remains excluded from our national identity (which is to say, we’re far from adopting the whole ‘practical over aesthetic’ philosophy as regards wine consumption). Then again, perhaps the problem here is not one of comparisons.

‘Sure, Europe has generations of winemaking knowledge to draw from, but an advantage to being a relatively young industry – and I say “young” with scare quotes – is that there’s no template,’ adds Crafton. ‘We have a tremendous amount of creative freedom. It’s the ultimate meritocracy: winemakers are made, not necessarily born.’ And for what it’s worth, in a nation that prides itself on a ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ ethos – the American Dream – it’s only natural that we would build a wine industry that subsists on the same principles.

It’s far from controversial to suggest that American wine is not and never will be European wine – no matter how many Burgundy producers schlep to Oregon to celebrate the terroir. But in a country where the wine industry has reincarnated itself in less than 100 years, there’s ample proof of the restored, even improved, quality of local winemaking (and it’s a distinctively American endeavour to build an industry up from scratch).

‘At this point, our obsession with French wine surely has more to do with European wine culture than it does with the wines themselves,’ posits Borg. ‘So if we’re discussing the reputation of American wines, it would seem that the culture must change, not the wines.’

For winemakers, that change is more an imperative than a suggestion. ‘American wineries are struggling right now. We have a huge amount of inventory and a huge decrease in sales,’ Patrick Cappiello of California’s Monte Rio Cellars said in a viral Instagram plea in February. ‘We are asking you for one thing, and one thing only: buy our wines–drink our wines.’

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Key releases in the Bordeaux 2023 en primeur campaign on Wednesday (5 June) include:

• Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion 2023: 97pts (Decanter) | €76.8 per bottle ex-négociant, down 28.9% versus 2022 | UK price £912 per 12x75cl in bond (IB)
• Château Canon 2023: 98pts | €90 per bottle, down 25% | UK price £1,074 (12x75cl IB)
• Château Rauzan-Ségla 2023: 96pts |  €60 per bottle, down 28.6% | UK price £720 (12x75cl IB)
  Price data source: Liv-ex

St-Émilion’s Château Pavie Macquin 2023 (96pts) has also been released at £576 (12x75cl IB) in a busy week of big-name releases, which have included Pichon Baron and Pavie out yesterday (4 June), as well as Pichon Comtesse and Palmer making their debuts.

Although several merchants have reported good consumer interest for at least some of the top names, a fresh report from analyst and consultancy group Wine Lister cast doubt on the overall level of sales. ‘Feedback from the trade indicates a lacklustre reception,’ it said.

Meanwhile, producer JCP Maltus, which owns estates including Le Dôme and Château Teyssier, said it wouldn’t be releasing 2023-vintage wines en primeur.

Decanter Premium subscribers can find more details, and analysis of the latest releases, below.

See Decanter’s full verdict on the Bordeaux 2023 vintage, plus ratings and tasting notes on the top-scoring wines

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The post Bordeaux 2023 market analysis: Canon and Les Carmes Haut-Brion released appeared first on Decanter.

As new labels continue to flood Chianti Classico’s highest category, I have tasted almost as many Gran Selezione as annata this year.

The steady increase can largely be attributed to changes in the denomination’s regulations: in July 2023, the minister of agriculture signed the decree legally recognising the region’s Unità Geografiche Aggiuntive (UGA).

See the score table for Michaela’s tasting notes and scores for 180 new Chianti Classico releases 

Featured in this report:

The wines below are all mentioned in this Chianti Classico Gran Selezione report. To see all wines tasted, including all the top scorers, view the score table.

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The post Chianti Classico Gran Selezione: New releases in 2024 appeared first on Decanter.

Pauillac-based Château Pichon Baron and top-tier St-Émilion estate Château Pavie were among the latest big names to join the Bordeaux 2023 en primeur campaign this morning (4 June), alongside Château Giscours and Château L’Eglise-Clinet.

Year-on-year price reductions have continued, with prices on down in the region of 18-25% on an ex-Bordeaux négociant basis.

Four new releases at a glance:

• Château Pichon Baron 2023 97pts (Decanter) | €103 per bottle ex-négociant, down 23.4% versus 2022 | UK price £1,234 per 12x75cl in bond (IB)
• Château L’Eglise Client 2023 | 97pts | €210 per bottle, down 19.2% | UK price £2,508 (12x75cl IB)
• Château Pavie 2023 | 97pts | €234 per bottle, down 22% | UK price £2,784 (12x75cl IB)
• Château Giscours 2023 | 95pts | €40.8 per bottle, down 18.4% | UK price £492 (12x75cl IB)
  Price data source: Liv-ex.
  

Other highlights this week so far include Pichon Comtesse 2023 (98pts, Decanter), which generated strong praise from several merchants yesterday.

See Decanter’s full verdict on the Bordeaux 2023 vintage, plus ratings and tasting notes on the top-scoring wines

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Last year’s preview of the 2021 annata inspired great expectations for the Riserva and Gran Selezione categories of Chianti Classico, exhibiting great depth of fruit, balancing acidity and alcohol, and confident rather than arrogant tannins. This year’s tastings confirm that scaling Chianti Classico’s ladder in the 2021 vintage is well worth it.

Despite the challenges of spring frost followed by a hot, dry summer, conditions in the crucial period leading up to harvest seemed to work in symbiosis with this. The combination of slightly stressed vines and relatively cooler temperatures in September encouraged slow ripening, according to Alessandro Campatelli at Riecine.

‘Both technical [sugar] and phenolic ripening were close to perfect,’ he asserted, saying that the period from veraison to harvest lasted between 37-45 days. He compared this to 2022, which was 28-35 days, and 2020, which was barely over two weeks. Of course, these numbers are specific to Riecine’s high altitude vineyards in Gaiole.

In Radda, Poggerino’s Piero Lanza also points to ideal temperatures during September. ‘We had significant differences – early mornings as low as 3°C and days between 28-30°C.’ He maintains that this favoured great acidity, perfumes and polyphenolic complexity, all of which translated to the wines in the glass.

See the score table for Michaela’s tasting notes and scores for 180 new Chianti Classico releases 

Featured in this report:

The wines below are all mentioned in this Chianti Classico Riserva report. To see all wines tasted, including all the top scorers, view the score table.

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The post Chianti Classico Riserva: New releases in 2024 appeared first on Decanter.

How long can an open bottle of wine last in the fridge?

White and rosé wine

If you’re wondering how long wine can stay drinkable after opening, a bottle of white or rosé wine should be able to keep going for two to three days if kept in the fridge and resealed with the original cork or screwcap.

Sparkling wine

Sparkling wines, such as Prosecco or Champagne, can stay fresh and will keep some fizz for a similar amount of time, but need to be properly sealed – ideally with a specific Champagne bottle stopper which hooks onto the lip of the bottle to prevent it from being forced off due to a build up of carbon dioxide in the bottle.

Champagne expert Tyson Stelzer said that many people would be surprised that an open bottle of sparkling wine will ‘still keep some fizz in the fridge for some days.’

The most reliable way of keeping them fresh is ‘to use a Champagne stopper that provides a tight seal, and to keep the bottle as cold as possible’. So don’t listen to fables about spoons in sparkling wine’s bottle-neck.

Red wine

Red wines can generally last three to five days if stored with a stopper in a cool, dark place, said UK retailer Laithwaites after publishing a study in 2017 on the amount of wine people throw away.

Some lighter styles of red wine can be enjoyed chilled, and although full-bodied reds should be served at 16-18°C, you can still extend the life of an opened bottle by storing it in a temperature-controlled wine fridge or domestic fridge. Of course, factor in time for it to warm up again before drinking.

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Fortified wine

Some fortified wines are built to last and can be kept in the kitchen fridge for several weeks once opened.

In her feature on serving and preserving sweet and fortified wines, Anne Krebiehl MW noted that ruby and reserve Port will last for a few weeks, and Tawny Port could last for up to six weeks in the fridge.

Vintage Port, however, should be drunk up within a few days.

Marsala and Madeira, by contrast, can last for months once opened due to the long exposure to oxygen during the winemaking process, as well as the high acidity present.

Sweet wine

Sweet wines will typically last well when refrigerated. ‘These wines are resilient,’ Aline Baly, co-owner of Château Coutet in Barsac, previously told Decanter. ‘That you can keep a bottle open for more than a week is a fact unknown to many.’

How do I know if a wine has gone off?

As soon as you open a bottle of wine, you expose it to oxygen and – much like an apple browning – it will affect the wine. At first this may beneft the wine, helping it to show all its fruit complexity, however after several hours or days, it reaches a tipping point where it goes from being oxygenated to oxidised.

Things to look out for include fruit aromas and flavours that have become dulled compared to when it was first opened, or a tired colour and in extreme circumstances, even a brownish hue.

Also, look out for vinegary notes, which may be the result of bacteria causing a build-up of acetic acid.

Should I buy a Coravin?

Coravin is a wine preservation system that has been adopted by wine drinkers and top drinking and dining establishments alike. Now with several models, including one specifically for sparkling wines, the company claims that a wine’s life can be extended by days to months depending on the model used.

Coravin works by using a fine, hollow needle to piece the cork and allow you to pour out wine, while simultaneously filling the empty space in the bottle with inert argon gas which forms a barrier against oxygen.

Coravin can also be used with screwcaps and synthetic corks, although you will need to ensure you purchase the screwcap accessory. You will also need to replace the argon capsules from time to time, making Coravin an investment only worth it for those with a large collection of wine they would prefer to sample by the glass than by the bottle.

Should I buy a Vacu Vin?

Vacu Vin is the classic wine preservation device, designed to extend the life of a wine once opened by pumping out the air in the bottle to form a vacuum. From experience, this does work to a limited extent, giving your wine an extra one to two days of life compared to simply replacing the original cork or screw cap. While not preserving wine for as long as Coravin, Vacu Vin has the benefit of being more affordable.

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Rocco R Lombardo is president of major US wine importing and marketing company Wilson Daniels. Since his appointment in June 2015, Lombardo has added several world-renowned family-owned vineyards to the company’s portfolio (including Domaine Faiveley, Gaja, Familia Torres and Commanderie de Peyrassol). Today, Wilson Daniels is recognised as a front-runner in the US fine wine industry.

What led you to a career in fine wine?

My family. Being a first-generation Italian American, wine is an important part of my culture and was always on the table at home. Both my uncles were wine importers, and I was recruited into the business by one of them.

What has been your greatest moment, professionally?

The resurrection of Wilson Daniels to its previous heights when it was under the leadership of the founders, Win Wilson and Jack Daniels. When I took on the leadership of Wilson Daniels in 2015, the company had been in decline for about 15 years. In the nine years since, we have increased the employee base and our revenues five-fold.

What has been your biggest challenge?

Without a doubt, Covid-19. We represent some of the world’s finest wine producers, and 60% of our sales are in restaurants. The shelter-in-place orders that took hold in the second quarter of 2020 were very difficult for our business model. We decided at that time not to reduce headcount or furlough our employees. We opted instead to strengthen our presence in the market through outreach, such as virtual meetings and sample mailings. Where many companies took a step back, we took a step forward, and that’s something I’m very proud of.

What’s the most common misconception about your job?

Mainly, preconceptions about the romantic elements of wine. When you tell people you’re in the fine wine business, they imagine you drinking classic bottles at extravagant dinners with friends and colleagues. While that is an aspect of what we do, it’s a small aspect – at the end of the day, we’re running a business. The energies and strategies that are essential for running a wine business are no different to those of any other successful commercial endeavour.

What pressures come with importing some of the wine world’s biggest names?

Fulfilling high expectations. These are wine labels with long, important histories and celebrated reputations. They need to have very high standards, or they wouldn’t be where they are today. I would like to think that at Wilson Daniels, we have similarly high standards that meet their expectations.

And the perks?

The biggest perk without a doubt is getting to work with such amazing and historically important families. Knowing their wines intimately, visiting them at their estates and tasting the new vintages year after year is something only a select few are privileged to experience.

What keeps you up at night?

A sense of responsibility to our team. If anything causes some restlessness, it’s the need to continue to secure a successful path for this company and all of the people we employ.

Which US regions currently excite you?

Oregon’s Willamette Valley, for sure. Its northern position and proximity to the Pacific allow for great tension, expression and elegance in the Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays. I’m also excited by the higher-elevation Napa vineyards, like those in the Diamond Mountain District AVA, which is home to the Davies family and the historic Schramsberg estate.

What’s your go-to pizza wine?

My family’s roots are in Sicily, so I often find myself reaching for Feudo Montoni’s Lagnusa, which is a vibrant, elegant expression of Nero d’Avola, produced at high altitude.

DWWA results out 19 June!
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