Decanter November 2020

Trump Winery, Charlottesville, Virginia The Star-Spangled Banner flies over the Carriage House at Trump Winery, purchased in 2011 by Donald, now President Trump (who is famously teetotal), and gifted to his son Eric a year later. The winery was founded in 1999 by Patricia Kluge, following her divorce from American billionaire John Kluge. She pumped huge amounts of money into it, with the ambition of making the best wine in the world. The range includes Cru, a fortified, aperitif-style Chardonnay.…

Yields low, potential high in Champagne Champagne producers have said 2020 may complete a rare ‘trilogy’ of top-quality vintages, but there are set to be fewer bottles made after a drop in global sales this year led to tight limits being placed on harvest size. Champagne houses and growers settled on a maximum yield of 8,000kg of grapes per hectare for 2020, one of the lowest in recent times and equivalent to about 230m bottles in all, said regional wine council the Comité Champagne. The decision came just as pickers were preparing to enter the vineyards for this year’s harvest, which began on 17 August, two weeks ahead of the 10-year average. While hot weather and drought-like conditions were already expected to mean a smaller harvest in some areas, the move to curb potential…

Hailstorms in the Verona area have caused problems in Valpolicella vineyards. ‘Huge damage has been caused in the lower part of Valpolicella, but as we are over the hills we we avoided it,’ said Andrea Lonardi, winemaker at Bertani estate. ‘The Classico subregion was spared.’ The local wine consorzio said 5% of Valpolicella vineyards, about 400ha, suffered damage in the late-August storms. An emerging wine region in Patagonia has become the latest to receive geographical indication status in Argentina. In Chubut province, Trevelin has only 12ha of vineyards. Home to several varieties including Chardonnay, Semillon, Gewürztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc, in summer the area boasts 17 hours of daylight, while temperatures can hit 30°C during the day and drop to zero at night. Château Lafite Rothschild’s owner DBR (Lafite) has announced…

Galician whites GALICIA: BEYOND ALBARINO Grapes such as Doña Blanca are unfamiliar to many... for now. Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW explores Galicia’s lesser-known varieties and recommends some highly distinctive wines Albariño is the best-known ambassador for Galician grapes. But Galicia is much more than Albariño. In fact, the region is a heartland for a large number of highly distinctive wines made from several different grape varieties. One might wonder why these Galician wines aren’t yet widely known. There are two reasons. Firstly, Galicia was a poor and isolated region throughout the 20th century, with no resources to produce high-quality wines, and emigration a major concern. Secondly, land holdings in Galicia are extremely small – less than 1ha per holding in many areas. On this scale, quality winemaking was almost impossible.…

Decanter Hall of Fame Award I am surprised and disappointed that Decanter has put Robert Parker into the Hall of Fame (August 2020 issue). He does not deserve it. He has done more to ruin wine then anyone in the last half century. His 100-point rating system simply gave the country of McDonalds and instant gratification a Dummies Guide to Wine. Many retailers stopped being wine merchants and simply slapped a sticker with Parker points on the bottles. Prices rose to ridiculous heights on bottles that garnered a 95 or higher. He held the wine market hostage for decades. That you awarded this so-called Emperor of Wine instead of relegating him to the dustbin of history is a complete shame. Peter Neptune MS, by email Long ago, the world of wine was dominated…

Scenting trouble French start-up Aryballe has constructed a device with the capability to detect more than 500 scents and this is soon to be released, targeting the hospitality industry. I can’t help wondering how this will affect our beloved wine industry. Will we reach a point where consumers will read automatically printed reports to decide if they like a wine based on its aromas? Will critics across the globe skip this part of their tasting and proceed to assessing other values? Or, will Champagne houses and other non-vintage wine producers replace their ‘noses’ with mechanical counterparts? On a more positive note, it might help smaller houses and producers to create a more consistent and complex product. The certainty is that at some point we will have to go through a creative destruction phase,…