Decanter May 2022

It’s odd but inspiring that wine is so closely tied to its place of origin and yet so international. Geography and geology, regional typicity, the secrets of ‘terroir’ – all make wine uniquely local. And yet wine lovers themselves appreciate a worldwide spectrum of styles. We’ve focused on Italy in this issue, which produces some spectacular wines, but ask any lover of Brunello, Barolo, Pinot Grigio or Greco di Tufo to taste something from Bordeaux, Napa or Rioja and they’re very unlikely to refuse. Great wines cross borders and act as ambassadors of their cultures and countries. Something we could definitely do with a bit more of in today’s fractious, fractured world. So next time you’re drinking something pleasant from a far-flung vineyard, raise a glass to the wide, wonderful…

JANE ANSON is a widely published and awarded wine writer, educator and judge. Resident in Bordeaux, she was Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent for many years, and has recently launched her own site at janeanson.com FILIPPO BARTOLOTTA is a wine writer, speaker, educator and judge based in Tuscany. He set out as a sommelier at Vinopolis in London in 1999, and is now owner of wine tour agency Le Baccanti and MaMa Florence cooking school RICHARD BAUDAINS is a regular contributor to Decanter and long-serving DWWA Regional Chair for the Veneto. He lives in Friuli Venezia Giulia in northeast Italy, where he is consultant to a group of language schools ALDO FIORDELLI is a widely published journalist, wine writer and author, a DWWA judge and regular Decanter contributor. He became a qualified…

Aproject to explore how global warming could affect Bordeaux grand cru classé wines in 2050 has been launched by multiple estate owner Bernard Magrez. The Oracle 2050 study at Château La Tour Carnet in Haut-Médoc aims to ‘simulate’ some conditions producers may face when creating ‘the Bordeaux wine of tomorrow’, said Maison Bernard Magrez. It’s the latest example of research to understand how well key regions can adapt to climate change. In an experimental vineyard that has been planted with both Bordeaux and non-Bordeaux grape varieties, La Tour Carnet will employ warming cables normally used in aeroplanes. ‘By heating the sap flow and accelerating the growth of vines, we are in effect mimicking warmer temperatures,’ said Julien Lecourt, head of research and development at Maison Bernard Magrez, owner of four…

It’s no easy task to establish a super-premium wine in an entirely new region, particularly when inviting potential retail partners or distributors to the vineyard involves journeying to a distant corner of the Himalayas in the outer reaches of the Yunnan province, southwestern China. For my journey, after four flights from Bordeaux to Shanghai, Chengdu then Shangri-La, it was a four-hour drive up through stunning mountain passes to the foothills (here, that means 2,200m above sea level) of the Meili mountains. It’s hard to imagine a vineyard as breathtaking as Ao Yun, the LVMH (Moët Hennessy) project set in this improbably remote region. The name (which means ‘flying above the clouds’) takes on a whole new meaning when you realise that oxygen is packed into the back of the car…

LETTER OF THE MONTH Getting a head start My fascination with wine started some five years ago, on a trip to Cape Town’s Franschhoek region. It’s gone up a notch in the past two years since I’ve started collecting, sparked by the Bordeaux 2019 release, which I was happy to see recently reviewed in bottle (April 2022 issue). Being in my late 20s and with some 2,000 bottles tucked away in storage, I feel fortunate and perhaps a little smug to be so ahead of the curve in terms of cellar building. Wine-loving friends are consistently jealous, but it has not come without ridicule. Trying to explain to my baby boomer parents why a house of wine is a better investment than, say, a house, has its challenges. As does…

As you sit down with this edition of Decanter, the French presidential campaign will be reaching its climax: the first round of voting is on 10 April. Most countries struggle for consensus as the toxins of social media erode perspective and unbalance vulnerable minds – and France is no exception, so an absolute majority in the first round is unlikely. The election will then be decided by a run-off between the two candidates with the most first-round votes, on 24 April. Politics is uncertain. The list of candidates and campaigns as I write (at winter’s end) is long, colourful, occasionally sinister, occasionally farcical. There is, though, a fair chance that one of the two candidates in the final sprint down the Champs-Elysées will be a politician who likes to drink…