Innehållsförteckning för January 2023 från Decanter

■ Wine officials in Sicily’s Etna region have added nine new ‘contrade’, representing distinct geographical and geological sites, to recognise the diversity and nuance of the territory’s soils. There are now 142 contrade around the volcano, as shown on a new colour map published by the Consorzio Tutela Vini Etna DOC. ‘This map establishes the full viticultural maturity of our district,’ said consorzio president Francesco Cambria. ■ US president Joe Biden served three Californian wines at a White House state dinner held for his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron. Roederer Estate Brut Rosé sparkling featured alongside Newton Unfiltered Chardonnay 2018 from Napa Valley and Anakota Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, according to menu details published by Reuters. There was a nod to France; Roederer Estate is owned by Champagne Louis Roederer.…

SPARKLING ■ Roederer Estate, Quartet Brut, Anderson Valley, California, USA NV 94 C 12.5%, £25-£31.99 Amps, Davy’s, Hedonism, JN Wine, Le Vignoble, Philglas & Swiggot, The Wine Society, Waitrose ■ Hattingley Valley, Kings Cuvée, Hampshire, England 2015 93 C 12%, £80-£88.50 Caviste, Grape Britannia, The Great Wine Co ■ No1 Family Estate, No1 Rosé, Marlborough, New Zealand NV 90 C 13%, £29.50 Amathus Drinks ■ Balnaves of Coonawarra, Sparkling Cabernet, Coonawarra, South Australia NV 93 O 13.5%, balnaves.com.au WHITE ■ Borgo San Daniele di Mauri Mauro, Arbis Blanc, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy 2019 94 C 14%, £41.50 Il Tastevin ■ Château Grand Village, Blanc, Bordeaux, France 2019 94 V 13%, £23 Armit ■ Decugnano dei Barbi, Mare Antico Orvieto Classico, Umbria, Italy 2019 94 V 13.5%, £20.50 Tannico ■ Fattoria…

S avoury and satisfying are among the descriptors most commonly used by our judges at the Decanter World Wine Awards when describing the best red wines of the Languedoc in southern France. Archetypal blended styles with appellation requirements that call for a minimum of two varieties, Languedoc’s AP wines can be complex, revealing a host of enticing aromas and flavours to delve into, particularly from the region’s top appellations and named sub-zones such as Minervois, La Clape or Corbières-Boutenac. Languedoc’s increasing attention to small-production and high-quality wines has meant that exports of the region’s AP wines continue to grow, as do the tallies of top medals won at international wine competitions such as the Decanter World Wine Awards. The 2022 competition results saw five wines awarded Platinum medals (97 points)…

Rosemary George MW is a wine writer based in London and the south of France. Author of more than a dozen books on wine, her latest is The Wines of Roussillon (£35 Infinite Ideas, April 2021). She publishes her own blog focusing on the Languedoc: rosemary-george-mw.com Justin Howard-Sneyd MW is the DWWA Regional Chair for Languedoc-Roussillon. A former wine buyer in UK multiple retail, he is a wine trade consultant via his company The Hive Wine Consulting, and also produces his own wines in Roussillon at the 4ha Domaine of the Bee Daphne Teremetz is a wine buyer at UK grocer Waitrose, responsible for managing and sourcing wines from Bordeaux, Loire, Rhône and Alsace, and previously regional France, too. Born in northern France, she is based in London and is…

Dirceu Vianna Junior MW is a wine writer, consultant and educator. Moving to the UK from Brazil in 1989, he was a director at some of the UK’s most prominent distributors, becoming a Master of Wine in 2008. He is co-author of Conheça Vinhos (‘Understanding Wine’, Senac) an awarded book in Portuguese Christine Allen is marketing director for distributor Maisons Marques et Domaines. With years of experience in both on- and off-trade, she is particularly focused on Old World regions, notably Spain, Portugal and Burgundy, and is a DWWA judge for Spain Valentin Radosav is an advanced sommelier and a DWWA judge for Portugal. Formerly head sommelier at Michelin one-star Gymkhana in Mayfair, he is now learning and development manager for The Stafford hotel in London SW1…

Charles Clément, Blanc de Blancs Brut, 90 93 Champagne, France NV £32.49 MJ Wine Cellars Produced from vines grown in the Côte de Bar, this blanc de blancs is crisp and linear, with zesty acidity, aromas of red apple and baked goods, and a toasty warmth on the finish. It’s lean and refreshing, the perfect aperitif. AW Alc 12% Bat Gara, 18 Meses, País Vasco, Spain 2018 £27 WoodWinters An elegant, complex expression of Hondarrabi Zuri, fermented and aged on lees, for 18 months, in old oak barrels. Expect the Basque variety’s trademark salinity amplified by layers of roasted nuts, dried citrus and ripe orchard fruits. Long finish with a lining of vanilla and nutmeg. IS Alc 13.5% New Chapter, Grüner Veltliner, Niederösterreich, Austria 2021 £25.50 Vinvm A delicious Grüner…

Gosset, Celebris Blanc de Blancs, Champagne 2012 This is Gosset’s first vintage blanc de blancs release, wrote Decanter’s Yohan Castaing. ‘The initial nose is quite shy, but coaxing reveals a character expressing white fruit such as pear and spring flowers enhanced by pastry and citrussy notes,’ Castaing said, rating the wine at 95 points. ‘The palate has a suave, even mouthcoating texture and remarkable depth that is beautifully sustained by chalky salinity and a gorgeous grapefruit taste.’ He also suggested the wine, disgorged in March 2022, could benefit from a decade of further ageing. The Whisky Exchange was offering the wine at £225 a bottle. Collectors and investors will find a wealth of useful information on decanter.com/premium, including Mexpert assessments of the latest vintage releases and comprehensive tasting notes. Current reports…

CHARLES CURTIS MW is a widely published journalist, author and fine wine advisor based in New York. Formerly head of wine at Christie’s in the US and Asia, he started out as a chef and travelled to Paris to train at Le Cordon Bleu NATALIE EARL is Decanter’s regional editor for France other than Bordeaux and Burgundy. A keen advocate for organic, sustainable and natural wines, in this issue she looks at the growing field of bag in box wines BROOKE HERRON is a travel, food and drink writer based in Sonoma County. Also a digital marketing consultant, she writes for titles including The Somm Journal, Fodor’s Travel, NorthBay biz and Sonoma County Tourism ANDREW JEFFORD is a contributing editor to Decanter magazine and a Co-Chair overseeing all judging at…

We recently invited good friends over for dinner to celebrate their 60th birthdays, and to our surprise alongside the customary wine offering was a large ornate wooden case. A game for later, I was told! The case didn’t enclose a board game but a large sabre, which our guests, grinning, announced was to open the fizz! As it turned out they were well practised in the art of sabrage. It was remarkably easy, a great spectacle and added some theatre to the occasion. Given that sabrage originated from Napoleon’s cavalry officers, we used my last bottle of Wiston Estate Vintage Cuvée Brut 2013, in a new tradition for us. It was superb, richly coloured and full of flavour – amatch for any good Champagne. (Footnote: where can you get hold of…

\Finally, after decades of trying, the world has, officially, gone mad. Which makes it incredibly easy to predict what’s going to happen in 2023. Keep track of the following, and see how many come true over the next 12 months. We can guarantee it will be at least six*. *Guarantees may not be accurate and are not to be taken as fact. All bets made as a result of this article are at the reader’s own risk. Inaccurate or offensive predictions were probably made by somebody else. January Decanter readers are criticised by the government for ‘wilfully misunderstanding health messaging’. ‘They know perfectly well that when we encourage the population to take part in ‘Dry January’ we mean they should give up alcohol,’ said a spokesman. ‘Simply renouncing sweet wines…

After the trials of the ‘terrible twos’ for last year’s selection, at first I thought that the anniversary wines for 2023 might leave another glass half empty, but the more I looked into past anniversary vintages, the more I found my glass overflowing, on occasion literally, with some gorgeous wines and fantastic buys for anyone looking out for a great wine gift for a partner or friend. I was also pleasantly surprised, on fossicking about in the recesses of my own cellar, to find a handful of deliciously mature wines that were far from over the hill, and I can only apologise in advance for the many wines I name here that are too rare to be found easily or at all – though it’s worth a rummage to see…

While much of California’s Sonoma County is warm all year round, the maritime climate of its coastal wine-growing regions is a viticultural sweet spot, combining cool, even temperatures, cold winds and fog. A Pacific marine layer cools down those appellations closest to the coast each morning, lingering in some places before burning off in the midday sun. Cold ocean air funnels its way inland from the coast through corridors, resulting in high winds that affect grape-growing conditions. The AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) acknowledged as the most heavily influenced by coastal conditions are West Sonoma Coast, Petaluma Gap and – moving inland a little – the Green Valley of Russian River Valley. While they are by no means the only regions in Sonoma County where cool-weather vineyard sites can be found,…

A jewel in the crown The Beefeater distillery first launched its premium gin Crown Jewel back in 1993. Available only in travel retail, it became a collectible cult hit and a bartender favourite, but was discontinued in 2009. Thankfully the distillery has had a recent change of heart and Beefeater Crown Jewel (Alc 50%) is back and better than ever, with a higher bottling strength and striking ruby bottle inspired by the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London. It’s made to the same recipe as Beefeater Original but with the addition of grapefruit as a 10th botanical. ‘When you’re dealing with flavour, two plus two doesn’t equal four,’ commented Beefeater’s Master Distiller Desmond Payne at the launch, explaining how he experimented to create the super-charged citrus expression of the…

An instant familiarity overtook me when I ate Jamaican food on the island for the first time. Those dishes I savoured so much at home in the UK, and which seemed too infrequent because they depended on successfully sourcing ingredients not sold where we lived in the southwest, were now abundant. Ackee and saltfish served with three different types of dumpling on the side. Stew pork that was so deeply glossy and satisfying I heard myself making involuntary noises of joy as I ate it. Jerk chicken savoured with a side of roasted breadfruit, eaten as the smell of woodsmoke attached itself to my skin from the pimento wood on jerk pits. Food is everywhere in Jamaica. Growing in trees, produce sold at the roadside, meals sold in unassuming food…

Cabernet Sauvignon-Malbec blends by Stefan Neumann MS What if you could travel back in time? Would you dare to try wines made in Bordeaux before the 1855 Classification came into place? Actually you can get a taste of this historical style without seeking out your nearest time machine as, back in the day, claret was often based on Malbec, or had a high percentage in the final blend. I first learned this on a trip to Mendoza, many moons ago. It needed a second push, but when I visited Margaret River in Western Australia earlier this year it became evident to me that Cabernet-Malbec blends represent the perfect ‘marriage’ of two grape varieties. Margaret River and Mendoza boast a unique heritage of both varieties, each region with its own story…

NEW YORK TAKES THE STAGE CLIVE PURSEHOUSE New York has been producing wine since the 17th century, when other major wine regions in the US were literal unknowns to European settlers. The success of California, Oregon and Washington’s viticulture has sometimes left New York out of the conversation it very much belongs in. A recent comparative tasting hosted by the New York Wine & Grape Foundation made that much abundantly clear. New York’s wines can and do go toe to toe with the country’s other major regions. Each of the wines was impressive, but none made as good an impression as Macari Vineyards’ Bergen Road. This is a profoundly pretty red wine. The 2020 vintage is the most recent release, as the wine is only made in what the Macaris…

DOMAINE DE LA ROMANEE-CONTI 2020 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC) follows a slightly different rhythm to the general Burgundy en primeur schedule. Corney & Barrow, DRC’s UK agent, said it planned to offer the domaine’s 2020-vintage wines en primeur in February 2023. BORDEAUX 2020 IN-BOTTLE Look out for Bordeaux 2020 in-bottle reviews in the coming weeks, including on Decanter Premium. Mouton Rothschild 2020’s price was up 11.6% over 12 months, said Liv-ex. Some older first growths have also shown momentum. Bordeaux Index said in October that Château Latour 1990 and 2005 were up 31% in price over two years. Latour’s youngest grand vin on the market is 2014. COTE-ROTIE WINE FAIR Côte-Rôtie’s annual ‘Ampuis wine market’, running from 20 to 23 January and featuring many producers from the area, could…

Fine wine & spirits specialist Bordeaux Index kindly sponsors this section of Decanter, and provides its view on the market here every issue. It can be found at bordeauxindex.com The Champagne market has experienced a sharp rise in pricing since summer 2021. While this pace of growth has slowed somewhat in 2022, the upwards momentum persists. There is reason to expect this to continue: luxury consumption is a growing dynamic and this manifests itself in brand focus – pertinent in Champagne (as it has been for Tuscan wines). These brand focus and luxury consumption drivers mean it is not surprising that Cristal and Krug sit broadly at the top of the performance table, though most top names have seen upwards of +50% gains since summer 2021. This year, mid-age vintages…

Memories from Bordeaux The article on Bordeaux’s Château Branaire-Ducru (Christmas 2022 issue) brings back fond memories. On a visit to Bordeaux in August 2007, Patrick Maroteaux was kind enough to give my wife and I atour of the estate. I had previously tasted the 1999 Duluc, as it was called back then, which I found to be almost as good as the Branaire-Ducru itself at a very affordable price. So I asked him if I could buy a few cases. Monsieur Maroteaux laughingly replied that even a second wine could not be sold direct by the château. At the time we had a house in the Loire; he asked for the address and called a distributor he knew, and in no time the wine was delivered. I still have a…

Can every iteration of Decanter’s Wines of the Year be ‘the best ever’? I wasn’t convinced we could top last year’s tasting, which included a perfect 100 score from one judge, but it does seem to be the case with 2022’s crop. Our Sparkling, White and Red Wines of the Year each earned 99 points from this year’s three experts, and half of the 125 bottles in the stellar line-up scored 95pts or more – up from 40% last year. ‘Hands down the best wine tasting I’ve ever done,’ enthused Amanda Barnes, a sentiment shared by her fellow judges. To select the wines, Decanter World Wine Awards Regional Chairs, key contributors and staff nominated the three wines that most impressed them in 2022. These had to be under the categories…

If you’re taking a break from booze after the festive season, or simply want to drink more mindfully, try one of these NoLo options… 1 Atopia Rhubarb & Ginger £23-£27.50/70cl Atopia Spirits, Clink, Harvey Nichols, Ocado, The Whisky Exchange, Waitrose The award-winning Atopia range was created by Lesley Gracie, Master Distiller at Hendrick’s Gin. The selection also includes Hedgerow Berry and Spiced Citrus, but the deliciously tangy Rhubarb & Ginger is my favourite. Pair it with Fever-Tree Raspberry & Rhubarb Tonic and plenty of ice in a highball glass, for a crisp, spritz-style drink laced with sweet-and-sour rhubarb and zingy fresh ginger notes. Alcohol 0.5% 2 Decem Aperitif £29.50-£30/70cl Decem, Dvine Cellars, Not on the High Street This herbaceous aperitif has a Camparistyle bitterness to the palate. Clocking in at…

It’s hard to deny the seductiveness of a Shiraz that has been made in the warmer climates of the New World, with the elevated temperatures and sun hours moulding this naturally highly acidic and tannic grape into an unashamedly opulent expression. Monastrell (aka Mourvèdre or Mataro) is arguably best known as a key blending component in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but it can certainly hit its straps when allowed to perform solo – as it does in Jumilla towards Spain’s southeast coast. Although a thick-skinned variety like Shiraz, the baking, dry heat of Jumilla (offset by cool nighttime temperatures) results in potent yet suave wines, rich in black fruits and with notes of earth, tobacco and often a fine seam of minerality.…

If you have never drunk any white wine from Roussillon, you are in for a complete surprise. Who would have thought that this sun-soaked, arid terrain could produce such elegant white wines, with lively acidity? My fellow judge, Justin Howard-Sneyd MW, summed it up when he said: ‘One of the major takeaways from the Master of Wine trip to the Roussillon in 2019 was the sheer quality of the white wines.’ And I agree. However, white wine of any quality is a relatively recent development in the region. The early appellations, created in 1977, virtually ignored it. Now, there is Côtes du Roussillon Blanc, but no Côtes du Roussillon Villages white; red Collioure was recognised in 1971 but white Collioure had to wait until 2003. Consequently, many of the successful…

It’s no secret that the Douro has been making excellent still red wines for years. But what is astonishing is the level of consistency that the region has managed to achieve in recent vintages – and this tasting, which featured wines from a wide range of those vintages, served to confirm this. ‘What surprised me most was the consistency, fruit expression and use of oak,’ said Christine Allen. She felt the wines showed great finesse, fruit concentration and impeccable balance, pointing to very good vineyard management and winemaking practices. Valentin Radosav concurred, adding that the use of oak, in most cases, was very well judged. ‘If you have beautiful fruit, just let it express itself, and this is what seems to be happening,’ he said. The level of uniformity and…

Cave de Lugny, Crémant de Bourgogne Brut, 91 90 Burgundy, France NV £14.99 Waitrose Often overlooked, Crémant de Bourgogne has a lot to offer, both on quality and value. Here, a fresh, mineral nose is followed by flavours of peach, green apple and pear. The fruit has just enough weight, lifted by the bubbles. Good mineral length. IS Alcohol 11.5% Castel Faglia, Franciacorta Extra Brut, Lombardy, Italy NV £15.50 Tesco This bottle-fermented blanc de blancs (100% Chardonnay) is a great-value Champagne alternative. It’s as fresh as a daisy, with aromatic lemon citrus notes and a caress of toastiness on the finish. Drier than many Brut Champagnes (3g/L dosage), with focus and vibrancy. AW Alc 12.5% Cramele Recas, Wildflower Cuvée Blanc Reserva, Banat, Romania 2020 £13.99 Adnams A reliable Romanian wine…

California’s Ridge Vineyards has marked its 60th anniversary by auctioning rare library wines, including its famous Monte Bello label, via Christie’s. The London-based auction was 100% sold, Christie’s said. Top lot was a nine-magnum collection of Monte Bello, spanning the 1990 to 1999 vintages inclusive (except 1993). It fetched £7,500 (pre-sale high estimate £7,000). Two jeroboams of Monte Bello 1978, offered separately, each fetched £4,000, and a third sold for £3,500 (high estimate: £3,000 per lot). Also in December, Sotheby’s auctioned a single lot of Château Mouton Rothschild, Pauillac 2020, featuring several bottle formats – including the only 15-litre ‘nebuchadnezzar’ of the wine currently available for sale. The lot included a private tour and lunch at the first growth estate. It sold for €175,000 (£151,000; high e: €200,000), with proceeds…

How did your wine focus come about? It’s born from the meeting between my work as a neuroscientist and my personal enthusiasm for wine and tasting. Several years ago, to my great surprise, I noticed that most professional tasters – sommeliers, winemakers and wine critics – know little about the brain, even though it is the tool they use daily to analyse wine! This prompted me to develop a neurosensory approach to wine tasting and offer my expertise to the industry. What’s the best thing about your job? The balance between research, teaching and wine tasting. And the fact that, because neuroscience and wine can interact on many levels, I meet many experts and learn a lot from them! And the worst? The frustration around not being able to dedicate…