Innehållsförteckning för May 2025 från Decanter

Crossing continents I’m in western Colombia at the moment visiting family. The scenery is breathtaking and the people incredibly welcoming, but in the local supermarket all I can find is basic Rioja or Chilean/Argentinian wine, priced at eyewatering levels. Certainly nothing resembling the top-class wines recommended in our batch of features on the US this month, or the exciting picks featured in the comprehensive guide to Rioja bundled with this month’s issue. The guide really is a must-read, featuring our first ever Rioja Report (for which we tasted more than 700 recent releases), plus editorial on the names to know, the wines to seek out across all styles, and what to do if you visit. Last but not least, please take time to answer a few quick questions on our…

Two opposing points of view, two contrasting ways forward: we love to frame our key questions as a dichotomy. Should we help others – or look after ourselves? Is democracy the safest form of government, or might autocracy have its merits? Is prosperity best assured through free-trade, or through protectionism? All urgent questions at present, affecting wine as they affect everything else; the responses are consequential. So much so… that I’ll leave those answers to you. I have a different dichotomy to discuss; it may even be the key question in wine aesthetics. When you treat yourself to a special bottle, what do you hope you’ll find? Is it wealth and resonance – or freshness? Yes, I know that much depends on the vintage and type of wine you’re buying.…

Sazerac Barrel Select comes to the UK Bourbon lovers in the UK can now get their hands on exclusive single barrels, as Sazerac Company has expanded its Sazerac Barrel Select (SBS) program outside the US for the first time. SBS is a membership-based initiative that invites individuals and small groups to choose and purchase their own single barrel of whiskey. A number of Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon barrels have been reserved for the UK, in addition to the existing allocation for the US, where 170,000 people are signed up. Barrels will be available on a first-come, first-served basis until 12pm on 11 June. Buyers can either travel to the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky to select their barrel and enjoy a private tour and tasting (with seven guests), or…

Inzuzo: the bigger picture JULIE SHEPPARD As reported in the April issue, South Africa is a hotbed of exciting young winemaking talent. So I jumped at the chance to meet Kaylin Willscott, assistant winemaker at Journey’s End in Stellenbosch, during her first visit to London. She was in town to talk about the Inzuzo Wine Co, a community-focused company owned by the workers at Journey’s End. Profits are used to support projects in the nearby village of Sir Lowry’s Pass, where many team members and their families have lived for generations; inzuzo means ‘benefit’ or ‘reward’ in Zulu and Xhosa. The goal is to build and run an early childhood development centre to plug a gap in state funding for early-years education. ‘It is a dream project for me to…

Three core wine nations, central to Europe’s multi-faceted wine production, all with a long tradition of winemaking, are shaped by diverse landscapes and distinct regional identities. Austria has cultivated vines since Roman times, with the Kamptal region standing out for the prevalence of loess beneath its vineyards and range of rocky soil profiles that enhance the character of its Grüner Veltliner and Riesling wines. The country has some 44,210ha under vine, with more than 40 officially approved grape varieties that define its winemaking identity. Germany is renowned for its Riesling, particularly from the Mosel, Nahe and Pfalz regions. The classification system, including Grosses Gewächs (GG, equivalent to the French ‘grand cru’ concept), highlights the country’s emphasis on terroir and precision in winemaking. These wines, often capable of ageing for…

It is both serendipitous and meaningful that a landmark edition of Decanter’s annual Rioja guide – inclusive, for the first time, of a comprehensive report on new releases – coincides with a landmark anniversary of the DOCa Rioja. As the denomination celebrates its centenary, we commit to an ever more complete coverage of the region at a time of exciting evolution and transformation. While analysing the past 12 months and century, this guide looks decisively to the future. Rioja’s new generation of winemakers and entrepreneurs are a promise of great things to come. Could we be entering a post-post-modern period in Rioja’s history? I think so. Many of the top-scoring wines in our report might already be pages of that new chapter. Here’s to another 100 years of a fascinating…

People often ask me how I find new wines and producers. My winemaker friends are certainly very helpful, always pointing me in the direction of exciting projects. Then there are local wine fairs, international shows and countless websites to search. But the answer is a lot simpler. I love chatting with local bar owners and restaurateurs to see what new discoveries or treasures they have to offer. These are the people who drink with local winemakers and know first-hand what’s happening in the vineyards. They are also close to their customers and can spot changing consumer trends before we can even start to consider, let alone quantify them. I talked with five business owners in the region, to find out what their customers are seeking in a glass of Rioja…

VANESSA RASON Who? Also writing under the nom de plume Vanessa Vin, this sommelier and writer worked harvests in both Burgundy and Sonoma. Growing up in the hills of Santa Barbara gave her a knack for discerning the wines in her backyard of Santa Ynez and Santa Maria Valley, which she calls home What? Explore Santa Barbara Chardonnay through this selection of 18 outstanding buys Why? For those who enjoy a more mineral, cool-climate expression of California Chard, Santa Barbara is worth discovering. Vanessa’s guide is a great place to start KATE NOWELL-SMITH Who? A consulting winemaker based in Sonoma, California, Kate also works as winemaker consultant for wine education platform Master the World Inc. She has recently launched a new Substack, Kate Unfiltered, where she is writing on the…

These days, I’m afraid, I Google the value of every bottle before I open it. No, not the value; the price. I get surprises. I get shocks. But I also learn that certain wines remain stubbornly cheaper than my estimate of their real worth. ‘Real’ is measured in the pleasure and satisfaction they give me. Isn’t it true that some names will always fetch a substantial premium because they are capable, at their best, of reaching the sublime heights? Or at least a level of recognisable distinction that, as it were, gets them nodded through. OK for banquets, let’s say. Labels, of course, play the key role. I love the story of the prosperous fellow giving a party who opens bottle after bottle of Krug. ‘You idiot,’ his friend says.…

There’s a cerebral intensity, underpinned by an electric vibrancy, to both Raúl Moreno and his work. Similarly, the unfortified wines he produces in Jerez have matter and substance, but also chiselled definition. But Moreno’s gentlemanly, erudite composure can be deceiving; his character and work couldn’t be further from conventional or expected – his path both unlikely and fascinating, his wines as precise as they are impossible to categorise. Opportunities seized Born in Seville in 1979, Moreno’s childhood and early teenage years were defined by his modest academic performance. ‘I was never a good student,’ he says. ‘And back then, if you lived in southern Spain and weren’t good at school, your options would be either the army or the kitchen.’ He chose the latter and enrolled in Seville’s hospitality school.…

It’s hard to believe, but the Margarita’s crown as the most popular tequila cocktail might be slipping. But which young upstart is giving this classic a run for its money? Let me introduce you to the Paloma, a refreshing, easy-to-make, easy-to-drink highball consisting of tequila, lime juice and grapefruit soda. As with many classic cocktails, the Paloma’s origins are unknown. It’s thought to have appeared in the 1950s, shortly after an American grapefruit soda called Squirt was brought to Mexico. As Squirt and tequila were both available and affordable, they inevitably got mixed. The rest is history. ‘The Paloma is very refreshing – the citrus notes go very well with the tequila. When it’s very hot in Mexico, it’s what everyone’s drinking,’ explains Sophie Decobecq, owner and distiller of Calle…

As the scores and notes clearly demonstrate, this was a superb tasting of South Africa’s finest Chardonnays. It showed beyond doubt that contemporary South Africa is home to some of the southern hemisphere’s most confident and assured examples of this variety – and perhaps the world’s. Although Chenin Blanc is the Cape’s signature white variety, Chardonnay, planted in the right place and vinified sensitively, can be sensational. Cool-climate regions – Elgin, Greyton, Hemel-en-Aarde and the brisker parts of Stellenbosch – triumphed decisively. Andy Howard MW found the wines ‘generally very good quality, stylish and consistent’. Roger Jones felt that they stood toe-to-toe with Hawke’s Bay, Margaret River and all but the finest Burgundy. The best offered an irresistible combination of concentration, clarity and freshness. It was notable that so many…

CHOSEN BY JAMES BUTTON, NATALIE EARL, TINA GELLIE, ELIE LLOYD ELLIS, INES SALPICO, JULIE SHEPPARD, AMY WISLOCKI & SYLVIA WU De Chanceny, Crémant de Loire Brut, France NV £12-£14.49 De Burgh, Tesco, Wildflower Wines Subtle, simple aromas span yellow and green fruit with a hint of toast. There’s more interest on the palate, racy and fresh, balancing a green apple tang with a creaminess that makes this very approachable. NE Alcohol 12.5% Jim Barry, The Lodge Hill Riesling, Clare Valley, South Australia 2023 £11.75-£14.95 Co-op, Shelved Wine Hints of petrol reveal green apple, lime and flinty smokiness. Zingy acidity, with crunchy green fruits and nectarines. Clean, bone-dry and mineral on the finish – everything you would expect from an easy-drinking Clare Valley Riesling. SW Alc 12% Julien Braud, Les Vignes…

Demand for wines is widening Auction house Sotheby’s has reported a ‘broadening in collecting interests’ in its latest annual market report for wine and spirits, despite a drop in overall sales last year. Sotheby’s new report highlighted rising demand for wines from California and Spain, as well as Italy and the Rhône, in 2024. Bordeaux, Burgundy and spirits still constituted just under 70% of total wine and spirits sales for the year, with Burgundy’s fabled Domaine de la Romanée-Conti the top-selling producer. Sotheby’s global wine and spirits auction sales dropped to $114m (£87m) in 2024, versus a record $159m in 2023, however. While hammer prices fell in a challenging market, it was also a year of consolidation and investment, said Nick Pegna, Sotheby’s global head of wine and spirits. ‘We…

INES SALPICO Who? Ines is Decanter’s Regional Editor for Spain, Portugal and South America. Born in Portugal, where she has a small vineyard and olive grove, she moved to London in 2015 after stints in New York and Barcelona. She lives in Hackney with her partner and two daughters What? Ines spent the first trimester of 2025 planning and coordinating Decanter’s first Rioja Report. An overview of the 650-wine tasting forms the core of this guide Why? In addition to our longstanding coverage of all things Rioja, we felt it was high time we assessed latest releases, analytically and on a regular basis, for an updated, comprehensive picture of the region’s output BETH WILLARD Who? Beth writes about and promotes Spanish wines in a number of markets globally, and in…

Less choice, higher prices for US wine lovers There have been fresh warnings that US import tariffs will mean higher wine prices, after a rollercoaster few weeks highlighted an era of uncertainty for consumers, producers and merchants. US president Donald Trump announced a 10% ‘reciprocal’ import tariff on many goods in April, to help redress a trade imbalance. It was potentially bad news for US-based fans of imported wines. ‘A 10% tariff will see US consumers pay higher prices for wines,’ said Ben Aneff, president of the US Wine Trade Alliance (USWTA), an anti-tariff lobby group. ‘Moreover, the threat of additional large tariffs has seen a halt to many wines being brought into the US,’ Aneff was reported as saying in mid-April. It was a fluid situation as Decanter went…

Unsurprisingly, the number ‘97’ doesn’t make most drinkers salivate. Then again, by the laws of subjectivity, a wine by any other score would taste as sweet (read: balanced, bright, aromatic, memorable). And while I, myself, am partial to adjectives, the practice of old-fashioned numerical scoring is nevertheless alive and well. For context: ‘Scoring is just a shorthand that tells you how good a critic thinks a wine is compared to its peers,’ explains Matt Walls, Decanter’s Rhôneoriented wine critic (and the Regional Chair for Rhône in the Decanter World Wine Awards). ‘For winemakers and [commercial] buyers, scores are a useful tool. For retailers and importers, they help market and sell wines. They’re useful for everyone along the whole supply chain, just in different ways.’ ‘IF WE ALL SCORED THE SAME,…

Ask Decanter Each month our experts answer your burning wine questions. Email your queries to editor@decanter.com Spear gear Q Would you pair different wines with green and white asparagus? Helen Harrison, Leeds AFiona Beckett, Decanter contributing editor, replies: Short answer: yes, I would! White asparagus is more delicate and doesn’t have the assertive, herbaceous character of green asparagus. It preserves well (usually in jars, sometimes in cans), which tends to give it a touch of sweetness, too. It’s popular in central European countries such as Germany and Austria, where it’s often served with finely sliced smoked ham or with a creamy or buttery sauce, which makes Chardonnay, Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc) or a Grüner Veltliner with a lick of oak a good pairing – or, of course, Riesling. Green asparagus works…

Provence white wines aren’t (yet) well known outside the region, notes Natasha Hughes MW, but they’re growing in popularity. This tasting showed enough potential to make it a category of interest. With the rosés of Provence becoming increasingly pale, white wine could be seen as a natural progression; there was even one blanc de noir in the tasting. Some producers claim that technological knowledge gained from making rosé (such as temperature control and more reductive winemaking) has improved the region’s white wines. However, it wasn’t evident from the tasting that white wines inspired by rosé were the best way to go. Joanna Simon felt that producers needed ‘to stand back and look at their white wines in the context of other white wines’, noting that ‘many of them are applying…

CHOSEN BY NATALIE EARL, TINA GELLIE, INES SALPICO, JULIE SHEPPARD, AMY WISLOCKI & SYLVIA WU A Levasseur, Extrait Gourmand Rosé Brut, Champagne, France NV £50 Iconic Wines, North & South Wines A vibrant, energetic, tangy rosé Champagne filled with bundles of succulent berries, a lovely creamy texture, notes of pastry and brioche, and a lick of sherbet. It has great concentration and is just delicious. NE Alc 12.5% Felton Road, Block 6 Chardonnay, Central Otago, New Zealand 2023 B £48.20-£53.49 Frazier’s, House of Townend, Roberson Aromatic citrus with floral hints. The palate’s weight is balanced by vivid freshness. Minerality combines with an elegant creaminess, supporting layers of flavour: citrus, white peach, mandarin and pear. JS Alc 14% Achaval Ferrer, Quimera Blanco, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina 2022 £36-£40.95 Hic, Jeroboams…

TEST YOUR WINE KNOWLEDGE ROSÉ Easy question What are the three main ways to produce rosé? Hard question Which was the first Champagne house to sell a rosé expression, when, and what term was used to describe its colour? CRISP & WINE MATCH Crisp Tyrrells Vegetable Crisps Wine style Orange wine Why it works The sweet then savoury, earthy notes of the vegetable crisps play very nicely with the slightly funky, waxy note of these skin-contact white wines, helping to bring out a little more sweetness and fragrant fruit. The whole experience gives a really pleasing mouthfeel, the root-vegetable notes helping to bring out some brighter, more fragrant notes in the wine. • The Crisp Sommelier: The Ultimate Guide to Crisp and Drink Pairings, by Neil Ridley, was published in…

Most appellations of origin in wine are associated with particular styles: Barolo, Chianti, Burgundy, Mosel, Ribera del Duero… the list goes on. However, two names – Bordeaux and Rioja – stand out by eschewing such categorisations. Instead of particular styles, the two regions represent Wine, pure and simple. In each of these two great regions, almost all styles and categories are produced: red, white, rosé, sparkling, sweet; fresh wines to drink young and classical wines for extended cellaring; single-vineyard boutique-label wines and ubiquitous global brands; wines made by guardians of tradition and by energetic innovators. Both regions are as passionately beloved as they are publicly criticised. Yet they show an amazing ability to keep developing new ideas and new wines, while fine-tuning the most traditional styles. They are heirs to…

1863 Phylloxera appears in France, Portugal (1872) and Italy (1879), leading French traders to Rioja. The construction of a railway connection to Haro makes it a hub for French producers, who popularise new winemaking techniques and barrel-ageing 1899 Phylloxera arrives, destroying two-thirds of Rioja’s vineyards. Combined economic damage from vine loss and a decrease in demand from France and Spain’s former colonies causes a huge wave of emigration 1907 16 wineries found the Union of Rioja Wine Exporters in Haro with the aim of maintaining and enhancing the reputation of Rioja wines 1925 A Royal Order establishes the Rioja Denominación de Origen (DO), defining its protected production zone, introducing seals to ensure the authenticity of each bottle, and granting legal authority to combat fraudulent use of the Rioja name 1932…

‘These are a (very) young new generation whose motto could be summed up as “place over process”’ In Rioja, it’s no crime to be joven (meaning ‘young’) – it’s actually an advantage; and not just for the wines. There’s a current of youthful excitement running through the region, thanks to the latest new generation of winemakers who are more prepared than ever to take on the challenges of an uncertain future. As it celebrates its centenary this year, DOCa Rioja is reckoning with changing consumer tastes and declining red wine consumption around the world. Faced with a radical reconsideration of the region’s place in the wine world, Rioja’s young winemakers are injecting the appellation with a much-needed dose of energy, optimism and clarity. They’re taking the reins of family wineries…