Decanter

The Decanter of 1975 is unrecognisable when you compare it to the magazine today. The occasionally sexist headlines, clunky design, absence of many wine regions and different scoring system can make these earliest editions look like museum pieces. Th

Abundant wine supplies in California may offer opportunities for consumers, but have also brought challenges for producers – and calls to uproot vines. California’s 2023 wine grape crush weighed in at 3.67m tonnes, up 8% on 2022, said the US Departme

Legendary London restaurant Le Gavroche has put superstar wines and memorabilia up for auction after permanently closing its doors. Michelin two-star Le Gavroche completed its final service for the public on 13 January, bringing the curtain down on a

Constance Prince Maurice, Mauritius Situated on the lush island of Mauritius, the luxurious five-star Constance Prince Maurice hotel will appeal to beach and wine lovers alike. The retreat, which enjoys an idyllic setting among tropical greenery on t

As somebody who has recently embarked on a second career in the wine industry, I have had some insight into the industry’s challenges, including low pay and a lack of diversity. While my employer (a well-known retailer) is making steps in the right d

A new international terminal at Florence’s Amerigo Vespucci airport in Tuscany will feature a winery and rooftop vineyard, it has been announced. A 7.7-hectare (ha) vineyard will cover the gently sloping roof, said Rafael Viñoly Architects, which cre

Twenty years after the Academy Awardwinning film Sideways released, and its Pinot Noir-loving protagonist Miles Raymond uttered his now-infamous line – ‘I am not drinking any f***ing Merlot!’ – the author of the then-unpublished manuscript optioned f

With traditional Japanese sake brewing techniques expected to gain UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status in 2024, there’s never been a better time to discover this versatile, gently fermented alcoholic drink made from milled rice and water. Outs

If you love the red wines of Bordeaux, this is a great time to be alive. There’s no historical parallel – in 2,000 years, so far as we know – for its recent run of good to great vintages. This profoundly maritime region fronting the capricious Bay of

Since last January, when the World Health Organization (WHO) dogmatically declared that ‘no level of alcohol is safe for our health’, a spate of alarmist news reports and protectionist governmental initiatives have thrown the wine world into an exist

If the name Anjou doesn’t ring any bells, it’s probably because until recently, there has not been very much that’s Decanter-worthy to talk about. This productive Loire region is known more for its inexpensive semi-sweet rosés than anything else. ‘Pe

While the long lunch may have disappeared from our weekday lives (well, mine at least), there’s nothing like a lingering Sunday get-together with family and friends to round off the weekend. Wine lovers will no doubt see it as an opportunity to pull

Bud break in early spring 2022 was a little later than an average year in the southern Rhône, yet harvest was early, so the growing season was contracted due to the extraordinary heat and drought. Flowering went well, and it was the earliest veraison

To understand the origins of CARO, the flagship wine of producer Bodegas CARO in Mendoza, we must go back to the previous century, when Argentina was just beginning to emerge onto the global wine scene. Nicolás Catena, the head of Catena Zapata, was

The year that had everything: black frost, hail, abundant rainfall, mildew, uneven fruit set, a cool summer, botrytis, the need for increased labour, protracted harvests and subsequent difficult decisions about blends, oak treatment and length of age

Driven by a diverse yet tight-knit community of growers and producers, the small, characterful southern Rhône Cru produces some of the region’s most exciting and perhaps underestimated wines. These are products both of a unique terroir – in which bio

Selling your dairy herd to buy a vineyard may not raise too many eyebrows these days, but back in 1980 when Clive Paton purchased five barren, stony hectares to plant Pinot Noir near the tiny backwater farming town of Martinborough, New Zealand, it w

As one of the founding producers of DO Ribera del Duero, Linaje Garsea remains at the region’s forefront. The family-owned estate – established in 1888 in the province of Toledo and now with its third generation at the helm – is a true pioneer of the

Romania is at last starting to gain international recognition for the thrilling quality of its best wines. Deserved and long overdue acknowledgement for a country with a unique viticultural heritage and a surfeit of unique grape varieties producing w

Vines are grown in just about every corner of Romania, a testament both to the diversity of the country’s landscapes, mesoclimates and terroirs, and to wine’s central place in Romanian culture. Discover this fascinating tapestry and get to know the p

At the UK’s AI Safety Summit in 2023, Elon Musk told British prime minister Rishi Sunak that artificial intelligence (AI) was likely to be ‘the most disruptive force in history’. And if you look around you, it isn’t hard to see signs of that disrupti

One of the most southerly wine-producing areas in the world, South Africa’s Hemel-en-Aarde Valley has rapidly gained a reputation as the source of striking, high-quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines. Anthony Hamilton Russell, of Hamilton Russell V

The millennium saw Uco Valley emerge as one of the world’s most promising new wine regions. Among its pioneers were Benjamin de Rothschild (son of Baron Edmond de Rothschild), his wife Ariane de Rothschild (CEO of the Edmond de Rothschild Group) and

To herald the start of spring, House of Suntory has launched a limited edition of its Roku gin, inspired by the sakura flower and Japan’s famous hanami cherry blossom festivals. Roku Sakura Bloom Edition (Alc 43%) balances six Japanese botanicals – s

This Mexican twist on the Cuba Libre cocktail, replacing rum with tequila, was created in 1961 by Don Javier Delgado Corona, owner of La Capilla cantina in the town of Tequila. Don Javier had a large iron utility knife that was used to cut everything

PHOTOGRAPHS ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES PLUS (3) Scotland’s damp, cool climate may frustrate holidaymakers, but it’s ideal for making whisky, with distilleries working their magic from the Borders in the south up to the islands of Orkney. This selection of r

The great houses of Cognac and Armagnac are rooted in family names – from the arrival in the Charente of Jersey native Jean Martell in 1715, to the decision nine years later by local wine-grower Rémy Martin to start bottling spirit under his own name

£150/70cl Berry Bros &Rudd, Master of Malt, The Whisky Exchange From the resurrected 1923 label to the superlative blending, everything about this just oozes class. Heady hedgerow florals, luscious tropical fruit, toasted almond/hazelnut and just a w

When I married my Italian husband, my mother-in-law gifted me two binders of typed family recipes. Together with my own mother’s handwritten recipes, they are my most treasured possessions and the ones I cook from the most. These faded, much-used, gr

Neighbouring capital cities such as Copenhagen and Stockholm may have grabbed the spotlight earlier, but Helsinki has quietly gone about honing its culinary craft, while also developing a taste for good wine. The city’s restaurants have embraced the

Stretching some 1,500km from the Czech Republic and Austria to Serbia, passing through Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania along the way, the Carpathian mountains are Europe’s third-longest mountain chain after the Urals and the Scandinavi

Each month our experts answer your burning wine questions. Email them to us at [email protected] I read with interest Sarah Jane Evans’ brief reference to vinos de pasto within her Sherry article (February 2024 issue). Can she recommend any to try

Look at any cookbook from the 1950s, ’60s and even ’70s and you’ll find it full of egg recipes. Soufflés, omelettes and eggs Mornay were part of most home cooks’ repertoires – or at the very least those of their housekeeper. And wine was part of it –

by Keize Mumba I was born and raised in Zambia, a landlocked country unsuitable for vine-growing, so I grew up drinking beer, only discovering wine when I moved to Cape Town 10 years ago while searching for stories to tell – I used to write screenpl

It’s not often that one gets to taste multiple vintages of Vega Sicilia’s Unico, one of if not the most sought-after Spanish fine wine(s). It’s even less likely that one will have a chance to do so while dining at the National Gallery’s Spanish Room,

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JAMES BUTTON In mid-December, Iacopo Mori of Il Marroneto in Montalcino visited Decanter’s office in Paddington, north London, for a quick taste of the estate’s latest releases from the 2019 vintage, which will be available in limited quantities from

TINA GELLIE The early success of Ed Carr’s House of Arras sparkling wine in the late 1990s was the impetus for fellow ex-Hardys colleagues Peter Dawson and Tim James to choose Tasmania to realise their united ambition to make ‘really good Pinot Noir’

Sarah Ahmed 98 Nelson Guerreiro 97 Joanna Locke MW 98 £44-£47.90 AG Wines, Burnett & Herbert, Caviste, Hedonism, Uncorked, Wanderlust Wine Afield blend featuring Arinto, Rabigato, Códega de Larinho, Viosinho and others, from vines at least 80 years o

SA 96 NG 95 JL 96 £35.99-£41.50 Highbury Vintners, JN Wine Sandra Tavares da Silva and Jorge Serôdio Borges first made Guru in 2004. It’s stitched together from several tiny Cima Corgo old field blend parcels in Porrais at 600m-700m, and since then t

SA 96 NG 94 JL 95 £39.75 Bar Douro, Festa The name ‘the foreigner’ alludes to the winemaker’s origins – Pedro Ribeiro is best known for his Alentejo wines from Herdade do Rocim and Bojador, but the Dão fan acquired three vineyards there in 2020, arou

Commended 83-85pts nCasa de Santar, Curtimenta, Dão 2020 85, 12.5%, POA $ Tri-Vin Imports nCasa de Santar, Vinha dos Amores Encruzado, Dão 2019 85, 13.5%, 2024-2025, £29.99 Marta Vine nPoças Júnior, Coroa d’Ouro Branco, Douro 2021 85, 12%, 2024, £

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Fine wine buyers have shaken off their caution to pounce on highly rated Burgundy 2022 en primeur releases, according to UK merchants. David Roberts MW, Burgundy and Bordeaux buying director at Goedhuis &Co, said: ‘After such a small crop in 2021, cl

Inside a professional’s everyday life How did you get here? My father was a merrandier (‘stave miller’) and my brother had joined him at the mill. In the early 2000s, some coopers in France were establishing their own mills to control the whole prod