Natural, organic, biodynamic, real wine and the people and places behind them

Beyond the pinky and perky cliché It’s August, and I’ve forgotten to rehash my ORA (Obligatory Rosé Article). This year with sweltersville coming at us from all sides, it would…

The Schmitt winery has been in the family for over 230 years with Bianka and Daniel working their 16 hectares for the last decade. They work in full biodynamics which…

What do you want to know about wine? Most of our customers want us to send them technical notes (known as fiche techniques). In its starkest form, an FT is…

Luna module Bruno Duchêne hails from the Loire Valley, where his family had a thriving business selling farm machinery. Before starting his career as a winemaker, he was a wild…

Think of a grape variety and you will probably envision it in its most basic iteration. Gamay? Think bubblegum and fruit pastilles. Malbec? Think chocolate. Chardonnay? Think warm buttered toast.…

Epiphanies, as I have written before, tend to coalesce around a single moment. It may be a moment in the immediate present that is so deeply moving, so sensorily involving,…

Ilaria Romano (née Bellotti) has taken over the running of this estate and the wines are as brilliant and energetic as ever. The white wines stood out at this year’s…

Yeah strawberries… not the cheese Pinot Noir? Hardest game in the world, as Archie from The Fast Show might have opined. Or opinoted. Pinot Noir, the eternal seductress, that most…

Christmas comes but once a year, but with shipping delays, US wines seem to arrive every other year. On a wing and a prayer rather than a ship. Rarer than…

  If 2020 was the strangest of all possible worlds, then 2021 was the worst of times. As if that annus horribilis hadn’t left a foul enough taste in the…

Organics is now more than a mere buzzword and a marketing hook, it is truly founded on the idea that quality is paramount, and that the better the farming (be…

A wine to knock you on your Chasselas! After half a lifetime abroad, Davide Bentivegna decided to return to his roots. Originally from the hills outside of Catania, he began…

Emotion recollected in tranquillity is like a fine vintage wine. As Wordsworth didn’t say.   The Real Wine Fair, vintage 2019, was a special event. All editions of the fair…

  The other day I was asked to do a pithy tasting note for a somewhat bland wine (let’s be generous) for a pub list. As well as the difficulty…

The Mad March Hares are thwacking each other on the noses, the sun has decided that it’s safe to come out, supermarket asparagus is still coming from Peru (but not…

The Les Chemins de l'Arkose domaine is located in the heart of Montpeyroux in the Auvergne region. Yvan Bernard and Audrey Baldassin cultivate 8-hectares of vines on the various beautiful terroirs of Puy-de-Dôme. The soils are clay-limestone,…

Networking with O2 When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be ~ Lao Tzu Only those who will risk going too far can possibly…

A native of the city of Catania, Salvo Foti studied oenology and began his career in 1981 as a technical and agrarian advisor to some notable estates in eastern Sicily.…

In 2015, Lisa Lavagne and Brice Banchet decided to build their life project in the family home in Morlanche, to grow vines and make wine on the land belonging to…

Symbolic Significance of Orange *Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and tropics.  *Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination,…

Thirty years ago Jasper Morris MW was hosting a wine dinner at a restaurant I used to work at. I can’t remember the wine region we were showcasing, but one…

The Schmitt winery has been in the family for over 230 years with Bianka and Daniel working their 16 hectares for the last decade. They work in full biodynamics which…

I love VA (with apologies to Randy Newman) There is a little-known HM Bateman cartoon with a picture of me drinking a beaker of wine, supported by the tagline: The…

In 2018, to commemorate the 30th birthday of Les Caves, I wrote a book. At the time of writing, we appeared to be at the peak of our powers. Business…

After travelling extensively in Portugal and Austria learning his craft, Craig Hawkins returned to South Africa and became the winemaker at top Swartland estate Lammershoek. Craig now makes his own…

This is a series profiling the producers on our list who make natural wines. Within this series we will be highlighting some of the extraordinary and rare bottles and vintages that…

On finishing their studies at agricultural college, Niels and Penny Verburg wanted to make wine but having no access to vineyards led them to leave South Africa in 1989. They…

Paul-Henri Thillardon, originally from Frontenas in the south of the Beaujolais region (where his father was a vigneron), settled in the appellation of Chénas in Beaujolais in 2008 at the…

Time was… …. that at the beginning of the year one sifted through the sediment of one’s knackered Christmas claret, rubbed a tartrate crystal ball and prognose-sticated on all the…

This is a series profiling the producers on our list who make natural wines. Within this series we will be highlighting some of the extraordinary and rare bottles and vintages that…

Who wants to know? Well, vegans, presumably. This is not a question that keeps me awake at night, but I know that message boards on forums are full of it.…

Christophe was born into a family of vignerons. His great-grandfather already made wine in cellars in the village as well as being a polycultural farmer. His father Gilbert left the cooperative…

Poetry in Prosecco Christian Zago, accompanied by Marika, represents the 5th generation of growers at Ca’ dei Zago, a family farm in the heart of Valdobbiadene. The most important part…

It is axiomatic that every producer of new-wave natural wine should have at least one label that is graphic or flirts with the suggestive. The No Sexual Services Pink Bunny…

At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the…

When eating out in restaurants, it is refreshing to encounter a clear focus on principal ingredients, showcasing two, perhaps three things on a plate, a dish that may be tackled…

--By Laura Milnes German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel developed a theory known as the Hegelian dialectic that posits: A beginning proposition called a thesis A negation of that thesis…

New thrillers from Parrilla El Pinto is a collaboration between Les Caves de Pyrene and Hacienda La Parrilla. The idea behind this project is to create excellent value wines from…

In the 1990’s, Philippe Meyer and Sophie Kumpf, both from long-established Alsatian winemaking families, married, and founded a new winemaking estate ‘Kumpf et Meyer’ with its winery situated in the…

The Dietrich family has farmed land in Alsace since 1600 mostly in the village of Scherwiller but also in an adjacent village. Historically, the family farm was to be run…

The process of fermentation in winemaking turns the must (grape juice) into an alcoholic drink called wine. During primary fermentation, yeasts transform sugars present in the juice into ethanol and carbon dioxide. The most common yeast associated with winemaking is…