Doug Decants: Bruno Duchêne’s La Luna
One of our “fauve-rite” summer reds 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…
Doug decants: The Wines of Philippe Bornard
Philippe Bornard lives in the village of Pupillin near Arbois. His vineyards were inherited from his father, who previously sold only to co-ops. It was Pierre Overnoy, no less, who…
Doug Decants: The Auvergnate Wines of Domaine Maupertuis
Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same. --Blaise Pascal (born in Clermont-Ferrand) Jean Maupertuis tends 3.8 hectares of…
Doug decants: Lovamor, Alfredo Maestro
Quoth the wine drinker… Lovamor! Do we love Albillo? Or what? It appears both fruitily in Nicolas Marcos’ La Fanfarria Blanco alongside Albarin (one Cangas wine you will never rue),…
Doug decants: The Wines of François Rousset-Martin, Jura
Some growers seem to be born iconic, some have iconic status thrust upon them and some seem to avoid the limelight entirely, simply content to sell their wines. It helps…
Doug decants: Franz Weninger Vom Kalk, Burgenland Austria
Just as each wine grower is a unique individual, so too are their vineyards. Franz Weninger insists on expressing the different soil types found throughout Burgenland and uses Blaufrankisch as…
Doug Decants: Piquentum Wines
This is a tale of a son of a Frenchwoman and an Istrian father, growing native Croatian grapes and making them in an old Mussolini-era concrete water tank. Born in…
Doug Decants: Filippi Wines
Soave is normally not sophisticated. At worst it may be a sulphurous travesty and even the better examples tend to be neutrality personified with all the fruit of the thinnest…
Doug Decants: Georgas Retsina, Greece
Buy me brandy, A snifter of wine. Who am I kidding? I'll drink turpentine. Barney Gumble, 'A Boozehound Named Barney', The Simpson's (a parody of 'Feed The Birds' from The…
Doug decants: The Wines of Antonino Caravaglio
Nature is an aeolian harp, a musical instrument whose tones are the re-echo of higher things within us. -Novalis The history of artisanal winemaking in the Aeolian Islands off the…
Doug decants: The Wines of Didier Barral (Faugères)
I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright. –Henry David Thoreau This Renaissance man, naturalist, and biodynamic…
Doug Decants: Andert Wine
Michael Andert was born into a large family and grew up on a farm with mixed agriculture, livestock and viticulture and learned to respect his family, his animals and the…