Decanter

Scoring in the spotlight On a flying visit (my first) to Italy’s beautiful sparkling wine region Franciacorta last week, I could sense a general frustration that the mainly excellent wines, made by the traditional method, are not better known abroad. A sad inevitability, given only 12% of the production is exported. It is in just such a situation that scoring can be helpful. Wine adventurers, who come across unfamiliar sparkling wines priced at the same level as Champagne, may be given the reassurance they need to buy after seeing a high score given by a taster or outlet they hold in high regard. There’s no doubt that many consumers find wine scores useful – hence our use of them in Decanter. But some judges and critics score reluctantly, worrying that…

RAFFAELE MOSCA Who? A freelance wine writer and FIS (Fondazione Italiana Sommelier) Executive Wine Master based in Rome and Abruzzo, Raffaele is founder of sommelierlife.it and contributes to Gambero Rosso’s print magazine What? Discover lesser-known Italian native grape varieties – and some that have transformed their reputation, with Raffaele as your expert guide Why? Native grape varieties have long captured the attention of Italian wine lovers. But most will never have heard of Rossese di Dolceacqua, or understand how Trebbiano Spoletino differs from regular Trebbiano. Discover Raffaele’s pick of underrated native grapes before seeking out his selection of six wines to try MALU LAMBERT Who? A widely published and awarded wine writer based in South Africa, Malu is a taster for the annual Platter’s Wine Guide and a wine judge,…

New grapes, same classic Bordeaux taste Bordeaux wines can retain their classic taste with certain novel grape varieties in the blend, a study has suggested, amid ongoing research into how winemakers can adapt to climate change. Journalists and critics will descend on Bordeaux this month for the 2024-vintage en primeur tastings of predominantly Cabernet- and Merlot-based blends, but will future experts also need to know their Arinarnoa from their Duras? Two juries of professional tasters recently sampled 10 Bordeaux red wines, each containing one of five atypical grape varieties at either 10% or 30% of the blend. The results broadly suggested that there was no significant impact on the wines’ regional ‘typicity’, although an 11th wine – a classical reference blend – was found to be ‘the most typical’, said…

I write as 2025 is still getting underway: a moment when wineries and winemakers often reach out to wine communicators. There’ll be a snowy photo of the vines in winter, or merry harvesters throwing their baskets in the air, with a scrawled signature. Occasionally I’m sent a list of wines with all the scores obtained in the previous year, like a wonk’s school report; or I get a request for a date – at one of the wine fairs the owners will soon attend. I glance, note… recycle. And then out tumbled this: ‘What I Believe: Welcome to the corner of my consciousness.’ I unfolded the brightly coloured A2 sheet. On it, there were 10 points, beginning with ‘Enthusiasm’ (great!) and ending with ‘You are what you think, feel and…

In the spirit of cooperation, I nominate fine wine to be everyone’s collective punchbag. Our society has been fractured by political schism. We need a common cause – something we can all agree to impose 200% tariffs on. While wine’s reputation suffers from its new status as a carcinogen, oligarchs presiding over the Second American Gilded Age engage in hyperbaric therapy, light therapy and cryotherapy. They take longevity drugs, pop supplements, swap out their blood plasma and follow strict diet and exercise regimens. In this milieu, wine appreciation feels positively transgressive. Why not kick it while it’s down? The surest way to ensure wine’s demise is to politicise it. And this is already happening. Carlin Karr, director of wine & beverage at the highly regarded Frasca Hospitality Group in Colorado,…

Summer, in the hills of the Langhe. A winemaker points out to a group of visitors his renowned north-facing Barolo crus. The vineyards appear healthy and don’t need irrigation, unlike on the southern slopes, where water assistance for the vines has been the norm for years. An electric driverless van passes by on the road, shuttling between wineries and a digitally managed hub, reducing logistics costs and environmental impact. It’s the summer of 2055, the Earth is boiling and viticulture has had to adapt. Just think, all of this had been predicted long before… In 2024, all hell broke loose in the celebrated Piedmont wine region. The then president of the local Barolo consorzio, Matteo Ascheri, tackled the issue of climate change head-on with a series of radical proposals, including…