The 2022 vintage broke records in France for its hot, dry conditions – but the wines it produced are far from solar. Fresh from a week spent digging into the vintage with producers and tasting the wines, Sophie Thorpe reports on the remarkable year and the wines it produced There’s been a lot of hype…
On October 18, 2019, the U.S. imposed a 25-percent tariff on a variety of goods, including wine, imported from the UK as well as three countries of the EU. These countries were found guilty of providing illegal government subsidies to the multinational aerospace company Airbus by the World Trade Organization (WTO). By subsidizing Airbus, the three countries where the corporation’s shares are traded—France, Spain, and Germany—distorted the marketplace for airliner manufacturing in general and the Boeing Company in particular.
What’s in store for the fine wine market this year? We’ve taken a look at the data and found a number of emerging trends that might impact your buying and selling decisions this year. Many of these trends have been gaining ground for a while, but this year they may have particular impact on the market.
The 2018 Napa harvest ended on a high note this fall. Most winemakers across the region are reporting superb grape quality, high yields, and low sugar concentration in the fruit. Hudson Vineyards director Kelly MacLeod says, “This year, it really was a winemaker’s dream. They got to consciously choose exactly what they wanted.” While it’s still too early to tell how these wines will develop over time, all of these factors could result in a collectible, age-worthy vintage. If you’re looking for flavorful New-World wines that are well-balanced with comparatively restrained alcohol, the 2018 vintage may be your dream year, too.
La Paulée de San Francisco, the Bay Area’s take on Burgundy’s traditional post-harvest celebration, takes place this year between February 27th and March 3rd. In order to make the most of your time at this unforgettable event, we have compiled a selection of helpful dos and don’ts.
The Bordeaux 2017 harvest was grueling for most wineries, to say the least. Even on Premier Cru estates, it took winemakers every ounce of effort to grow and pick a minuscule number of grapes by the end of the harvest season. In many terroirs, yields were down by an average of 41 percent, sometimes more. This means that some winemakers were left struggling to find enough grapes with which to produce wine.
What if scientists could pinpoint the perfect bottle of wine for your palate, based only on the genetic makeup of your DNA? A Silicon Valley technology company, Helix, claims that they can do exactly that. Using a DNA sequence and a short quiz, the company says that they can help their customers find their ideal wine style without ever picking up a glass of wine. But how reliable is this new technology, and could it really replace a wine tasting session? The science of wine tasting is still a complex and rarely-studied field, so before you get your genome analyzed, take some time to learn about why we prefer the wines we love, and what you can do to find your own perfect bottle from the comfort of your home.
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Hourglass -Screaming Eagle -Ornellaia Earlier this year, Hourglass had a close call with a handful of pine trees in their vineyard. Months of unusually heavy rain in the late winter caused massive flooding in the vineyard, which caused several 150-foot pine trees to rip right out of the ground. Vineyard proprietor…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Ponsot -Liger-Belair -DRC In 2016, a vineyard frost in Burgundy was the worst the region had seen in nearly 30 years. In response, this year, Burgundy’s top producers are being far more cautious with their delicate early buds. They’re using special “hailstone shields” in their vineyards to prevent the worst of…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Kosta Browne -Rhys You might assume that it costs the same for a winery to make wine with high alcohol by volume (ABV) as it does to make wine with low ABV. But this isn’t the case in the United States. We actually tax low ABV wines at $1.07 per gallon,…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Ausone -Angelus -Cheval Blanc Close to one year after Burgundy’s devastating 2016 frost, Bordeaux went through an equally destructive cold snap that damaged up to 90 percent of the vines on some estates. On April 27, 2017, winemakers in most regions of Bordeaux awakened to temperatures as low as 24.8°F, cold…
As a collector, you’re always on the hunt for the next “it” wine, and we want to help you find it. We’ve discovered and compiled the most essential wine trends from the fall quarter that will keep you ahead of the game this year, and we’ve looked into what’s happening in the global wine market,…