I have never seen a rotating ceiling in the winery before. Anthonij Rupert in Franschhoek takes their gravity wine production quite seriously, and the whole operation feels a bit James Bond-esque. There are barrels being suspended on ropes, rotating hoppers and I swear I saw …
The Douro is a wine region that has both remained loyal to its history but also seen great changes in recent years. On my visit, I sat down for a chat with Francisca Van Zeller, the youngest generation of the Van Zeller family which …
Producing wine for over 400 years, Franschhoek is a historical wine valley in South Africa’s Paarl region. Learn about the soil in Franschhoek, the climate, the grape varieties and terroir in our Fast Facts & Terroir Essentials feature with this guide to the Franschhoek wine …
As you drive up the long avenue leading into the town, there’s Hollywood-style lettering across the mountain backdrop announcing your arrival into ‘Franschhoek’. With its quaint thatched cottages, village markets and pastoral hillsides, Franschhoek doesn’t scream Hollywood but this is, in fact, one of …
“We make over 300 base wines,” Hugh Davies told me, as I stood looking at him with a mouthful of the Schramsberg 2017 Chardonnay base wine needling my tongue. This lean and taut Chardonnay, from a vineyard parcel on the Sonoma Coast, was only …
Ever wonder which country in the world produces the most wine? Or where the most wine is consumed? Here are the latest figures on world wine production by country from the OIV, published in July 2019: Download the full OIV report here : link Wine …
How are wine corks made? It’s a much longer process than you might imagine – it can take up to half a century to get your first quality wine cork from a tree. Following my visit to the cork harvest in Portugal, I put together a …
The Couvent des Jacobins is an integral producer in Saint Emilion’s wine history. It’s not very often you get to taste a vertical going back half a century, but while in Bordeaux recently I was lucky enough to do an excellent vertical at one …
What are the Dão wines all about? One of the Dão’s top winemakers, Carlos Lucas, explains what makes the Dão wine region and its wines unique in this interview. Following a long career building one of Portugal’s biggest companies, Dão Sul, Carlos has had …
What is Baga all about and why does it suit the Bairrada terroir? We find out with one of Portugal’s most famous wine producers – the Luis Pato wine family. The Pato family have been making wines for several generations, but Luis Pato changed the …