Mendoza may be a sleepy agricultural region by the quiet foothills of the Andes, but it is now also home to the world’s first open source winery. OpenVino at Costaflores Organic Vineyard in Lujan de Cuyo is the brainchild of US expat and IT …
Mauro Von Siebenthal is a man of fine tastes: he knows all the scores of Beethoven, has a penchant for oil paintings and has been collecting Bordeaux wines since before he was old enough to drink. Born and raised in Switzerland, he spent the first half of …
This week I headed out to the Uco Valley in Mendoza to visit one of Argentina’s most modern and architecturally striking wineries – Bodega Diamandes. It’s always a pleasure to visit the beautiful Clos de los 7 estate in Vista Flores, especially on a gorgeous …
When I was invited to taste the Grandes Pagos de España, or ‘great wine estates of Spain’, it sounded like a promising offer. Grande always sounds good and I was vaguely aware of what a Pago was. But there’s a bit more detail behind the proposal. Put …
David Howell is one of the authorities on Napa geology and he explains how Napa Valley is a very young wine valley, with its geological formation only happening in the last few million years and creating three distinctive soil types. In this exclusive 80 Harvests interview, the geologist and …
What’s the difference between Oak Knoll, Calistoga and Carneros? Winemaker Mia Klein takes us through a terroir tour of some of her top Napa wine regions as we taste a couple of her Selene Wines and talk about dirt, shoots and leaves in this …
The Douro Valley is a wine region that combines both tradition and innovation, according to seasoned winemaker and winery manager Christian Seely. In this Christian Seely interview, we discuss the terroir of the Douro; traditional vineyard management and winemaking techniques as well as innovative ones; and …
Garage wine is a trendy term that gets thrown around a lot, but – in my experience at least – in Argentina and Chile it doesn’t exist as much as you’d expect. Or at least, the producers of truly garage wine are rarely worth …
What are Switzerland’s wine regions and how are they each different? One of the world’s leading ampelographers Dr José Vouillamoz describes the indigenous Swiss varieties of grapes as well as the traditional and new grape varieties being produced in Switzerland today. In this fascinating …
As a journalist visiting wine harvests, I’m pretty used to swanning in and out while others are doing the hard work. While the harvest team are busily picking grapes under the hot sun, I usually just take photos, kick around a few rocks with …