News about wine and the wine world. Events, exhibitions, interesting facts
The world’s proudest wine-producers have already accepted new members to their club. First came the Judgement of Paris in 1976, when top oenologists rated California grapes above the French. New Zealand, South Africa and Chile have also joined the fold. But surely there’s space leftover for a part of the world which, traditionally, doesn’t have
It has been a dry, dry year for wine festivals and we at Vinaty are crying out for someone to end the drought. Step up, Italy. Events have been organised from Bolzano to Bardolino, from Venice and Milan in the north, to Tuscany in the centre, to Naples in the south. We can’t tell you
The most recent evidence suggests that wine began not in the Mediterranean but, like paper, gunpowder, and the compass, in China. Emperors wrote of the strength of their hangovers, while the most famous of Chinese classical poets were never without a glass. Yet spirits and beer now dominate the market of the People’s Republic. The
A dozen bottles of Château Pétrus have returned from orbit in an experiment into plant genetics. Since cosmic Merlot also makes for excellent marketing, cynics will dismiss it as another winemaking gimmick. Like prosecco nail varnish or bright blue wine, they’ll roll their eyes at the idea of extra-terrestrial wine. Could you see Gagarin drinking
Sicilians know it as A Muntagna: nothing but The Mountain. Which other mountain could it be? Etna dominates the skyline of both Messina and Catania, whose combined population of five hundred thousand live with the threat of eruption. The risk is so great that the United Nations has branded Etna a ‘Decade Volcano’, a special
