Is old wine better than young wine? It’s a common question. And the answer is, as ever, a qualified one: it depends. Largely, it depends on your preferences. Which do you prefer? The freshness and firmness of youth? Or the smoothness and so-called secondary or tertiary characters...
Changyu Noble Dragon Cabernet Gernischt 2013, China, 12% (£8.50-£10, Sainsburys or via Wine Searcher) Susie writes: This Saturday Kitchen wine is a particularly significant one – because it’s a glimpse into the future. For a start, it’s from China. This vast nation now boasts the world’s second largest vineyard,...
Carmenere is the James Bond of wine grapes. It's mysterious, with a past shrouded in conjecture. No one knows how best to handle or contain it. It's often been on the ropes - but has proved a dogged survivor. It also goes under many pseudonyms, from...
If wine has a grape-shaped equivalent of Lord Lucan, Amelia Earhart or George Mallory, it's Carmenere. This grape was a familiar and well renowned part of the landscape in Bordeaux for centuries until phylloxera struck in the 19th century. Growers weren't keen to replant it because it...
There is something gloriously ancient, mysterious and knotty about Carmenère. Its story brings together competing historical hypotheses, ampelographic hide-and-seek and remarkable powers of reinvention. It gets both winemakers and wine drinkers hot under the collar, with the power to dismay and delight in seemingly equal...
Peter for Decanter on VIGNO, Cabernet and more...
Hom, Outlaw & Susie on a horse simulator...
Tarty? Hardly. A unique insight into wine nobility....
The fabled Ribera wine Unico back to 1920...