Top 100 wines of Primorje - Page 7

I’d visited Kakheti, Kartli and Imereti before – Georgia’s dominant central wine-producing zones; but never the wild exterior. From the ice-crisped cemetery grass of the 11th-century church of St George, dominating the mountaintop village of Mravaldzali, we looked north across the mountains of the Greater Caucasus, Europe’s highest. The silence, and the vista, was daunting. Hundreds of dry, drab valleys lost themselves in as many snowy peaks. Russia lay beyond. There was, apparently, a way over: ...

Wine merchant and entrepreneur Duncan Vaughan-Arbuckle has passed away aged 83. Vaughan-Arbuckle was the founder and director of Vinopolis, the award-winning wine-themed visitor attraction which was located on London’s Bankside from 1999 to 2015. According to his daughter Desdemona Freeman his interest in wine began when he started trading food and wine in the mid-1970s. ‘He came from the business side of things but wine was clearly his favourite subject,’ she told Decanter. What he found partic ...

It’s easy to forget that the southern Rhône’s four most prevalent red varieties aren’t indigenous. Grenache, Carignan and Mourvèdre all appear to originate from Spain; Syrah made its way down the river from the northern Rhône. Of the long tail of other grapes, most have their roots closer to home. Plantings have dwindled in recent years, but today local varieties are experiencing renewed interest. One that’s finding a lot of fans – both in the Rhône and further afield – is Counoise. Scroll down ...