The flavor of cracked pepper in wine of Wallonie

The US still comes top on the list of which countries drink the most wine overall, according to to preliminary figures released this week by the International Organisation of Vine & Wine (OIV).  Wine consumption in the US crept up by 0.7% in 2021, to 33.1 million hectolitres (3.31 billion litres), the OIV said in a report on the state of the industry. World wine consumption grew by the same margin, to hit 236 million hectolitres (mhl), or 23.6bn litres, although trends varied by nation. That ...

How’s the weather been this year? Awful. ‘La nature m’écoeure’, one of my wine-growing friends posted on Facebook on 8 April, having been out to look at the frost-crippled shoots on his vines that morning: ‘Nature disgusts me’. It takes a lot to make a wine-grower feel that. He wasn’t alone. Jeremiads echo around the northern hemisphere as 2021 closes. It’s been the year of all the miseries. None suffered more horribly than the growers of Germany’s Ahr valley, where floodwaters caused by the fou ...

In spite of growing worldwide demand for bubbles, recent challenges arising from the pandemic and the cost of living crisis have put the brakes on consumers’ willingness to spend on non-essential products. In search of new and imaginative ways of rising to the challenge, Cava producers believe that while it can be tough for consumers to fork out for fizz, they can continue to enjoy ‘the little luxuries of life’ by purchasing reasonably priced Cava. This isn’t to suggest going for the cheapest op ...