The flavor of oak in wine of Champagne

There’s no doubt that 2021 was a challenging vintage. Most explanatory statements or technical sheets handed out over the past few weeks have mentioned the unfavourable, oft disastrous weather conditions, the sometimes very low and disheartening yields and the slightly varied or unusual blends on offer in 2021. Difficulties faced by vignerons both inside and outside of the cellar have been explained in detail as has the raft of highly important decisions needed be made throughout the year, ...

Inside the February 2022 issue of Decanter Magazine: FEATURES: Wines of the Year An extraordinary tasting, our best ever, of 126 wines put forward by Decanter’s experts and staff, resulted in these 51 top-scorers Your choice: why you bought that wine But was it really? Rolfe Hanson uncovers a host of decision makers involved in you picking that one bottle Burgundy 2020: vintage report Charles Curtis MW on the standout wines of this exceptional if hot year Producer profile: Château-Grillet Matt ...

An electronic dart was tossed at us recently by Decanter reader Tim Frances from Kent. It landed on the screen of our magazine editor Amy Wislocki; Amy lobbed it across the virtual room to me, suggesting a column-length reply. ‘Here’s a poser,’ Tim began. ‘How do your experts grade a wine that they find intellectually well made, but that they truly madly deeply dislike? I’ve tasted wines I can admire dispassionately, but would stab my feet with forks rather than drink them. Must be a conundrum f ...