The flavor of smoke in wine of Don Valley

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 ...

Whisky is emphatically a product of place. The flavours in the glass conjure images of the spirit’s origin, from an Islay malt’s distinctive peat smoke to the exotic perfume of a Japanese blend. Traditionally, however, that local accent is lost when spirit is filled into cask. The vast majority of Scotch malts and blends, for example, are matured in oak sourced from thousands of miles away, and previously used to age bourbon or Sherry. Some whiskies might venture into more exotic territory. Thin ...

Looking for inspiration? Here are the best things to read, watch and listen to for wine lovers. We’ve picked out some of the best wine-related books, TV shows and podcasts for your enjoyment! Wine books: Malbec Mon Amour – Laura Catena and Alejandro Vigil Written by fourth-generation vintner Dr Laura Catena and winemaker Alejandro Vigil, this illustrated coffee-table book is a love song to the Malbec grape in Argentina. Combining history and storytelling with viticultural notes – including ...