Wines made from Chardonnay grapes of Piémont

The wine has been made in Australia by Pernod Ricard Australian sparkling wine specialist Trina Smith, working in collaboration with Mumm Chef de Caves, Laurent Fresnet, who visited Australia in July to taste the base wines made by Smith and discuss preferred components to make the blend. ‘This wine has been planned over several years and we had discussed that its profile would follow the Mumm signature style, which has always been about expressing Pinot Noir,’ said Smith. ‘When Laurent came to ...

Do growers make wine – or do markets? Growers, of course. Yet markets define the scope of the grower’s creative efforts by what they reward or sanction. When markets are neglectful and unresponsive, there’s little the grower can do but conform. It’s a problem the world over. Here’s an example. The river Moselle/Mosel rises to the wet west of the Vosges mountains, then curves in a long green arc heading north through Epinal, Metz and (along the left bank) Luxembourg’s Grand Duchy, turning east at ...

Franciacorta has lost one of its fathers; Franco Ziliani died aged 90 this Christmas. He was the winemaker who, along with the Count Guido Berlucchi, changed the destiny of an entire region and helped make Franciacorta one of the most consistent areas in the world for sparkling wines made in the traditional method. Their fateful encounter was in 1958 at Palazzo Lana, in Franciacorta. Count Berlucchi began to question the young winemaker about how to improve his unstable white wine produced in Co ...