Wines made from Pinot noir grapes of Mosel

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: ...

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 ...

Heritage Auctions said a single bottle of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ ‘SLV’ Cabernet Sauvignon 1973 – representing the Napa Valley red wine that beat top Bordeaux in the landmark 1976 Judgement of Paris tasting – fetched $12,300. That marks a new record auction price for the wine, said Heritage. It was sold to a bidder who wished to remain anonymous during an auction of nearly 4,000 wines from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ ‘legacy collection’. Steven Spurrier’s 1976 Judge ...