The Winery Clos Lalfert of Hérault of Vin de Pays

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 ...

Glenfiddich has released a range of three luxury single malts, themed around time. The Time Re:Imagined collection includes 30-year-old, 40-year-old and 50-year-old expressions, priced from £900 up to £35,000. The whiskies have been matured in Speyside. Each one is presented in packaging designed to interpret different concepts of time. ‘In whisky production, we often talk about the role of malt masters and it is our responsibility to find the delicate balance between the taste of the whisky and ...

It’s no secret that climate change is breaking records for heatwaves, frosts, fires, droughts, hail and wildfires. Their increasing frequency has left the wine world awash with initiatives, conferences, and research all concerning sustainable viticulture and its many facets: biodiversity, regenerative agriculture and the host of organic, biodynamic and sustainable labels or certifications they embody. More than simple posturing, many are concerned with the very real practicalities of saving wate ...