Winery Gut HermesParadies Riesling

We all have different motives in choosing wine. There are those hoping for a journey into unexplored regions of sublime sensation, and those with earthier desires, happy when the first glass has them seeing double. There are wines to accommodate them both: a prickly little Mosel on the one hand and a 15% Barolo on the other. Doesn’t the ideal wine, though, combine the two – inspiration with stimulus, perfume with punch? The three little letters ‘abv’ (alcohol by volume) only tell half the story, ...

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 ...

‘Platinum is very hard-fought’ says co-chair Sarah Jane Evans MW. ‘It’s like something in the Premier League’, she adds, ‘but getting there means it’s going to be something special.’ The Decanter World Wine Awards judging process for Platinum begins after a meticulous first round of tasting, where all entries – this year a record 18,250 – are examined by regional specialists to determine Bronze, Silver, Gold or no award. All wines awarded 95 points (a Gold med ...