Winery Denis BovièreDemi-Sec Champagne Grand Cru 'Verzenay'

Decanter hosted its first tasting for the monthly event series Taste with the Experts last month at its very own Tasting Suite in London’s Paddington. Host Andy Howard MW guided 12 guests through an exclusive blind tasting of the Médoc Grand Cru Classé 2017, often described as a ‘forgotten vintage’ but one that produced a wonderful array of wines that are already approachable and more than deserve their place on tables and in cellars. The event was a very special evening giving Decan ...

There’s no doubt that 2021 was a challenging vintage. Most explanatory statements or technical sheets handed out over the past few weeks have mentioned the unfavourable, oft disastrous weather conditions, the sometimes very low and disheartening yields and the slightly varied or unusual blends on offer in 2021. Difficulties faced by vignerons both inside and outside of the cellar have been explained in detail as has the raft of highly important decisions needed be made throughout the year, ...

I was with some wine students in Chablis, visiting the affable Guillaume Michel of Domaine Louis Michel. The 2018 vintage in Chablis was prolific, though Guillaume’s team pruned the vines as hard as normal. Guillaume has a little more than a half-hectare of the smallest of the grands crus, Grenouilles (8.74ha in production in 2018, most of which is controlled by the cooperative La Chablisienne): delicious in 2018. And, after a year’s pruning and vine-tending, after hand-harvesting and scrupulous ...