Winery Eduard KrothMerler Fettgarten Riesling

The Francs de Pied (Ungrafted Vines) group, which last met two weeks ago at Pasquet’s Liber Pater winery in the Graves, consists of a growing circle of vignerons who work with ungrafted vineyards planted to native varieties. The list includes Francs de Pied president Loïc Pasquet himself, vice-president Egon Müller (Mosel), and secretary Andrea Polidoro of Cupano (Montalcino) and Contrada Contro (Marche); as well as Gocha Chkhaidze of leading Georgian winery, Askaneli; Thibault Liger-Belair (Bur ...

Last year, Cláudio Martins and Pedro Antunes caused a stir in the Portuguese wine trade when they unveiled a €1,000 talha wine from Alentejo. It was the most expensive non-fortified wine to emerge from Portugal’s shores, retailing at almost double the price of Douro icon Casa Ferreirinha Barca Velha. That wine was named Jupiter. Now Martins and Antunes have followed it up with Uranus, a red produced in Moreira del Montsant in the Catalan region of Priorat. It comprises 85% Garnacha Negra Peluda, ...

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 ...