The Winery La Almendrera of Rueda of Castille-et-Léon

On 16 November 2021, the Denomination of Origin Penedès in Catalunya (DO Penedès) announced an extensive roadmap up to 2030, taking into account sustainability and establishing the region as a high-quality wine producer in Spain. Most immediately, all grapes for DO Penedès wines must be from fully-certified organic vineyards by 2025. While it’s an aggressive timeline, DO Penedès president Joan Huguet told Decanter, ‘Currently around 60% of the vineyards are already certified and our ...

Severe drought and heatwaves have provided challenges for wine producers across Europe in 2022, from maintaining vine health to concerns about – and the impact of – wildfires. Early harvests have been a feature of the vintage and reports emerged this week of records being broken at some white wine-producing estates in Bordeaux. Spain’s Caserío de Dueñas estate in DO Rueda said it began a record early harvest on 16 August this year. While drought and heat have put pressure on yields in some regio ...

According to lifestyle and happiness guru Gretchen Rubin, you ‘bring your own weather to a picnic’. Ms Rubin, I’d suggest, has never shivered under a tree watching raindrops turn her fish-paste sandwich to mush because the weather forecast was wrong. There are, it’s safe to say, picnics and Picnics. It’s a term that takes in everything from a rubber baguette in a French ‘Aire’ off the Autoroute du Soleil to a four-course spread while listening to opera at Glyndebourne. What’s definitely true is ...