The Winery Le Belle Vigne of Falanghina del Sannio of Campanie

Some Châteauneufs are more reliable than others. When I visit the region to taste the new vintage every year, Domaine de la Janasse’s cuvée Vieilles Vignes regularly features among the best. It’s a particularly dense and concentrated wine when young, and it always strikes me that, even for Châteauneuf, it’s a wine that needs extended ageing to show its best. I was keen to acquire a more complete understanding of how this cuvée develops, so I visited brother-and-sister team Isabelle and Christoph ...

The project began life in 2019 as a Facebook group, created by Graves-based winemaker Jean-Baptiste Duquesne of Château Cazebonne. The positive reactions from both the public and fellow winemakers that followed prompted the group to pursue official recognition. ‘The idea started with me and with my friend Laurent David of Château Edmus in St-Emilion. He gave me the idea of the name “pirate”,’ Duquesne told Decanter. ‘So in December 2019, I created a Facebook group called Bordeaux Pirate to show ...

The world of fine wine was saddened this weekend at the news of the passing of the widely loved wine authority Clive Coates MW. Few, if any, Masters of Wine exhibited the spontaneous generosity and amiable disposition that Clive Coates displayed throughout his long and illustrious career. His generosity with his time was remarkable given the breadth of his activities. Personally, I will always be grateful for his encouragement while I was preparing for the MW exam and again when publishing my fi ...