The Sadmeli Winery (სადიმელი მეღვინეობა) of Racha-Lechkhumi

It’s no easy task to establish a super-premium wine in an entirely new region, particularly when inviting potential retail partners or distributors to the vineyard involves journeying to a distant corner of the Himalayas in the outer reaches of the Yunnan province, southwestern China. For my journey, after four flights from Bordeaux to Shanghai, Chengdu then Shangri-La, it was a four-hour drive up through stunning mountain passes to the foothills (here, that means 2,200m above sea level) of the ...

The ambitious project named ‘Elements’ sees the launch of 1,000 meticulously handcrafted wooden presentation boxes each containing a different number and format of the estate’s wines. Taking inspiration from the shape of the cellars, designed by Philippe Starck and Luc Arsène-Henry and completed in 2016, these unique showcases house either two double magnums, three magnums or six bottles that have been specially preserved in the estate’s cellars – a detail marked by a gol ...

The Krondorf facility is where Burge’s enigmatic wine empire began in 1978, when he created the successful Krondorf Wines label in partnership with the late Ian Wilson. After selling the Krondorf brand to Mildara Blass Wines, he bought the winery site to establish Grant Burge Wines in 1988, a label that grew to produce 750,000 dozen wines a year and turn over $70m. Grant Burge Wines is a brand now owned by Accolade Wines, having been sold by Burge and his wife Helen in January 2015 [announcement ...