The Winery Weingut Rettenbacher of Wachau of Weinland

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 ...

With the signing off by the Austrian minister of agriculture, sustainability and tourism, Elisabeth Köstinger, Wagram becomes Austria’s seventeenth DAC (Districtus Austriae Controllatus), following Wachau and Ruster Ausbruch in 2020, and Carnutum in October 2019. ‘This was not an easy nut for the winemakers of the Wagram region to crack,’ said Chris Yorke, CEO of the Austrian wine marketing board, Austrian Wine, ‘but after comprehensive discussions and much thought, the Wagram ...

Most of the Italian masterpieces of the Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries were carved out of marble. Since the 1980s, Italian viticulture has had its Renaissance in the form of wine, but not much was often thought about combining the two. ‘Man needs to realise his dreams,’ said Yannick Alléno, presenting Fuori Marmo 2019, a unique marble-aged Cabernet Sauvignon from the Costa Toscana IGT at his three-star Michelin restaurant, Pavillon Ledoyen, in Paris last week. The idea was born in 20 ...