What is Premiere Napa Valley?  Inspired in part by the Hospices de Beaune, Premiere Napa Valley (PNV) is a wine auction that takes place every February in Napa. The week around the auction is filled with tastings and events relating to PNV. The auction is only open to members of the wine trade, most often merchants or restaurants who will then sell the wine exclusively to their clients. Today, Sotheby’s runs the actual auction. It first took place in 1997.  Which wines are auctioned off at Premiere Napa Valley?  The lots are all made specifically for the auction, one-of-a-kind wines that otherwise wouldn’t exist. Only members of the Napa Valley Vintners can make wines for the auction, and sometimes producers will collaborate on a lot. The lots normally comprise 240, 120 or 60 bottles, coming from AVAs across the region. These limited bottlings are often of a variety or vineyard not normally bottled separately, or a special blend or collaboration. The wines all come from the same vintage – harvest just under a year and a half prior to the auction (so the 2023 vintage is being offered in 2025), and tastings of these lots offer the first comprehensive view of a vintage to the trade.  Who organises Premiere Napa Valley and where does the money raised go?  The event is organised by Napa Valley Vintners. Napa Valley Vintners is an association of producers established in 1943 and formalised in 1944, a forum to exchange ideas and work as a group to overcome challenges as well as elevate the reputation of the valley’s wines. Napa Valley Vintners also organises Auction Napa Valley (previously knowns as the Napa Valley wine Auction) which was created in 1981 and takes place every summer.  Alongside its efforts to champion the region and its wines, investing in the local community is a huge focus: since 1981, the group has raised over $230 million for local non-profits – supporting healthcare and education, as well as environmental work. Today, 539 wineries are members of the organisation. The 29th iteration of Premiere Napa Valley, held in 2025, raised $3.3 million, a new record for sales. You can find out more about Napa Valley Vintners’ philanthropic work, which operates under Collective Napa Valley, and their current initiatives on their website.  Read more about Napa or browse all current Napa listings Photography: Alexander Rubin, courtesy of Premiere Napa Valley

Created by Napa Valley Vintners, the Premiere Napa Valley wine auction takes place every February. Here’s everything you need to know about the event and the lots on offer 

Everything you need to know about Premiere Napa Valley – California’s famous charity wine auction, organised by Napa Valley Vintners 

What is Premiere Napa Valley? About the famous wine auction

What is Premiere Napa Valley? 

When Alain Hudelot retired in 2008, it was his grandson who stepped up to take over the family estate, Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat. Charles van Canneyt – then just 20 years old and fresh from his wine studies – suddenly found himself managing 10 hectares of vines and running a winery. But he wasn’t any 20-year-old.  Gradually modernising the estate’s equipment and tweaking the winemaking (particularly toning down the extraction), he transformed the reputation of the domaine. Rapidly he became known as one of Burgundy’s rising stars, with Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat soon among the region’s most revered names. Not one to be complacent, he started a négoce label in 2012 – offering another avenue for Burgundy-lovers to get access to his winemaking talent.   Now he has – along with his wife Anne-Sophie – taken on a new challenge, having purchased a new estate: Domaine des Chézeaux. It’s unlikely you’ll know the name of this Gevrey-Chambertin property, but you’ll almost certainly know its vineyards.  This history of Domaine des Chézeaux  Domaine des Chézeaux was created by François Mercier in 1982, although the family has had vines in the village of Gevrey-Chambertin since 1928. The estate’s name comes from the Clos des Chézeaux, the walled vineyard next to the domaine. The family were land-owners rather than winemakers, so all their vines were leased out – en métayage – to other producers. This arrangement is common in Burgundy: the vignerons renting the vineyards manage them year-round and make the wine, giving a portion of their production (often around a third) to the vineyard-owner by way of rent.  This historic estate grew from its original holdings and – as of 1994 – consisted of around four hectares. The vines were split between three producers: Domaine Ponsot (and later Laurent Ponsot), René Leclerc and Domaine Berthaut (later Domaine Berthaut-Gerbet).  Ponsot rented the property’s original 0.89-hectare plot of Griotte-Chambertin, as well as Domaine des Chézeaux’s parcels of Clos Saint-Denis*, Chambertin and Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Charmes. Domaine Berthaut leased the two Gevrey-Chambertin Premiers Crus (Les Cazetiers and Lavaux-Saint-Jacques) as well as the property’s village parcels, including the Clos des Chézaux. While technically the latter is a monopole, because Berthaut didn’t own the land it couldn’t be called as such.  Ahead of the 1994 vintage, the Mercier family purchased another parcel of Griotte-Chambertin, an additional 0.68 hectares that had been owned by Suzanne Thomas of Thomas Bassot, giving them the largest holding of this Grand Cru. The Esmonin family had been farming the vines in this parcel, selling some fruit to Jadot, and the Mercier family then leased it to René Leclerc (although the Esmonin family also continued to bottle the wine, with vintages of Frédéric Esmonin Griotte-Chambertin up to and including 1999 available). A portion of each of the finished wines was bottled under the Domaine des Chézeaux label, but was identical to that under the Ponsot, Leclerc or Berthaut labels – often at a fraction of the price.  Domaine des Chézeaux today In 2021, Charles van Canneyt managed to buy the estate and its enviable vineyard holdings. With all the vines under métayage contracts, the next challenge was to reclaim the vines – negotiating with each producer. By 2022 he had secured the monopole Clos des Chézeaux and Premier Cru Les Cazetiers, but sold the fruit. In 2023, having regained a parcel of Griotte-Chambertin, he made his first wines from the property.  By the time 2024 came around, he had managed to recover all the vineyards – adding Chambertin, Clos Saint-Denis and Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Charmes. As part of the extensive negotiations, the Lavaux-Saint-Jacques parcel, some Gevrey-Chambertin village vines and two small sections of Griotte-Chambertin were sold.  The vines are generally old across the property, and the farming and winemaking is identical to that at Hudelot-Noëllat, with the fruit entirely de-stemmed and seeing very gentle extraction. The first vintages were vinified at Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat (but are being aged in the cellars at Domaine des Chézeaux), and work has started on a new winery that is set to be finished later this year (2025). Interestingly Van Canneyt has already seen the wines maturing differently at Chézeaux, with the particularly cool, humid cellar meaning the wines develop more slowly during élevage and need topping up less. He therefore anticipates ageing the wines slightly longer than those of Hudelot-Noëllat. The estate is retaining its historic name, but with new labels – helping differentiate from older bottlings made prior to Van Canneyt’s arrival. The name has the same origin as Echezeaux: chesaux – plural of chesal (which comes from the Latin, casellum or casalis) – meaning a stone house or building.   The Domaine des Chézeaux holdings   The estate now has around three hectares of vines, over half of which is Grand Cru, spread across six appellations:  Gevrey-Chambertin Clos des Chézeaux: This monopole vineyard covers half a hectare, with some of the vines almost 100 years in age (planted in 1929). Mid-slope and facing southeast, the village site has deep, clay-rich soils with gravel, sitting just below Premier Cru Cazetiers and neighbouring another monopole village site, Clos du Château, farmed and produced by Armand Rousseau.  Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Les Cazetiers: Chézeaux has 0.216 hectares of this Premier Cru split over two parcels: one of 0.1615 hectares in the northern section and 0.045 hectares in the south.  Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Charmes: Van Canneyt farms around 0.6 hectares in this Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru, which he also has a parcel of under Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat.  Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru: There is a plot of 0.3776 hectares in Clos Saint-Denis, which will briefly be appearing in the range for 2024 (with just one barrel), but is now being replanted and out of action until 2029 at least.  Chambertin Grand Cru: A parcel (combining one tiny plot that sits next to their main plot) in the heart of this Grand Cru represents 0.143 hectares.  Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru: Chézeaux is the largest vineyard holder in this Grand Cru, with an impressive 1.264 hectares of vines, a parcel in the heart of this tiny appellation.  Spotlight on Griotte-Chambertin  Griotte-Chambertin, also known as En Griotte, is the smallest of the Chambertin Grands Crus, totalling 2.69 hectares (and is among the smallest Grands Crus in the Côte d’Or, along with La Romanée, La Romanée-Conti and La Grande Rue for Pinot Noir). It sits below Clos de Bèze on the slope, just below the Route des Grands Crus and sandwiched between Chapelle-Chambertin and Charmes-Chambertin, facing northeast. This aspect is important, allowing the vines here to ripen more slowly, not receiving as much morning sun. The wines made here tend to be more delicate, aromatic and perfumed, less muscular than is perhaps typical for the village of Gevrey-Chambertin, and therefore highly prized. Pebble-rich, chalky topsoil sits over deep, limestone bedrock, with more clay the further down the slope you go.  Domaine des Chézeaux is the largest owner of the site, with 1.246 hectares – almost half of the vineyard. Other producers who own vines here are: Joseph Drouhin (0.53 hectares), Fourrier (0.26 hectares), Claude Dugat (0.15 hectares), Marchand Frères (0.13 hectares), Joseph Roty (0.08 hectares) and Duroché (0.02 hectares), as well as now Laurent Ponsot (0.11 hectares) and an investor who has leased his small portion of the Grand Cru to Cécile Tremblay (circa 0.2 hectares). The origin of the vineyard’s name is disputed. Some argue that it comes directly from “griotte”, the word for morello cherry – tied either to trees that were once planted in the site, or as a reference to the character of wine it typically produces. Most, however, now suggest it comes from “criotte”, the diminutive of “crais”, referring to the chalky pebbles that are found in its soils.    Insider knowledge: Domaine des Chézeaux Griotte-Chambertin Historic bottlings of Domaine des Chézeaux Griotte-Chambertin have been something of an insider’s secret, as some are Ponsot Griotte-Chambertin under a different label. Some were the wine made by René Leclerc, and it’s not always possible to know which.  1982 to 1993 vintages inclusive: Domaine des Chézeaux only had their original parcel of Griotte-Chambertin during this time, and it was leased to Domaine Ponsot  1994: Reportedly, only one wine was produced under the Domaine des Chézeaux label in 1994 – the first vintage in which Chézeaux had their second parcel of Griotte, which was leased to René Leclerc. The wine from both parcels was blended together for the Domaine des Chézeaux bottling.   1995 to 2001 vintages inclusive: Two identical Domaine des Chézeaux bottlings of Griotte-Chambertin were produced during these years, with nothing on the label to indicate which producer made them.  2002 onwards: The producer of the Griotte-Chambertin is detailed on the Domaine des Chézeaux labels from the 2002 vintage. While there continued to be two bottlings up to and including 2004, from 2005 onwards, René Leclerc’s Griotte was only occasionally bottled by Domaine des Chézeaux, with the wine more often sold off in bulk. (The 2010 and 2011 vintages are the exception, with the Leclerc bottling returning to the Chézeaux line-up, but with the producer name detailed on the label still.)   The Ponsot wines also have the Ponsot name embossed on the bottom of the bottles. Laurent Ponsot retained the lease for the vineyard when he left the family domaine, 2017 onwards.   The future of Domaine des Chézeaux  While Domaine des Chézeaux has a surprisingly deep history for such a modern estate, it’s surely only the beginning. With a talented vigneron like Charles van Canneyt at the helm and such enviable vineyard holdings, quality at this address is only going in one direction – and we’ve no doubt the wines will soon be as hard to secure as anything else he produces.  Domaine des Chézeaux’s 2023s 2023 Gevrey-Chambertin, Clos des Chézeaux: This monopole vineyard covers half a hectare, with some of the vines almost 100 years in age (planted in 1929). Mid-slope and facing southeast, the village site has deep, clay-rich soils with gravel, sitting just below Premier Cru Cazetiers and neighbouring another monopole village site, Clos du Château, farmed and produced by Armand Rousseau. Charles van Canneyt noted how managing the surrounding woodland (in particular removing some trees) had totally changed the site – bringing better airflow and more sunlight to the vineyard. His first vintage is scented, with bright and lush dark red-berry fruit, alongside iris and violet florals. The palate is vibrant and juicy, but with a fine-grained grip – nubuck-like tannins that frame the fruit, while there’s a savoury, saline note on the long finish. 2023 Gevrey-Chambertin, Premier Cru, Les Cazetiers: The vines in the Domaine des Chézeaux parcel of Cazetiers are very old, lending additional intensity to this brilliant Premier Cru. The wine is delicate, with chalky minerality and delicate floral perfume that entices on the nose. The palate has an earthy minerality, but that’s complemented by beautifully transparent dark berry fruit. It’s firm in texture, with savoury mineral tannins that balance the wine’s natural juiciness. Effortlessly balanced, long and impressive. Five barrels were produced in 2023. 2023 Griotte-Chambertin, Grand Cru: Griotte-Chambertin is the jewel in Domaine des Chézeaux’s crown, with the largest holding of this small Grand Cru site – renowned for producing gloriously aromatic and elegant wines. Charles van Canneyt’s first vintage is seductive, with sweet spice and just the lightest touch of toast sitting alongside waves of supple red cherry fruit. The wine is bright – offering an instant intensity and fullness, plush and voluptuous, yet with effortless elegance. It’s tight at this nascent stage, but you can see how much more it has to offer, with a structure that deserves time. Smoky tones linger on the long finish. A superb début. *This wine is famously the one that got fraudster Rudy Kurniawan caught, after he was found selling older vintages of Domaine Ponsot Clos Saint-Denis, although the property didn’t produce the Grand Cru prior to taking on the Chézeaux holding in 1982.  Keep an eye out for the first wines from the new Domaine des Chézeaux, which will be released soon; in the meantime, read more about Burgundy 

In 2021, Charles van Canneyt – of Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat – purchased the little-known Domaine des Chézeaux. Ahead of the release of his first vintage, we dive into the backstory of this Gevrey-Chambertin property – one that is set to be one of the Côte de Nuits’s most exciting new addresses 

Everything you need to know about this Gevrey-Chambertin wine estate, now owned by Charles van Canneyt of Domaine Hudelot-Noellat  

The new Domaine des Chezeaux, Gevrey-Chambertin 

The new Domaine des Chézeaux       

“We take risks every day,” Vanessa Martin says to me. If you didn’t know we were standing in a winery, you might think Martin was a fighter pilot, a firewoman or perhaps a double agent. The two women standing in front of me, Martin and her colleague Chantal Uldry, aren’t necessarily the image of risk-takers – but through their hands have passed thousands of bottles of one of the world’s most precious wines: Ch. d’Yquem. It might not be life or death, but this liquid is so prized that it can seem it.  The lone Sauternes or Barsac estate to be declared a Premier Cru Supérieur in 1855, Ch. d’Yquem has a long history stretching back to the Middle Ages. The wine crafted from this property, at the highest point in Sauternes, has been lauded for centuries. It was savoured by the likes of Thomas Jefferson in the 1800s, while Jay-Z and Beyoncé visited late last year. The property and its wines are the stuff of legend, sought out by wine lovers and collectors around the world.  Production of this sweet nectar is painstaking – the vines cared for meticulously through the year, and the fruit only harvested if Mother Nature provides the right conditions for botrytis cinerea, aka “noble rot” to develop. If everything is in their favour, with just the right amount of moisture and heat at the right time, this fungus will work its way into the bunches of grapes, piercing the skin, concentrating the acid and sugar in the grapes, as well as lending its own distinctive spicy, marmalade aromas. Yquem’s team will pass through the vines up to six times, picking individual bunches and berries that are ready. Yields are miniscule, with approximately just one glass of wine made by each vine.  Once the fruit has made its way into the winery, been pressed, fermented and aged in barrel, with only the best selected for the final blend, the wine must be bottled and labelled – prepared for its début in the world. And this is where Martin and Uldry come in, part of the team who ensures that every bottle that leaves the premises is worthy of the Ch. d’Yquem name.   “We seek perfection,” Martin tells me. She has been working at the estate for two decades, having started out in the vineyards before moving into the winery, having worked with the property’s longtime winemaker Sandrine Garbay on the vinification as well as bottling and labelling, and now under the current Maître de Chai Toni El Khawand. Martin, like Uldry, is local – and wine is the region’s trade. Her parents worked amongst the vines, so she followed in their footsteps. But she didn’t love it, she found the yearly cycle repetitive – doing the same thing year in, year out – and asked to move. “This job, it changes every day,” she tells me, of her role in the winery. “I see different people every day; my work changes every day.” Watching the team work is remarkable. While much is mechanised today, everything is checked by a human member of the team. Martin takes a bottle off the line to check a label, whips out a tape measure and tuts before carefully peeling the back label off and reapplying it one millimetre further up the bottle. I watch one of their colleagues lining up a ruler against a double-magnum (all the large formats are still labelled by hand), re-applying a label five times to ensure it is just right. At another station, a woman delicately rolls each bottle in translucent tissue paper, wrapping each one with the same soft touch, before gently laying each one in a case.  Uldry was set to retire at the end of last year, after 23 years at Ch. d’Yquem. Like Martin, she’s seen much change at the estate, with its evolution under LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy), who have invested greatly since they purchased the property in 1999. She recalls how they used to wash the bottles by hand, and the machinery was much clunkier – whereas now it is a very slick operation, with standards higher than ever before.  There was a period when the château did a lot of reconditioning – old vintages would be sent back to them to be checked, authenticated, topped up and re-corked, as well as possibly re-labelled, before being sent back to a merchant or collector. As such, both Martin and Uldry have seen some extraordinarily old bottles, and – luckily for them – had the chance to taste some of them. Martin tasted 1921, while Uldry’s experience stretches back to the 1904 vintage – wines that they struggle to find words to describe. I recall Sandrine Garbay telling me about a bottle from the 19th century that was in a cellar in Spain, but was accidentally broken, and the sommelier team urgently called the château, cradling the bottle as they drove up to Bordeaux, desperate to save the precious wine.  “It's a source of pride that these bottles go all over the world,” Uldry says, when I ask about the ultimate destination of the wine that passes through their hands. They’re well aware of the value of the wine they’re handling, the impact of any breakage, and how crucial their role is. It is, after all, the final step for these bottles before they leave the estate, heading out into the world as ambassadors for the Yquem legacy. And many of the bottles, if not most, of the 2021 vintage (which has just been released) will outlive those that made it. As Martin says, their work isn’t about today – but tomorrow: “We’re leaving it for the generations that follow.” Explore all current listings of Ch. d’Yquem or read more about Bordeaux  

To craft world-class wine, every stage of production demands an obsessive attention to detail – and it’s just so at Ch. d’Yquem. In the latest instalment of our series taking you behind the scenes in Bordeaux, we talk to those who ensure every bottle of liquid gold is nothing less than perfect 

Exploring the art and craft of labelling each and every bottle of liquid gold from top Sauternes estate, Ch. d’Yquem – the world’s best sweet wine 

Gilding the future at Ch. d’Yquem

 Gilding the future: Ch. d’Yquem    

The Left Bank The gravel soils of the Left Bank are beautifully free-draining – something that has long been key to the fine wines despite the wet, maritime climate of the Médoc. In 2022, however, producers were desperate to retain what little water fell from the skies – and the berries harvested were tiny, with thick skins and containing surprisingly little juice.  The size of the grapes, combined with localised hail in Saint-Estèphe, resulted in generally low yields in 2022 – often lower than 2021, although it does vary by estate. Any addresses working organically and biodynamically last year had catastrophic yields, and this year therefore seemed generous (and joyous) for them, with its dry conditions meaning minimal disease pressure. What little fruit was harvested, however, was ripe and concentrated – producing rich and structured wines, with the best also having amazing freshness.   Saint-Estèphe This northern commune tends to thrive in hot vintages, with the heavier, clay-rich soils retaining more water and cooler temperatures, limiting the vines’ stress – and it was just so in 2022, a vintage in which it seems to be one of the more consistent appellations. Unfortunately the northern reaches of the region were struck by a corridor of hail on 20th June – it was very localised, but some estates lost significant volumes (with reports of up to 80%). At Ch. Beau-Site, the combined effects of this hail and April frost led to a loss of around half their crop, while Phélan-Ségur lost 30%.   Picking dates here varied – with Montrose (that has produced one of the stars of the year) starting on 2nd September, Calon Ségur on 6th and Cos d’Estournel on 7th – the earliest harvest for the latter since 1989. Even without any hail damage, Cos only managed to crop 33hl/ha, compared to a normal 40hl/ha. It’s also the first release of Cos Labory under Michel Reybier – reuniting the land that was originally owned by Louis Gaspard d’Estournel – and many more changes are set to come here. As they just acquired the estate, they were only responsible for the blending and élevage – but it’s already showing a touch of the classic Cos polish.   At Montrose, they felt there was a need to “civilise” the tannins, with gentle extraction. At Calon Ségur, Vincent Millet chose a longer, cooler fermentation at 24˚C ; for him, it’s the low yields that give the vintage such power, while the freshness remains a mystery. The wines that we tasted showed none of the rusticity that was once the trademark of Saint-Estèphe, with the best combining a depth of dark fruit and charming freshness.  Our highlights: Montrose – and especially La Dame de Montrose, Calon Ségur, Phélan-Ségur Pauillac “None,” Mathieu Bessonet – Technical Director at Pontet-Canet – said firmly when I asked if he could compare 2022 to another year. Pauillac escaped the hail and almost no one reported any significant damage from the frost, however yields were still low here. As Jean-Sébastien Philippe at Ch. Lafite-Rothschild highlighted, although the tonnage of grapes wasn’t too bad, it was the volume of liquid that they released which was notable – with the berries so small and the skin-to-juice ratio so high that yields were reduced by up to a third at most estates.  Some of Lafite’s younger vines started to struggle in the heat towards the end of August and were picked early, but the fruit wasn’t deemed good enough to be used. Neighbouring First Growth Mouton Rothschild picked in earnest from 1st September, finishing on 26th September – with almost no producers still picking by October’s arrival.  At Ch. Latour, the team recorded the lowest annual rainfall in their history – with just 615mm between October 2021 and September 2022. But there were significant storms in June, indeed the lightning in a thunderstorm on 2nd June destroyed Pontet-Canet’s office, with another following on 24th. Almost everyone we spoke to in Pauillac emphasised the higher percentage of press wine used. As vignerons tended to employ gentler extraction, the press wine was more delicate and more could be used to bring depth to the wines.   Technical Director at Ch. Pichon Baron Pierre Montégut compared the purity of Cabernet Sauvignon this year to 2019, with the richness reminding him of 2020. Bessonet feels that 2022 Pontet-Canet is more Pauillac than Pontet-Canet, but in general it seems that the extreme vintage amplified each estate’s character – as Charles Fournier at Mouton Rothschild highlighted. Taking the First Growths, Mouton is flamboyant, Lafite restrained and precise (with everything in this prestigious stable showing particularly well), Latour more stern and serious. Pauillac has produced some stunning wines at the top end this year, but there’s definitely a little more variation that needs to be considered.  This year’s Ch. Batailley – another classic expression of this stalwart estate – bears a commemorative label to the late Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who served 1947 Ch. Batailley (a year with similar climatic conditions) at her Silver wedding anniversary in 1972.   Our highlights: Lafite-Rothschild, but also Carruades de Lafite-Rothschild, Pichon Comtesse, Batailley, Grand-Puy-Lacoste  Saint-Julien  “You’ve got to be really humble when a plant teaches you that much,” said Claire Ridley at Ch. Léoville Poyferré – referencing the vines’ resilience in the face of 2022’s extreme conditions. Despite the year’s challenges, Saint-Julien seems to have thrived, with some really impressive wines, with the Barton stable a particular standout. Damien Barton-Sartorius noted that some producers were afraid to wait for phenolic ripeness because of the rising sugar levels in the warm September conditions, but sufficiently ripe skins were key to success.   At Léoville Las Cases, the team feel the year’s climatic conditions hark back over 150 years, to 1870 – although we can’t personally vouch for the comparison, they’ve crafted a muscular, firm wine that will need serious time to reveal its full potential. (Indeed, five potential 100-point scores attest to the quality here.) Ducru-Beaucaillou highlighted the influence of oceanic mists in August, while Ridley pointed to the June storms for essential drought relief.  Harvest dates were similar to Pauillac, often starting in the second week of September and running to the end of the month. The acidity levels vary on paper from 3.6 to 3.85, yet the wines have good freshness and alcohols are generally on the more modest side for the year, with most sitting closer to 14, rather than 15. For Barton-Sartorius, the year sits happily alongside 2016 and 2019 – and possibly 1945. The appellation’s best wines are classically built, with both finesse and flesh, as well as the requisite structure for the cellar.  Our highlights: the entire Barton stable – including a stunning Mauvesin Barton (although sadly Langoa and Léoville sold out on release), Beychevelle, Léoville Las Cases, Lagrange  Margaux “They had to find a way to survive,” Aurélien Valance at Ch. Margaux said of the vines. For him 2022 was a year that gives him hope: “2022 was very extreme – but the wines are not. For the future, it’s very promising.” They have a plot of old-vine Petit Verdot that is always used in the Grand Vin, but the wine was already so dense that it didn’t need it. The fruit from this prime site has instead been used for Pavillon Rouge, contributing to a particularly serious, firm and swarthy rendition of this second wine. Valance explained how they used the vintage as an opportunity to trial two alternatives for managing the heat: removing leaves in early June to allow the grapes to adjust to the hot sun early in the season while they had thick skins, and using kaolin – a type of clay that can be used as a sort of “sunscreen”. While they had higher yields on both these trial plots, they have bottled them separately to see how these practices impact quality over time. Their ongoing work re-orienting their vines (from north-south to east-west) will also help long term, but will take half a century or more.   At Marquis d’Alesme and Labegorce, the early April frost reduced yields, especially for the Merlot – meaning they cropped just 22hl/ha. Harvest started in the first two weeks of September, finishing by the end of the month, the earliest on record for estates like Rauzan-Ségla. Yields generally seemed lower in Margaux – dipping to around half the normal volume at several estates, often less than in 2021. At Brane-Cantenac, Henri Lurton pointed to the deep roots of the 60-year-old Cabernet planted by his late father as key to their success this year, with a thicker canopy and cool nights all contributing to the wines’ surprising freshness. While most estates opted for a lighter touch with extraction, Palmer was a notable exception – choosing instead to lean into the year’s bold structure, something that has paid off (with another five potential 100-point scores here to prove it).  As Lurton said, “It wasn’t an easy vintage to make – but in the end it’s a great one.” Indeed, he feels it’s the best wine he’s ever made. That’s certainly the case at some estates, although the appellation was definitely more variable in quality. The best wines, however, fulfil Margaux’s sensual stereotype – combining perfume with the concentration of the year, and voluptuous tannins.  Our highlights: Rauzan-Ségla, Ségla, Marquis d’Alesme, Brane-Cantenac, Pavillon Rouge du Ch. Margaux  Pessac-Léognan  For Daniel Cathiard at Ch. Smith Haut Lafitte, the vintage was “more about dryness than warmth” – indeed, having recently started working in Napa Valley (with the family’s Cathiard Vineyard), he dared to say that the conditions were “a little Californian”.  Picking in this southern commune seems most uniform, with almost everyone starting in the first week of September. Guillaume Pouthier – who has created one of the wines of the vintage at Les Carmes Haut-Brion – managed to reduce the alcohol with his use of whole-bunch and native yeast, reducing it to a modest 13.5%. Although the tannin levels are very high (with an IPT of almost 100), the wine is amazingly accessible now – with a purity and delicacy that made it tempting to steal the sample for dinner. As he said, “What is very important to me is an empty bottle.”  The style of the wines here varies, from the ultra-elegance of Carmes to a bold, ripe offering from Haut-Bailly – but, from our tastings at least, there’s good uniformity in quality, with powerful wines that are set to age well.     Our highlights: La Mission Haut-Brion, Les Carmes Haut-Brion, Domaine de Chevalier  The dry whites Having read about the conditions of the year, you’d be forgiven thinking that the whites might be a write-off – but they’re far from it. It certainly required skill in the vineyard and winery to maintain freshness in the warm, dry year, with some that are on the more tropical side, but there are also some gorgeously taut, vibrant whites that are well worth paying attention to. The best of these are pithy, with impressive tension and an energy that reverberates through the wine. Yields at several addresses were particularly low for the whites, with frost having more of an impact on the Sauvignon Blanc, as well as the hot wind concentrating fruit further.   Although not being released en primeur, 2022 will be the first commercial vintage of a new white wine from Ch. Margaux, a junior sibling to Pavillon Blanc – one that we’re particularly excited to taste. Domaine de Chevalier Blanc is, as Adrien Bernard said, "very special this year” – and we wholeheartedly agree. While the reds often steal the limelight at Lafleur, we were particularly impressed by Champs Libres – another pure Sauvignon Blanc that sings this year.  As Olivier Bernard’s (Adrien’s father’s) 40th vintage, both the Grands Vins bear a special label, with a 1941 illustration by Xu Bei Hong of a galloping horse, one that captures the energy of the year at this address. At Ch. Haut-Brion, the team was particularly impressed by the quality of the Semillon – and it ended up representing a significantly higher portion (51.4%) of the blend, and the result is impressive.   Our highlights: Pavillon Blanc du Ch. Margaux, Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, Lune d’Or, Fieuzal Blanc, Clos Floridène, Les Champs Libres, Cos d’Estournel Blanc  The sweet whites of Sauternes and Barsac Because it was so dry, botrytis took time to develop in 2022, and it was only after the rain in early October that the noble rot took hold. A hot, dry wind over the following week resulted in rapid concentration, Pierre Montégut explained at Suduiraut, which is one reason for the purity of fruit in the wines. With this sudden concentration, the fruit needed to be picked more quickly than normal – indeed Montégut didn’t have enough pickers to bring it in as quickly as he’d have liked. The resulting wines are particularly rich and hedonistic, with notably high sugar levels at some addresses – Lafaurie-Peyraguey has a whopping 260g/l residual sugar (with 130-140g/l the number for a typical year). Yields are tiny in both Sauternes and Barsac – averaging 4hl/ha and 1.5hl/ha, respectively. Montégut explained that he would be using more new oak to help balance the richness of the fruit, which effortlessly absorbs the wood (the sample of Suduiraut we tasted was 100% new oak, but it will likely end up around 70% versus the normal 50%). He compares it to 1959, a vintage that had particularly high sugar levels for the era.   Our highlights: Suduiraut, Guiraud, Coutet The Right Bank There are some stunning wines from the Right Bank this year, with the wines generally more consistent (especially in Saint-Emilion), and the yields (again, mainly in Saint-Emilion) more generous versus the Left Bank.   Unusually, irrigation was permitted in both Saint-Emilion and Pomerol, however few producers have the infrastructure to water vines (beyond doing so manually) – and if they don’t have a water source themselves, it would also add significant costs. As such, few addresses that we visited took advantage of the option – and some argued that the permission to do so arrived too late in the season to be of real use. Although we only dive into the detail of Saint-Emilion and Pomerol on the Right Bank, it’s worth noting that the satellite wines from the Lafleur stable were particularly good this year, with both Les Perrières and Ch. Grand Village really impressing, and Montlandrie was a standout from the Durantous. Although we didn’t taste L’Hêtre, Jacques Thienpont (Le Pin) told us that it was “fabulous” this year – and may well be one to look out for given its pedigree.  Saint-Emilion Saint-Emilion’s pronounced limestone soils were a godsend in 2022 – bringing incredible freshness that balances the generosity of the year beautifully, producing some of the very best wines in the vintage. Of course, the proportion of limestone in soils isn’t universal, and it’s not quite as simple as saying only those on the plateau thrived, but it certainly helped. The general trend towards restraint undoubtedly helps as well, meaning that many producers have contained and tamed the opulence of 2022, rather than exaggerating it.  It was Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse’s second vintage at the helm of her family estate, and she’s been working particularly hard on pruning – something she feels is the most important part of any year, looking to balance each vine rather than leave a set number of buds, which also avoids the need for a green harvest. For the Ausone stable, Edouard Vauthier feels it is a Merlot vintage, with the berries “absolutely gorgeous”. The only vines of theirs that struggled in the heat were those at Ch. de Fonbel, where they have gravel soils rather than clay/limestone.  At Ch. Canon, the team even sacrificed certain plots on particularly thin, rocky soils totally – not vinifying the fruit as the vines didn’t have sufficient water reserves to handle the dry conditions. The team at Figeac highlighted how their rootstock (Gravesac) was particularly useful this year. The seeds were already brown in August – showing just how advanced the phenolic development was.   While most estates on the Left Bank and Pomerol sit at 3.6 to 3.9pH, here some wines were as low as 3.3 (bear in mind that whites will often be around 3.2), and most sit under 3.6. There’s a noticeable exception with Cheval Blanc, however the wine has an incredible sense of freshness despite its 3.86pH, and is clearly one of the highlights of the year. As with elsewhere, old vines and deep roots were also a support – and this was particularly true at Clos de Sarpe, Laroque and Angélus. The best wines here offer enticing perfume with aromatic finesse, backed up by concentrated yet crunchy fruit, seamless tannins and mouth-watering acidity, often with a saline finish. They are spellbinding.  Our highlights: Laroque, Carillon d’Angélus, Berliquet, Beauséjour Duffau Lagarrosse, Clos de Sarpe, Cheval Blanc, Bellefont-Belcier  Pomerol Those fortunate to have some of this appellation’s deepest and most prized clay soils produced some stunning wines, but it was definitely trickier on those with more sand and/or gravel. There were proclamations from many producers that this is Merlot’s “comeback” – but Edouard Moueix disagrees, this was just an easy year to farm the variety: “Merlot thrives here, but it is fragile, and you must be more precise – it’s not as tough as Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet Franc.”  Diana Berrouet Garcia at Le Pin noted how hot it was early in the season, recalling it was already 30˚C over the Easter weekend, but the rain that arrived after every heatwave allowed the vines to recover before they were challenged once more. Ch. Clinet was one of the few properties to use irrigation when permitted, something that helped avoid the vines shutting down, along with the cool nights and their mature vines (between 35 and 40 years old on average). By contrast, at Evangile – where the team is in the middle of a replanting program and the vines average just 15 years old – Juliette Couderc was worried about them even in June, however the naturally smaller leaves reduced transpiration and allowed them to survive until harvest at the end of August.   Alexandre Thienpont (Vieux Château Certan) chose to leave more bunches than normal on the vines – eight or nine, rather than the normal five or six – eventually harvesting tiny berries that weighed less than 1g. Noëmie Durantou Reilhac (of Ch. l’Eglise-Clinet) explained how important it was to manage the extraction carefully to maintain freshness, extracting early while the musts were cool and taking it off the skins after just two to five days after fermentation was finished (when some producers choose to leave the wine macerating for up to 40 days).   The warm winds in September concentrated the berries, and are the reason that yields are generally lower, often around 20-30% less than in 2021 for those that harvested later in the month. The start of harvest ranges from the very end of August through to 16th September, and almost everyone finished before the 23rd September. Merlot from the vintage is undoubtedly opulent and we found the best wines were often – but not always – those where its exuberant personality was tamed with Cabernet, bringing a firmer, more linear structure.   Our highlights: Belle-Brise, Vieux Château Certan, L’Eglise Clinet, Blason d’Evangile, Bourgneuf, Clinet, La Conseillante, L’If    Read more about Bordeaux 2022 

There are exceptions to almost every rule in 2022 – and, as ever, it’s essential to asses wines individually. Here, however, we break down the region by commune to offer an overview of how each subregion fared in this fascinating vintage

Bordeaux 2022: a breakdown of the vintage by region, with top picks from Saint-Estephe, Pauillac, Margaux, Saint-Julien, Saint-Emilion and Pomerol

Bordeaux 2022 – breaking the year down by commune

Bordeaux 2022: the vintage by commune

Last year Alessandro Mori completed his 47th vintage at Il Marroneto in Montalcino. Now aged 60, Il Marroneto has been his life’s work. Despite the challenges, his passion for winemaking has never wavered and when he speaks about the estate and its wines today, he sounds as giddy as the boy who first arrived at the winery, aged just 14. He discovered Il Marroneto in 1975. At that time, it was just a farm on the northern slopes of Montalcino, with a few vines growing alongside olive trees and a small orchard. His father was so taken by the view – stretching out 60km across the valley floor towards Siena, his hometown – he bought the property the next day. The entire family – a young Mori, his brother and their parents – would spend their weekends tending the vineyard, which they planted on arrival. Initially just half a hectare, this site would become Madonna delle Grazie – Brunello’s most lauded vineyard today. Those first few years working alongside his family were some of Mori’s happiest days – and would shape the rest of his life. Il Marroneto remained a family hobby, and when he finished school, Mori became a lawyer. It was only in 1994, aged 33, that he decided life behind a desk wasn’t for him. “I had to express myself,” says Mori, “so I decided to continue to live the life I started with my parents and my brother.” He moved to Montalcino with his wife and new-born baby, living and sleeping in one room. At the time, Il Marroneto was only producing 3,300 bottles a year. It was all very financially tight at the beginning. “It became a big problem for me,” admits Mori. “I only slept two to three hours a night, kept awake thinking how could I make this work? I was full of worry, but also I was happy because I loved my work. I really loved my work.” Mori explains how this lifestyle change brought him a welcome sense of freedom. “There is soul in what I do every day,” he says. “There is a soul to the region too. This work gives me freedom, freedom from all the everyday life lived today. The order you have to follow. I am free from this in my mind.” But Mori’s passion is more than just the freedom it has given him. He’s always felt the work he was doing, the wine he was producing, was something important. He was carrying on a tradition that stretches back thousands of years and that brought a sense of purpose and responsibility. After all these years Mori remains amazingly humble considering his success. If you have ever read an interview with Mori or had the pleasure of visiting him, he never fails to mention his debt to his teachers. These two wise men – the late Mario Cortevesio and Giulio Gambelli – are legends in winemaking circles, and they taught Mori everything he needed to know to make great Sangiovese. Mori was fortunate to have such mentors – especially when most were looking outside the region for expertise. As Brunello di Montalcino gained recognition, investment flooded the region. There were fewer than 50 wineries when Mori first arrived, but now there are 250. “The first thing these people do is look for a doctor in oenology and agronomy – to plant the vineyard and build the cellar,” says a bemused Mori.  New arrivals, looking to make their mark, rarely speak to people who have grown grapes in the region for decades, instead hiring outsiders – many of whom have never even been to Tuscany. “Now these people are using concrete eggs, amphora and oak from Austria,” he laughs, “but no one goes to the old people that live here and asks them, what is the way of our forefathers?” But that is exactly what his father did – looking to the village elders. In return they got the eyes and ears of first Cortevesio and then Gambelli. Coretvesio and Gambelli had an extraordinary influence on winemaking in Tuscany. “They were like two brothers,” says Mori. “Born in the same year, they studied together, they worked their whole lives together and they died within two months of each other.” They would split their time between Chianti and Montalcino. For Mori, they were his most important teachers when it came to making Sangiovese. Despite Cortevesio largely focusing on the Chianti region, for the first seven years at Il Marroneto it was Cortevesio who was their consultant (due to a friendship with Mori’s father). Mori remembers that when he was just 14, Cortevesio used to visit the farm and share his wisdom with him and his brother. “To make good wine, you need respect,” Cortevesio would say. “Respect, respect, respect – everywhere there must be respect! Respect the animals, the plants, the place, the people. You are starting to grow a grape that took more than 3,000 years to become perfect in this area, so you respect the grape!” Cortevesio was adamant it was the wonders of Sangiovese that lay behind the region’s great artists (“the real important guys that passed before us,” says Mori); Sangiovese had fuelled Da Vinci to paint La Giaconda (the Mona Lisa), Boccaccio to write Decamerone and Giotto to design the Campanile – the iconic gothic belltower of Florence’s cathedral. Speaking with vignerons today, often the emphasis is on work in the vineyard – believing that is where great wine is made. But Mori likes to contradict that claim: “Wine is born in the cellar,” he says defiantly. “The hand of the man, his actions, are the secret of everything. I use the same techniques as our forefathers. They didn’t have yeasts to start fermentations. They didn’t have sulphur. They used natural methods.” Mori explains that Cortevesio and Gambelli believed it was possible to make precise wines using traditional methods – but only if the vigneron was fastidious in everything they did. Right from the start it was Cortevesio’s influence – and his mantra “passion, precision and patience” – that promoted such a traditional approach at Il Marroneto. To make wine in this way requires a lot of hard work in the winery – indeed Cortevesio was fastidious about cleanliness in the winery. Mori remembers constantly cleaning barrels and the cellar to try to win his respect. In the early days, despite Mori’s best attempts, Cortevesio would still think the cellar was dirty. He would taste the wine and say, “It’s tired.” As Cortevesio got older, he suffered with pain in his throat following an operation on his neck. It became difficult for him to speak and so he rarely did. He famously used to communicate with a smile, recalls Mori, and even that was difficult for him. Mori remembers the day he first smiled after tasting Il Marroneto, calling the wine “precise”, the finest compliment any vigneron could hope to hear when judging a wine, Mori believes. While Cortevesio became largely mute, Gambelli – who hunted almost daily – was completely deaf. After 10 years, Gambelli took over consulting for Il Marroneto (from 1985) and continued to visit up until 1993. Like Cortevesio, Gambelli had a maniacal approach to cleanliness and extolled monastic-like patience when ageing the wine. Mori was amazed by how this duo – one mute, the other deaf – could communicate. While both famous for saying very little, what they did say mattered – and their legacy, the lessons they shared with Mori, lives on today. After 17 years of tutelage under Cortevesio and Gambelli, Mori went his own way. “The wine of Marroneto remains the wine of Cortevesio and Gambelli because I am their pupil,” says Mori. “I continue to make the wine as they taught me – but with my hand.” The biggest change for Mori was the introduction of the Madonna delle Grazie cuvée. Often considered the region’s finest wine, it is the only Brunello to have been awarded multiple 100-point scores from the Wine Advocate – and universally loved by critics and afficionados around the world. The wine comes from the estate’s oldest and original vineyard – the one he worked as a child – and is made completely differently to Marroneto’s classic Brunello. Mori continues to make the traditional Brunello exactly as he did when he was 14. This “true” Brunello “requires a lot of movement in order to extract the best parts of the grape – the pulp that sits one millimetre under the skin,” explains Mori, “this is where you find the best anthocyanins, the polyphenolics, the complex fruity smells. The first 48 hours following harvest extracting these are key.” Mori and his team are up for two days solid, constantly working the must. Mori comically compares it to the Big Bang. “The grape material explodes, the material goes everywhere; it is the birth of the universe, and the wine is born.” After 48 hours, they stop and the must – thanks to all the agitation and natural humidity created in the winery – immediately starts fermenting. After just a few hours, the must has heated up to 34-35˚C and sometimes reaches 40˚C. These are not temperatures ever mentioned in modern wineries, but Mori knows what he is doing. “Sangiovese likes to fly high like an eagle when fermenting,” he says, “it is important for the characteristics of the Sangiovese chemically to fix the volatile smells.” At these sorts of temperatures, the fermentation is over in a week. Mori deliberately makes Madonna delle Grazie completely differently – and contradicts all that he does with his classic Brunello cuvée, such is the quality of the grapes from this special vineyard. When the grapes arrive at the winery, the fruit is left alone. The fermentation is much slower and much cooler (between 28-30˚C), lasting 20-25 days. It is, in short, totally the opposite. “With the Madonna delle Grazie, to our surprise, we found no power,” says Mori, “but a complexity in which the Sangiovese is similar to that of Pinot Noir – the technique brings elegance.” “Every part of the Madonna is high (the acidity, the tannins, the alcohol, the polyphenolics, the anthocyanins, the fruity characters, all are high, but without the power –  altogether it makes a complex wine. Together it makes for an extraordinary equilibrium.” Mori has been perfecting his techniques over the last 27 years, but two years ago it was his turn to become the teacher as his son – Iacopo – joined him in the winery during the pandemic. “Now I try to let my son learn this kind of traditional winemaking – not simply as Gambelli and Cortevesio taught me, but Gambelli, Cortevesio with the hand of Alessandro,” he says. “Today, he is more careful in the cellar than I am. Sometimes a little too much,” laughs Mori. He has obviously taught him well. Mori has also been imparting his knowledge to Emilio Parri – his cellar hand and protégé, who has been working in the cellar since he was 18. Overriding everything, Mori’s job as a teacher, he believes, is to “transmit the passion”. Mori still has a strong bond with his wine – he talks to it every day. When leaving the winery he shouts down to the cellar – “Ciao ragazzi, see you tomorrow!” Mori’s underlying philosophy for making great wine is to make wine with sentiment. “You have a relationship with the wine – the more you give to the wine, it gives it you back 10 times more. You see the wine grow up like a child, it is fantastic.” Encouraging this relationship, encouraging both Iacopo and Parri to fall in love with the work and the wine is his goal. With Mori’s support, his son has created a new cuvée, the stunning Rosso di Montalcino Selezione Iacopo. Iacopo took different proportions of wines ageing in the cellar to concoct his own blend. The 2019 was the first limited release and has already been highly praised by the critics (Eric Guido wrote, “The word ‘wow’ does not do this justice.”). While Mori thinks his son could afford to relax a bit and “take it easy” – the skills he and Parri are showing in the cellar means perhaps it is Mori, after 47 years, who can now start to relax. While Mori contemplates his retirement, albeit just for 30 seconds, he knows he will never really leave. Like Gambelli and Cortevesio before him, he will share the ways of his forefathers with anyone in Montalcino who will listen. Explore all current Il Marroneto listings or read more Editorial 

Alessandro Mori has produced every vintage in Il Marroneto’s 47-year history. As he prepares to hand this legacy to the next generation, we caught up with him to pause and consider his teachers – two legendary Tuscan figures that helped establish Il Marroneto as one of Montalcino’s top estates

Alessandro Mori of Il Marroneto’s reflects on his legacy and that of two Tuscan legends, Gambelli and Cortevesio.

The savants of Sangiovese, Il Marroneto

The savants of Sangiovese: Il Marroneto

It’s not often words fail me. But finding the right words to describe Dr Bill Lumsden to those who haven’t had the great fortune of meeting him has rendered me a little dumbstruck. Many have dubbed him the “Willy Wonka of the whisky world” for his creativity, jaunty style and flair. His latest project, a purpose-built home for innovation named the Lighthouse, where Lumsden can innovate to his heart’s content and create all manner of whacky and category-bending whiskies, somewhat perpetuates this narrative of the eccentric whisky-maker. But, I’d argue, the good doctor is far more than this. He is, first and foremost, an incredibly accomplished scientist. His work at Glenmorangie and Ardbeg over the past 26 years – maintaining the iconic distillery characters and launching innumerable products for each – is nothing short of sensational. He is a workhorse, as well as, it would seem, a bit of a clothes horse. “I’m a bit of a shopaholic,” he tells me with glee. “I love buying clothes.” This isn’t the sort of confession I expected when sitting down with the Director of Distilling, Whisky Creation & Whisky Stocks in November last year. “If something’s in fashion, I wouldn’t be caught dead in it because other people are wearing it,” Lumsden continues. “So I tend to wear things which have been out of fashion for many years or are yet to be in fashion – and it’s just a little facet of my personality, unfortunately.” This, while slightly unexpected, actually makes a great deal of sense when you cast an eye over his professional life. Lumsden has always been the trendsetter rather than the disciple. And he’s quick to assert that his avant-garde attitude extends beyond apparel. “I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in what’s in fashion and what’s not in fashion [in the whisky industry]”, he says. “When I’m doing something it really is all to do with will I like the taste at the end of the day? Will it complement that character of the Glenmorangie or the Ardbeg spirit?”. Since joining Glenmorangie in 1995, Lumsden has been charged with “maintaining and hopefully slightly improving the spirit character” and innovating. While once his role was divided equally between these two tasks, new product development and innovation now take up the majority of his time. “It’s got to the stage now where the demand for new products is almost impossible to keep up with,” he says matter-of-factly. While this might be fatigue-inducing for some, this constant pressure to innovate exhilarates the inquisitive doctor. “I’m a scientist by training,” he explains. “It’s in my blood to experiment, and I’ve always been a curious individual who gets bored very easily and likes to try new experiences, in every aspect of my life. So the move to Glenmorangie was heaven-sent for me from that perspective,” he says with unfettered glee. The decision to build Lumsden’s Wonka-esque Lighthouse was driven to a certain extent by necessity, he tells me. “The Ardbeg and particularly Glenmorangie distilleries have been running absolutely flat-out for the last 12-15 years,” he says. “For me to interrupt the production cycle to get access to the distillery for three to four weeks of a year, where I wanted to try some radically different things was proving increasingly difficult. And also some of the things I wanted to do, I just simply hadn’t been able to do that with the existing distillery plant. “So the Lighthouse has been established to allow me to experiment but while maintaining the volumes that are required for future bottlings and also to try things that I simply can’t do in the main distillery.” These things range from the smallest alteration in primary production to radical innovations, and everything in between. “Some of the time it can be a very, very simple change,” Lumsden tells me. “It can be something as simple as offering one of your expressions in a natural, cask-strength form, for example, and other times it can be something dramatically different, where you’re actually using completely new materials. I am continuing to experiment with just about anything you can think of.” For the past 10 years, this experimentation has largely focused on different aspects of production. “We’re about to see some products coming out for both the Glenmorangie and the Ardbeg brand where I’ve been playing around more with primary production – it’s been great fun,” he teases. The challenge with this approach, he says, is two-fold. “You’ve got a very long lead time until your product comes to market,” he explains. “Sometimes you’re talking 10 years’ maturation.” At the very least. If you’re experimenting with barley varieties, or looking at fermentation profiles, you have an even lengthier wait. Secondly, by the very nature of these experiments, the difference between spirits is most emphasised in the new-make. “For example, using the barley varieties, it’s not giving you black and white differences,” Lumsden explains. “It’s more shades of grey, and you really pick that up in the new spirit. “But after many years of maturation, you risk losing these differences. So you have to choose your cask type accordingly to try and make sure that you still have the point of difference coming through.” Lumsden says Glenmorangie is launching a product in 2022 that is an experiment he’s always wanted to carry out. “I did this many, many years ago. I can’t say any more about it at this stage, but I will probably bottle this [whisky] slightly younger than my original target, which was 12 years, because I don’t want to continue to minimise the difference in character, if that makes sense?”  In addition to maintaining the two distillery’s very distinct characteristics, and inventing all manner of whiskies, Lumsden sits on a number of prestigious judging panels. In this capacity, he tastes hundreds upon hundreds of whiskies and sees first-hand the changes in the industry and trends that are being adopted – good and bad. He says there has been a “real divergence” in recent years. “Some of the whiskies I taste have become much more characterful and I’m delighted to see whiskies that are non-chill filtered,” he says hopefully. On the controversial subject of chill filtration, the process whereby distillers remove esters and fatty acids to prevent the liquid clouding at low temperatures, Lumsden ardently believes less is more. He does, however, acknowledge its place in markets where drinkers might not understand that cloudiness is caused by oils coming out of suspension rather than a fault. But, he believes, producers are taking its use to the extreme. If Ardbeg and Glenmorangie whiskies are chill-filtered, it is only ever done so “very gently”, because Lumsden feels that lipids – fatty acids from the base barley that would otherwise be removed by full chill filtration – add texture and character to the spirit. Sadly, he rues, this is not true for others who are “very brutally” applying this technique to hasten up processes, and character is lost as a consequence. Corner-cutting exercises like this, speeding up distillation methods and reusing barrels too many times are becoming all too common, he says. When it comes to producing or judging a perfect whisky, Lumsden says he’s after complex harmony. “I’m looking for the flavours to be nicely integrated together and not having any one aspect dominate,” he says. “That’s what I think good quality whisky, particularly Scotch whisky, should be". “The final thing I’ll look for is the length and character of the aftertaste of the whisky,” he explains. “Because I really don’t like to see a whisky just completely fade – it shouldn’t do that. It’s a richly flavoured product and it should linger on the palate for a while.” Whether he’s sitting on a judging panel or looking out from his monstrously tall Roald Dahl-esque Lighthouse, Lumsden’s vantage point, you sense, will always be forward-facing and progressive. It is for others to catch up or catch onto the trend. Browse Ardbeg and Glenmorangie whiskies or read more Editorial 

Glenmorangie and Ardbeg are two Scotch whisky brands famed for quality and innovation. Behind every bottle is the heart and mind of one man: Dr Bill Lumsden. He talks to Holly Motion about what it takes to be at the distilling vanguard for decades

Dr Bill Lumsden, the man behind some of Glenmorangie and Ardbeg’s greatest single malts, talks about consistency and creativity in Scotch whisky

Dr Bill Lumsden talks about whisky innovation 

Dr Bill Lumsden: the eternal inventor

Dalmore, Mortlach and Macallan fetch tens of thousands of pounds at auction today – but they likely wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for an independent bottler. In times of great economic hardship, Gordon & MacPhail provided cash-strapped distilleries with much-needed capital when they secured new-make spirit to mature and bottle as a single malt, rather than a blend. “The world was so focused on blends in the 1970s that to get the financial return on the malts was really challenging,” Gordon & MacPhail’s Director of Prestige Stephen Rankin says. To put that into perspective, a bottle of 35-year-old Macallan from 1937 that would fetch approximately £32,000 in today’s market would sell for a mere £4.54 then. A top-end blend might sell for £2. Rankin says if it wasn’t for his forebears’ patience and foresight, 50-, 60-, and 70-year-old bottlings wouldn’t be available today. “It’s not just matching spirit with oak,” he explains. “It’s actually matching the spirit with the oak and then time and the patience.”   The Gordon & MacPhail name has endured where countless others have not. Today, the fourth generation can pull out samples dating back nine decades from more than 100 distilleries. “It’s that lineage that stands us apart,” Rankin says. “As a company we have had this incredible respect for whisky and depth of relationships forged from 1895.”   “Business was done on the strength of a handshake when my father started the company in the 1940s,” Fred Hamilton Laing – Douglas Laing & Co Chairman and second-generation family member – says. “And so many of our filling programmes still continue today because there was a trust given and a confidence that there would be no abuse of the stock.” If it wasn’t for the “fairly substantial” stocks Laing’s father had built up since the 1950s then the Scottish independent blenders and bottlers might not have survived the 1990s financial crash in Asia Pacific. “All of a sudden our blended business was made very difficult to continue. We were constantly adding to our stocks of grain and malt whisky for these blends, so it was a survival instinct that took us into the single cask business in the year 2000.” This business proved to be “very good” and steadied the ship. Laing says it was with great delight the company was able to come back into the blending business with Big Peat in 2009, much to the dismay of the “crusty old men in the industry”. This launch, looking at younger, slightly more rebellious whisky consumers heralded a new era for the company and brought them full circle. It was the filling programme’s breadth of stock and the relationships with the distilleries that allowed Douglas Laing to carry out the same process for Big Peat and Scallywag into the Scottish Highlands for Timorous Beastie, into the Lowlands with the Epicurean, into the Campbeltown area with the Gauldrons, onto the Island distilleries with Rock Island and introduce the Remarkable Regional Malts. “It’s a busy game,” Laing adds.  Fledgling in comparison, That Boutique-y Whisky Company stormed onto the independent bottling scene in 2012 with their 50cl illustrated bottles. “We are all about throwing fun back into whisky,” Head of Whisky Sam Simmons says. “We take the whisky very seriously, but we don’t take ourselves seriously.” The goal here is simple: curate delicious whiskies you would never see from an official bottling. This disruptive attitude has led to a cult-like following which Simmons readily acknowledges “doesn’t speak to everybody”. The Boutique-y whiskies might originate from around the world, but they are all bottled in the Scottish tradition – bought direct from the distiller or from brokers and other independent bottlers. The retail price is always calculated from the cost of the liquid rather than market value or cost. “The kind of whiskies we want to bottle may not be delicious to everybody, but they are the kind of whiskies that make you say: you got to try this,” Simmons adds. When it comes to bottling exquisite liquids, few ventures are as compelling as “curators of the most remarkable spirits”, The Last Drop Distillers. “I really love the word remarkable,” Managing Director Rebecca Jago says with a smile. “Because it is not saying it is the oldest or the best even, but that it is intrinsically delicious. If I gave you a glass of something from The Last Drop, I would want you to find it as delightful as someone who has been nosing spirits for 50 years.” The company started by Rebecca’s father Tom and his long-term friend James Espey OBE in 2008 is somewhat unique in that it crosses category. The two drinks industry icons initially set out to bottle single malts, but that all changed when they tasted a certain 47-year-old blended Scotch. From that day onwards, the two men – who had previously developed the likes of Johnnie Walker Blue Label and Chivas 18 – broadened their brief to seek out exceptional old parcels of any amazing spirit. By the time the company was sold to Sazerac in 2016, The Last Drop had released seven remarkable liquids and both Espey and Jago’s daughters (Beanie Geraedts-Espey and Rebecca Jago) had joined the business. In addition to being a source of great pride for the two founders, the acquisition also brought new freedoms and opportunities for the team. The US drinks group backing enabled The Last Drop to source stock for immediate release, granted them a greater ability to lay down stock and create their own libraries of future stock, and gave them the opportunity to venture into liquid creation. “I think finding treasure is not just about uncovering it,” Jago says. “It would be disingenuous to suggest that we’re Indiana Jones in Scotland, going and hunting out that barrel that is hidden at the back of the cellar because it is not,” Jago says. As romantic as the image might be, every single barrel of Scotch whisky of any age, of any sort, is known about by HMRC.  “We can talk about some of the lovely discoveries that we have genuinely been party to,” Jago adds. “Going back to the very first release of three unassuming barrels of an old blend. The treasure in that was the liquid inside. It had perhaps been discounted or forgotten about.” Or the “genuine discovery” of a Cognac barrel that had been lying untouched in an outhouse for over 70 years that was happened upon by a family member doing renovation work at the distillery. “I think that is the sort of ultimate Indiana Jones story,” Jago adds, “not by us, but we were fortunate enough to be there and I suppose our story of making the liquid the hero is sufficiently compelling that they are prepared to let us put it in a bottle.” All four bottlers, whether in their infancy or maturity, are bound by a sense of honour and wanting to do right by the liquid. And everyone benefits.   Browse all Scotch whisky or read more Editorial 

From traditional single malt Scotch to the weird-and-wonderful and everything in between, there’s every chance an independent bottler had a hand in bringing this liquid to your lips. Holly Motion spoke to four bottlers about the important role they play in the spirits world

Exploring the history of independent bottling with Gordon & MacPhail, Last Drop Distillers, That Boutique-y Whisky Company and Douglas Laing & Co,

Exploring the world of independent bottling 

Message in a bottle

Looking across the dramatic slopes of the Douro Valley, it’s easy to imagine that time has stood still here. While Port is steeped in tradition, however, recent decades have seen it leap into the modern era – with no shortage of diverging opinions about the “right” way to produce Port. Just put a handful of the region’s finest in a room and ask about co-planted or monovarietal vineyards, granite or stainless steel, de-stemmed or whole-bunch fruit, trodden by foot or machine, and feel the temperature rise as the debate unfurls.  There is, however, one element that gets surprisingly little press – the all-important fortification, an element that arguably defines Port, and until relatively recently was out of winemakers’ control. Originally spirit was added to harden the wines for long journeys in ships’ bows, preparing them for long voyages, and only became standard in the 19th century.   Once the fruit has been picked, trodden and starts fermenting, producers add spirit – or aguardente, often colloquially (and erroneously) referred to as “brandy” – to halt fermentation, thereby retaining the natural grape sugars that give Port its signature sweetness. The wine is a mere 5-6% alcohol at this stage, and the fortification brings it up to between 19 and 22%. Given the strength that the wine needs to reach, this spirit represents a massive 20% of the final product. Legally, aguardente must be a grape spirit of 77% – significantly lower in strength than the spirits used for other fortified wines (such as Madeira or Vins Doux Naturels, which use a highly rectified grape spirit of 95-96%). This lower alcoholic strength is key; meaning the spirit is less neutral, and therefore has even more of an impact on the final wine.  This spirit has a rocky history which isn’t free from scandal. After a local shortage, 1904 became known as the “Schnapps vintage” – having been fortified largely with a German spirit made from potato and grain. The 1972, ’73 and ’74 vintages saw industrial alcohol used instead of grape distillate. (Responsibility for this latter fraud fell to a French supplier who duped the unknowing Casa do Douro into buying Yugoslavian spirit.) Besides these occasional lapses, the spirit was mainly made from excess wine in the Douro during 19th and early 20th century, but in 1907 the Portuguese Prime Minister João Franco banned the distillation of wine from the Douro, meaning aguardente had to be found elsewhere. Despite presenting 20% of the wine, the spirit used today is far from local, sourced from far beyond Portuguese borders (often Spain and France).  The key date – however – is 1991. Under the authoritarian Estado Novo regime in the early 1930s, a monopoly on the spirit was established, with its supply state-controlled. This continued for over half a century, via the Casa do Douro, and then from 1976 via the Instituto do Vinho do Porto e Douro or IVDP. The freedom to choose which spirit used was only granted to shippers in 1991 – something that David Guimaraens (Head Winemaker at Taylor Fladgate) argues is one of the most significant changes in Port.  “We had no choice, the spirit quality was very average,” Guimaraens laments of the old days. He returned to Portugal, fresh from studying at Australia’s leading winemaking school Roseworthy, in 1990 – just before the shippers gained the freedom to choose their own spirit. “When you use a very clean, fine spirit, when it is young, your fruitiness comes out much more – making it more appealing in youth, almost entirely because of the quality of the spirit,” he explains. He cites two examples – Taylor’s Vargellas Vinha Velha and Croft’s Sērikos – both wines which are made from 100-year-old vineyards, made as they always have been in granite lagares. It is, he argues, only the spirit that has changed in these Ports.   For Guimaraens, the quality of spirit is most apparent in a vintage Port’s “teenage” phase – between 14 and 19 years of age, when it is starting to lose its fruit but not yet fully developed bottle maturity. This transitional phase is, in his view “much more attractive than it used to be in the past”, meaning Port drinkers are safer opening a bottle at any stage of its life. He points to 2000 as a pivotal vintage, when the quality of spirit started to really improve and produce, in his view, some of the region’s finest wines.  “Spirit has been crucial,” Richard Mayson – writer and author specializing in the wines of Portugal – agrees. “When vinification techniques were experimental – the late 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s – you can certainly taste the poor quality spirit in the thinner-quality wines.” He explains that this period saw massive emigration and a resulting shortage of feet to tread the region’s harvests. The early autovinifiers used in lieu of the traditional foot-treading simply didn’t result in the same level of extraction – and therefore have, over time, revealed the underlying spirit quality. There are, of course, exceptions – with some great wines made. He, however, like Guimaraens, feels the 2000 vintage marked a real shift in the class of spirit used.  The uptick in the quality of spirit is one of the reasons – along with the quality of the fruit, viticulture and more – that Carlos Agrellos of Quinta do Noval feels the property has been able to declare every vintage since 2011. “It’s extremely important to choose the right one,” Carlos Agrellos of Quinta do Noval explains of the spirit. He is one of a group of 20 companies – including Niepoort – who have, over the past five years, clubbed together to buy spirit. As smaller operatives, grouping together gives them more clout, enabling them to secure higher-quality spirit for their wines – and fair prices. Each May they meet in Gaia, tasting through a selection of spirits sent over by three or four different producers – all of which are scored blind. In 2020, they tasted 20 different spirits that were approved.   The results of the tasting are shared with everyone, then each company will decide which they wish to buy for their wines. The spirits come from southern France, Spain or Portugal. There are two categories of spirit –those distilled from wine and those from wine lees. The two are very different: the former is favoured by most – having more delicate, fruit and floral aromatics; while the latter was only approved for use in 2014, and is usually stronger in flavour. While in general “wine” spirits are generally the best, the spirits from lees can offer additional complexity. “At Noval,” Agrellos explains, “we tend to blend these two and use them for different types of wine, from white Port to Tawny to Vintage Ports.” There’s no fixed blend, and it varies from year to year, but he tends to use both – with higher-grade spirits for Vintage Ports.   Symington and Fladgate – the giants of the Port trade – purchase such large volumes that they buy their spirit independently. Tom Symington – fifth-generation family member and part of the winemaking team – explains that the spirit used to be a wider cut, and today it’s narrower, resulting in a purer spirit. “We focus on the neutrality, the aromas and the way it reacts with the wine,” he says.   Talking to producers about the style of spirit they look for, there is a general consensus that neutrality is desirable – to what extent, however, varies significantly. Agrellos aims for a more neutral, but slightly floral spirit. The most important thing for him, however, is the volume on the palate: he believes that it is this volume and texture of spirit that is most important for vintage Port. “It’s what will hold the wines for years to come,” he says. He values this above and beyond aromatics, while of course looking for something very pure. It’s this texture that leads him to use some wine-lees distillate – which has much more to offer in that regard, as well as its stronger flavour. The wine distillate by contrast tends to be purer in terms of aromatics, and is sometimes even double-distilled.  While Symington uses the same spirit across all their Ports, David Guimaraens looks to use a different style of spirit depending on the style of Port in question. He is clear, however, that it shouldn’t be part of the house style – but a “neutral oenological product”. He chooses to use one batch of spirit across each style for all the houses, not wanting it to be a differentiating factor, or dominate the quality of the fruit. For example, the spirit used for his vintage wines costs twice as much as that for the most entry-level wines – “And you get your return,” he notes.  He blends his own “master spirit”, combining batches sourced mostly from Portugal and France. “In the early days, it wasn’t as simple as using a clean spirit. To get spirit we wanted, we had to get the wines fermented in a particular way,” Guimaraens explains. With an overly neutral spirit, you risk ending up with a lighter Port; but too high a component of higher alcohol and it interferes with the wine’s organoleptic character, subduing the fruit. Too many spirits are made with excess bulk wine – rather than wine that has been fermented with the express purpose of producing spirit.  Dirk Niepoort favours quality and a little bit of character. “The purest, the best, the most harmonious – but not necessarily the most neutral one” is what he looks for, he explains. At the group tastings, his tastes are reportedly well known, with many of his colleagues able to identify the aguardente he will choose. His preferred spirits are finer, lighter, with more precision, but – importantly – also character. He finds that they tend to come from France, often from Cognac, from vineyards specifically planted with the idea of producing a distillate – not just excess wine. “Our grapes are too good for distillation,” Niepoort explains – the best spirits, in his view, are made with grapes from cool climates, with high yields and high acidity. He normally chooses three different spirits, depending on availability and price, with the very best spirit reserved for his top wines. For any organic wines, of course, they require an organic distillate.   While Niepoort admits the quality of spirit has improved, he doesn’t believe that the quality was nearly as bad as some – such as Guimaraens – imply, telling me people are unnecessarily “ferocious” about it. “I think the Port Wine Institute did a fantastic job in selecting huge amounts of spirit. Considering the huge quantity needed, the average quality was extremely high.” It certainly isn’t stopping him drinking fine vintage Ports – such as a bottle of 1963 Noval he had the pleasure of uncorking recently. Nevertheless, he doesn’t deny that it was a significant step not having to buy a mass product, and it has really opened the market.  It’s not as simple as winemakers having total autonomy, however, with a strict approval system via the IVDP to ensure the quality of spirit being used meets their standards. “It’s not only complicated – it’s expensive,” Niepoort says of the process. He’s found it a struggle to get some spirits approved, with, for example, double-distilled spirits harder to get sign-off than column-distilled liquids – a clear source of frustration. While the process is clearly there to control quality, producers aren’t abusing this independence; in general they are spending more money than ever before – making the whole thing, in Niepoort’s view, futile. “We should have some freedom to do what we want,” he says.  Tom Symington feels that it’s more than just the quality of spirit that has improved the quality of Port. He believes other developments have been more significant, particularly emphasising advancements in winemaking (highlighting the introduction of stainless steel as well as robotic lagares) and viticulture, especially monovarietal vineyards which – he considers – allow them to achieve perfect phenolic ripeness, with no green or raisined fruit. It is more than just the equipment, he notes – it’s the know-how gained over time, and most importantly balancing that with tradition.  “Of course the modern young people will tell you that viticulture is much better today,” says Niepoort dismissively. He prefers to work with old-fashioned growers. Over 90% of his vineyards are over 60 years in age and traditional field blends. He feels that the shift to monovarietal vineyards – dedicated only to five of the region’s many indigenous varieties – is, along with a move toward de-stemmed fruit rather than foot-trodden whole bunches, responsible for changing the style of Port. “The wines became fruitier and darker, but at the same time, thinner,” he explains. Niepoort historically didn’t make any Port themselves, and the 1994 vintage was the first they produced in-house. For him, this shift – from the 1970s and ‘80s – for shippers to own vineyards, rather than merely buying wine in, is the greatest advancement in the region.  The Douro Valley has seen a run of top-rated vintages – with universal declarations in 2011, 2016 and 2017, and some shippers declaring 2018 and now 2019 (including Niepoort). The general rule of three declarations per decade looks set to become a thing of the past. How much can this be attributed to aguardente? Relatively little, perhaps, however it’s hard to argue that this liquid – making up a fifth of the final wine – doesn’t have a role – and depending on who you talk to, the heart – to producing the very best Port.   Read more Editorial or browse our range of Port

Port is much more than just wine. “Brandy” or aguardente makes up 20% of every bottle – and some argue that a shift in the quality of this spirit is key to the wines’ superiority in the last 20 years. Sophie Thorpe finds out more about the firewater that defines the Douro’s age-old fortified wines 

Exploring the firewater – “Brandy” or aguardente that makes up 20% of every bottle – which defines the Douro’s age-old fortified Port wines.

Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru

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