Tabla de contenidos para March 2026 en Decanter

I love the mental image of Bo Barrett (interviewed, p22), aged 18, flying over California’s cattle ranches, vineyards and citrus groves with his father Jim, who was looking for an agricultural project to invest in. And so Chateau Montelena was born, just a few years before its 1973 Chardonnay went on to triumph at the Judgement of Paris. It’s partly due to that victory that Napa is where it is today, firmly part of the fine wine establishment. And yet, as Montelena president Matt Crafton points out, Napa must remain ‘forward-looking, free to innovate, aspirational’. It’s good to be part of a settled community of wine producers, but the danger of that, he says, is ‘groupthink’. It’s when winemakers have the confidence to plough a different furrow – even (or…

DON’T MISS Gérard Basset’s autobiography, updated A commemorative edition of Tasting Victory: The Life and Wines of the World’s Favourite Sommelier will be published later this month (£25 Académie du Vin Library), including new chapters from his wife and son, exploring his legacy six years after his death, and memories of Gérard shared by major figures in the wine world. The sommelier completed the original work shortly before his death in January 2019. New tools for collectors London wine merchant Jeroboams has launched two ‘human-led’ digital services for collectors. Jeroboams Exchange is a marketplace and community for fine wine trading, driven largely by wines previously sold by Jeroboams – established, blue-chip names but also a broader range beyond this – while the Jeroboams Cellar Plan will help subscribers to build…

Two rivers in California, the Klamath and the Colorado, which act as vineyard lifelines, have been legally recognised as living beings, with the same legal rights as people under local indigenous law, in 2019 and 2025 respectively. This recognition reflects the growing global spread of the indigenous worldview, another example being the growing number of Māori-owned wineries in Aotearoa (New Zealand), such as te Pā, Tiki and Kuru Kuru. The bestowal of ‘personhood’ encapsulates the core of indigenous knowledge, an ancestral respect for the Earth and its ecologies. One guiding principle is that you take only what you need. This is the missing link in our modern relationship with water. We no longer worship it; we commodify it. Water now dominates the global wine conversation. I’ve been writing about this…

Just like a classic car or fine watch, a fabulous Martini has always been in style. But in bars worldwide, the drink’s popularity has recently skyrocketed – and for many Martini-sippers out there, the dirtier, the better. ‘There’s definitely been a shift towards savoury, umami-led drinks,’ says Andy Loudon, director of bars at Rosewood London, ‘and the Dirty Martini delivers that in a way that feels both concise and familiar. It hits the savoury note without needing explanation, which makes it approachable while still feeling classical.’ Umami-rich and pickled flavours – from Korean kimchi to American dill pickle – have entered the food zeitgeist. Coupled with a revival of simple-but-punchy classic drinks such as the Manhattan and Negroni, they’ve arguably fuelled the trend for this savoury cocktail. Cult drinking holes…

It seems as though almost everyone I know is going on holiday to Japan – and I’m filled with envy. I drool over their pictures of ramen and yakitori, ogle the backstreets of Tokyo and gape at the landscapes spied on their high-speed train journeys. While I wait for someone to whisk me away (invitations are welcome, please and thank you), I’ve been making do with literary escapism – dipping a toe into the sake waters, looking for the best books about Japan’s national drink. Anthony Rose (who wrote the Classic Wine Library’s Sake and the Wines of Japan; £35 Académie du Vin Library, 2024) has recently published The Story of Dassai: The Art of Sake (£40 First Press Editions, October 2025). While this is a producer-funded publication, and therefore…

Château Latour-Martillac, Grapecap 1884 GEORGIE HINDLE I couldn’t resist an invitation to visit Château Latour-Martillac in Pessac-Léognan to taste one of Bordeaux’s newest and rarest white wines: Grapecap 1884, made with fruit from vines planted in 1884 – just after phylloxera. The 0.65ha plot has survived thanks to a rare balance of quality and viable yields. Labelled as a Vin de France, the field blend includes 96% Semillon, 3% Muscadelle and 1% rare varieties including Chasselas, Folle Blanche, Ugni Blanc and Melon B. Only the best barrels from great vintages (beginning in 2021, then 2023) are selected. Winemaking is precise yet experimental: whole-bunch pressing and 15 months on lees, including 10 in a mix of second-use barrels, ultra-premium Seguin Moreau barrels and Wineglobe vats). The 2021 (£180 Millésima) is racy…

For many, ‘light South American reds’ will sound like an oxymoron. The continent is mostly associated with – and celebrated for – assertive reds with muscular tannins, plush fruit and considerable ageing potential. And yet, the evolution and diversity of wines produced from red-skinned grapes across South America makes the case for looking beyond the lauded expressions of Malbec, Carmenère, Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon. While these have consolidated South America as a source of some of the world’s most exciting wines, the real excitement is perhaps elsewhere, in the rediscovery of grapes and terroirs that produce lighter shades of red. Spoiled for choice Tasting wines for this piece was an embarrassment of riches. We could easily have featured twice as many examples of equal quality and character. To frame this…

Italy is a treasure trove of cellarworthy wines that often provide great value for their high quality, and a host of top medals at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2025 showcased gems to seek out in several regions. In northern Italy, Piedmont is a melting pot of wine styles, not to mention its gastronomic delights, and winemakers’ skill with the Nebbiolo grape variety in the Barolo region’s patchwork quilt of vineyards delivers wonderful wines that display characteristics ranging from red berry fruit to rose, black tea and truffle. Strong recent vintages only enhance the picture. Italy’s best-known styles can combine superb, ageworthy wines with compelling relative value, too, from Barolo to the Sangiovese strongholds of Brunello di Montalcino and Chianti Classico in Tuscany. This also applies to Amarone della Valpolicella…

TIM HANNI MW Who? A Master of Wine since 1990, Tim is a wine business consultant, a researcher with a focus on consumer preferences and perceptual science, and an educator in the academic and hospitality industry spheres globally. He trained professionally as a chef, and his book Why You Like the Wines You Like was published by New Wine Fundamentals in 2013 What, & why read? How does the principle that our palates are unique fit with the wine community’s focus on standardised tasting terminology and ‘objective’ wine reviews? Tim shares a thought-provoking exploration of the ‘perception conundrum’ DAVID WILLIAMS Who? A regular contributor to Decanter on all things Spanish, David also sniffs out the best value bottles on the shelves at supermarkets in the UK for decanter.com. A widely…

What’s the relationship between vineyard and forest? Does one need the other? I’m not thinking of plant communities and root-system interactions – but chainsaws biting 100-year-old trunks to create tuns, barriques, staves and chips. Where are we with wine and oak? Raw new wine can be exciting (hence the heurige or ‘this year’ traditions of drinking milky-looking, heady new wine in Austria and Germany in autumn), but it’s more often violent, chaotic and indigestible. Most wine needs time to calm down and ‘grow up’ (as implied by the French term élevage). Where do you put it for the duration? Sealing it in a tank is not a good idea: it needs aeration to avoid the stinkiness normally described in wine circles as ‘reduction’. Leaving it in a half-empty vessel is…

When a small group of California wines triumphed over France’s finest at the 1976 Judgement of Paris, few could have imagined the global shockwave it would set in motion. Staged by the late Steven Spurrier (Decanter Consultant Editor for 25 years), the tasting event was meant to be a bicentennial celebration, pitting upstart American producers against benchmark French estates. Instead, it redefined the hierarchy of fine wine and altered the course of California’s future. The result – Burgundy’s most esteemed whites being bested by a Napa Valley Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena (a bottle of which now sits in an exhibit in the Smithsonian in Washington, DC) – cemented not only the estate’s reputation but also the credibility of an entire region. Half a century later, the story still reverberates. The…

Malaysian food is essentially family food, with the nation’s beloved dishes derived from home-cooked recipes. As this simple fare made the leap to restaurants, its robust flavours of coconut, chilli, shrimp paste and dark soy remained prominent, making it a challenging cuisine in the minds of many wine drinkers. However, while most Malaysians instinctively reach for whiskey on ice or brandy at the dining table, wine is surprisingly sympathetic to Malaysian dishes – especially exotic styles, from sparkling red wine to Nebbiolo rosé. In Australia, Malaysian flavours were a primary inspiration for the innovative fusion food scene born in the 1980s. Chef Cheong Liew was instrumental in forging this cultural embrace at his seminal Adelaide restaurants Neddy’s and The Grange, combining ideas and techniques from his Chinese-Malay heritage with myriad…

ASK DECANTER Each month our experts answer your burning wine questions. Email your queries to editor@decanter.com When good wine turns bad What redress would I have if one of my long-cellared, treasured bottles turned out to be corked upon opening? Steven Banks Chris Mercer, Decanter’s investment correspondent, replies: Corked wines are generally considered to be much less common today, thanks to significant industry investment to minimise contamination by the compounds that cause cork taint, chiefly 2,4,6-trichloroanisole or TCA. But many readers will know the sinking feeling induced by pouring a special bottle from the cellar and getting wafts of wet cardboard, instead of clean fruit, that render the contents undrinkable. Affected consumers may be able to secure a replacement bottle, credit or refund, possibly even years after purchase. Factors include…

This was a highly successful tasting in which 79% of the entries scored 90 points or more, including two Exceptional wines (see opposite), and an impressive 22 scored 93-94pts. The high scores were evenly distributed between the two vintages: 2022 and 2012. The vintages’ distinct climatic characters were on show, as well as strong terroir typicity from certain grands crus – it was an insight into how different terroirs (marked with symbols in the tasting notes) performed across different climatic conditions. And while reputed growers produced wonderful wines in both vintages, the tasting showed that lesser-known houses also produced very good, more affordable wines. In the hot 2022 vintage, hilltop vineyards and marl-based terroirs were particularly successful. Grands crus such as Furstentum, Rangen, Schlossberg and Zinnkoepflé, with areas at higher…

Zuccardi, Alma 4 Phos Pet Nat, Mendoza, Argentina 2025 £12 Tesco Tesco’s range can be quite funky in places, with even the trendy sparkling category of pét-nat getting a space. This is a great introduction to the style from the relentlessly creative Zuccardi, a fresh and zesty, dry wine that’s alive with bright pear and pithy citrus fun. DW Alc 12.5% Aldi, Specially Selected Crémant du Jura, France 2022 £10.99 Aldi Another of Aldi’s long-running favourites, this stylish 100% Chardonnay fizz is rich in buttery biscuit flavours and fresh-cut apple fruit, with a creamy mousse carried by tangy acidity into a long, dry, savoury finish. DW Alc 11.5% Lo & Behold, Chenin Blanc-Viognier, Piekenierskloof, South Africa 2024£11.49-£14.99 Old Chapel Cellars, The Dorset Wine Co, The Fine Wine Co, The Vineking,…

Further signs of market recovery Headline auction house figures have added to signs of a renewal in interest from buyers at the top end of the fine wine market, despite the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty. Sotheby’s said total wine and spirits sales – auction and private – hit US$127.5m (£93.5m) in 2025, up 12% on 2024. It’s the fourth-highest total in the department’s history, behind 2023 ($159m), 2022 ($150m) and 2021 ($132m). ‘This success [in 2025] has been driven by a truly international buyer base, strong growth in new collectors, and our depth of expertise in presenting landmark single-owner collections,’ said Nick Pegna, global head of Sotheby’s wine and spirits. Spirits sales reached $21.5m in 2025. Burgundy delivered the highest-priced wine lots, from the Hospices de Beaune charity sale to a…

Originally, marenda (from the Italian merenda) was a mid-morning snack consumed by labourers. Eventually it became a Dalmatian ritual. Usually a warm, satisfying but unpretentious meal, marenda brings together inexpensive local fare, wine, and a moment of friendly banter. Nowadays, it’s served in Dalmatia’s homely konobe. A konoba traditionally referred to a stone cellar, where people kept wine, olive oil and cured meats – some have transformed into rustic family-run eateries. Today a konoba is used to refer to a taverna or restaurant that serves up marenda-style dishes. Below are a few of our favourite pairings: Debit & Pidoće Wine: A summery white from the Šibenik area, Debit is light-bodied and zesty, with flavours of citrus peel, green apple and Mediterranean herbs, and a slight saline edge that reflects the…

Dalmatia is the perfect destination for a wine adventure: offering an incredible diversity of local grapes and exciting wine styles, as shown by the following selection of top wines from recent editions of the Decanter World Wine Awards. Dalmatia’s sun-drenched steep rocky hillsides form a land of truly heroic viticulture, with passionate family producers and unique, sometimes almost forgotten vines. There are rich, bold reds from Plavac Mali (meaning ‘small blue’), Croatia’s most planted red, while others like juicy plummy Tribidrag/Crljenak Kaštelanski survived as just a handful of vines; now identified by scientists as a Balkan native and the same as Primitivo/Zinfandel. On the white front, Pošip continues to excite in styles from fresh and saline to layered and sleek – sometimes with subtle oak. These are joined by super rare…

Bordeaux reds can lighten up under new production rules A fresh wave of light Bordeaux red wines that can be served chilled and reimagine traditional ‘Claret’ for modern tastes will arrive in 2026, regional officials have said. The rules for Bordeaux Claret production have been added to the region’s Protected Designation of Origin from the 2025 vintage. ‘A light, pale red wine, Claret shaped Bordeaux’s international reputation several centuries ago,’ said the growers’ association for Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur in February. ‘Today, it is officially reborn, faithful to its original identity yet firmly contemporary. Accessible and fruity, meant to be enjoyed chilled.’ It’s part of winemakers’ efforts to adapt amid troubled times for France’s industry, with falling local consumption and slower exports. New rules for Bordeaux Claret set a minimum…

When I visited Angelo Gaja in Barbaresco a while ago, he said something surprising: ‘The future of winemaking is in white wines.’ This was an unexpected sentiment from the maestro of Nebbiolo, the great black grape of Barbaresco and Barolo. Always an innovator, always a visionary, Gaja had already broken with precedent by making two Chardonnays in Piedmont – Gaia & Rey and Rossj Bass – and the Alteni di Brassica Sauvignon Blanc. Now Gaja has followed the argument’s logic to its extreme by constructing an entire new winery, about 10km southeast of the Barbaresco winery, for producing white wines only. The new winery, a brooding presence on a hilltop, has the capacity to handle 250,000 bottles and is surrounded by 30ha of vines planted 90% to Chardonnay and Sauvignon…

If you’re anything like me – and if you’re in the northern hemisphere – you’ll have spent the past few months warming body and soul against the cold, dark and damp with red wines from the deeper, richer end of the spectrum. Right now, though, with that first, almost-ticklish warmer breeze filling the air with birdsong and blossomy scents, the wines that have the most compelling claim on my attention are almost always white. So what do I typically look for in a spring white? Energy for one thing; freshness, too, and a difficult-to-define feeling that I’ll call ‘flow’. Technically speaking, that comes down to the level of acidity, and the more mouthwatering the better – although the accompanying flavours and textures will depend, as ever, on what I’m eating…

We like to think of winemakers as people rooted in their terroir – often from families who’ve farmed the same land for generations. But does that idea still make sense in the international, ever-in-flux world of today? A growing group of winemakers think not. Sometimes called ‘nomadic’ – other times ‘flying’ – winemakers, this troupe of mavericks eschews the idea of being permanently wedded to a particular vineyard or set of vineyards. Instead, they travel around the world making wine in different places by partnering with local grape-growers and wineries. It’s not so surprising that more winemakers are adopting this footloose approach when you consider the high land prices and general set-up costs they face today. Many young people are more than used to the idea of constantly renting, never…

Clearly coffee… Bordeaux Distilling Co has launched the world’s first organic transparent coffee liqueur, helping to tackle waste in the coffee industry. Brunette Clear Coffee Liqueur (Alc 22%, £30.75/70cl The Whisky Exchange) is made from a base of organic French wheat and uses two by-products of the coffee-making process: cascara (the de-pulped coffee cherry) and coffee blossom. These are macerated in wheat spirit for two weeks, before being distilled. They are then blended with a third distillate created from the filtration process of the company’s Brunette Organic Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur. Lower in sugar than conventional coffee liqueurs, Brunette Clear is light enough to sip as a digestif, with a combination of dried fruit and floral notes, plus a delicate coffee cream flavour on the silky palate. It also works…

As exciting and dynamic as South Africa’s new-wave wines can be, this tasting showed that there’s still a huge amount of character, quality and value to be found in the Cape’s more traditional grape varieties. Stellenbosch blends based on Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc formed the majority of the wines submitted and were by far the dominant category when it came to the top scores. The best of these were concentrated, fresh, balanced and structured, exhibiting the steadily increasing quality and confidence of Cape winemaking. Stylistically, many of these wines were closest to cru classé Bordeaux in sensibility, with some erring towards Napa in their luxuriousness. Yet most were a fraction of the price of either. As Roger Jones remarked: ‘Overall, the entries were of a great standard, but what…

M&S, Rockferne Sparkling Rosé Brut, Sussex, England 2019£30 Marks & Spencer One of a pair of very fine English sparklers made for M&S by Roebuck Estates (the 92pt Rockferne Sparkling Brut, £28, is also worth a look), this has a delicate pink colour and rich, ripe summer berry-crumble flavours shot through with real verve and tension. DW Alc 12% La Soufrandière, Cuvée Zen La Bonnode St-Véran, Burgundy, France 2022 £50 R&H Fine Wines Absolutely delicious ripe apple, honey and toast lead to a smooth yet energetic palate, layering apricot, lemon and gentle vanilla. Wonderfully long, with a lingering, hauntingly elegant finish. VD Alc 13.5% Robert Oatley, The Pennant Chardonnay, Margaret River, Western Australia 2021£26.67 (ib)-£37.30 Farr Vintners, London End Wines, Vinvm Fans of Meursault will love this opulent Chardonnay. Textural and…

What’s on your wine rack at the moment? Château Biac – I love their wine. My restaurants have a tendency to be French-focused, so I’m white Burgundy, red Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhône. I’m a boring guy! But then I love Mâconnais and I love Beaujolais because I’m from Lyon. Fleurie, Chiroubles, Saint-Amour, Beaujolais Villages – so many interesting producers. I also enjoy La Caravelle Champagne. Where do you keep your wine? At my country house, I have a EuroCave Double. That keeps the wine in good shape. I redid my garage and wanted to do a basement – like a man cave where there would be a little wine room – but there were too many rocks and it was difficult to build. So no man cave! At my apartment, I…

Unique to Dalmatia, fjaka (pronounced fyah-kah) is a state of dreamy lethargy, induced by the early-afternoon summer heat. Often mistaken for laziness, locals regard it as a form of mindful stillness – a blissful surrender to fatigue, when time slows down and conversations soften. Exposed to 2,600-2,800 hours of sunshine a year, Dalmatia celebrates fjaka as a quiet rebellion against fast-paced modern living, when retiring to sit in the shade brings unexpected clarity and an emotional reset. The dreamiest locations to welcome fjaka Grgić Winery Trstenik, Pelješac peninsula grgic-vina.com Perched on a tiny promontory between two turquoise coves, the Grgić Winery has a stone terrace affording sublime Adriatic views, with the island of Mljet rising into the horizon. Pelješac’s steep limestone slopes produce some of Dalmatia’s best reds – come…