Go into any winery in the world, and it’s now unusual not to find a glass wine globe or clay amphora lurking in the corner. Oak has long been the traditional ageing vessel for wine – light, easily transportable, the grain fine enough to allow micro-oxygenation (aiding the polymerisation of tannins, making the wine more supple), and, especially when new, the ability to add toasty, spicy complexity. But with technology and global warming, many winemakers are looking beyond oak – and Jean-Marie Fourrier is one of them.  “We noticed the barrels generating the most problems were new oak,” says Fourrier. He and his team had been monitoring each barrel during élevage, and started noticing a trend. They observed that the volatile acidity was 0.2-0.3% higher in first-fill barrels. To compensate for the higher volatility, Fourrier had to add more sulphur to those barrels, something that he’d like to avoid – feeling that higher sulphur additions can mask the terroir.  But why were the new barrels the most volatile? With climate change, trees – Fourrier argues – are growing more quickly, meaning that their trunks don’t have the same density, and this is responsible for the increased volatility. He’s not alone in paying attention to the density of wood; it’s something that Clos de Sarpe has started monitoring, weighing each barrel and noting how this impacts the wine during élevage. Fourrier also feels that climate change has impacted cork, as he told me in 2021 – noting how cork is harvested every seven to eight years versus the 20 of yesteryear. The corks are less dense and this leads to higher oxygen transfer – it’s one reason that he chooses to wax his wines (instead of metal capsules), to help counter the quality of the cork itself, something that Olivier Lamy also believes is important.  With the extremes of climate change, the size of harvests varies more significantly than ever before – from the lows of 2021 to the highs of 2023. The pHs of wines are higher, making winemaking all the more tricky – a more challenging environment for yeast and higher risks of bacterial spoilage. Producers need to handle their wines more carefully, as well as juggle the vessels required for such extreme yield variations. If barrels are left empty, they become a breeding ground for bacteria, especially brettanomyces – so having the right number of vessels for your wine each year is essential, not to mention retaining a balance of new and old wood, to keep both a consistent style and not over- or under-oak the wines. (Some producers also only keep barrels for a certain number of years, again to avoid bacterial spoilage.)  “How can I age wine, keeping freshness, keeping purity?” says Fourrier, “Is 100% oak the direction? I don’t think so, to be honest, I think it’s a balance.” There were two options for him: either increase the level of sulphur additions, purely for the “ideology of wood” – or to evolve.  For him, using amphorae and stainless steel barrels alleviates some of these pressures – offering lower volatility, almost no bacterial risks and the vessels can be stored empty and more easily cleaned, not to mention they don’t need replacing. While he notes he is not about to release a “Cuvée Amphora”, ageing 20% of his wines in these alternatives allows for lower volatility, lower total sulphites and, in his view, helps give the wines freshness, complexity and a sense of place.   The 2022 vintage is the latest to bring these challenges to the fore; a return to a year born of global warming after the tricky, cool 2021. While for once they escaped the threat of frost, conditions were hot – although, unlike in 2019 or 2020, they received enough water to allow for a more plentiful crop. Gevrey-Chambertin saw a massive storm in June, bringing with it 100mm of rain in just an hour or so, flooding the streets of the village. Although it seemed devastating at the time, it was exactly what the vines needed to survive the dry stretch to the end of August and harvest at the start of September.  Although harvest dates creep earlier and earlier, Fourrier feels that some are picking prematurely (“We don’t do a Crémant,” he jokes). “Terroir needs to be revealed by phenolic maturity,” he explains, saying that his team started in early September. With the warmth of the year, he used around 15-20% whole-bunch to help retain freshness and elegance, and, as we’ve seen elsewhere so far, the alcohols are modest – sitting between 12.8 and 13.5%. The wines combine some of the characteristics of 2009 and 2015, Fourrier feels, yet are fresher, with an approachability that – as we have found – will make them easy to drink in their youth, despite having the structure and weight to age.  But now Fourrier’s mind is occupied by the 2023s, the wines just in the cellar – absorbed by the potential of the next vintage. It's this slow and constant evolution, the change and challenges, year in, year out, that keep him interested. With only one shot every 12 months, this business is, he says, “an internship of 40 years”. And it’s that approach – a modesty in the face of everything despite his reputation, constantly pushing forward, studying everything and never complacent – that makes Fourrier one of the region’s leading names. We’ve no doubt that his 2022s will be another display of his mastery.  Browse all current listings from Jean-Marie Fourrier and Domaine Fourrier, or read more about Burgundy 2022

The 2022 vintage in Burgundy is a year of the modern era – one born of today’s shifting climate. As the first of his wines from the year are released, Sophie Thorpe spoke to Jean-Marie Fourrier about how he’s managing global warming in the cellar – and what he thinks of 2022

We talk to iconic Burgundian winemaker Jean-Marie Fourrier about how to handle climate change in the cellar – and what he thinks of the 2022 vintage

Jean-Marie Fourrier – student and master

Student and master: Jean-Marie Fourrier

There are myriad fascinating twists and turns in Scotch whisky’s long and storied past. From dizzying boom times to disastrous downturns, the distilling landscape – and the major players within it – has been redrawn countless times. 
There's one era, however, that is legendary – whisky's "golden age". Between the 1950s and '80s, some of the industry's most nuanced single malts were crafted. These are now widely regarded as the greatest ever released, which is reflected in the eyewatering secondary market prices – should they ever appear on the auction block. 
These perfectly imperfect, characterful and wonderfully unique liquids, produced at distilleries that no longer exist, or exist in a very different way today, will never be bottled again – making them real unicorns for whisky collectors. 
To understand what makes them so special, it is important to first appreciate just how little liquid exists from this time. The single malt whisky market was unfathomably small before and during this period and entirely dwarfed by blends. A mere fraction of a distiller’s finest liquid would be bottled as a single malt. These minuscule quantities were also made via practices that are now lost in the annals of history, making them more desirable for collectors. 
For context, Scotch whisky was largely made as it always had been until the 1950s, drawing on traditional methods that had been passed down for centuries. Distillers would use their sight, smell and taste to determine when a liquid was ready to cask, and later, bottle. Whisky-making took mastery and patience – something producers could ill afford when demands on the industry intensified and there was a concerted push to produce more for less during the 1970s. While many producers made these changes around the same time, they didn’t all happen at once, creating a wonderfully varied time capsule of whiskies. 
The 1960s – when some of these great bottlings were produced – was sandwiched in between two vastly different decades. Production in the ‘50s was steady but small. By the 1970s, however, distillers – both large and small – were forced to increase their output by almost double, and names that had fallen silent were reawakened once more as global demand for Scotch whisky grew. 
Sadly, by the mid-1970s, the tide started to turn. The bountiful supply of whisky was not met by demand, resulting in a devastating whisky loch in the 1980s and some of the most difficult years the Scotch whisky industry has ever endured. Swathes of distilleries were forced to close, including the now-legendary Port Ellen and Brora – both of which shut their doors in 1983. This depression continued well into the 1990s with a further 20 casualties (of these, only three ever reopened), before the pendulum finally swung back in the early 2000s when the seemingly unquenchable thirst for single malt whiskies, that is still in full force today, began. 
From the 1950s onwards, holders of the increasingly frayed purse strings sought to reduce inefficiencies in the traditional, labour-intensive practice of whisky-making – which defined the golden age. With the introduction of modern, more mechanised, safer processes, it was a new dawn for Scotch whisky.  During this period in history, every single stage of whisky production was “streamlined”. The money men closed floor maltings, introduced distillers’ yeast, reduced fermentation times, installed semi-lauter tuns, made the switch to indirect-fired stills, replaced worm tubs with shell-and-tube condensers, and introduced ex-Bourbon barrels. By the end of the 1970s, you could almost count on one hand the number of distillers who retained traditional methods. 
It’s important to remember that tweaking one of these processes can alter the entire flavour profile of a whisky – just ask Glenfarclas who reverted back to direct-firing their stills after their new-make spirit lost its characteristically heavy and oily profile during their ill-fated flirtation with steam in 1981. And yet, in many instances, producers permanently changed many of these processes. Traditional practices and know-how that varied slightly at every distillery began to be outsourced as they turned to professional maltsters and installed modern, industrial-scale equipment that increased efficiencies and consistency but in some cases compromised the craft and character of the final spirit profile. 
“Every distillery has its own story and evolution of style,” whisky authority Serge Valentin explains, “their own ups and its downs.” 
Valentin was ahead of his time when he started collecting single malt Scotch, almost exclusively from Old Clynelish and Brora. He couldn’t possibly have predicted what his passion project of buying as many different bottlings as he could “simply because they were [his] favourites”  would become. 
Both Clynelish and Brora – as it would be known – produced heavily peated malt during the late 1960s and early ’70s. Bottlings from this time until 1983, when Brora became a victim of the whisky loch and fell silent, have become highly collectable in recent years. Old Clynelish bottlings, (Valentin’s favourites), which are robustly distinctive with aromas of scented wax and heather, are astonishingly rare and modern collectors clamber over one another to get their hands on these golden-age gems for many times the price Valentin would have paid. 
Stephen Rankin has been fortunate to sample whiskies from one of the most remarkable single malt libraries in the world at Gordon & MacPhail. His team is able to pull out liquids from what he calls “pre-evolutions within distilleries” thanks to his family’s foresight to buy barrels from cash-strapped producers who were selling their stocks for survival. The Elgin-based independent bottler had the luxury and fortitude to bide their time and store casks that would otherwise have been bottled young or blended. He has a particular affection for single malts from what was Milton Distillery, known since 1951 as Strathisla, which he describes as a “great example of a whisky that has the flavours of this past era.” 
Independent bottlers like Gordon & MacPhail played a vital role in bringing many of these now-legendary whiskies into the world. One man in particular, Silvano Samaroli, was responsible for bottling single malts that are now widely regarded as some of the greatest ever released.  
Rome-based Samaroli released his first Scotch whisky series in 1968 in the form of the now-iconic, dumpy Cadenhead bottlings – making him the first independent Scotch whisky bottler outside the United Kingdom. Today, Samaroli’s Bowmore, Glen Garioch, and  Springbank releases are held in especially high regard and his  Laphroaig single malts from 1967 and 1970 are in a league of their own. 
“The late 1960s to the ’80s is definitely one of the most remarkable periods,” Samaroli’s Daniele Liberati says, “largely due to the appearance of certain expressions for the first time.”  
“We started to propose different bottlings, moving away from the classic blends and official distillery releases,” Liberati adds. These included single-cask expressions, numbered bottlings and cask-strength releases, all of which are commonplace today but were revolutionary at the time.
 
In recent years, a handful of new distillers have turned to old whisky-making practices in an attempt to recapture some of its magic. Fledgling Speyside distiller Dunphail, for instance, has faithfully – and at great cost – installed traditional floor maltings, direct-fired stills and wooden, open washbacks where fermentation times are considerably longer than the industry average, to produce a fruit-forward, oily, medium-bodied Speyside whisky. Today, however, these traditional methods are always adopted in conjunction with modern practices in order to achieve all the desirable characteristics of yore in a more efficient way.   While there is the temptation to look back on this era with a rose-tinted view, as there are undeniably some exceptional bottlings from this time, it is wrong to believe that all whisky produced in the golden age was of the same standard. Whisky-making 40 to 50 years ago was imperfect, there was very little consistency in quality and for one good cask, a distiller would likely have 10 or 20 bad ones that never saw the light of day.  It’s also important to appreciate that many of these modernisations were vital to guarantee the safety of distillery workers as several stages in production were unstable. These advancements have also resulted in unprecedented consistency. While nuance and singularity might have been sacrificed, it’s now incredibly hard to find a bad dram.   As times evolve – as they inevitably do – it’s highly unlikely whisky from Scotland’s golden age will ever not be considered precious.    Browse all Scotch whisky or read more Editorial

Some of the most exceptional single malts ever released were produced in an era affectionately known as “the golden age”. Bottlings from this time are painfully scarce and have gained near-mythic status among whisky enthusiasts. Holly Motion explores why whiskies from this age are so precious

Exploring the golden age of malt whisky and its most coveted bottlings that are widely considered some of the greatest single malts ever released.

The golden age of malt whisky

The golden age of whisky

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

The world’s fine wine regions famously exist where the climate is just warm enough for grapes to reach ripeness. The ever-warming climate, however, has greatly increased this likelihood, with good-to-great vintages now convincingly outweighing the poorer ones.  Despite this, vintage variation remains an important factor in fine wine and when contrasting 2016, 2017 and 2018 in Piedmont, you see there are still strong variations in climate. The pitfalls of a vintage could arguably be even greater, in that these regions are no longer only concerned by wet, cooler conditions but also by the perils of excessive heat and drought. While hotter conditions can drastically affect yield and quality, the 2017 vintage in Piedmont seems to show that – despite these risks – vines are better at handling the heat. 
Following on from an almost perfect 2016 growing season in Piedmont, 2017 was always going to play second fiddle. The 2017 and 2018 vintages were certainly not as straightforward and – in fact – the two together offer completely contrasting growing seasons which produced totally different results, with 2017 hot and dry, 2018 cool and wet. Despite initial concerns regarding the heat in 2017, the wines – now in bottle – are surprisingly fresh, yet with richly concentrated fruit. Giuseppe Vaira sums it up best: “2017 is a vintage that defies logic.  It was the driest vintage on record and the earliest picking dates of the last five years. Yet, the wines are surprisingly vivid, fresh and still introverted: the opposite of what you would expect from a warm year.” For Giovanni Angeli at Massolino, the 2017s are similar to the 2015s, but with more “energy and freshness”, a pleasant surprise considering the year’s hot, dry conditions. Visiting Piedmont in early 2018, I remember how concerned winemakers were about the past summer. They were shocked by the extreme conditions, registering as the hottest and driest summer since 2003; yet, as Ferruccio Grimaldi and Giovanni Angeli noted, alcohol levels remained normal – particularly for the Nebbiolo.  Grimaldi believes this is because the vines shut down during the hottest period and stopped producing sugar. More surprising was that acidity remained high, something Grimaldi attributes to low levels of malic acid in the grapes. This might sound counter-intuitive, but it is the tartaric acid in grapes that provides freshness, while malic acidity in fact lessens the sense of freshness. For Grimaldi, low malic acidity signifies two things: the grapes reached an excellent degree of ripening, while also retaining healthy levels of tartaric acidity. Grimaldi also noted that, despite the heat in the day, the nights were cooler than other hot vintages – potentially another factor that helped preserve the acidity and freshness in the wines.  Emanuele Baldi from Prunotto pointed out that another possible saviour of the vintage – albeit to the detriment of the year’s yield – was frost. A mild winter prompted early budbreak, meaning vines were significantly advanced when the region was hit by frost. This led to huge losses particularly for the white varieties Moscato and Arneis, but also for lower-lying plots of Nebbiolo, where frost pockets formed.  The fruit that escaped was all from the higher vineyards, sites which naturally preserved more acidity thanks to their altitude. For Vajra, there were three key factors to 2017’s success: the diurnal temperature swing, the lack of rain (which caused a limited intake of potassium and thus better retention of acidity), and a gentle, fresh September which set the stage for Nebbiolo’s tannins to fully ripen. The biggest threat for the season was the lack of water, the risk being that without adequate water the grapes would become shrivelled and overripe. Massolino tried to counter the drought by not trimming the canopy (providing shade) and breaking off superficial roots, forcing the remaining roots to go deeper in search of water.  “We learned a big lesson from this vintage,” says Angeli. “The vines are much more flexible than we imagined.” Moreover, the season highlighted the region’s marl soils important role as a water regulator. “They are like a big sponge that’s able to catch the water during winter and spring, and release it slowly during the rest of the season avoiding stress to the vines,” explains Angeli. The region was blessed again with welcome rain in late August and September, allowing the vines to find equilibrium, completing the full cycle of vegetative growth while also the fruit to ripen fully (both in terms of sugar and phenolic ripeness). While Nebbiolo production was down by around 15 to 25% for some producers (due to the spring frosts and drought), the grapes that survived were beautifully ripe. The 2017 vintage will be remembered for its early harvest, but the results are excellent. “The 2017 Barolo are rich, fresh and fruity wines,” says Grimaldi, “and more ready to drink now compared to 2016 vintage.” Massolino’s Angeli agrees: “The wines already have soft, smooth tannins with a complex and sweet mid-palate.” For Baldi, the wines have fantastic concentration and, more importantly, they are not flabby.  They may not have the structural prowess of the 2016 and will not age as well, but Baldi believes they will drink beautifully over the next 10 to 15 years. Vaira notes the warmth of the year gave the wines “an extra layer of density and mid-palate richness… but what I love about these wines,” he says, “is the quality of the texture and almost a sappy freshness that keeps everything in balance.” Particularly from Vajra’s cooler sites, Giuseppe believes the top 2017s will have sensational ageing potential, especially in comparison to other similarly warm vintages. The 2017 vintage might have been challenging in terms of heat and drought, but such conditions are likely to be more prevalent in the years to come. The good news is that the vines seem to be adapting to these warmer vintages and vignerons are learning how to cope with them – producing some excellent wines that defy logic, remaining remarkably fresh and age-worthy. 
The vintage in brief: Hot and dry conditions – yet the wines have surprising freshness Yields reduced by frost and drought particularly in lower-lying sites Supple tannins that make the wines approachable already Ripe yet fresh wines that offer good medium-term drinking Browse all Barolo or read more Editorial 

With the release of the 2017 Barolos fast approaching, Gavin Smith spoke to some of the region’s leading producers – Giovanni Angeli from Massolino, Giuseppe Vaira from Vajra, Emanuele Baldi from Prunotto and Ferruccio Grimaldi – about the vintage, its extreme conditions and the surprising results

The Barolo 2017 vintage is beyond all expectations. We explore the year that defies logic and the wines are surprisingly vivid, fresh and introverted

Barolo 2017 vintage report 

Barolo 2017: vintage report

Cerbaiona is widely recognised as one of the top estates in Montalcino, but has been a little elusive of late. Under Diego Molinari’s stewardship, the winery achieved cult status, but the property was sold in 2015, and hasn’t released any Brunello since. The new owner Matthew Fioretti has added to the radio silence, requesting critics not to score the wines, believing “a softer and more inquisitive form of journalism and criticism might be better than the score bazooka”.  Production is so small that Fioretti doesn’t need to rely on critics to promote the wines, but Cerbaiona has been noticeably absent from recent rave reports on the 2016 vintage from the likes of the Wine Advocate and Vinous. Our woman on the ground in Italy, Annalisa Florian, is one of the few people to have tasted the about-to-be-released 2016 Brunello, the first under Fioretti. Fioretti and his team have overhauled the estate. It’s a brave decision to make such a clear break from the past with a winery of such repute, and testament to their commitment to quality. Due to massive restructuring, Fioretti decided to declassify all the wine made in 2014 and 2015 to Rosso di Montalcino. As he points out, “Several aspects of this wine had formed before taking over the business.” Despite the obvious success of the 2015 vintage, Fioretti commendably didn’t want to rest on Cerbaiona’s reputation. All the vineyards are located on the Cerbaiona hill, just northeast of the town of Montalcino, and neighbouring another Brunello icon, Salvioni. The success of Sangiovese grown on this specific site long predates the Brunello appellation, with vineyards located here for hundreds of years and the wine historically produced known simply as Cerbaiona. The soil is a distinct limestone shale infused with sand and, according to Fioretti, “Almost by doing nothing, you can make an exceptional wine at Cerbaiona. Its vineyard location is that special and unique.” Fioretti, however, wasn’t happy with doing “nothing”. While praising Molinari’s legacy, he felt the estate desperately needed modernising – with serious work to be done in the vineyard and winery. He is very much inspired by what he calls a “tectonic shift” in winemaking in Italy (and elsewhere) over the last 30 years, with a move towards precision viticulture and a more hygienic approach to winemaking. Fioretti sees this as a shift from winemaking as an “art form” to winemaking as “craftmanship”.  In his mind, it was the pioneering efforts of producers like Romano dal Forno in Valpolicella and Luciano Sandrone in Barolo who have shown what can be achieved in Italy with such an approach. Just after taking over Cerbaiona, Romano dal Forno commented to Fioretti, “I’ll tell you what I told Molinari: you can’t make great wine in a barn.” Until recently, the sacristy of the small chapel was the fermentation cellar. The chapel itself was used for wine storage, while the granary and old animal stables acted as barrel cellars. “Hardly a precision and hygienic environment for winemaking,” Fioretti quips. As for the vineyards, “The rootstocks and clones of all the plantings at Cerbaiona were not selection massale nor specially selected material.  It was simply what the nurseries were selling at the time,” says Fioretti. “By 2010, the knowledge that had been gathered around Sangiovese was incomparable to what was understood in the 1970s and '80s.” Fioretti knew they needed replanting with better clones and rootstocks.  He retained and harvested the oldest vineyards for four harvests, working with top agronomists. “We made many attempts to overcome the shortcomings of these rootstocks and clones (which tended to produce enormous bunches, especially in wet years). But we all agreed: the sooner we replanted, the better off Cerbaiona would be.” As such, they’ve embarked on a six-year replanting program, making significant changes. The original three hectares (of which one hectare was dedicated to Bordeaux varieties) have been completely replanted to Sangiovese. An additional hectare of olive groves located on the steepest slope (and Fioretti believes the finest of the estate) has also been replaced with vines. Where possible, vines have been planted at a higher density and Fioretti has also converted the property to organic viticulture. Finally, with the release of the 2016, we find ourselves on the eve of the first Brunello release from Cerbaiona since the 2013 vintage. Fioretti believes 2016 to have been the “perfect” growing season. “The Sangiovese produced is captivating and sumptuous,” he tells me – the latter something he feels isn’t common for the variety. The moderate summer temperatures, the correctly timed rain and dry harvest conditions saw the Sangiovese thrive. The result, says Fioretti, is “a wine with fragrant aromas and a strong acidic shoulder – a guarantee of ageing”. It was in fact the latest harvest in the last five years at Cerbaiona. In Fioretti’s opinion, the 2016 is “not very far from” the 2010 – a vintage he feels is definitive for Montalcino – and comparable to other top modern Brunello vintages such as 2006 and 2007. There is tremendous excitement about the 2016 vintage, as well as the long-awaited return of this much-loved Montalcino estate. The 2016 Cerbaiona will no doubt be constantly compared to the wines made under Molinari, and it will be a fascinating comparison considering the effects of vine material, age of vines, viticultural techniques and winemaking practices versus overriding terroir.  What is clear is that Fioretti has no interest in resting on the laurels of this cult estate, nor simply following the footsteps of his predecessor. From what we’ve heard, it sounds like his labour-intensive approach both in the vineyards and winery is having the desired effect, and Cerbaiona’s legacy is safe. Whatever happens, Fioretti’s clear philosophy is set to mark a new and exciting era for the estate. Browse our range from Cerbaiona or read more about the 2016 vintage in Montalcino

There’s been a buzz about the cult Montalcino estate Cerbaiona since it changed hands in 2015. Ahead of the release of the 2016 Brunello – the first under Matthew Fioretti’s ownership – we caught up with the new owner to find out more about how and why he’s transforming the property

Cerbaiona is widely recognised as one of the top wine estates in Montalcino, and now Fioretti and his team have overhauled the estate. We find out more 

A new era of Cerbaiona

Cerbaiona: a new era

When visiting the cellars of Domaine Hubert Lamy, you are likely to come out a lot wiser than you were when you went in. Olivier Lamy has been experimenting ever since he joined his father at the domaine in 1995, and he loves to share his findings.  On our last visit we were given two white wines blind and asked to assess them. One thing seemed immediately clear: with its deeper colour and more developed savoury tones, one wine was older than the other. “No” he replied. “They are the same age.” Okay, perhaps the reason for such variation in development is due to the wines coming from two different quality sites – a Grand Cru versus a village wine for instance? “No, it is the same vineyard,” he replied. Perplexed, the only other solution I thought must be his high-density plantings. (Olivier has planted parts of his vineyard three times the density of the norm in Burgundy, with up to 30,000 vines per hectare), the result being smaller, more flavourful berries. Wrong again.   “Wrong experiment,” he smirks, leaving us completely stumped. He presents the two bottles and the answer lies with the capsules. Both wines have the same cork closure but one has the traditional metal capsule seal, the other bottle has been dipped in wax. It is the wax capsule that seems not only younger and fresher, but more texturally complex, yet both the wines are from exactly the same vineyard, with the same vine density and vintage. It is simply the closure that has preserved one wine so much better.   Olivier has been experimenting with closures for years. There have long been concerns about natural cork, with the risk of cork taint top of the list of potential problems, but it was the issue of premature oxidation, particularly with white Burgundy, that led Olivier to investigate whether maybe the problem lay with the closure.  Despite the drop in natural cork’s popularity and their replacement with alternative, “technical” corks and screwcaps, the natural cork still has plenty of advocates, and it remains the most sustainable and natural of solutions for many. A better understanding of the causes of cork taint has vastly improved the natural cork’s reliability and reputation, yet “being a natural product there remain irregularities in the cork,” says Olivier. Natural cork is irregular in structure, therefore allowing different levels of oxygen ingress, meaning that the same wine can mature differently depending on the specific cork, and resulting in bottle variation.  Olivier also believes the irregularities of cork have become worse in recent years due to climate change, with the warmer temperatures resulting in even less consistent cork.  The benefit of the wax capsule, according to Lamy, is that it acts like a “bandage”, offsetting the irregularities of the cork. His grandfather and many other winemakers often used wax capsules for wines destined for their personal cellars; it was the reliable ageing capacity of these wines that prompted his experiments. Trialling the effects of waxed and unwaxed capsules since 2009, he decided to use wax capsules on all his wines in 2016. Over this time, he has experimented with varying diameters and lengths of cork, different treatments, as well as testing plastic, agglomerate, and technical corks before concluding that longer (54mm), technical DIAMs (a natural cork-based agglomerate closure), under wax seal produce the best results and best protect against premature oxidation.  Does this mean we have a definitive answer to the question that has plagued white Burgundy for the last couple of decades regarding premature oxidation? While his experiments certainly seem to imply that the irregularity of natural corks could be one of the biggest culprits and wax capsules one of the most successful solutions, he does not believe it is only the cork which is at fault. “There are two problems,” he says. “Poor-quality corks and the fact that wines are more fragile these days.”  The increased fragility of white Burgundy, Lamy believes, is a modern phenomenon. Climate change produces riper grapes, combine this with too many new barrels, modern presses that are too protective and you have wines that are more susceptible to oxidation. All too aware of this concern, many vignerons, Lamy believes, attempt to overprotect their wines, adding too much anti-oxidative sulphur dioxide (SO2) throughout the winemaking process. Counter-intuitively, this in fact makes the wines more susceptible to oxidation. When wine is made in a more protective environment, the more volatile phenolics remain in the wine, whereas these will drop out of a wine  when it is made oxidatively at the early stages of vinification, resulting in a much more stable wine.   Despite vignerons’ better understanding of the effects protective winemaking has on long-term ageing, these techniques are still used by many because it makes the wines so much more approachable in their youth. Many white wines today are built on developing these youthful aromas at the expense of ageing potential, Lamy argues. This is, he says, is in direct contrast with the past, where wines were built on texture, remaining fairly closed in their youth, with the aromas only developing with age.  There are still many traditional vignerons in Burgundy producing textural white wines built to age – with Lamy (who does not enjoy young, aromatic Burgundy) being one of them. With the warming climate, he has, however, had to adapt his winemaking to protect these more fragile wines. These days he manages the press cycle according to the vintage and allows for more solids when required.  With all the wines now bottled under DIAM and wax capsules, all Lamy can do now is wait. But, if his experiments are anything to go by, the risks of premature oxidation are low. Of course, he’s not sitting back – the dynamic winemaker is looking to experiment even more, pushing the boundaries to produce the best, and most age-worthy, wine possible.

Find out more about Domaine Hubert Lamy

Premature oxidation has plagued the modern era of white Burgundy – but could it be a thing of the past? Recent research by Olivier Lamy – the experimental winemaker at the helm of Domaine Hubert Lamy – could hold the key to solving the problem. We caught up with him to find out more 

Could premature oxidation in wine-making be a thing of the past? Recent research by Olivier Lamy at Domaine Hubert Lamy holds the key to solving the problem

Domaine Hubert Lamy on the premox problem

Solving the premox problem: Olivier Lamy

At the time of the latest vintage release from Burgundy, it is always the year’s conditions that dominate debate. But is it really the most important factor when it comes to identifying what wine to buy? The best winemakers reliably produce magnificent wines year in, year out. The variation in vintage for these wines is fun and nuanced, rather than the death knell over the success or failure of a vintage. Unless the vintage is a complete disaster, which these days is rarely the case, vintage conditions are not the greatest indicator of the success or failure of a producer’s wines. More important are the techniques vignerons adopt, which in turn affect the style and balance of their wines. All viticulture and winemaking is a multitude of decisions, hundreds possibly thousands of them that collectively combine to produce the wine of that vintage. While modest vignerons might say the wines make themselves, and the best often aim to interfere as little as possible, even choosing not to do something is a conscious decision that requires serious experience and know-how. Burgundy of all places involves plenty of winemaking decisions that greatly affect the final outcome in bottle – particularly with the red wines. The fragile Pinot Noir is hugely susceptible to affectation during the winemaking process. The wines are certainly less
manipulated today than they were in the past. Nightmarish stories of copious amounts of fertiliser and insecticide polluting the soils, along with formulaic additions of sugar at fermentation are fortunately no longer normal practice with top producers today. In the recent past, red Burgundy also had to deal with over-extraction during fermentation and high levels of new oak in élevage, that arguably had the biggest effect on the flavour profile of Pinot in the 1990s and 2000s. But today, with extractions kept pretty minimal and oak – for the most part – more deftly used, Burgundian Pinot Noir is very much in an era of
transparency. Today, distinct winemaking techniques, like whether or not the winemaker incorporates whole bunches into the fermentation, determine distinct styles in red Burgundy. From the likes of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Leroy – who use high proportions of whole-bunch in their fermentations, to Rousseau and Fourrier at the other end of the scale de-stemming everything: to whole-bunch ferment or not is a decision that splits Burgundy’s top winemakers right down the middle. Both decisions are attempts at authenticity. For the vignerons who completely de-stem their wines, it is the purity of fruit that best transmits the terroir expression of the vineyard. Any incorporation of the stems only detracts from the fruit clarity and flavour – a flavour determined by its terroir. This philosophy is difficult to deny and, when tasting fully de-stemmed wines, they do tend to be most consistent in character and certainly transmit the nuances of a vineyard. For the “whole-bunchers”, the authenticity lies in it being the traditional method, arguing that whole-bunch fermentation was how all wine was made prior to the invention of the de-stemmer in the mid-20th century. While this isn’t strictly true, whole-bunch fermentation
was certainly normal practice and is how wine has been made for millennia. True terroir expression for them is not just the berries, but the stems too; it is both the stems and the berries together that offer the true blueprint of the terroir of a site. In the middle sits a growing majority of producers who see the advantage of both methods, without the need to sit in either camp. Partial whole-bunch fermentation adds something interesting to the blend without overpowering the purity of the fruit. These wines can therefore be both complex and terroir transparent, while not being at either extreme – representing a preference for balance over anything else.  Today many vignerons remain wary of having too many stems in the blend and its negative effect on acidity. Chantal Tortochot currently opts for around 20 to 25% whole-bunch during fermentation depending on the vintage. Too much, she believes, will have a detrimental effect on the freshness of the wine, because the stems introduce three important elements to the wine: water, potassium and mineral salts. Her biggest concern lies with the potassium, which – when mixed with the tartaric acid of the wine – precipitates into potassium carbonate crystals that then drop out of the wine, reducing the overall level of acidity in the wine. However, the countering effect of using whole-bunches in the fermentation is that the mineral salts provide a salinity and sapidity to the wine which actually makes the mouth water, accentuating the sense of freshness in the wine, even if the acidity is lower. Two therefore contrasting examples of the effects of whole bunch: does it make the wine more refreshing or less? On tasting the latest vintages on release, it has become apparent that while not always the case, wines made with a high proportion of whole-bunch tend to be less consistent when tasted in their youth. Not only can the wine aromas be dominated by stemmy notes, the wines can often be shut down. Again, this is not necessarily down to the quantity of whole-bunch, but it does seem to be a recurring trend when tasting wines that have a high proportion of whole-bunch. David Duband, a great believer in whole-bunch, accepts that in their youth the advantages of incorporating whole-cluster fermentation is less obvious, but after about eight years in bottle, he believes this method produces wines of higher complexity than those from the same appellation that have been completely de-stemmed: “They have some extra life on the palate,” he explains.  Having evolved from a winemaking philosophy which saw him de-stem all his fruit prior to 2006, he recognises the difference between the two approaches better than most. Others are less convinced. Charles van Canneyt of Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat has experimented using whole-bunch over the years but personally never found it added anything positive to his wines and remains a strong advocate of de-stemming all his grapes prior to fermentation. If anything, he believes partial whole-bunch fermentation can add flavour complexity to simpler, earlier-drinking wines that lack the natural depth of fruit. Philippe Jouan believes that the decision on whether or not to use whole-bunch should depend on the vintage. For him, in sunny vintages, the stemmy, “sauvage” flavours you get from whole-bunch fermentation are not in keeping with the vintage style: “It contests too much with the sunny fruit flavours,” he says. He will therefore only use stems in cooler vintages. Florence Heresztyn-Mazzini at Domaine Heresztyn-Mazzini has the opposite approach. She believes the warmer, riper the vintage, the better the stems are lignified; therefore, rather than adding greenness to the wines, they bring complementary flavour complexity.  For Olivier Bernstein – who incorporates 50% whole-bunch into his wines – it brings aromatic complexity, structure, and expression. For him, “The delicacy of the impact of whole-bunch on the final flavour is all to do with the quality of the fruit.” And this does seem to be an important point: when done well, whole-bunch fermentation is not something that is always obvious. The aromatic complexity is so integrated with the fruit, the perfume of Pinot still dominates both the nose and palate. 

Whichever philosophy a vigneron chooses, there is healthy debate in Burgundy today over whether or not to use whole-bunch fermentation. It is just an extra nuance, adding another layer of intrigue to this fascinating fine wine region. The success of each of these different
approaches shows there is no right answer, but it does make you wonder whether winemaking styles should be playing more of a role when deciding which Burgundies to buy – and whether vintage is as important as we traditionally believe it to be.   De-stemmed versus whole-bunch wine-making: 2019 CHAMBOLLE-MUSIGNY, PREMIER CRU, LES CHARMES, REMOISSENET PÈRE & FILS Remoissenet has a very particular style – one that is all about achieving great purity, and with 100% de-stemmed fruit. They have no qualms about harvesting late, often being some of the last to pick, believing what they lose in quantity through evaporation, they gain in quality through natural concentration. The fruit is de-stemmed, with an extended cold soak and fermentation in open-top vats at cool temperatures.  This approach has given their 2019 Chambolle Les Charmes a textbook enticing floral lift, with additional redcurrant coulis and lavender notes. There is a lovely freshness to the palate, with crisp red berry and red cherry fruit. It’s concentrated, yet so vivid and bright in the mouth – as is typical of the appellation. There’s a sappiness and dark chocolate note on the finish, the latter from the oak (50% new) which needs time for further integration, but this wine has great balance and a good amount of dense, textural extract. It will be beautiful at maturity in 10 years and beyond. 2019 MOREY-SAINT-DENIS, PREMIER CRU, LES MILLANDES, DOMAINE HERESZTYN-MAZZINI This is really quite a contrast to the Remoissenet. Not only are the appellations completely different, but so is the winemaking. In 2019 Heresztyn-Mazzini’s Millandes is 100% whole-bunch fermented. The nose is full of wild flowers, earthy soil and light stemmy notes. There is a wonderful “small berry” concentration in the fruit on the palate (black cherry, blackberry) but there are also lots of crunchy mineral rock notes and a salty tang.  The tannins build on the palate, austere and incredibly structural; this is tannic Pinot Noir. The complexity in flavour, structure and aromas (no doubt increased by the effects of the whole-bunch fermentation) requires some time to fully integrate. Highly complex and concentrated, it will be fascinating to taste this again in 10 years' time, especially next to Remoissenet's Charmes. Discover Burgundy

Each year we focus on the new vintages released from Burgundy, Bordeaux and elsewhere. In an era when truly bad vintages are a thing of the past, Gavin Smith wonders whether in fact it's the hand of the winemaker that reigns supreme.

In an era when truly bad wine vintages are a thing of the past, Gavin Smith wonders whether in fact it's the hand of the winemaker that reigns supreme.

Does vintage matter for wine quality?

Does vintage matter?

Bordeaux has seen a plethora of good to great vintages over the last 10-15 years most notably 2009, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2018... and now 2019. Speaking with some of Bordeaux's top winemakers in the build-up towards the eventual release of the 2019 vintage, has only further cemented the change in tone in Bordeaux in regard to the expectations of a vintage. No one today talks about a great vintage with surprise.  No vigneron in Bordeaux can say “it’s another vintage of the century” without a smirk. The discourse on vintage overviews has been forced to change. Looking at statistics from analytical data on climate, grape ripeness levels through to critics' approvals, wines in Bordeaux are much more regularly the result of almost perfect vintage conditions. Has global warming helped push Bordeaux into a modern-day golden era? What has been the knock-on effects of more regular vintages in Bordeaux? How long will this last and how will it change and shape the Bordeaux of the future?  Bordeaux is no longer a region whose Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot run the gauntlet to reach sugar ripeness. If anything, it is rising alcohol levels, hail, drought, sunburn and vine shutdown that keeps the vigneron up at night.  But these concerns are increasingly becoming better managed thanks to huge investment by many of the top estates using both technology and ever more advanced scientific data to better cope with the issues at hand. Even within this trend of excellent vintages, vignerons in Bordeaux have only got better at dealing with the new norm of warmer vintages. Arguably the wines of the warm 2018 vintage were better handled than the similarly warm 2009.  The bi-polarisation of the Bordeaux wine market Whilst the picture at the entry level end of the scale within Bordeaux is a lot more gloomy, with many vignerons facing real sustainability issues, no doubt further enhanced by the effects of the current global pandemic, the prestigious classified growths and other top estates are currently benefiting from a perfect storm.  More consistent vintages have led to an increased income flowing into the estates which has seen increased reinvestment into the property’s infrastructure to offset tax on profits. The benefit being huge scientific and technological investments into many of these châteaux with precision viticulture and vinification becoming standard practice in many of the top estates. From a region in which heritage and tradition exude from the grandeur of turrets and towers, it is behind the castle walls that you find futurism and innovation. Precision and transparency Whilst the weather remains the most important factor that the vigneron can’t control, the Bordeaux châteaux who can afford to, have made great strides in off-setting poor weather conditions with a shift in attention towards viticultural practices. Whilst the battle between Mother Nature and machine is still very much one-sided, innovations in the field, as well as the winery, have seen good to excellent results as standard in Bordeaux’s modern era.  Also the earlier start to the vine's growing cycles is pushing the key veraison period earlier (where there are longer hours of sunlight) resulting in being able to bring in the harvest earlier if necessary, to avoid the risk of the heavy rains at the end of the season ruining the vintage. Whilst similar developments are happening throughout the fine wine regions of the world, the sheer volume of premium fine wine produced from the top estates in Bordeaux means the regularity of good to excellent vintages at this scale is unmatched anywhere else in the world, giving them a huge advantage when it comes to reinvestment.  Behind these traditional, historic château walls is some of the most cutting-edge technology in operation in global wine production. From optical sorting machines to UV light technology managing micro-bacterial issues in the winery, these innovative techniques are producing some of the most precise wines ever to come out of Bordeaux.  In the not-too-distant past Bordeaux had been particularly susceptible to wine faults such as brettanomyces due to high pH, rising alcohol levels and extensive barrel ageing, but amongst the top estates today, potential faults remain tightly controlled. But the investment in technology is not the only reason behind the modern success stories of Bordeaux, but an investment in people too, with full-time viticulturalists operating in the vineyard throughout the year as standard.  An increase in experimentation has also led to more variety in both viticulture and vinification practices leading to more variety in structure and style in wines from across the Médoc and beyond. Experiments with different-sized vessels and trialling materials for élevage, whole bunch fermentations, intra-plot picking and vinification as well as investments in heritage projects such as the recovery of original Bordeaux clones that were practically wiped out prior to the devastating effects of the great frost of 1956 are all adding breadth and scope to the innovative side of today’s Bordeaux.  Tradition and terroir With an ever-expanding fine wine market in terms of both consumers buying fine wine as well as more regions producing fine wine, Bordeaux has never had more competition within the region itself as well as further afield. With this additional pressure, there is a strong ambition for each château to further distinguish itself. One clear advantage is their history; few winemaking regions in the world have the prestige and the back catalogue found at the top estates today.  Chateau Lafite Rothschild serving vintages back to 1881 at their 150-anniversary birthday party last year to a hall full of guests on five consecutive nights is something no other region could come close to pulling off. Despite this, the growing competition from other emerging fine wine regions around the world has forced Bordeaux onto its toes and lit the fire under many top estates to better communicate what makes the wines of Bordeaux unique. The Bordelais openly admit that they have had to look outside of the Bordeaux bubble and take note of developments in fine wine regions further afield. With Bordeaux wines almost always blends of varieties encompassing a collection of scattered vineyards, the discourse surrounding terroir was largely glossed over in favour of more generic phrases such as Pauillac‘s graphite minerality.  The seemingly flatlands of the Médoc are "flat" no longer, the top châteaux emphasising their “hauts”, their “grand-puy’s” and “moutons” justifying their classified status comes from distinct terroir, whether that be the raised grounds of gunzian gravel or the outcrops of blue clay or crasse de fer soils of Pomerol or the various distinct types of limestone found in different parts of Saint-Emilon. The breakdown of single vineyards and their influence on the blend is now regularly part of the estates' patter when describing their terroir and this more exhaustive investigation into its vineyards has helped better communicate what is special and distinct about each château.  Bordelais are quick to admit, that for a region whose historic importance is unmatched in fine wine production, they have in the past been guilty of following fashion. Perhaps because of their global impact, their fashion faux pas only became more obvious. Not just in Bordeaux but throughout the world of fine wine there has never been such a heightened sense of self awareness and an emphasis on transparency in wines.  Bordeaux too has adapted to this and while being naturally powerful, intense, long-lived wines thanks to the varieties used and unique climate, there is also a strong emphasis on the Bordeaux wines of today retaining a sense of purity and elegance too. The ability to be both powerful and elegant is surely Bordeaux’s greatest calling card. When interviewing Andrew Jefford last autumn, I asked what he thought was the most exciting emerging region in the fine wine world today, I was pleasantly surprised to hear him state Bordeaux, saying “I’m in awe of the progress made there over the last 20 years, particularly in terms of the understanding of tannins. Tannins are the key to quality in fine red wine. Nothing would help southern hemisphere regions making ambitious red wines more than a breakthrough in the extraction and expression of tannins in their wines – the hallmark of all great European reds. Red winemakers in general need to stop stressing about acidity and become obsessed by tannin. To learn about tannin, go to Bordeaux.”  The future of Bordeaux Despite the top châteaux of Bordeaux today enjoying a bout of legendary vintages, there are real dangers posed to the longevity of Bordeaux’s current success (along with many other fine wine regions of the world). How long will it be before global warming pushes the region to the points where heat and drought no longer make growing wine grapes viable? No doubt early signs are there.  If Bordeaux becomes too hot and too dry, vines will shut down completely and tannins will not ripen as sugars go through the roof. Merlot is already a concern for many and considering its dominance in much of the vineyards of the Right Bank and in a significant part of blends on the Left Bank, there is no way things will remain as they are. Whether clonal development, irrigation or winemaking techniques can rescue it seems at odds with the current emphasis on natural winemaking.  Either way, things will eventually have to change. At least for today Bordeaux classified estates are unquestionably enjoying a golden era of vintages where their wines have never been so transparent. In such uncertain times, it is not clear how long this golden era will last, particularly with the typical Bordeaux varieties we know and love today, but those who think Bordeaux is passé are failing to look in the right places. Explore more Editorial 

Has global warming helped push Bordeaux into a golden modern era? What have been the knock-on effects of more regular vintages in Bordeaux? How long will this last and how will it change and shape the future of Bordeaux? 

We explore whether global warming helped push Bordeaux into a golden modern era. 

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