From humble beginnings in Beaujolais in the 1980s, the natural wine movement has become a global force. But what influence has it had just north in Burgundy’s long-established, terroir-focused appellations? Simon J Woolf explores the blurred line between classical and natural winegrowing

From Beaujolais to Burgundy, how has the natural wine movement shaped a terroir-driven region? For FONDATA Simon J Woolf explores the changing landscape.

Natural Wine’s Influence on Burgundy

Nature vs. Nurture: The quest for Burgundy’s true identity

Xiao-Li Meng, Whipple V. N. Jones Professor of Statistics at Harvard and Founding Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Data Science Review, was inspired by a student to combine wine and statistics—leading to insights far beyond what they ever expected.

From wine tastings to data science, Xiao-Li Meng explores how statistics reveals simplicity in complexity – one glass, experiment, and insight at a time.

Wine, statistics & serendipity: A Harvard journey

Seeking simplicity in statistics, complexity in wine, and everything else in fortune cookies 

Every now and then, the word ‘singularity’ is used to describe a particular wine that stands apart, for whatever reason, from other wines of its type. But just what is singularity, and how can wine express it? Wine writer Tamlyn Currin investigates.

What makes a wine truly singular? Tamlyn Currin explores the rare bottles that defy convention and challenge the rules of the wine world.

Searching for Singularity in wine

Searching for Singularity

Louis XIII has been adored by dignitaries, royalty and the glitterati throughout its near 150-year history. Everything about it, from the grapes to the glass, is of the highest quality. It has been present at some of the most momentous occasions in modern history – served at European royal courts, poured on the maiden voyage of the SS Normandie and Concorde, and quaffed by Agatha Christie on the Orient Express. It has been a favourite of Prime Ministers and dabbed on the wrists of fashion icon Coco Chanel. So what is it about this Cognac that has captured the hearts and minds of so many influential people throughout history? Working from the outside in, Louis XIII is housed in an instantly recognisable Baccarat crystal decanter. Each one is crafted by hand and no two are the same. It comes in a number of formats, from the miniature 5cl to the six-litre Mathusalem. Few bottles look as exquisite or capture the light like the spiked vessel that wouldn’t look out of place in a gallery. The decanter is fashioned after a carafe that was unearthed on a 16th century battleground. Rémy Martin founder Paul-Emile Rémy Martin decided to model his Cognac bottle on the one that was exhumed because he was so taken with the design. This was quite a radical move at the time as Cognac was historically sold by the barrel. The decision paid off as the decanter has since become an international standard for quality and many have attempted to mimic its design. There are numerous nods to history and Louis XIII’s royal namesake on the handblown decanter, including the 20-carat gold neck and handmade fleur-de-lis stopper. It takes a minimum two weeks’ craftmanship to produce a single decanter. This, however, is a mere fraction of the time it takes to produce the remarkable liquid within. Only the finest grapes from the Grande Champagne region are selected to one day become Louis XIII. Each decanter contains approximately 1,200 eaux de vie, distilled on lees, and aged for up to 100 years in traditional Limousin oak casks called tierçons that are over one century old. It’s no exaggeration to say Louis XIII is the work of a Cellar Master’s lifetime. Baptiste Loiseau became only the seventh person to hold the role – and the youngest in the Cognac house’s history – when he took up the mantle in 2014, at just 34 years of age. Despite all the advancements that have occurred throughout Rémy Martin’s history, it is no easier today than it was all those centuries ago for the Cellar Master to know if the decisions he or she makes will affect Louis XIII’s end taste profile. It is Loiseau’s role to ensure these aromas are the same in a century’s time – something that is becoming ever-more difficult in a changing climate with tools that are disappearing before his very eyes. The tierçons, named as such because Rémy Martin’s Cognac used to be transported in barrels of three on a horse-drawn carriage, are crucial to the history and taste profile of Louis XIII. There are tierçons in the depths of the Rémy Martin cellar that date back to 1744 – 20 years after Martin started producing Cognac under his own name. For a long time, the art of coopering these 550-litre tierçons was lost to the ages, as none was produced after 1917. This has become increasingly problematic over the past 20 years as the number of tierçons started to dwindle as one is sacrificed when another needs repairing. In 2012, then Cellar Master Pierrette Trichet made the bold decision to start this age-old tierçon coopering practice again, for fear there might not be any left for generations to come. This project to resurrect the art and safeguard the future of Louis XIII took years to master. The Rémy Martin team enlisted the help of various experts in their field to recreate a tierçon that was faithful to the ones produced in the 18th century. A tierçon must be made from a Limousin oak tree that is up to 180 years old. Once felled, the oak needs to be split and air-dried for a minimum of three years. The new tierçon is then filled with new eaux de vie to mature before it is ready to be filled with the eaux de vie that is one day destined to become Louis XIII. Even after creating countless prototypes, it’s impossible to know exactly how the resulting liquid will taste when it’s ready to bottle in almost a century’s time. From the grapes, to the maturation vessels, and decanter, everything about Louis XIII is rich in history and savoir faire. The world around might change, but there is some comfort in knowing that the "king of Cognacs" in your decanter – or better yet, rocks glass – is as fine as the liquid dabbed on the wrists of Coco Chanel and imbibed by the statesmen and dignitaries of their respective times. Browse all Cognac listings or read more Editorial 

Louis XIII is one of those spirits that almost transcends its own category – and rightly so. It has everything: the history, the provenance and exceptional quality. Holly Motion explores the fascinating history of the "king of Cognacs"

Learn the incredible story of Louis XIII, the king of Cognacs. A liquid of uncompromising quality, adored by dignitaries, royalty and the glitterati.

The history of Louis XIII, the king of Cognacs

Louis XIII: the making of an icon

The Reynaud wines are the stuff of legend. Utter “Rayas” to a certain crowd and they will swoon. The singular style of this iconic Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate – pale, hauntingly aromatic, almost Burgundian in texture and incredibly long-lived – has a fervent following, a clan of Reynaud obsessives keen to seek out everything that Emmanuel Reynaud touched.  The property’s rustic charm – a far cry from the grandiose buildings of many famous estates – combined with the family’s inclination to shy away from their fame, happier quietly farming their vines, has only fanned the flames. Tucked away in the northern reaches of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Ch. Rayas and its owners are elusive – only making them more sought-after.   There is no shortage of praise for these rare and special wines – whose appeal, given the Reynaud’s minimal-intervention approach, broaches the worlds of fine and natural wine. William Kelley is a loyalist, and is one of several to note how well the property performs in “off-vintages” – where the property’s distinctive profile shines through, above and beyond the vintage and region, revealing their “captivating perfume, sensual textures and eternal youthfulness”. Robert Parker described the 1990 Rayas as “one of the greatest young red wines I have ever tasted”. For Nicolas Grainacher (Vinous), “The substance, finesse and intensity packed into these wines make it hard not to fall in love with them.” Neal Martin (Vinous) perhaps put it most concisely: “God invented wine to drink wines like this.”    The history of the Reynaud empire  In 1880, Albert Reynaud, a notary from Avignon, lost his hearing aged just 45. No longer able to work as a lawyer, he bought an estate in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, in an area called Rayas, where he saw out his days farming vines, apricots and olives. In 1910, his son Louis Reynaud took over running the estate. Louis had studied agriculture in Angers and was particularly interested in viticulture. He uprooted trees to plant new vineyards and bottled the property’s first wine in 1920 – using the name “Rayas”, the name of the forest on their parcel of land. It was the beginning of Rayas as we know it today.  Louis famously added the wording “Premier Grand Cru” to the Rayas labels, a self-pronounced classification of the wine – and notoriously defying the appellation rules (introduced in 1936). Building the property’s reputation and sales, he started expanding the business. Between 1935 and 1938 he bought Ch. des Tours in Vacqueyras, entrusting his son Bertrand with the larger 58-hectare property northeast of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, not far from the town of Orange. Around the same time, he built a new cellar and winery at Rayas, bringing the buildings within the appellation’s boundaries. After the Second World War in 1945, Louis purchased Ch. de Fonsalette, an estate further north of Orange, in Lagarde-Paréol – and, with that, the full suite of Reynaud properties was in place.  By the time Louis passed away in 1978, the Reynaud wines were some of the Rhône’s most famous.  
After his death, his youngest son Jacques took over Rayas and Fonsalette, while Bertrand continued to run Ch. des Tours. With the shift in ownership at Rayas and Fonsalette, quality dipped a little – but soon Jacques was making wines that lived up to the Reynaud name.  The old vines at Rayas, planted on sandy soils, facing north/northeast, surrounded by pine forest, produce wines of exceptional elegance and aromatic finesse, wines with haunting perfume, pale colour and almost Pinot-like delicacy, yet phenomenal persistence and ageability.   Jacques was renowned for being eccentric. A recluse, happiest in the vines and never keen to welcome visitors, he was rumoured to, on occasion, lie in a ditch to avoid journalists or other members of the trade. His aversion to the limelight surely only added to the wines’ allure. He died rather suddenly in 1997, while shoe shopping in Courthézon. Having no children of his own, his nephew Emmanuel – Bertrand’s son, who had been running Ch. des Tours since 1989 – inherited both Rayas and Fonsalette, taking the reins across all three properties.  The transition between Jacques and Emmanuel wasn’t seamless, as Emmanuel renovated the estate and replanted parts of the site, but by the early 2000s quality was once more living up to the Reynaud name. The style has shifted between generations, and while Jacques’s wines were more structured and solid, Emmanuel favoured more sensual, perfumed expressions. Over the last two decades, little has changed across the Reynaud properties – the wines’ mythical status only confirmed with each release. The new generation – Emmanuel’s sons Louis Damien and Benoît – are now continuing the family’s legacy.    The Reynaud philosophy  The approach at Reynaud is old-school – here, tradition reigns. Modern monoculture is not the method – with various crops across the estates, and biodiversity nurtured with swathes of woodland. The vines – all bush vined, many with significant age – are farmed in exactly the way as they’ve always been, organically with minimal inputs, ploughed by horse.  The fruit is all hand-harvested, whole-bunch fermented with indigenous yeast in cement tanks. Since Emmanuel took over, parcels have all been vinified separately. Macerations are gentle, generally under two weeks with a single pump-over a day. Ageing is in large, old oak, with no new wood used anywhere across the properties – indeed the youngest demi-muid or foudre at the estate may well be 30 years in age. Sulphur additions are minimal, with only a small amount at fermentation and a final addition at bottling, with the wines bottled unfined and unfiltered. The method is simplicity at its finest, focused on expressing each site – and the results speak for themselves. The wineries are rustic farm buildings, offering only the basic requirements, with no modern technology employed – and, given the wines produced, not needed.  Grenache is the core of all the Reynaud wines – the grape that thrives in their terroir and is the magic behind Rayas. Beyond Rayas, Cinsault is used to bring elegance and suppleness, while Syrah was long avoided – used only at Ch. de Fonsalette. Louis Reynaud believed the variety belonged in the Northern Rhône, and other than the small portion that made it into the Côtes du Rhône, the rest of the Syrah was sold off in bulk under his reign (often to local restaurants, who used it in their sauces). The Côtes du Rhône Syrah cuvée only introduced under Jacques Reynaud’s tenure, at first sold to the restaurants who had seen its quality in their sauces. There is no Mourvèdre at any of the estates, as Emmanuel Reynaud believed that their soils are too dry for the grape.  The Reynaud wines and estates  The Reynaud family comprises three distinct estates – Rayas, Fonsalette and Ch. des Tours, although Fonsalette doesn’t have its own winery.   Ch. Rayas  Rayas is the original Reynaud estate, purchased in 1880, and takes its name from the climat. In the northern reaches of Châteauneuf-du-Pape lie the 12 hectares of vines, surrounded by 11 hectares of forest. Forget the region’s stereotypical galets roulés or pudding stones, known for their ability to hold heat, Rayas sits on red, iron-rich, sandy soils, over richer clay. The soils are poor and the bush vines planted at low density, with a mere 2,500 vines per hectare – yielding just 10 to 20hl/ha. Significant replanting took place in the 1980s, meaning the vines now average 40 years in age, although there are still some survivors from the 1940s.  The site’s northern exposition combines with the influence of the wooded areas, offering shade and humidity, making for an extended growing season and preserving freshness in the wines. The Reynauds are among the last to harvest, often only picking in October/November, as much as two months after their neighbours. The resulting wines, however, do not speak of intense ripeness – but are all about elegance and finesse.  While Châteauneuf permits 13 red varieties, at Rayas you’ll find only Grenache Noir, with two hectares dedicated to white grapes – Grenache Blanc and Clairette. The Grenache vineyards can be divided into three section: Le Levant, Le Coeur and Le Couchant, each taking its name from its exposure to the sun – respectively as it rises, at its peak and as it sets. Writing for The World of Fine Wine, William Kelley describes the three components of the vineyard thus: “Le Levant is the most floral and ethereal, contributing the wine’s spine; Le Coeur is the most complete, contributing Rayas’s skeleton; and Le Couchant, with its richer, more compote-like fruit tones, brings the fat.”  The fruit is all hand-picked. The Grenache is kept on its stems, the whole bunches crushed before a gentle maceration for maximum two weeks (one pumpover a day) and indigenous-yeast fermentation. The wine is pressed off and aged in old foudre for a little under two years.  The delicacy and finesse of the resulting wine is reminiscent of top Burgundy. Pale in colour, Rayas is deeply aromatic, with haunting floral notes and an ethereal, silken texture that balances the wine’s earthy, savoury intensity. Between 1,200 and 1,500 cases of the flagship Châteauneuf-du-Pape are produced each year. The wines age beautifully and Emmanuel himself recommended waiting 20-25 years before opening a bottle of Rayas to fully experience its evolution.  The white grapes are planted across three parcels in Le Levant, comprising two hectares. The Grenache Blanc was planted in the 1940s, ’50s and ’95, with the Clairette planted in 1986. Fermented in old (80 to 100 years old) foudre, purchased second-hand by Louis Reynaud (Emmanuel’s grandfather), Rayas Blanc is a 50:50 blend of Grenache Blanc and Clairette, aged in old oak for around 11 months. The wine is made in extremely limited volumes, with only 400 or so cases produced each vintage. Rich yet poised, this rare white is immensely fragrant with notes of almond and white flowers, intensely mineral and textured, and can age for at least a decade.  Pignan is sometimes considered a “second wine” at Rayas, but it in fact comes from it own, specific site on the estate, a single two-hectare block surrounded by pine trees on the northern edge of the property with less sandy soils. Also pure Grenache, made in exactly the same way at Rayas, it offers a more immediate and approachable expression of the Rayas style, yet similar perfume, purity and structure – and is still capable of extended ageing. It can, on occasion – and especially in cooler vintages, rival its older sibling, Rayas. Around 650 cases are produced each year.  The Rayas wines are all only released when entering their drinking window, with the reds often only emerging from the estate over a decade after the harvest.  Ch. de Fonsalette  The “latest” addition to the Reynaud galaxy, Ch. de Fonsalette was purchased by Louis Reynaud in 1945. The property is large, covering 120 hectares in total, but with 12 hectares of vines in amongst woodland, farmland and olive groves, north of Orange in Lagarde-Paréol. Today it sits largely within the Côtes du Rhône Villages Massif d’Uchaux appellation (established in 2005), however the wines are all labelled just as Côtes du Rhône. Further north, the microclimate is cooler than at Rayas, and stylistically the wines are more restrained than those of Ch. des Tours, for example, but not as ethereal as those of Rayas.  The soils here are very different to those at Rayas with gravel, sand and red pudding stones. The vineyards are planted to Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah for red grapes, and Grenache Blanc, Clairette and Marsanne for whites. The vines are generally old, with the oldest planted in 1929.  The philosophy in the vineyard and winery is exactly the same as at Rayas – and, as the property doesn’t have a winery of its own, the wines are even made at Rayas. The reds are whole-bunch fermented, with a maximum two-week maceration and one pump-over a day. The wines are aged in a combination of enamel-lined tanks and large, old oak, bottled around a year or so later.   There are three wines in the range at Ch. de Fonsalette. The Côtes du Rhône Rouge is a blend of 50% Grenache, 35% Cinsault and 15% Syrah, the notably high percentage of Cinsault giving the wine particular lift and aromatic finesse – a wine that whispers and draws you in. There is a second red, a Côtes du Rhône Syrah which is 100% Syrah – a structured, dark-fruited wine that offers restrained power and quiet depth. Under Louis Reynaud, this was sold off in bulk, only first bottled under Jacques Reynaud (from 1978) and sold locally, largely to restaurants, before being offered more widely under Emmanuel. The Côtes du Rhône Blanc is a blend of 80% Grenache Blanc, 10% Clairette and 10% Marsanne, producing a textural and complex white with notes of stone fruit and herbs, and a saline undertow.  La Pialade  This wine is a slight anomaly in the Reynaud line-up. Only made in certain vintages, La Pialade Côtes du Rhône is vinified and aged at Rayas, made with declassified parcels from either Rayas or Ch. de Fonsalette. The blend is typically 85% Grenache, 15% Cinsault and 5% Syrah. Produced in tiny volumes, and even rarer given it isn’t made every year, it is often described as an “everyday Rayas” – more open in style, but can match Rayas for its subtlety and delicacy, even if it does not have the same depth.  Ch. des Tours   Purchased by Louis Reynaud in the late 1930s, Ch. des Tours was Emmanuel Reynaud’s home estate – having taken over running the property from his father Bertrand in 1989. As it was entrusted to Bertrand from the beginning, and never managed by Jacques Reynaud, the estate has always stood apart from Ch. Rayas and Ch. de Fonsalette – however all three have fallen under Emmanuel since 1997. Benoît – Emmanuel’s son, who studied oenology in Switzerland – has recently taken the lead at Ch. des Tours, having worked closely alongside his father.  The property gets its name from the towers or tours that frame the château building. Located in Vacqueyras, not far from Orange and northeast of Châteauneuf, it covers 40 hectares, with grains and olives as well as grapes. As it was long run separately, the property has its own winery.  Although the Reynaud philosophy runs through all three estates, the wines at Ch. des Tours are stylistically distinctive, offering more structure, muscle and intensity versus the more subtle, high-toned, perfumed style of Rayas and Fonsalette. The winemaking is largely similar to at Rayas and Fonsalette, with fermentation is concrete and maturation in old oak. Although the red grapes are mostly whole-bunch fermented, this is the only property where small portions are destemmed. The range is more complex at Ch. des Tours with a selection of wines bottled under Ch. des Tours, some under Domaine des Tours and a rosé made under the Parisy label.  There are five wines under the Ch. des Tours label:  Vacqueyras: A blend of 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah, this is a structured and powerful wine made exclusively from the oldest vines on the estate.  Côtes du Rhône Rouge: A blend of 65% Grenache, 20% Syrah and 15% Cinsault, this is a supple, juicy red packed with fruit and spice.   Côtes du Rhône Rouge Grande Réserve: Only made in specific vintages, this is effectively the Vacqueyras declassified when there isn’t sufficient colour – made in 2002, 2014 and 2015.  Côtes du Rhône Blanc: Made in very limited volumes, this white is 100% Grenache Blanc – a floral, textural wine that is worth seeking out.  Côtes du Rhône Blanc Grande Réserve: Only made in certain vintages, this is not a declassified bottling (like its red sibling), but a special bottling of the property’s best Clairette and Grenache Blanc. The 50% Grenache Blanc, 50% Clairette wine was produced in 2003, 2014 and 2015.  The Domaine des Tours label is all sourced from Ch. des Tours however is a slightly separate project, generally offering more accessible wines, almost all labelled as IGP or Vin de Pays. There are four wines under the label:  Vin de Pays de Vaucluse Rouge: This is a deeply expressive field blend of Grenache, Counoise, Syrah, Cinsault, Merlot and a host of other varieties.  Vin de Pays de Vaucluse Merlot: This 100% Merlot comes from the richest, clay soils on the property, producing amore opulent and exuberant wine.  Vin de Pays de Vaucluse Merlot-Syrah: A blend of Merlot and Syrah, which shifts according to the vintage, is a concentrated wine that combines the generosity of Merlot with the spice of Syrah.  Vin de Pays de Vaucluse Clairette: This 100% Clairette is pure and fresh, driven by minerality.  Under its own label is Les Tours Grenache Blanc – a rich, ripe and generous 100% Grenache Blanc full of stone fruit, bottled under the Vaucluse appellation. The last wine from Ch. des Tours is the Parisy rosé, a dry, delicate Grenache/Cinsault Vin de Table designed for everyday drinking. The labels themselves don’t detail the vintage, with this information only visible on the cardboard case.  Which Reynaud wines are made where? Ch. Rayas, Pignan, Ch. de Fonsalette and Pialade are all made at Rayas Ch. des Tours, Domaine des Tours, Les Tours Grenache Blanc and Parisy are all made at Ch. des Tours  Explore all current listings of the Reynaud wines or read more Editorial 

Few wines have the cult status of Rayas – a wine that stands alone in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Here, we offer an essential guide to the wines crafted by the Reynaud family in the Rhône – Rayas, of course, but also those of Ch. de Fonsalette and Ch. des Tours 

Everything you need to know about the wines made by Emmanuel Reynaud – Rayas, Pignan, Chateau de Fonsalette, Chateau and Domaine des Tours, and Parisy  

Guide to Rayas, Fonsalette and Des Tours – the Reynaud wines

Everything you need to know about Rayas

Last year, the great and the good gathered at the ancestral home of the legendary Gordon family (of William Grant & Sons). A hearty dram was poured for the world’s foremost drinks authorities and they were asked to name the liquid within. So far, so normal in the Scotch whisky world. What happened next is quite unusual. Not one of the experts – with decades of experience and dozens of book credits to their name – could so much as hazard a guess.   The answer to the seemingly simple but dastardly question dumfounded them all. The as-yet-unidentified liquid was a single grain Scotch whisky that had slumbered in a lone Sherry butt for 53 years. Now almost jet-black in colour, the single grain had taken on incredible, rich notes of dried fruits, roasted coffee, and muscovado toffee – and it was indistinguishable from a greatly aged single malt.   The Cask Trials, which is the name given to this highly unusual liquid that left some of the finest palates awestruck and not-so-secretly hoping for a bottle in their gift bag, is just one of the panoply of independently bottled House of Hazelwood releases from the Gordon family’s private Scotch whisky archives.   Somewhat surprisingly, you won’t find a single malt among them. These rare whiskies, which have been amassed over the past 100 years by the owners of Glenfiddich and The Balvenie, were released to the public for the first time in 2022 in two, painfully scarce, collections. The Charles Gordon Collection (all priced above £3,000 per bottle and aged for at least 40 years), and the Legacy Collection (priced between £950 and £2,000 a bottle) are all well-aged blended Scotch, blended grain and blended malt whiskies that have been matured in the most novel ways.   “Bringing old, expensive and unusual blended whiskies to the market is slightly counterintuitive,” House of Hazelwood Director Jonathan Gibson – who was instrumental in creating the range – candidly tells me. “It's not overly common within the industry.”  It’s also not overly common within the industry to bottle liquids of this age and provenance with playful names such as "Blended at Birth", "Sunshine on Speyside" and "The Old Confectioner’s", in understated packaging at these price points.  The liquids are undeniably scarce (once they’re gone, there really is no more) and old (few are under 40 years of age, and the oldest tops 50 years), but they are undeniably unusual and at odds with the highly successful formulaic approach others have followed of encasing precious liquids in highly ornate, priceless vessels that weigh more than a small child.    “They're not concept releases,” Gibson explains. “Everything is driven by the whisky. The packaging is quite straightforward. It's a nice bottle and it's classically engraved but we haven’t collaborated with the hottest designer. The idea is really just to give the whisky room, provide a platform, without overshadowing it,” he adds.   “Over the past 10-15 years – and it's no bad thing at all – you can see a lot more old age-statement single malts coming onto the market,” Gibson says, “And typically they're very straightforward in terms of their naming. It's distillery name, plus age statement equals a certain financial value.  “The naming of these releases is slightly playful, but actually if you look at them one by one, they're very straightforward. It's not quite a Ronseal, ‘it does exactly what it says on the tin’ approach, but it's not too far away from that. If you said ‘Blended at Birth’, it could be seen as quite playful but it's also quite descriptive and the same for ‘The First Drop’ and ‘Sunshine on Speyside’,” he explains.   It's clear Gibson, who has been involved in the project since the start, has genuine affection for the whiskies and the stories each one has to tell. He and the team are custodians of historical artefacts that the Gordon family have not parted with for the best part of a century.  “The First Drop”, for example, is named as such because it is the first liquid to run from the stills at the Gordon family’s Girvan grain distillery on Christmas day in 1964. This is the first and last time it can be purchased. “There's a real emotional tie from the family to these whiskies,” Gibson explains. “For the current family members, it's their dad who laid down these whiskies and he's not around anymore.  “I think it's actually quite difficult for the family to let some of these whiskies go, even though there's a begrudging acceptance that they can't drink such quantities and it was time they cut the cord and let these whiskies go out into the world.”  “There's a general principle that we're following where the whisky is ready to go when it's ready,” Gibson explains, “so we're not chasing down a 60-year-old age statement just so that we can put a big 60 on the bottle.”   It has been a pleasant surprise for all those involved to witness the reception the House of Hazelwood whiskies have received from an occasionally prickly and vocal audience.    “Sunshine on Speyside had an amazing response and it's one of the least expensive whiskies within our range,” Gibson says delightedly.   “It was selected because of its character and its flavour, and named because it has this amazing mango/ pineapple popsicle fruit character that transports you to sunshine and the Caribbean. It's one of those ones where everyone instantly agreed that it had to go into the first collection.   “I thought that everyone would be drawn to the oldest whisky at tastings but actually, this whisky captured the imagination of a lot of the writers and the trade.”   It’s hard to emphasise quite how unusual these whiskies are, as most releases – old or new – are described in hyperbolic terms.   “Blended at Birth”, which was released as part of the first collection, is a blend of malt and grain whisky that was married and matured as new-make spirit. Today, it is against the Scotch Whisky Regulations’ technical file to produce a whisky in this way, as you now have to age the malt and grain whisky components for a minimum of three years separately before blending them, so any liquids of this ilk on the market are painfully scarce.   “Unusual” and “esoteric” aren’t always necessarily loaded with positive connotations – you might take a sip of said liquid, politely smile and then return to something slightly less unusual and more palatable – but these whiskies have incredible balance and depth of flavour, in part because they are blends and not single malt whiskies.    “These old grains in particular are just unbelievable in terms of the flavour,” Gibson says with unfettered joy. “At a younger age, grain whisky is quite neutral in character but once you're past 30 years, if it's aged well, grain whisky has a luscious, delicious quality which adds so much to the final profile of the Scotch.    “The variation in style is enormous,” he continues. “I thought I understood old grain whisky but on exploring the inventory further you see these amazing grains that you didn't really know you could get.”   These whiskies wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for the foresight of the Gordon family  – and two brothers, in particular, who changed the company’s stars during the mid-20th century. The young Charles and Sandy Gordon brought much-needed vim and vigour to what could be a bit of a staid industry in the late 1950s. The pair famously refused to kowtow to demands from their grain whisky supplier – instead pulling the contract and setting up their own grain distillery, Girvan, in the 1960s. Charles – or Charlie as he was known – even forwent the comfort of his own home and instead lived in a caravan on-site during the build, riding a bicycle to stealthily check on the workers’ progress. His unconventional methods clearly paid off as the sizeable distillery (which still stands today) was built in a record nine-month period.  During their tenure, the duo also interrogated every aspect of whisky-making from distillation to maturation, resulting in the bold decision to employ an on-site coppersmith and cooper – which are still in situ at many of the William Grant distilleries today – to give the family more control. They were a formidable pair and the business arguably wouldn’t have survived some of the challenging periods in Scotch whisky’s history had it not been for their fortitude.     “There's something about family ownership that means you have a bit more luxury to maybe indulge some of your creative whims,” Gibson says with a wry smile. “This independence enabled them to explore ideas that might have been hard for others to justify to their board of shareholders.”  When other producers would have been forced to make very difficult decisions in order to survive those darker years, the larger, independent William Grant would have been slightly more insulated. Out of curiosity alone, they would have been able to hold on to barrels of maturing liquid and see how they developed over time.  These are the barrels that the House of Hazelwood team – and by extension us – now have access to. Each one has an incredible story – and an even better depth of flavour. With eight releases each year as a minimum – and the suggestion of some partnership releases to come as well – there is an audience, who count the great and the good among their numbers, desperate to venture into this unexplored and curious realm of blended Scotch whisky.  Explore all current listings of House of Hazelwood, browse all whisky or read more Editorial 

Few Scotch whisky releases have incited as much fervour and intrigue as the House of Hazelwood’s independent bottlings from the Grant family’s private cask library. We caught up with Jonathan Gibson to discover why this emporium of curiosities is so tantalisingly unusual

Exploring the success of the independent bottlings from the Gordon family’s extraordinary private collection

The story behind the House of Hazelwood

House of Hazelwood: selling the family jewels

The Thienponts reign over Bordeaux’s Right Bank. At Vieux Château Certan, Alexandre Thienpont – almost always dressed in his Barbour – rules, producing Pomerol of immaculate pedigree, as his family has for over a century now. Nearby, cousin Jacques Thienpont holds court at Le Pin, Pomerol’s original cult address. Nicolas Thienpont is another cousin whose domain stretches out from Saint-Emilion – from Pavie Macquin and Larcis Ducasse across to several estates in the Côte des Francs. And the dynasty continues to grow, as each thread of this complex family finds a new corner of the region to master.  The Flemish family has a long history in the world of wine, having traded French wine (especially Bordeaux) since 1842. Georges Thienpont – grandfather of Jacques, Alexandre and Nicolas) was the first to move into production, buying Ch. Troplong Mondot in 1921, then Vieux Château Certan in 1924. It wasn’t long before the Great Depression hit, however, and Georges Thienpont was forced to sell Troplong Mondot in 1934. Reportedly the only reason he kept Vieux Château Certan was that no one wanted to buy it – with vines holding little allure at the time. It was the château itself at Troplong Mondot, positioned at the highest point in the region and with a view across the village of Saint-Emilion, that allowed him to sell the Saint-Emilion estate. Georges continued to make wine through the Second World War and the devastating frost of 1956. Despite a challenging start, “VCC” (as it is affectionately known by wine-lovers) has become one of Bordeaux’s leading names.  It was Jacques Thienpont, however, who thrust the family firmly into the limelight. It was in 1979 that Jacques, then still a Belgian wine merchant, purchased a 1.6-hectare vineyard in Pomerol. The site had produced generic Pomerol, but Jacques started making tiny volumes of opulently styled wine, naming it after the lone pine tree (“le pin”) that stood on the property. The 1982 vintage was pivotal, receiving significant critical acclaim – especially from Robert Parker – and soon Le Pin became one of the world’s most desirable wines.  Just over 30 years after that first vineyard purchase, it seemed like fate when Jacques went to see a plot of land in Saint-Emilion right next to Troplong Mondot. Previously known as Ch. Haut-Plantey, the potential of the site was clear to Jacques and the symmetry of the Thienponts returning to where their family’s winemaking legacy began seemed fitting. He bought the property in 2010 and put Cyrille Thienpont (his cousin once removed) in charge of its daily running. In keeping with the arboreal theme, he named the Saint-Emilion venture L’If (the yew tree).  The first project the team undertook was a detailed soil map to get to grips with the site. The winery is in Saint-Laurent-des-Combes, just to the east of Troplong Mondot, with five hectares of vineyard around it and another two hectares of west-facing vines next to Saint-Hippolyte. The lower parcels are more eroded and sandier, but much of the vineyard sits on pure limestone and clay. They set about restructuring the vineyard – getting rid of the 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and increasing the portion of Cabernet Franc, with around 25% across the property today (any new plantings were with a massal selection from Pavie Macquin).  In 2013, Jacques bought another hectare or so of vines in Saint-Etienne-de-Lisse, right next to Ch. Puy-Blanquet. Despite the quality of the soils, Jacques was hesitant about buying such a “distant” plot, a whopping three kilometres as the crow flies – or a circa 10-minute drive. They pulled the vines out and replanted this additional parcel, harvesting its first fruit in 2018. Despite its youth, the fruit from the plot has made it into the final blend for every vintage of L’If since 2020 (“Worth the trip,” jokes Cyrille). Even with the significant replanting and this new plot, the average age of vines across the estate is around 40 – with the oldest over 60 years in age.  Work on a new winery finished just in time for the 2023 harvest, allowing greater precision and flexibility – with more space to work (and 16 concrete tanks for their eight hectares of vines). You might expect a flashy building, perhaps designed by a famous architect – but that’s not the Thienpont way. Understatement is everything for this family – and the winery is an almost exact replica of what stood there before, simply with more space inside, designed for simple functionality. In one corner stands an otherwise anonymous stainless-steel tank – the first one that Jacques bought for Le Pin back in 1979.  It was perhaps inevitable that L’If would sit in Le Pin’s shadow. But now, 15 years after Jacques Thienpont bought the estate, with a new winery and the significant work in the vineyards completed, L’If is building its own reputation.  Although the same team is largely involved in both estates, L’If is a totally different site and wine. The cool soils have better water-holding capacity, and budburst is around 10 days later than at Le Pin with its warm free-draining gravels – a gap that often widens as the growing season progresses, meaning harvest is significantly later here. Diana Berrouet Garcia – who acts as Managing Director for Domaines Jacques Thienpont, including both Le Pin and L’If – notes how at L’If the terroir seems to speak louder than the vintage and can better adapt to more challenging conditions, while the vines can struggle – especially in hot, dry years – at Le Pin. Where Le Pin is round, supple and exotic, L’If is linear, taut and mineral; one sensual and spherical, the other just on the right side of severe, with a crystalline quality. Even in the last few years, it’s amazing how the wine is evolving – nipping at Le Pin’s toes in terms of quality. Re-tasting the 2019, it’s amazingly approachable with a perfumed nose and juicy, pure fruit that complements the wine’s natural tension.   It's still comparatively early days for L’If –  and the team has invested significantly, focusing on shaping the vineyard and ensuring they have the tools in the winery to translate the work in the vines. For now, over half the vineyard is being used for the second wine, Les Collines d’If – something that will change in time, as they continue to replant parcels. As it happens, yews grow incredibly slowly – but are also some of the longest-living trees (Perthshire in Scotland is home to the Fortingall yew, thought to be 2,000-3,000 years old and one of the oldest trees in Europe). The Theinpont family is just settling in at L’If, but as they lay down roots, the potential is clear.   The Thienpont family: who does what?  Jacques Thienpont: Owns Le Pin, L’If and L’Hêtre (the latter with his sister Anne de Raeymaeker), but is also a co-owner of Vieux Château Certan. He oversees the family’s original Belgian wine merchant business, the Belgian Royal Warrant-holding Thienpont Wine, which is managed by his wife and award-winning wine writer Fiona Morrison MW.  Alexandre Thienpont: Co-owns and manages Vieux Château Certan with his son, Guillaume, as well as co-owning Le Pin with Jacques. Alexandre and Guillaume also farm the vines at Le Pin, L’If and L’Hêtre, as well as Vieux Château Certan.  Guillaume Thienpont: Manages Vieux Château Certan with his father, Alexandre, as well as making L’Etoile and Les Fillottes with his second cousin, François Thienpont. He also now manages Ch. Guillot-Clauzel, which is not owned by the family.  François Thienpont: Manages the family’s négociant business, Wings, as well as making L’Etoile and Les Fillottes with Guillaume Thienpont and is a co-owner of both Vieux Château Certan and Ch. Puygueraud.  Nicolas Thienpont: Owns and/or manages a group of estates with his son Cyrille: Pavie Macquin, Larcis Ducasse, La Prade, Laclaverie, Charmes Godard and Puygueraud.  Cyrille Thienpont: Owns and manages the Nicolas Thienpont group of properties with his father, as well as managing and making the wine at L’If.  There are many more members of the Thienpont family involved in wine, but these are the most prominent at the time of writing.   Explore all current listings of L’If or read more about Bordeaux 

Le Pin is one of the world’s most famous wines – but it’s just one of the Thienpont family projects. We dissect the dynasty and explore the evolution of L’If, the Saint-Emilion estate that is emerging as one of the region’s most exciting names

Jacques Thienpont created cult Pomerol wine estate Le Pin in 1979, but now he’s got a new project in Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux: L’If 

Exploring L’If: Le Pin’s Saint-Emilion sibling 

Of all the misconceptions about rum – and there are many – the belief that there aren’t any rules is arguably the most rife. “There is not a lack of regulation in rum,” Mitch Wilson, Global Brand Ambassador for Black Tot, says. “Rum is an umbrella term for an entire category, it does not specify a particular locale like ‘Barbados Rum’, ‘Jamaican Rum', 'Guyanese Rum’ would. Just as there is no 'one rule' for all the different whiskies around the world, there is no one rule for all of the different rums either.” Industry legend Richard Seale picks up the point. “Rules do vary from country to country in rum but that is no different to any spirit. What is different about rum is that it is rarely protected in export markets with a generic rule applying to all origins. “For example, rhum Agricole is a protected term in the EU, but in the US, you can use the term agricole with impunity. Jamaica excise law has protected its rum from adulteration for as long as Scotch whisky [regulations have existed] but you can find Jamaican rum with added sugar for sale in the EU and there is nothing at the moment to stop it.” Herein lies one of rum’s greatest problems and a source of the most heated debates: abuse. “Many rum brands have got away with misleading age claims and egregiously adulterating their products,” Seale explains. “There is little impetus to regulate. I am quite sure if similar happened with whisky, the Scotch Whisky Association would be pressing authorities to act.” Instead, it’s been something of a people’s movement and Seale says consumers are demanding more transparency. “I think huge progress has been made at the level of enthusiasts and industry professionals,” he adds. “Of course, there are many duped consumers but they are typically at a level that they do not care, so we do not care. “We have a mantra: ‘drink what you like, know what you are drinking’. Simply put, make an informed choice.” Daniele Bondi, who works for Hampden Estate's global distributor La Maison & Velier, agrees and says it’s only fair that people are made aware of the content in their glass. He adds: “You can keep adding whatever you like but tell me please. If there is a lot of sugar in what you buy, you should at least know about it like other food categories.” There are countless examples of European entities buying rum in bulk and adding sugar before bottling. They are not lawfully required to declare this and can brandish the words “Jamaican rum” on the label. This, argues many, is deceitful and incredibly harmful. “It’s important to limit this sort of practice and preserve the rum style and not create confusion,” Bondi adds. The Export Director says people will taste a sweetened Jamaican rum and not realise the liquid isn’t true to Jamaican style or that it has been adulterated. The need to disclose these practices extends beyond the consumer’s welfare and is of vital importance to the preservation of rum heritage and production methods. While valiant efforts are being made, the vested interests of some, who wield great power, are thwarting progress. For this reason, the team at Foursquare has created #saveBarbadosRum and are working towards getting the EU to recognise a Geographical Indication (GI) for rum from Barbados and Jamaica. “This would protect our rums from the adulteration that currently happens,” Seale says. “While the US does not recognise GIs, we could communicate to consumers which are the certified rums.” Seale says this is not universally popular. “At the moment, a single foreign interest who bottles adulterated rums sourced from distilleries in which they have a financial interest is taking whatever action they can to effectively derail the process.” The campaign hopes to raise awareness of this and what he calls the “long-term threat to the integrity of our rums”. He continues: “The hubris of some European companies towards rum is astounding. They continue to have an extraordinary sense of entitlement notwithstanding Barbados and Jamaica are sovereign countries.” The ethos at Foursquare and many other distilleries, including Mount Gay in Barbados, is to produce unsweetened, unadulterated rum in the centuries old tradition. Beyond the skulduggery that occurs, rum has struggled with another image issue and this is largely due to classification. Wilson says an insistence on grouping all rums as the same thing, irrespective of who made them – and their local laws, know-how and traditions – perpetuates the myth and undoes a lot of hard work over the past five to 10 years. The only way for this to truly change is through better education. “Without a doubt rum’s greatest struggle is to catch up our education with that of the whisky category,” he says. “On one hand you have hundreds if not thousands of whisky aficionados able to rattle off dozens of distilleries and their corresponding nuances throughout each Scottish region and the rest of the whisky world, with well-established whisky shows and dozens and dozens of books on the subject. Meanwhile, most people still think of rum as ‘white, gold, dark, or spiced’ and have very little understanding of the various regions of rum, raw materials or the differences that lay within.” He says there are undoubtedly a brave few who bang the “rum drum”, but they are “vastly outnumbered”. Another key difference, he says, is the way the rum world is set up compared to the whisky world. There are considerably more whisky distilleries than rum producers, and the majority are owned by behemoths with deep pockets to fund whisky education on various styles and regions. By contrast, many rum distilleries are independent or government controlled. In the instances where big multinationals do own rum distilleries, Wilson says, they typically only own one or two and understandably finance education on their offerings rather than the wider rum world. For the most part, he says this different structure is a positive thing, resulting in a “fiercely independent style” from each region and act as a “great preventative against homogenisation in the industry”. But the cost is felt by others who have struggled to get their message to the masses. “It’s like wine,” Dictador Creative Director Ken Grier explains. “Pinot Noir from the New World tends to be lighter but with a higher abv. Those from Old World producers are often darker and lower strength. It’s the same in rum; you really need to look beyond the headlines on the label. We have to explain the differences between rums from different regions and the distinction between brands. “We need to educate about provenance (cultural influences, stories), production, maturation etc. They will all become key.” One way to educate consumers, in Wilson’s view, is through conversations about blends. “The very essence behind blending rum from different regions is because each distillery’s flavour profile can be so unique and so varied,” he says. “If we choose to tell the customer why we picked the rums we did, and why each region has its own unique flavour profile and is individually important, I think we can give people a great snapshot of the wider rum world, and at the very least give them a starting point as to where to look should they be interested in researching further.” During the pandemic, Black Tot has – via the medium of technology – hosted tastings to do just this. “Rather than just let them taste our finished blend, we also deconstruct the blend into its individual components, allowing people to try rum from Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica individually, and understand what each one brings flavour wise to our blend. I believe this is the future of blends, to not just look at the finished product, but to really celebrate the provenance of where the rum is coming from.” In a similar vein, Venezuela’s Diplomatico has championed alternative production methods with its Distillery Collection. “The concept behind the collection is to produce, in limited quantities, rums from a single distillation method that are subsequently aged for a certain number of years,” Maestro Ronero Nelson Hernandez says. “The objective is to offer the opportunity to connoisseurs and rum lovers to discover the very own character of each one of these rums, in a collection that reflects our distillery’s wealth.” It might sound simple but tasting the liquid and reading the label can be the difference between cutting this misconception off at source or continuing down the sticky road. Bondi says it is sometimes easier for him to speak with single malt drinkers rather than “rum drinkers” who are used to a lighter and sweeter liquid. He often gets them to try the Hampden 8 Year Old – the most approachable rum – and asks what they think, and if they thought rum could taste like this. The reaction is instantaneous and incredibly satisfying for the Export Director when he gets to explain that this style is rum, in the authentic sense. Historically, “global” rums have tended to be lighter and sweeter, and far removed from the authentic liquid that is recognisable to the rum purist. To satisfy the global market, sugar has been added to sweeten the taste and in many cases caramel to darken the colour. “The first conversation is always – no, this is rum and all the other sweeter stuff, what you think is rum, maybe is not. At least from a historical point of view,” Bondi adds. “If you speak with single malt experts, they are normally super happy because there is sort of a resistance among the single malt community because ‘rum is sweet’, so when you approach with something like this [Hampden] they say wow, this is something that I can easily recognise because it is dry, it’s full-bodied, it’s funky, it’s flavourful like all the single malts they like.” Bondi finds adopting his boss, Luca Gargano’s – the man responsible for the classification of the same name – production-driven terminology helpful when introducing people to real rum. In the same way whisky drinkers understand Scotch whisky has regional styles – Speyside, Highlands, Islay etc – rum can be communicated in the same way. “Like a different category within a category,” he adds. Hampden is famous for its funky, high ester style, that Bondi says appeals to the peated whisky fan. “It’s more for the adventurers”, he says. “They love this crazy taste of Lagavulin and Laphroaig and maybe they will love to try rum with a different, funky taste.” Undoubtedly, the conversations and appreciation for rum are maturing. The category is shedding its skin of these unhelpful labels that have besmirched its reputation and the right questions are now being asked. Thankfully, there’s a formidable cohort armed with the answers and willing to speak truth to power in order to protect something that is truly sacred. Explore rum or read more Editorial 

Rum isn’t regulated. It is either dark or white. It all comes from the Caribbean. It’s nowhere near as high quality as Scotch. These are just some of the misconceptions that hang around the category like a millstone. Holly Motion speaks to some of those fighting to be heard among all the mistruths

Exploring some of the greatest misconceptions that hang around rum like a millstone, including miscategorisation and questions concerning quality.

How sugarcane spirit mistruths are coming unstuck

Rum: the sticky issues

Jules Gilson Cognac

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