Sauvignon Blanc is the original wild child of wine. It makes for herbaceous, green, citrusy and minerally wines that are instantly recognisable on the nose and grab hold of your tongue in an acidic embrace that literally leaves you salivating for more.
The Douro Valley is the world’s largest mountainous vineyard. Carving through the north of Portugal, the Douro River, also known as ‘The River of Gold’, has been a winemaking hub since the 3rd century AD, rising in prominence as a exporter of wine in the late 17th century.
Poor Merlot. Imagine being one of the greats of the winemaking industry, but nearly always being talked about in the context of either a) another grape or b) worse still, a movie.
Known for its distinctive Sauvignon Blanc wines that practically shout “Kia ora!" (Hello!) from the glass, New Zealand’s Marlborough region is tucked up on the northeast corner of the country’s South Island.
Ask nearly anyone in France where the best wines in the world are made and they will say, “France. ” Except for two groups of people who will give you a different answer. 1.
France has 11 major wine regions, spread over different climate zones, allowing winemakers to create various wine styles, depending on the grapes, weather and the local terroir.
Pinot Grigio is an incredibly adaptable grape, making it one of the most popular among winemakers globally. (Which accounts for its frankly ridiculous number of aliases: 227 in total.
Abruzzo lies between the Adriatic Sea and the Apennines in the cradle of the two massifs of the Gran Sasso d’Italia and the Majella. The land can be roughly divided into two areas: the mountainous interior, which constitutes over 65% of the entire regional territory and the coastal region.
The Casablanca Valley is an important wine growing region situated between Santiago and the port of Valparaiso and is officially part of the Acongagua region of Chile, although the wines are very different here than in the northern vineyards.
This ancient variety dating back to the Etruscan era is Italy’s most planted grape and is particularly common in Tuscany in Central Italy, down to Campania and Sicily in the South.
Tuscany, known as Toscana in central Italy, is a famously undulating and beautiful area noted as being the birthplace of artistic geniuses Michelangelo, Giotto and Da Vinci, science boffin Galileo, and opera singer Andrea Bocelli.
It sounds idyllic doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t want a dip in an antioxidant-rich body of violet-tinged Cabernet Sauvignon or slightly sparkling Chenin Blanc? Alas, the real wine lake is actually far less glamorous than that and won’t offer any anti-ageing solutions.
Just the small matter of a mountain range stands between Santiago in Chile and the wine region of Mendoza which is arguably Argentina's most important wine growing province which accounts for over 70% of Argentina's production.
Malbec is a dark-skinned grape that is most associated with the high-altitude (up to 3,000 metres!), desert vineyards of Argentina's Mendoza region. The variety is in fact originally from southwest France, where it is still widely cultivated today, especially in Cahors.
Carménère’s story is by now well known. Originally found in the Médoc, Bordeaux, it wasn’t replanted in the region after the ravages of phlloxera (that pesky vine-killing louse) in the late 19th century.
Chile is a very long and narrow country on the west coast of South America that, after years of overproduction of cheap and forgettable table wine, has slowly and confidently built a reputation for competitively priced varietal wine of a high standard.
During the late 19th century you would be hard pressed to find a more expensive or highly regarded bottle of wine outside of Bordeaux’s classed growths than that of the Rieslings of Rheingau.
Much maligned and misunderstood, the powerful little white grape Riesling (pronounced Reece-ling according to Jancis Robinson if you are stickler for pronunciation) is one of Germany’s most important grape varieties.
Not be confused with that other beloved bubbly, Prosecco, Cava is the name of a type of sparkling wine of Denominación de Origen (D. O) status from Spain and is actually much closer in structure to Champagne (though without the luxury price-tag).
Founded by Marco Savian in 1925, Savian is a third generation wine family making Prosecco, Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay amongst other varietals in a wooded and historical area of Veneto.
Jesus got a lot of kudos for turning water into wine but this is a trick that wineries across the world do all the time when they irrigate their vineyards, a widely-used but controversial practice that can increase grape and wine yields by up to 300%.
Ripasso is an Italian word meaning 'to pass or go over again' and is a technique of refermentation of Valpolicella wines that has a very long tradition in Italy's Venetian wine region.
Castell d'Or isn't just a cooperative of growers in the Catalonia region of north-east Spain, it's the coming together of sixteen distinct wine cooperatives with histories extending back to the end of the 19th century.
Would a shiny gold medal sway you in the wine aisle? Wineries think so; that's why the globe's most successful wine competitions – Decanter World Wine Awards, International Wine Challenge, and International Wine & Spirit Competition - to name a few, attract many thousands of entries each year.
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