According to general manager and oenologist Pedro Ribeiro, Herdade do Rocim has “probably the most expensive amphorae in the world.” Rocim sent clay from their ancient vats – a staple of aging wine in Alentejo for centuries – to a university in Montpelier for analysis, in order to create newer amphorae that had the same…
Category: overachiever wines
Alentejo Postcard, Part 2 (Herdade de Coelheiros Recent Releases)
Among the 800 hectares of property upon which Alentejo’s Herdade de Coelheiros grows walnuts and cork trees sits about 50 hectares of vines. Though their history date back to the mid-1400s (as a hunting estate), those vines that source Coelheiros’ modern wines were replanted over 500 years later, in 1981. That’s because under Portugal’s dictatorship,…
Past Masters (Aging High-end Austrian Grüner Veltliner)
Good old Austria… a land with white wines as steely, reserved, and imposingly austere as the (often slightly oversized) architectural wonders that grace its cities and towns. Let’s wrap up the coverage of my Austrian media jaunt (yes, from back in May 2019… screw you, punky, I’ve been busy!) with a look back in time…
Once More, with Precision (Château Lilian Ladouys Gets Serious)
“I think… we’re now more precise.” According to manager Vincent Bache-Gabrielsen, that’s the secret behind the revitalization of Saint-Estèphe’s Château Lilian Ladouys. If Bache-Gabrielsen’s name feels familiar, it’s because he also manages Château Pédesclaux, the Pauillac property that the Lorenzetti family purchased just one year after picking up Lilian Ladouys, and which their team also…
