Opinion Archives - Circle of Wine Writers

Perusing a Prosecco pearl

Posted on December 29, 2024 by Dijana Grgić

Dijana Grgić takes off to the bubbling core of the Veneto, to Valdobbiadene, and savours the spumantes from Villa Sandi and prized other members of its porfolio. Over the past couple of decades, Prosecco, which is produced primarily in Veneto as well as in smaller areas of the Friuli region, has seen a surge in global popularity. For a sparkling wine to be labeled as Prosecco, it must be made w...

Natural Trailblazers should stop us in our tracks

Posted on October 29, 2024October 30, 2024 by Valerie Kathawala

Valerie Kathawala is inspired by Natural Trailblazers, a recently-published book that profiles European winegrowers who are pioneering ways of reducing wine’s environmental impact. She argues that there are implicit lessons about how we wine journalists might rethink approaches to our own work. ‘What guides me is the idea of less,’ says Alsatian winegrower Yannick Meckert. “Less, less, less.” M...

Go Turkiye go

Posted on October 29, 2024 by Lindsay Oram

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A classical combination at Grafenegg

Posted on October 29, 2024December 10, 2024 by Jochen Erler

From the Chair: Ask three questions

Posted on October 1, 2024 by Meg Maker

Circle Chair Meg Maker shares a simple technique to prompt good storytelling for her column this month. Readers want stories. But how do we, as interviewers and interpreters, tease stories from people who aren’t natural storytellers? Before speaking with a producer, we arm ourselves with facts, the essentials of their biography. We pore over their website for details about family, place, wines, ...

From the Chair: What’s in a name?

Posted on August 28, 2024August 30, 2024 by Meg Maker

Circle Chair Meg Maker explores the extremely diverse composition of the Circle of Wine Writers' membership base, which has reached far beyond the realms of both wine and writing, as well as geographically, from its initial UK base. In 1960, journalist, social historian, and wine commentator Cyril Ray convened a handful of British wine writing colleagues to form a new association. At the time, t...

Switzerland surprises with staggering assortment of grapes

Posted on August 28, 2024August 30, 2024 by Sue Eames

Sue Eames discovers that the Swiss wine scene isn’t solely about Chasselas, far from it in fact, and is spoilt for choice with a plethora of exciting indigenous varieties, crossings and PIWIs, to choose from. Judging in any wine region is always a great opportunity to visit local wineries and explore the latest trends, and our trip to Le Mondial du Chasselas in Aigle, Switzerland, in late May was...

Komarna breaks through

Posted on August 28, 2024 by Dijana Grgić

Dijana Grgić reports from the sun- and sea-kissed, rocky region that represents a remarkable coming together of man and machine, and is the only exclusively organic growing area in Croatia. Komarna is the youngest wine growing area in Croatia, located in an extremely rocky area, with a plethora of sunny days in the year. It was here, in the early 2000s, that machines ground down through the ston...

Leonardslee Family Estates launch and Defined Wine tasting

Posted on July 30, 2024 by Liz Sagues

Liz Sagues tells the rags-to-riches tale of Penny Streeter, whose English venture has just released its first wines, and catches up with a contract winemaking company and some of its clients. The story is a PR dream: rags-to-riches South Africa-based woman entrepreneur buys crumbling English country house with totally neglected Grade I-listed gardens, plus nearby golf course with hotel, spends h...

Hybrid grapes take Taiwanese wine to the world

Posted on July 30, 2024July 31, 2024 by Leona De Pasquale