Sitting plum in the middle of the Côte d’Or, the hill of Corton is hard to miss. Its wines, especially the whites, however, are all too often overlooked. We sat down with some of the region’s leading producers to explore the pedigree and potential of this site and its powerful, long-lasting wines

Discover the pedigree and potential of the hill of Corton’s whites – the fine Chardonnay from Corton-Charlemagne, Charlemagne and Corton Blanc 

Exploring Corton-Charlemagne, Charlemagne and Corton Blanc 

Corton-Charlemagne: the Grand Cru of the future?  

Burgundy expert Jasper Morris MW has had his finger on the region’s wine pulse for several decades. Especially for FONDATA, he profiles eight domaines to watch, producers that are bringing vital energy and fresh winemaking talent to the celebrated wine region 

Jasper Morris MW on eight of Burgundy’s most exciting domaines – including Eleni & Edouard Vocoret, Chantereves, Alvina Pernot and more 

The new Burgundians – Jasper Morris MW 

The new Burgundians

The history of Piedmont as a fine wine region and the establishment of Nebbiolo as a single-varietal wine predates the unification of Italy. Yet the region’s rise to international fame as Italy’s finest wine was intrinsically linked to the political role that the Piedmont Kingdom played in the unification of Italy. Nebbiolo as Italy’s first single-varietal wine The decision to move away from the generic field blends more typical of wine production in Italy at the time, to a single varietal Nebbiolo, was the first step towards Barolo gaining prominence. This decision also came about through aristocratic influence by the Piedmont nobility at the height of its power, prior to the unification of Italy in 1861. In the 1830s the Marchesi de Barolo married a French aristocrat who as part of her entourage brought with her a talented French oenologist, who after experimenting with many French varietals in the region quickly identified the potential of the indigenous Nebbiolo as a potential single varietal superstar! This French oenologist started to produce single-varietal Nebbiolo on the Marchesi de Barolo’s vineyards and it wasn’t long before the wines gained a reputation amongst the aristocratic classes. The King of Piedmont contacted the Marchesi requesting to taste this wine made from just Nebbiolo that everyone was talking about. The King became a huge fan of the wines and it wasn’t long before the Marchesi was sending 365 barrels of Nebbiolo
to the King for him and his courts to enjoy throughout the year. From then on Nebbiolo as a single varietal had begun to secure its place in fine wine history. The establishment of Barolo It wasn’t long before the King purchased his own wine estate in Barolo, which now exists under the ownership of Frescabaldi. The Piedmont kingdom was the conquering force in the unification of Italy along with the help of the French army that finally conquered the Spanish rule of Sicily and southern Italy and eventually Rome leaving just the Vatican and the Pope isolated from the rest of the newly
declared unified state of Italy in 1861. Amazingly there was no diplomatic relationship between the Vatican State and the Italian government until Mussolini reached out to them in 1932. The power of the Piedmont kingdom and its role in the unification of Italy meant that Barolo retained its status with the aristocratic elites of Italy and beyond and became known as the premium wine-producing region of the newly declared country. Its prominence and reputation remained ever since. The Barolo region became renowned throughout the country and Nebbiolo took its crown as the king of Italian wine. Barolo following the unification became more and more established with merchants moving in to seize the opportunity of this prestigious and unique Italian wine. At this time, apart from the noble families (Marchesi Di Barolo, Rinaldi, Bourgogno) all the
rest of the Barolo wines were bottled in Alba under merchant’s labels. Alba, much like Bordeaux, became a thriving merchants hub and the wine began to be exported overseas. Barbaresco: the unfortunate struggling sibling to Barolo History is full of cruel twists and the development of Barbaresco for much of the 19th and 20th centuries was a struggle for survival, unlike their more established neighbour Barolo - with its royal seal of approval. Today Barbaresco is being seen very much as Barolo’s equal but its survival is in no doubt down to two central figures of the region Gaja and the Produttori Di Barbaresco. 
The history of Gaja of Barbaresco The history of Gaja is extraordinary and singular in its rise to fame in the region and is a testament to the foresight of Giovanni Gaja and his son and French wife Clothide Rey. The Gaja family were not nobility but farmers, yet they became the first to bottle their own wine in Barbaresco in 1859. This became possible because the family owned a small tavern in the town which catered for the merchants that passed through Barbaresco as it was an active Port, distributing goods. At the tavern, the Gaja family used to make their wine and serve them from jars at the restaurant. At that time all other growers would sell their grapes to merchants in Alba to make wine.  Buoyed by the income of selling their own wines at their tavern Giovanni Gaja in 1859 then decided to bottle his best barrels in bottle (at this time this was often a blend of vintages). But these became the first Barbarescos ever to be bottled as Barbaresco. The family became further governed by quality when Angelo Gaja and his wife Clothide Rey took over from
his father. Their qualitative approach philosophy in a region that at the time was so underdeveloped is extraordinary. The family’s motto – fair, savoir faire, savoir faire faire et faire saviour (Work, knowledge, motivating others to work and passing on knowledge) has not faltered right up until today.  1958 was an important date for the Gaja family because this was recognised in Barolo as a fantastic vintage and it became the first vintage of Barolo to sell for over a 1,000 lira a bottle. The average price at the time for the best producers (such as Renato Ratti) was closer to 300 lira. This 1,000 lira price tag therefore became a big deal and was the beginning of Barolo
becoming recognised internationally as one of the world’s finest and most expensive wines. Yet despite this high price tag of Barolo, Giovanni Gaja was selling his current Barbaresco release at this time for 1,200 lira! This just showed the Barbaresco from Gaja even in those early days was outpricing the best wines of Barolo. The history of the Produttori del Barberesco The history of Barbaresco outside of the extraordinary success of Gaja was a lot less smooth. Through this period the region remained largely unknown for wine production despite successfully growing Nebbiolo like its neighbour Barolo and being home to the region’s best producer Gaja. However, there is another unique and profound development that took place in Barbaresco that also has shaped the region as one of Italy’s finest wine-producing regions for single varietal Nebbiolo that unlike Barolo did not rely on the aristocratic influence for its rise to fame. If anything, Barbaresco’s rise to fame, including Gaja’s development was the success of the
workers of the land rather than nobility. This came in the form of the socialist collective that started to bottle its own wine in Barbaresco under the Produttori Di Barberesco label.  Speaking with Aldo Vacca, today’s chief winemaker at the co-op it was a man called Dominizio Cavazza who was become known as the Father of Barbaresco. He moved to the region when he got a job working as the Director of the Wine School of Alba in 1890.  He immediately saw the potential of Barbaresco as a fine wine region and whilst he had no land, he knew if he could persuade the small landowners to compile their crops, he could make a fine wine that they could bottle and sell themselves rather than selling their crop to
the Alba merchants. By 1894 he had managed to persuade five farmers and two
landowners to contribute the crop and the cooperative was formed. At this time socialism was taking hold in many parts of Europe enabling small landowners to work together to enable them to manage their own produce without relying on the aristocratic landowners. Prior to the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917, these socialist projects in Western Europe were seen as a very positive social development and was transforming the social structure across the region. Initially Cavazza believed that Barbaresco should be incorporated as part of the Barolo District but as Barolo by this time was already well established, thanks to its aristocratic ties, the Barolo producers had no interest in extending their boundaries. This decision in itself was to have a devastating impact on Barbaresco for the next 50 years. Whilst the cooperative became very successful in the early years, the First World War followed by economic hardship and the rise of fascism in Italy which actively shut down cooperatives in Europe, saw the Produttori cease to exist.  It wasn’t until 1954 that the co-operative project was reborn by the local priest – Don Fiorino, who on moving to the region heard about the early success of Cavazza and wanted to rekindle this success. For the priest the cooperative was essential in the survival of the local community that unlike Barolo was decimated by poverty and hardship through the first half of the 20th century. The 1950s saw the industrial boom in Italian cities which saw huge swathes of the countryside deserted as young men and women flocked to the cities for better wages in the automobile and other industries. To encourage people to stay in Barbaresco, Don Fiorino reopened the cooperative promising any landowners who joined him that they would be given fair and
reliable income if they stayed and worked the land. Dom Fiorino’s foresight was to be commended as ever since it opened the co-op has gone from strength to strength. Similar to Gaja, it is due to a strict qualitative approach that has meant this co-op is today producing arguably the world’s finished wines from a cooperative. These days, thanks to Gaja and Produttori, Barbaresco is producing some of Italy’s finest wines. Explore more Editorial 

We look back at the rise of Barolo and its neighbouring sibling Barbaresco's less fortunate, rocky road to fortune.


The historic rise of Nebbiolo

“Meet my girlfriends,” calls Telmo Rodríguez down the phone, laughing as he flips his camera to show two enormous shaggy-haired mutts. The skies are crisp and blue on the other side of the screen, the sun beating down on Remelluri, his family estate in Rioja Alavesa. The camera swings across the horizon as he introduces me to one of his team before rushing indoors to sit down for our call. There’s an almost frenetic energy to Rodríguez – and that energy is what in many ways defines the maverick winemaker, who has been one of the transformational forces in Spanish wine.  His parents purchased La Granja Nuestra Señora de Remelluri – a farm that has been home to vines since at least the 14th century – in 1967. Growing up on this special property, young Rodríguez went off to study winemaking in Bordeaux, then trained at properties including Cos d’Estournel, Domaine de Trévallon, Chave and more. He returned home inspired and excited to use his new-found knowledge on the family property in the early 1990s. But his father didn’t welcome Telmo’s ambition: the market didn’t want great or even good Rioja, he told his son – the market wanted cheap Rioja. Although he wasn’t allowed to make changes to the red, Rodríguez was given free rein to create the property’s first white wine. And that wine rocketed him to fame. White Rioja has always been niche (today just 9% of the vineyard area is planted to white grapes), but in the 1990s its future was looking uncertain – with the traditional, oxidised style of wines such as López de Heredia’s Tondonia Blanco fallen from grace, and many producers had given up on making these wines (as with CVNE’s Monopole Clásico, which has since been revived). Rodríguez wanted to create a wine of place, rather than a wine of style, and used complex field blends planted at higher altitudes to do so. Fermented and aged in a combination of tank and oak, Remelluri Blanco was unlike any other wine in the region. Robert Parker wrote of the 1996 vintage that it was “the finest white wine [he had] ever tasted from Spain”. The multi-variety blend doesn’t include the region’s trademark white, Viura, and is technically illegal – a fact that perhaps has only increased its appeal.  But Rodríguez was frustrated by his father, by the limitations put on him and his wines. Restless and with a rift in the family forming, he flew the coop to focus on his own project. In Bordeaux he had become friends with a fellow Spaniard, Pablo Eguzkiza, who had been working at Pétrus, and together they had already started making wine – beginning with an old-vine Garnacha from Navarra in 1994. With that wine, Compañía de Vinos Telmo Rodríguez was born.  Their vision was to make real Spanish wine – the wines that had been made before, as they saw it, France started to sway the industry. When the deadly louse phylloxera had swept through France in the late 19th century, killing its vineyards, the nation looked south, across the Pyrenees to Spain. Producers travelled there to make wine and feed demand, and Rioja in particular saw an influx of business and money – but this uplift also came with French influence. In Rodríguez’s view, this was the ruining of the trade – Rioja, which had once been a wine of site, became a wine of oak. And soon, across Spain, the variety that once defined its many regions was being over-written with international varieties. Spain became known for cheap wine – and producers were racing to the bottom.  “The worst are the British,” says Rodríguez. “They say they know Rioja and they know Sherry, but, in a certain way, the British market killed Sherry and killed Rioja because they are very happy to have a cheap Reserva for a few pounds.” The dominance of what he describes as “industrial brands”, the larger houses that buy in fruit from across the region, aged in American oak for “traditional” styles, and French for “modern”, is abhorrent to him.  “I’m sorry, you don’t know anything about Rioja. Tell me one village. Tell me one taste. Tell me one landscape. Tell me one mountain. Nobody knew anything,” he says. He explains how Labastida – a village neighbouring Remelluri – was once the Vosne-Romanée of Rioja, home to 330 different wine producers in 1680. But over the years, that history has been blended away.  Together, Rodríguez and Eguzkiza set out to uncover and reveal the Spain of yesteryear, working with old vines, native varieties and traditional methods to champion what they saw as the true Spanish wines. From their beginnings in Navarra, they looked to Arribes del Duero, to Rueda, to Málaga, to Aragon and back to Rioja, then Ribera, Toro and Sierra de Gredos.   “Now we are showing what is real,” Rodríguez tells me, with a sense of satisfaction. In Rioja, for example, they created Bodegas Lanzaga in 1998, looking to focus on the terroir around the town of Lanziego. The Consejo (regulatory body), however, didn’t allow them to use the name of a village on the label until 2017. For almost two decades they protested this rule, featuring the name on the label, but redacted (inspired in part by the art of Jenny Holzer). Today, there is a clear, and growing, movement of producers looking to focus on single-site expressions of Rioja’s best vineyards, shifting away from cross-regional blends and the dominance of oak. This echoes what is happening elsewhere in Spain, as producers focus on indigenous grapes and identifying what makes each of its varied regions unique. It’s a revolution – one that Rodríguez has been at the forefront of. It's easy to think of this rockstar duo as flying winemakers – having so many projects scattered around the country, only touching down briefly to sign off on blends before they’re off to their next event. While inevitably their schedule is intense, their focus is firmly in the vineyard and on reflecting each individual place and site – rather than crafting a range that speaks of their influence. “It’s a very honest approach to a place,” Rodríguez says. The references throughout our conversation only emphasise this: Burgundy, the ultimate “terroir” wine, is where he finds his inspiration; while the Super Tuscans are repeatedly scorned for their internationality.  Matallana is quite possibly Telmo Rodríguez’s most ambitious project to date. He and Eguzkiza first made wine in Ribera del Duero in 1998, and have slowly built up 21.5 hectares of vines around the region.  “My dream was to do a very good Vega Sicilia. I wanted to do the Vega Sicilia that I used to drink in the past,” explains Rodríguez, talking about bottles from the 1940s, ’50s or ’60s. Back then, he says, it wasn’t an estate wine but fruit was sourced from around the region. For him, Vega Sicilia is now too “Bordeaux-style”. He argues that while in Rioja the soils are quite consistent, Ribera del Duero is incredibly varied. They have chosen to work with a range of vineyards across five villages – Sotillo de la Ribera, Roa, Fuentecén, Fuentemolinos and Pardilla – ranging from quartz-rich or pebbly soils reminiscent of Châteauneuf-du-Pape to chalky albariza and clay-heavy sites. This diversity is what helps bring complexity to the wine, with each one producing a different expression of Tinto Fino.   The work involved in each of the Compañía de Vinos Telmo Rodríguez projects is painstaking, tracking down special parcels, reviving soils and replanting or grafting where necessary, working organically and biodynamically, to achieve the quality they’re looking for. For Bodegas Lanzaga, for example, it was over a decade before they produced the first vintage of their top wine, Las Beatas, from a 1.9-hectare plot of the same name (first made in 2011).  For Matallana, they wanted to track down the region’s very best, historic vineyards in each of the five villages. But it’s not been easy. All too often they’d been abandoned, some needed re-planting entirely, or otherwise re-grafting with massal selections, and serious work to bring the soils back to life. They wanted to work with unirrigated bush-vines and field blends – vineyards farmed as they might have been in the 19th century. And then there’s the complex ownership: to buy just six of their 21.5 hectares took seven years, purchasing tiny plots from 40 different families.  Although they’ve been making wine here since the 1999 vintage, it wasn’t ready until relatively recently – and Rodríguez considers the 2014 the first “real” vintage of the project. Before that point they had made three wines, a selection of fruit from the oldest vines that went into the “Grand Vin” Matallana, a second wine M2 and the unoaked Gazur from younger plots. “They were prototypes, we were learning,” explains Rodríguez. From 2014, there is only one wine, with a change in the label to reflect the shift.  As with the older vintages from Bodegas Lanzaga, the label shows a list of redacted vineyard names – which are still not permitted to feature on the labels in Ribera del Duero. “All those vineyards are the guarantee of the purity of our wines,” says Rodríguez. In fact, the label is embossed, so beneath the censored text, you can feel the names of these terroirs. He’s moved to reduce the oak, using some foudres and tinajas (amphorae), while also acknowledging that the wine needs movement and oxygen to polymerise the tannins. The result, however, is a more delicate wine. At the end of the day, he says, “We don’t care about the winery… our wine is the landscape, is the soils.” The difference between the “new” and “old” Matallana is striking. The 2020 is pure, vibrant – a mineral wine with crystalline fruit that speaks of place.  “I don’t want to be pretentious, but we want to create another iconic wine from Ribera del Duero,” says Rodríguez. There’s no shortage of ambition here – and they’re looking to increase production to around 40,000 bottles a year (up from around 25,000 currently). “It took us 25 years… but we knew we were doing something rare, different.” The latest move has been to partner with Jean-Guillaume Prats (currently of Ch. Léoville Las Cases, previously of Ch. Lafite Rothschild and Cos d’Estournel), and start distributing the wine via La Place de Bordeaux, to bring the wine to an even bigger audience.  Rodríguez is now 61 – but there’s no sign of him slowing down. “People say that I’m too old to plant vineyards,” he says, clearly finding such a thought absurd. He’s just planting three hectares he tells me – vineyards that will be amazing, he feels, maybe in 15 years’ time. On the day we talk, he had five local youths coming to meet his team, the children of local viticulturalists in Labastida; they’d be making wines together with the best 2,000 kilos from each of their family’s plots – a project that has been going four years. There’s no looking back from this vigneron, whose eyes are firmly on the horizon, as he continues to push boundaries and forge a future for those that will follow him.  Explore all wines from Telmo Rodríguez and Matallana or read more Editorial 

Telmo Rodríguez is one of Spain’s most famous names. Since the 1990s, he has been a controversial figure, fighting for the nation’s vinous heritage. We caught up with the relentless revolutionary to talk about his journey, the real Rioja and his most challenging project to date

Telmo Rodríguez is one of Spain’s most famous winemakers. We caught up with him to talk his journey and his most challenging project to date, Matallana

Telmo Rodriguez – the eternal battle

Telmo Rodríguez: the eternal battle

The journey began on a foggy Friday morning, in an Uber crawling though San Francisco traffic, followed by one very long flight, then a more civilized two-hour train journey to Bordeaux. It would be my first time visiting the storied region, as I arrived to join the FINE+RARE team for en primeur week. With appointments booked on both the Left and Right Banks, as well as a full dance card of lunches and dinners, I was looking forward to seeing the spectacle firsthand. Why travel so far, after all? I’d wondered this myself more than once. From the outside, “Primeurs” week can seem like an antiquated relic of the past, as merchants, brokers and media from around the world descend upon Bordeaux during the last week of April to sample the previous year’s vintage while it is still in barrel. First scores are handed out by critics, and the wine trade prepares to offer these wines to their clients in the weeks and months following as futures, not to be released from the châteaux’s cellars for another two years.  We were prepared. Armed with new notebooks and fresh palates, we were chauffeured around the region by Benoît, our driver extraordinaire. With so many visits booked – over 50 in just five days – maintaining an orderly and very punctual schedule would be of the utmost importance. We all came to love Benoît, who was quick to remind us of travel times, but more importantly, offer a much-needed roadside pâtisserie pitstop. I was told that this year marked a return to normal for the châteaux, after several pandemic years that kept many home. The châteaux were bustling, with a steady stream of visitors entering and exiting at nearly every property we visited. With handshakes, hugs and kisses all around, the sense of joy and excitement to be around other wine enthusiasts was palpable. Though the skies were cloudy and rain showers dotted the week, the smiles and laughter were a wonderful contrast. Though I think Bordeaux is often thought of as a stuffy place, where voices are kept to a low whisper and only very serious wine tasting occurs, I was taken by the diversity of the region, as well as the tasting experiences themselves. To be sure, many of the châteaux are grand, but we spent an equal amount of time in smaller wineries tasting out of barrel in chilly cellars, as well as walking through the vineyards to see the baby leaves of 2023 unfurling.  While of course Primeurs is a first look at the vintage – an opportunity to test hypothetical opinions based on weather and early conversations  – it is also a chance, perhaps most importantly, to meet the people behind the wines. From grand estates with sweeping views of the countryside, to humble family-owned properties carving out their own piece of the historical region, Bordeaux cannot be boxed into a tidy generality. The one commonality, however, was the enthusiasm and excitement for the vintage. Descriptions repeated throughout the week (from both our team and the vignerons we visited) – were “surprising”, “unexpected” and, perhaps most often, “unique”. While many in the wine trade may be quick to draw parallels between 2022 and other warm, generous vintages such as 2003, comparisons were made to 1945, 1947, 1949, 1961, 1982 and other legendary years – but more often than not we heard the opinion that 2022 is a year that will stand alone.  The vintage was bound to be remarkable in some way: the hottest year on record in Bordeaux, marked by four heat spikes, as well as drought during the growing season. After years of discussion concerning the increasingly extreme weather, it would seem that the test had finally arrived: could Bordeaux cope with climate change? While I think we’re all still mulling over our tasting notes, and double brushing our purple teeth, truly, the wines were a pleasure to taste: uniform ripeness and density of juicy fruit, balanced and braced by fresh acidity, all while remaining true to the character of Bordeaux. The initial results of what many thought would be a nail-biting vintage are very promising indeed. We will publish our full thoughts on the vintage and wines in the coming weeks, but one thing’s for sure: 2022 will be a vintage that will be remarked upon for decades to come.  Keep an eye out for our full vintage report – coming soon

This week saw our team touch down in Bordeaux for Primeurs – the unveiling of the 2022 vintage en primeur. Rachael Ryan – Senior Buyer at Vinfolio, our US arm – reports on her first experience of the region, the week and a year that shows remarkable promise

As Bordeaux’s top chateaux unveil the latest vintage en primeur, we report on a week spent touring the region and tasting the 2022 wines from barrel

Bordeaux 2022 – notes from the road

Bordeaux 2022: notes from the road

It’s no secret that Scotch whisky is dominated by two giants – Diageo and Pernod Ricard, who represent 60% of the market, with three other big players taking the next 20%. That leaves a mere 20% for those who have the wallets and mettle to fight over the rest – but that’s an increasing number of people. There are currently over 30 single malt distilleries at some stage of opening.  “I think it’s a bit of a worry to be honest,” Mark Reynier, Renegade Spirits founder and CEO, says. Reynier has been behind three of the most talked-about distillery projects in the past 20 years – the resurrection of Islay powerhouse Bruichladdich in 2000, the renovation of a former Diageo brewery into Irish single malt distillery Waterford in 2015 and the construction of Renegade rum distillery in Grenada from scratch in 2020. All three have a dogged focus on terroir and have not been without their struggles. “Superficially it does look easy - but it sure as hell isn’t,” he says. “With Bruichladdich we almost went bust twice. With the best will in the world and two-distillery experience I got it wrong with Renegade and almost went bust last September.”  In Reynier’s view, many of those opening distilleries are driven by romantic ideas and the desire to make a quick buck – from landowners looking to monetise estates to “crooks” who “promise fortunes to be made”. Few, however, have the knowledge, business nous or money to back up their ambitions.  Wolfcraig – a new distillery in Stirling – is one of the industry’s most interesting projects, largely thanks to the experience of the team involved. While neither of the founders Jamie Lunn or John Moore had worked in whisky before (coming, respectively, from construction and finance), Jamie Lunn’s father is former Whyte & Mackay chairman and chief executive Michael Lunn – and happened to be eager for a new project. It hasn’t been plain sailing though: the team had a false start with an ill-fated attempt to take a controlling stake of an existing distillery. Downhearted but not defeated, they made the decision to go it alone. Moore and Lunn have assembled a first-rate team with over 200 years’ experience. Master Blender Richard Paterson OBE was the most recent addition to the roster – which Jamie Lunn affectionately refers to as “the Harlem globetrotters of whisky” – including Dr Alan Rutherford OBE (former Production Director at Diageo, Master of the Quaich and previous President of the Malt Distillers Association of Scotland), Ian Macmillan (a Master Distiller, also a Master of the Quaich and a member of the Worshipful Company of Distillers) and Iain Lochhead (former UK Bacardi Operations Director, and another Master of the Quaich). But even with a team of such pedigree, it hasn’t been easy. “It was three and a half years of pain,” Moore says. Every decision has been driven by an unwavering mission to produce a truly special liquid, considerable industry experience and business acumen. Stirling, for example, was chosen not just for its infrastructure, but its accessibility – within an hour’s drive of 70% of the Scottish population. The team ensured they were fully funded and have consciously built a brand – and decided on the style of spirit they’ll be making – before physically breaking ground. “Out of all the new whisky distilleries,” Moore says, “very few of them are designing their own unique spirit and they have not put any thought into why they have a particular shape of still.” Wolfcraig, by contrast, is having their still handmade by Forsyths, with a distinctive double-ball design to produce a more muscular, full-bodied spirit. It’s not just new players and mavericks behind the trend though, with some of whisky’s most historic names being given a new lease of life. Halewood International, for example, is bringing malt whisky distilling back to the heart of the Scottish drinks industry in the Port of Leith, Edinburgh, for the first time in 100 years with the John Crabbie Distillery.  Today, the name John Crabbie might be synonymous with ginger wine, but he was an independent bottler, single malt producer and recognised blender in the 19th century. For the team here, creating something new brings great freedom. “One of the key parts of our distillery is its versatility,” Global Dark Spirits Manager Andy Wallace says. “Because of the type of distillery we have, we can change our new make spirit and we can be very adaptable. That flexibility, put in the hands of somebody who knows what they are doing, like our Master Blender Dr Kirstie McCallum – a chemist with an excellent palate – and we’re going to experiment.”   Experimentation with different casks is high on the agenda. In addition to PX and Oloroso casks, the team is looking at how Manzanilla might work and playing around with other wine cask finishes.   Prior to joining Halewood, Wallace spent six years at William Grant & Sons, the home of Balvenie and Glenfiddich since 1887. “They are beautiful, incredible distilleries in a beautiful part of the world,” Wallace says, “but they come with their own inherent limitations… some people will see them as being a bit aspirational and not for them.” In his view, building something from scratch – even with a history like Crabbie’s – means they don’t have to produce a certain type of product. “What we want to do is bring new people into the category and allow people to drink differently,” he explains. Free from the burden of a legacy, a new distillery can be more agile. This can, however, be a catch-22. In a quest to stand apart, rather than play the old boys at their centuries-perfected game, innovation – if not managed in a considered, well-financed, way – can end in tears. “A lot of people have got rather carried away with the romance and [they] don’t really understand the consequences and the costs, and the durability that you need,” Mark Reynier explains.  “And above all you need a unique proposition. Just to be another distillery isn’t enough. The distilling bit is the easy bit. I think this is what’s going to be the downfall for a lot of people. The maturation and the time and cost is the crunch. And then you have got to bring it to market.” Wallace agrees. “You must have a long-term plan for selling your product because you have got a several-year timeline before you can launch anything in the first place,” he says. “One of the big challenges for whisky companies is predicting demand. If you have to predict how much 12-year-old product you’re going to sell on day one, that is a really difficult challenge.”   This was one of the many reasons Wolfcraig was determined to be fully funded from the get-go. “A lot of new whisky distilleries are just living hand-to-mouth and raising money year-on-year and that is emotionally draining,” Moore says. “But, also more importantly, it takes time away from the business when you are constantly fundraising.” It’s no small amount of money required, either. While you might be able to start a gin distillery with £50,000, whisky is a different beast. “Even the small craft distilleries, you’re talking several million pounds to set up,” Moore explains. “Our overall investment will be close on £20million… So, it’s not something you go into lightly.” “Running a distillery is an expensive business,” Reynier adds. “Just when you most need the revenue to get into the market, that is when you are least likely to have it. You are building in a lag period. You have created this brand over a decade, but you don’t actually have enough stock maturing to satisfy the sales that you have created or are creating. So, you have got to plan forward.” Waterford is a distillation of everything Reynier got wrong at Bruichladdich and everything he felt he wasn’t able to do because of a “lack of resource, lack of desire perhaps, tradition getting in the way, and the lack of logistics”. “We had a war chest because we knew that to do it properly, we had to be able to insulate ourselves financially to be able to buy ourselves the time to do it properly, with proper, premium-quality barley, single-farm distillations for uniqueness and for complexity,” Reynier explains. “Practised at Bruichladdich, perfected here.” Ultimately, once you get past the business and branding, it’s the quality of the liquid that will sort the wheat from the chaff. “We need to achieve the same core things any distillery does,” Wallace says. “We want to make genuinely brilliant drams that people will enjoy in years to come.” Browse all Scotch whisky or read more Editorial 

As demand for single malt whisky continues to soar, the number of distilleries – big and small – preparing to fling open their doors increases at a bullish rate. Holly Motion talks to a few of the industry’s newest names to see if everything is as rosy as it seems

Investigating the sharp rise in the number of single malt whisky distilleries with Waterford, Wolfcraig and John Crabbie. 

Distilling dreams

2001 Château la Mission Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux “A couple of weeks ago, in an attempt to try and cheer up ‘Lockdown 2.0’, I decided to order a fancy takeaway from a favourite local restaurant. It was a classic French menu – pâté to start, boeuf bourguignon for the main course, all topped off with a tarte tatin. To further brighten up the evening, I wanted to open something special from my collection, and landed on a bottle of 2001 La Mission Haut-Brion (it really had to be something French to go with  that menu!). It was the ideal accompaniment, perfectly in its drinking window. It was full of dark red fruit, and – while being absolutely strong enough to stand up to the strew – was also wonderfully elegant. Everything was exactly as it should be, this is a stupendous wine, wonderfully balanced, perfectly pure and just downright delicious.” Rose Saunders, Senior Sales Manager 2015 Domaine de la Grange des Pères Blanc, Pays d’Hérault “Perhaps my favourite quality of a truly great wine is its power to make any occasion special. That being said, many of my most memorable wine experiences are those which aren’t planned – as was exactly the case with this bottle of 2015 Grange des Pères Blanc. During a weekend break in Cornwall last month, I managed to bag a last-minute booking at Outlaw’s New Road, and on opening the wine list this line immediately caught my eye – a rare find at fine wine merchants, let alone on restaurant lists. I asked the waiter, who to my great disappointment told me the last bottle had sold earlier that day. However, Outlaw has a second restaurant down the road, and having confirmed they had one bottle left, he promptly jogged down a very steep hill, and back, to fetch it. “The wine itself is simply unlike anything else: 90% Roussanne with a little Chardonnay and Marsanne, made by a man who trained under François Coche-Dury, G’erard Chave and Eloi Dürrbach. The 2015 is still very young, a behemoth of aroma, flavour, structure and texture.
 Decanted and enjoyed over five hours, it was almost overpowering to begin with – with rich tropical fruit, spice, garrigue herbs, candied lemon and intense minerality. Continually softening and evolving with time, exhibiting an extraordinary array of nuances, this is a masterclass of how to balance raw power with freshness and finesse. One of the best bottles I’ve had this year, thank you to the brilliant team at Outlaw’s New Road for going the extra mile.” Simon Brewster, Senior Sales Manager Sennachie, 40-year-old, Cask #83/254-3, Blended Scotch Malt Whisky “Five undisclosed Speyside and Highland whiskies distilled in 1975, married in 1983 at the age of eight years, and thereafter aged at Springbank Distillery Campbeltown: this is the intriguing make-up of Sennachie’s 40-year-old Cask #83/254-3, a release of 195 bottles and one of the most fascinating whiskies I’ve had the pleasure of drinking. There are five single malt components to pick out, although it’s debatable whether it actually matters. They are in perfect harmony from the outset, with a delightful nose of honey, oranges, shortbread and sweet cinnamon spice. The palate is balanced with red apples, white chocolate and salted caramel. It’s complex and immensely drinkable. The only downside is the spirit’s unique nature; this combination of whiskies and events cannot be repeated, so it’s worth enjoying it while you can.” David Walters, Head of Spirits 2000 Clos de Vougeot, Grand Cru, Domaine Leroy “I had the privilege this autumn to taste one of the latest releases from Burgundy’s legendary Domaine Leroy, the 2000 Clos de Vougeot, in a restaurant setting – a rarity for 2020 – making the event perhaps even more special. Big, boisterous, but charming too, this perfect-condition bottle displayed epic concentration and a staggering purity of fruit, something Lalou notes of her 2000s. There was a tautness to everything, like a snake coiled and ready to pounce. Still youthful and gleaming, the perfumed nose was compelling and seemed to fill the entire room! A wine that stops you in your tracks and reminds you why Burgundy continues to run the world.” Tony Cody, Senior Sales Manager 2010 Gaia, Grosset, Clare Valley, Australia “It’s relatively rare for me not to drink French – but at my first post-lockdown meal at the Harwood Arms, this caught my eye on the list. I’ve long been a fan of the Grosset wines, and while Polish Hill may be the wine that gets the most press, they’ve clearly been putting effort into Gaia – a Cabernet that now stands up there with the world’s best. This, now a decade old, was still deeply coloured with an expressive nose of dark fruit (ripe blackberries, plums) with underlying tertiary notes. On the palate, the acidity lifted the overall ripe fruit profile from this warm vintage in South Australia. Concentrated and structured, with polished tannins, dried herb notes added complexity to the long finish. Caught at just the right moment, this was drinking beautifully – perhaps all the more so with the sweet taste of freedom.” Corentin Margier, Head of Buying Browse more Editorial 

Each month, we ask a handful of our team to pick a wine or spirit they’ve tasted recently – a bottle that surprised, delighted or merely lived up to high expectations. Here’s what they chose

Each month, we ask a handful of our team to pick a wine or spirit they’ve tasted recently. Here’s what they chose

Our team names their top bottlings

In the glass: what our team is drinking

Swiss-born Jacky Lorenzetti made his fortune in real estate. In 2006, he branched out into sport – becoming the majority shareholder in Racing 92, a then-struggling Paris rugby team that has, with his significant investment, become one of Europe’s best. Having sold his company (Foncia), he bought his first wine estate in 2008. He and his wife Françoise visited Ch. Lilian Ladouys – a Cru Bourgeois in Saint-Estèphe – and instantly fell in love with it. They acquired Ch. Pédesclaux a year later, then half of Ch. d’Issan in 2013 (which had long been owned by the Cruse family, who retained the other half). In September 2021, Lorenzetti purchased the Fourth Growth Ch. Lafon-Rochet. This property, with its iconic yellow château and labels, is just a stone’s throw from Ch. Lilian Ladouys (where the Lorenzettis live), separated from each other only by the D2 road.  The estate has a long history stretching back to the 16th century, but its modern era began under the Tesseron family (famous for their Cognac), who bought the estate in 1960, and purchased Ch. Pontet Canet in 1975. Although the château’s mustard-yellow shade has rapidly become part of its identity, it was only painted this colour in 2000, with a matching label and capsule re-design, under Michel Tesseron. Basile Tesseron took over in 2007, hiring Jean-Claude Berrouet (of Pétrus) as consultant – the first on the Left Bank to do so. Quality rose significantly under the Tesseron rule, but not to the same extent as Pontet Canet.  In 2022, Emmanuel Cruse and Jacky Lorenzetti formed Vignobles Cruse Lorenzetti – making their ongoing partnership official, with the new company responsible for all four of their properties in Saint-Estèphe and Pauillac. Their first act was to hire Christophe Congé as Managing Director. Bordeaux-born and -bred, Congé isn’t moving far – having spent 24 years at Lafon-Rochet’s neighbour, Ch. Lafite-Rothschild, working as Eric Kohler’s right-hand man, in charge of the winemaking for both the First Growth and Ch. Duhart-Milon, as well as being responsible for the estate’s on-site cooperage.   Tasting through a host of vintages, Lafon-Rochet has a clear style – classical, restrained and linear, very typical Saint-Estèphe, although there’s none of the rusticity of yore in recent vintages. In warm vintages like 2009, its clay subsoils keep the vines’ roots cool – adding a depth of fruit and plushness to the mid-palate, while cooler years like the superb 2014 are sleek and perfumed. For such a modest estate, the wines age beautifully – with the 1996 fully resolved yet vibrant and hard to resist.  The 2021s were made by the Tesserons, but Congé blended the wines and the just-released 2022 was his first full vintage at the helm – and it’s an impressive début. Given the hot, dry conditions of the year, Saint-Estèphe thrived – and Lafon-Rochet offers surprising freshness, with a linear mouthful of crunchy and pure cassis fruit.  There has already been a focus on sustainability here – with the vineyards farmed organically since 2021 (and certification set for 2024), and an agroecology project launched in 2019, planting 4.5km of hedgerows and 53 different tree species across the estate – but there is set to be more emphasis in the future. A new cellar and vat house should be completed in 2025, and changes are already being implemented with increased selection, smaller fermentation tanks and larger oak vessels; in the vineyard they are doing more soil studies and looking at possible replanting.  Talking to Congé and Cruse, the ambition here is clear, with “a new era” being declared. They’re looking to put Lafon-Rochet back in serious play alongside Saint-Estèphe’s other Classed Growths – and if things go as planned, this bright estate will soon be snapping at the heels of Calon Ségur. Watch this space.  Browse all listings of Ch. Lafon Rochet or read more about Bordeaux Photography: Emma Tournier

Change is afoot at Saint-Estèphe’s Ch. Lafon-Rochet – with new owners and big plans in the pipeline. Sophie Thorpe reports on the changes and what lies ahead for the Fourth Growth

With the new team’s first vintage released, we sat down with Emmanuel Cruse and Christophe Congé to find out more about what’s happening at Ch. Lafon-Rochet

The new team at Ch. Lafon-Rochet

Meeting the new team at Ch. Lafon-Rochet

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