What is Premiere Napa Valley?  Inspired in part by the Hospices de Beaune, Premiere Napa Valley (PNV) is a wine auction that takes place every February in Napa. The week around the auction is filled with tastings and events relating to PNV. The auction is only open to members of the wine trade, most often merchants or restaurants who will then sell the wine exclusively to their clients. Today, Sotheby’s runs the actual auction. It first took place in 1997.  Which wines are auctioned off at Premiere Napa Valley?  The lots are all made specifically for the auction, one-of-a-kind wines that otherwise wouldn’t exist. Only members of the Napa Valley Vintners can make wines for the auction, and sometimes producers will collaborate on a lot. The lots normally comprise 240, 120 or 60 bottles, coming from AVAs across the region. These limited bottlings are often of a variety or vineyard not normally bottled separately, or a special blend or collaboration. The wines all come from the same vintage – harvest just under a year and a half prior to the auction (so the 2023 vintage is being offered in 2025), and tastings of these lots offer the first comprehensive view of a vintage to the trade.  Who organises Premiere Napa Valley and where does the money raised go?  The event is organised by Napa Valley Vintners. Napa Valley Vintners is an association of producers established in 1943 and formalised in 1944, a forum to exchange ideas and work as a group to overcome challenges as well as elevate the reputation of the valley’s wines. Napa Valley Vintners also organises Auction Napa Valley (previously knowns as the Napa Valley wine Auction) which was created in 1981 and takes place every summer.  Alongside its efforts to champion the region and its wines, investing in the local community is a huge focus: since 1981, the group has raised over $230 million for local non-profits – supporting healthcare and education, as well as environmental work. Today, 539 wineries are members of the organisation. The 29th iteration of Premiere Napa Valley, held in 2025, raised $3.3 million, a new record for sales. You can find out more about Napa Valley Vintners’ philanthropic work, which operates under Collective Napa Valley, and their current initiatives on their website.  Read more about Napa or browse all current Napa listings Photography: Alexander Rubin, courtesy of Premiere Napa Valley

Created by Napa Valley Vintners, the Premiere Napa Valley wine auction takes place every February. Here’s everything you need to know about the event and the lots on offer 

Everything you need to know about Premiere Napa Valley – California’s famous charity wine auction, organised by Napa Valley Vintners 

What is Premiere Napa Valley? About the famous wine auction

What is Premiere Napa Valley? 

When a red blend from Chile became the first wine from outside Bordeaux to be offered on La Place in 1998, it no doubt ruffled a few feathers. Could the New World, let alone South America, ever rival the quality of wines being made in Bordeaux? In the late 1990s, the answer was frankly no. Today, however, the fine wine market is keeping its eye on Chile’s leading estates with good reason. Not because they can rival Bordeaux in style, but because Chile’s winemakers are defining a style all of their own and discovering the potential of their top terroirs.  Gone are the days of overripe fruit, heavy-handed oak and 15% alcohol wines which dominated the scene during the height of Robert Parker’s influence in the early 2000s. Today vintners are focusing on making chiselled and elegant reds, as a result of much earlier harvesting and more restraint in the cellar – but, most importantly, these wines are all about balancing the freshness and nuance of their mountain terrains with the vibrant fruit profile and fine tannins these sunny lands offer. In the past decade, thousands of soil pits have been dug across Chile’s wine regions as winemakers get under the skin of their Chilean DNA — an endeavour well worth the effort as recent vintages show. Here are the regions at the forefront today.  Alto Maipo  It’s no coincidence that Château Mouton Rothschild’s Chilean venture with Concha y Toro, Almaviva in Alto Maipo, was the first non-Bordeaux wine to reach La Place. Maipo had been at the heart of Chile’s great Bordeaux imitation game since the 19th century, and on paper, Alto Maipo has a lot in common with Bordeaux: the same red varieties planted on similar gravels of river terraces.    Today, however, the best wines – including Almaviva and Viñedo Chadwick – focus on what makes Alto Maipo Cabernet Sauvignon and blends distinctive. In high-altitude Puente Alto in particular, the purity of the Andean sunlight at over 700 metres’ altitude offers a flamboyance of cassis and blackcurrant aromas, while cool mountain nights revive the grapes, giving the wines tension, filigree tannins and fragrant wild herb aromas. It’s this seductive combination which marks Alto Maipo as a Grand Cru of Chile.  Aconcagua  Further north, the Chadwick family has been making bold wines from valley floor vineyards in the warm Mediterranean climate of Aconcagua for over a century. Since the 1990s, however, they have been planting on the slopes and the more interesting colluvial soils found in the Andes foothills and towards the coastal mountain range.  Their iconic Seña blend, which originated as a collaboration with Robert Mondavi in 1995, has become increasingly refined under the hand of Chilean winemaker Francisco Beattig in recent vintages. Select plots of mainly Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec are synthesised into a balanced wine of 13.5% which prioritises harmony over power and carries graphite, cedar and blackberry aromas, trademarks of contemporary Aconcagua wines.  Apalta  One of Chile’s few DOs reflecting a place rather than a political region, the hill of Apalta has become world-renowned as one of the country’s best terroirs, with some of the best-known estates in Chile. Lapostolle, the biodynamic estate of the Bournet Lapostolle family, has been instrumental in developing the reputation and character of Apalta wines.  The key to Apalta today, and their iconic Clos Apalta property is the unique microclimate and kaleidoscopic palate of profiles the winemaker can draw from on this diverse hill site in Colchagua – from rich old-vine Cabernet Sauvignon on the clay soils of the valley floor, to the linear Merlot and peppery Carménère from Apalta’s southeast-facing granite slopes. These complex blends with black cherry and black pepper aromas, a full body and silky finish have become highly sought-after trademarks of Apalta wines today.  Chile’s winemakers are increasingly site-specific in their quest to show the potential of their unique country, with new and exciting vineyards being planted from the limestone-encrusted soils on the coast of the Atacama Desert down to the volcanic slopes of Osorno in Chilean Patagonia. And while there are no doubt many more Grands Crus in the making in Chile, those that have risen to the fore in the fine wine market today show precision, focus and a far greater self-understanding and appreciation than ever before.  Explore all current Chilean wine listings or read more Editorial 

Chile’s most iconic wines have come a long way in the last decade. With producers increasingly focusing on expressing site rather than creating a particular style, a handful of areas are emerging as the country’s Grands Crus, as Amanda Barnes reveals

Chile’s most iconic wines have come a long way in the last decade. We explore the region and producers such as Clos Apalta, Almaviva, Chadwick and more

Chile's Grand Cru wines explained

Chile's Grands Crus explained

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?  

Albiera Antinori is the first woman to take the helm of the Antinori empire. And “empire” isn’t an exaggeration for a dynasty that rose to prominence in the late 13th century, making its fortune in the silk trade, and later banking. The family has been making wine since at least 1385, when Giovanni di Pietro Antinori registered with the winemakers’ guild in Florence. To put that in perspective, that was before the Gutenberg bible was printed, before the fall of Constantinople, before Christopher Columbus set sail for the Americas.   Now, over six centuries later, Marchesi Antinori owns almost 3,000 hectares of vines across 21 estates (plus additional land that is dedicated to forest, olive groves etc) spread across the globe, and is among the oldest family businesses in the world (sitting at number 10 globally). Once part of Italy’s aristocratic elite, the Medici family line may have faded into extinction, but the Antinoris – like the Ricasolis – still hold significant sway.  Looking at Albiera Antinori on my screen, however, it’s hard to tie this pedigree to the woman in front of me. Now aged 58, she – along with her two sisters – represents the 26th generation of the family. Olive-skinned, relaxed and with a gentle smile, she props her glasses back on her head once the inevitable technical issues are resolved, settling back into her chair for our Zoom call. She may be one of the most powerful figures in Italian wine, but you wouldn’t know it.   Harvest is just getting underway as we sit down to talk about her family and its legacy – a time that she remembers fondly as a child. She grew up in Florence, but spent weekends and holidays in Bolgheri or at Tenuta Tignanello in Chianti – and wine was simply part of life. Some of her earliest memories are of the harvest and sipping wine (diluted with a drop of water) over dinner at Tignanello, gathered around the table with her grandfather, Niccolò Antinori, and the rest of the family.  It was when Albiera finished school that wine moved into the foreground. She didn’t yet know what she wanted to do and – with harvest at Castello della Sala was set to start in a few weeks’ time – her father, Piero Antinori, suggested she work there, that way she’d at least be earning some money while she figured things out. “From then on, it’s been a kind of snowball,” she says, smiling. Once the fruit was in, the wines needed making, there were vineyards to be managed and planted, and soon she was travelling, telling the world about the wines her family made. She had fallen down the rabbit hole.  Has she ever wondered about the path not taken? No, is the short answer, she tells me – and she’s been able to combine her other passions with work for Antinori. Take architecture: she has overseen the construction of 12 wineries during her tenure, working closely with the team to develop the perfect building for each.   She officially took the reins of the business in 2017 – but, as the eldest, she almost fell into the role of CEO. She may be at the top of the figurative tree, but it’s a family business through and through. She works closely with her sisters, both of whom are Vice Presidents (Alessia oversees the winemaking and Allegra manages the company’s various restaurants). Their father Piero – now approaching 90 – is still in the office every day too.   The Antinori name has long been associated with boundary-pushing. Albiera’s grandfather Niccolò was one of the first to stir things up in Chianti. In 1924, he put Bordeaux varieties in the family’s Villa Antinori Chianti – a scandalous act at the time. Niccolò’s brother-in-law was Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, who planted Cabernet Sauvignon on his wife’s Tenuta San Guido estate in 1944. The wine was made for family and friends at first, but when Piero Antinori (Niccolò’s son and Albiera’s father) took over running the family business in 1966, he saw the potential. Giacomo Tachis, the Antinori winemaker, started making the wine and ageing it in new French oak. By 1971, Piero had persuaded his uncle to release the 1968 vintage commercially: Sassicaia – and the Super Tuscan movement – was born. It wasn’t long before Piero followed with his own offering, releasing the first vintage (1971) of Tignanello – a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet from their eponymous estate in Chianti Classico – in 1978. Solaia soon followed (first made in 1978).  “The equilibrium between innovation and tradition is always something very delicate,” says Albiera. The family’s revolutionary spirit lives on, but she’s aware that their history, legacy and tradition is “a real asset” – one that shouldn’t be overlooked in today’s global wine market. While once they had to force the world to acknowledge the quality of Italian wine, now their focus on celebrating local varieties and creating wines that are true to their terroir. That remains true across their estates – no longer just in Tuscany, but from Puglia to Piedmont, as well as beyond – with properties in Chile and California (including Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars). At its core, however, their philosophy can be summed up in one word, she says: quality.  The next generation is already on board, with Albiera’s children Vittorio and Verdiana working alongside her. Their journey was totally different – going to university, taking master’s degrees and gaining experience at wineries around the world – a more conscious step into the family business. There was, however, no denying their fate.  Being an Antinori, Albiera says, “means a responsibility towards the people that work with us, towards the history that we have, and towards the land that we farm… a solid and constant commitment to doing things well, to doing things with intelligence, to do things that are long-lasting”. After six centuries in the business and a portfolio of estates around the world, that responsibility continues to grow – but it’s a duty the Antinoris seem uniquely suited to handling.  The new vintage of Solaia (2022) is now available  Explore all current Antinori listings or read more Editorial 

The Antinoris are one of Italy’s most famous families. As the new vintage of Solaia is released, we caught up with Albiera Antinori – the 26th-generation CEO and President of her family firm

Sitting down with Albiera Antinori – CEO of Marchesi Antinori, company that created Super Tuscan Tignanello to find out more about their wine dynasty 

Talking to Albiera Antinori about the family’s wine empire 

The Antinori empire 

In March this year, Opus One announced that they’d hired Meghan Zobeck as Director of Winemaking. It’s the first step in the transition as longtime winemaker Michael Silacci looks to step away from the business over the next five years. Silacci has been at Opus since 2001 and is a bonafide legend in the valley today – finding a suitable successor is no small task.  Zobeck wasn’t necessarily the obvious choice. She’s risen rapidly through the ranks of Napa’s winemaking elite – but only moved into the world of wine in 2012. That move was a leap of faith for Zobeck – an unlikely one for someone immersed in the world of NFL.  Zobeck grew up in Greeley, Colorado – “a cowtown” in her words, but one that happened to be where the Denver Broncos held their training camps each year. Throughout high school, she spent her summers working for the team – as many locals did. She went off to college (then pre-med), but kept working for the Broncos, moving to full-time while she studied for her MCATs.  In her senior year of college, she did an internship with the team, working with the scouts and sitting in the “war room” on draft day. “I loved the action, the fast pace of it,” she says. At around the same time, she realised that medicine wasn’t for her – instead she took a role negotiating player contracts for the Broncos, becoming one of only a handful of women in the job, and loved it.   It was a weekend trip to Los Olivos in the Santa Ynez Valley that sparked her interest in wine and – more specifically – winemaking. Back home, she found an ad in a local magazine for a homebrew shop – offering the chance to buy grapes during harvest. Soon she was experimenting, fermenting batches of wine in her basement and having bottling parties with friends. “I just saw how it really brought people together,” she says. She travelled to more wine regions and fell for the way wine combined science, creativity, history and community. The NFL had served her well, but it was time to take that leap and leave the Broncos behind.  She did her first vintage at Clos Apalta in 2012, and didn’t look back – doing harvests in Piedmont, Bordeaux and the Barossa, before zoning in on Napa – first at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Screaming Eagle, then taking a job with star consultant Philippe Melka. Most recently, Zobeck was winemaker at Burgess Cellars – where she had free rein to shape the wines, from the vineyard through to the winery.  Zobeck first met Michael Silacci at Premiere Napa Valley – her first showing barrel samples from Burgess. Silacci came over to taste and then – in a clear display of approval – kept sending others her way. Zobeck was focusing on a fresher style of wine, a return to the Burgess of yesteryear, but was also working towards a regenerative approach in the vineyard – and soon discovered that the Opus One team was doing similar experiments. She and Kimberlee Marinelli – Assistant Winemaker & Viticulturist at Opus One – connected and started discussing everything from pollinators to native ferments. Zobeck was struck by the clear lack of complacency from a property that had no need to prove itself further. Little did she know that Silacci was observing what she was doing with particular interest – and decided she could be the heir to his throne.  “It’s a job you never, in a million years, think is going to become available,” says Zobeck of the moment she was approached about becoming Opus One’s Director of Winemaking. There was no way she was turning down such an opportunity – especially not when she would have the chance to work with Silacci for several years.  Zobeck will take on Silacci’s legacy at Opus One – an estate that has been constantly evolving during his tenure. Organic farming has been the norm at Opus for over two decades, although they only sought certification in 2021. For over a decade, Silacci trialled biodynamics but found the vines became too vigorous. He abandoned the approach before launching into regenerative farming from 2022. The estate now works with permanent cover crop between the vines, helping lower temperatures in the canopies, retain water in the soils and lengthen the ripening period, without increasing sugar levels. Silacci has been experimenting with dry farming since 2007 and reducing irrigation across the estate, although it remains essential for now. The team hopes, however, to be able to dry-farm a new site in Oakville once the vines are established. This work is all reflected in the wines being produced today.  “Opus One is not the stereotypical Napa of the early 2000s,” Zobeck emphasises. “It’s a fresh style, and to keep that we have to farm differently.” Silacci is famous for saying he doesn’t want his footprints in the vineyard or fingerprints on the glass, but Zobeck notes how you can see his influence on Opus One over the years, especially from 2004. From 2019, however, she feels the wine has evolved further – with greater transparency of the site. The 2023 has just been bottled at a modest 13.5% alcohol – indicative of the estate’s current approach, one that she intends to continue.  Silacci plans to stay for at least three years, working alongside Zobeck as Chief Winemaker. A transition period of this length is testament to Opus One’s long-term view – looking not just at the next vintage, but the next decade and beyond. Zobeck’s excitement for the role is clear – as well as her admiration for the existing team. As in the NFL, a good captain is key, but it takes more than one player to win a game – and Zobeck completes an already impressive line-up. It’s one hell of a hand-off.  The 2022 vintage of Opus One is released on 1st September 2025. Browse all current listings of Opus One or read more about California 

Originally a joint venture between Robert Mondavi and Ch. Mouton Rothschild, Opus One is one of Napa’s most famous estates – and it now has a new Director of Winemaking. We sat down with Meghan Zobeck to find out more about the ex-NFL powerhouse taking over from Michael Silacci

Meeting the new woman at the helm of Napa’s Opus One – Meghan Zobeck, who is taking over from Michael Silacci to make some of the valley’s most famous wines 

Opus One’s new Director of Winemaking: Meghan Zobeck 

Draft pick: Opus One’s Meghan Zobeck  

The 2023 vintage in the Rhône was – like elsewhere in France – hot and dry, but not as hot as 2022. The preceding autumn was wet, but from January through to March 2023 there was practically no rain (indeed, not a drop fell between 21st January and 21st February).  Rain arrived in mid-May and there were frequent, small showers until the end of June, providing just enough water to avoid major water stress. Flowering and fruit-set took place without any issues, but as the rain showers continued, the threat of downy mildew and black rot arrived – and needed managing to avoid damage to the crop.  Late August brought a new challenge, with a heatwave that saw temperatures hit 40-42°C, lasting two weeks. There were reports of blocked ripening and young vines dying, but fortunately the weather cooled off and September offered a substantial diurnal swing in temperatures, helping retain aromatics and acidity in the run-up to harvest. The whites were largely brought in in August, before the heatwave had finished, while the red harvest took place over an Indian summer, with the last fruit in around mid-October.  The Northern Rhône faced additional challenges, with hail in Cornas, Crozes-Hermitage and Saint-Joseph, then on 18th September torrential rain – with over 100mm falling in one night. The northern part of the appellation avoided this deluge, with just 20mm.  Here’s what the critics are saying about the wines.  Jeb Dunnuck  Jeb Dunnuck is gradually releasing his reports on Rhône 2023, starting with Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas.  In Châteauneuf-du-Pape, 2023 is “another solid vintage”, he writes, offering “a bevy of ripe yet not excessive, pure, charming wines with loads to love”. He finds them darker-fruited and cooler than “the sunny, exuberant 2022s”, with a “soft, plump elegant style, and beautiful overall balance”. They are not intensely concentrated, he says, but “shine for their balanced, layered, seductive style”. They combine freshness and depth, and are “on a par, if not slightly superior to, the 2022s”, says Dunnuck, feeling they’ll also be longer-lived than the 2022s – comparing them stylistically to the wines from 2020, 2018 or 2012. While it may not be “truly great”, drinkers will find “a wealth of beautiful wines”.  As for Gigondas, he finds the wines “pure, elegant, beautifully balanced” – reminiscent of 2020 or 2012, “fresher and more elegant than the 2022s”. The vintage was the first in which whites were permitted in the appellation, and these come highly recommended – “beautifully fresh, focused, yet concentrated whites that show the limestone, mineral-like character of the appellation”.  Explore Jeb Dunnuck’s reports, notes and scores on his site (subscribers only)  Drink Rhône – John Livingstone-Learmonth  So far, John Livingstone-Learmonth has only published thoughts on the Northern Rhône in 2023, where he feels it is “good” if not “spectacular”. The reds have “reasonable levels of tannin”, while the whites are, he writes, “a definite buy”. In Cornas, he writes, the wines have an approachability, but don’t have “great stuffing or structure to match the really long keeping vintages such as 2015 or 2019”. He feels the wines will appeal to a modern audience, balanced with refined tannins and the best set to drink over 20-plus years, although selective buying is advised. In Crozes-Hermitage, this is particularly true, Livingstone-Learmonth advises, highlighting both mildew and hail, even if the best are impressive – with “snug tannins” and “stylish content”, and potential five-star ratings. The 2023s of Côte-Rôtie seem to stand out in the line-up, aromatic with moderate alcohols, even if not overtly structured. The results are, in Livingstone-Learmonth’s mind, “very satisfying”, with “appealing exuberance and plentiful fruit” – wines he expects to drink for a good 25 years or so. Explore John Livingstone-Learmonth’s full report, notes and scores on his site (subscribers only)  Decanter – Matt Walls  Both in the north and south of the region, the vintage earns a modest 3.5 out of 5 rating from Decanter’s Matt Walls. He emphasises how the rain showers that arrived in May and June were “crucial” in the otherwise hot, dry year, even if they also brought disease pressure.   Unlike other recent vintages, Walls highlights how approachable the 2023s are – perfect for drinking while waiting for other vintages (including the 2022s) to come round. He says the wines are perhaps comparable in quality to the 2022s, although are much more open. Both in the Northern and Southern Rhône, he finds the whites more consistent than the reds – offering “intensity, freshness and energy”.  The reds are more mixed in quality. In the south, you’ll find “a clutch of juicy, approachable and early-drinking wines”,  he says, “ripe with soft tannins and gentle acidity”, but “nonetheless displaying detailed terroir expression”. He found that, while Châteauneuf-du-Pape was heterogenous (with some wines lacking in acidity and marked by alcohol), Vinsobres, Lirac, Beaumes de Venise and Rasteau all excelled this year. He advises looking out for wines with Mourvèdre in the blend, bringing “welcome sinew”.  In the Northern Rhône, things were trickier. Hail struck Saint-Joseph, Cornas and Crozes-Hermitage, and there was a huge rainstorm on 18th September – so heavy that it damaged vines and resulted in some dilution. Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu and northern Saint-Joseph dodged the storm (receiving 20 versus 100mm elsewhere) and made some “excellent” wines, according to Walls. While much of the Northern Rhône produced fresh, supple reds, there is some “very fine Côte-Rôtie” and Cornas offers “strict, mineral and refreshing” wines that are “distinctly herbal”. Walls notes that there are many vibrant, fresh whites, particularly in Hermitage – where the whites are set to outlive the reds.  Explore Matt Walls’ full report, notes and scores on the Decanter site (subscribers only)  Wine Advocate – Yohan Castaing  Yohan Castaing hasn’t yet released his full coverage of the 2023 vintage in the Rhône, but has offered two reports on the whites of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas, where it is the first vintage for white wines within the appellation rules. Generally, he finds the Southern Rhône whites in 2023 “aromatic and elegant, with bright acidities, a well-defined core and good aging potential”. In Châteauneuf, the aromatic profiles are, for him, reminiscent of 2022 and he considers the wines very good to excellent, with acidity that “balances the natural power and typically high pH levels of Southern Rhône grape varieties”. He attributes this in part to greater precision in the vineyard and winery, although some wines, he writes, still lack “dymanism and tension”.  The first whites to bear the Gigondas appellation name (coming from around 12 hectares of white vineyards) offer “a promising glimpse” of what lies ahead. He favours the pure Clairette expressions of Gigondas’s complex soils, even if the grape still represents a minimum 70% of the blends. Nevertheless, the 2023s, in Castaing’s words, have “remarkable freshness, tension and complexity”, exemplifying “the elegance and purity that Gigondas Blanc strives for, balancing structure with vibrancy”.   Explore Yohan Castaing’s full report notes and scores on Châteauneuf-du-Pape whites and Gigondas whites on the Wine Advocate (subscribers only)  Vinous – Nicolas Greinacher  In Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Vinous’s Nicolas Greinacher finds that 2023 “promises to be a delightful year for both reds and whites”. In his coverage of the growing season, he notes that sites with more clay fared better than sandier soils, able to retain key moisture during the year’s warm weather. He feels the reds in this leading appellation are good to very good, more approachable than the 2022s, and “although generally not set to be as long-lived as the 2022s, the finest 2023s are built to last”. He finds many of them “alluring”, “perfumed” and “juicy”. As for the whites, he finds them generous in style – matching the reds for quality, and offering brighter acidity versus the 2022s.  In the Northern Rhône, the reds are – he writes – “surprisingly fresh, calm and balanced”, with ripe fruit and “gentle tannins”. They aren’t as structured and long-lived as the 2022s, much more open and accessible in youth, but there are “standout wines in every appellation that are sure to endure”. He finds that Côte-Rôtie stands out this year for its “hauntingly elegant” wines, while Cornas offers wines of “granite-based austerity, fleshiness, boldness and elevated flavor concentration” (even if they’re “not blockbusters”). Saint-Joseph is more mixed, while the whites of Condrieu are mostly “lively, fresh and expressive, albeit not as precise and elegant as in 2021”.  Explore Nicolas Greinacher’s full reports, notes and scores on Châteauneuf-du-Pape and the Northern Rhône on Vinous (subscribers only)  jancisrobinson.com – Alistair Cooper MW and James Lawther MW James Lawther MW has covered the Northern Rhône and Alistair Cooper MW the Southern Rhône for jancisrobinson.com. In the north, Lawther finds 2023 “more elegant and approachable” versus the power and concentration of vintages like 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022. The reds are generally low in alcohol, with a maximum 13%, he says, and relatively high pHs, yet they feel very fresh, with supple tannins and “juicy, gourmand” fruit – offering a much more “classic” profile, he finds. Côte-Rôtie has produced some of the vintage’s best wines, and is more consistent than those of Cornas, Crozes-Hermitage (with hail in both) or Saint-Joseph, full of “balance and charm even if they are not destined for excessively long ageing”. In the south, the story is rather different, as Cooper reports – the year defined by its warm and dry conditions. Although Châteauneuf-du-Pape produced some “extremely high-quality red wines”, selection is key, with some wines jammy and high in alcohol, although the best are excellent, offering power and concentration. The appellation’s best whites offer freshness and minerality, although some drift into flabbiness, with picking dates key. Cooper found quality in Vacqueyras and Gigondas more variable – for the latter, he attributes this in part to its sandier soils (less able to retain water in the dry year). Generally, however, he found the southern crus “largely turned out good-quality wines” – with Cairanne, Lirac and Rasteau in particular home to “balanced and attractive wines aplenty”. Explore the full reports, notes and scores on jancisrobinson.com (subscribers only) We’ll be adding to this feature as other reports are released.    

The 2023 vintage was far from easy in the Rhône Valley – but has clearly produced some charming wines. As the critics publish their reports on the year, we round up what they’re saying about the vintage and its wines, from Châteauneuf-du-Pape to Côte-Rôtie  

As the Rhone starts to release its 2023s, here’s what the world’s leading critics–Jeb Dunnuck, Decanter, Vinous, the Wine Advocate–are saying about the wines 

Rhone 2023 – what the critics are saying 

Rhône 2023: the critics’ verdict 

Long ago, we wrenched grapevines from their natural habitat. Enthusiastic creepers, their shoots and tendrils are designed to cling onto whatever they can as they grow; winding themselves around trees or other plants in the wild. But we dragged vines out of the forest and forced them into rigid trellises, taming their wayward growth to produce a crop that served our purpose. Now, however, there’s a movement to re-integrate trees and plants into viticulture.  Cheval Blanc is one of the most famous proponents of agroforestry, which is a key part of its manifesto on a modern approach to viticulture. Augustin Fromageot – who now works full time at Anjou’s Domaine Belargus – was one of the team involved in the project, planting over 4,000 trees at the estate in two years. Until then, Fromageot – a trained geologist – had been working in South America, largely in cocoa and coffee, but the vine was calling. The team converted the estate into a laboratory of sorts – experimenting with different ways to integrate trees, within rows, replacing rows, in copses and borders or any other way you can imagine planting them alongside vines, all set to be followed in scientific programmes to track what works and what doesn’t. Now he’s doing a similar thing at Belargus, managing their extensive nature reserve and working to increase biodiversity on the estate – working to manage the landscape, as he sees it.  It’s an oversimplification to suggest that vines have gone directly from wild creepers to industrialised monocultures. Historically, farming was poly-cultural, a smallholding contained everything a family needed – and vines often formed part of that. Pergola trellising, for example, allowed for other crops to be planted beneath, while trees being used as a living trellis was not uncommon – often referenced as married vines, the Roman method of arbusta (favoured by Pliny, for example) – and grown alongside each other, culture en hautain, cultura mista or joualle. It’s this latter method, favoured in southwest France a century or so ago, that Cheval Blanc has in part been trialling, with individual trees replacing vines within a row. It looks beautiful, however brings its own complications, limiting mechanisation. It is, as Fromageot, says, a “poetic” way to integrate trees. You’ll still find vines trained up trees in Bolivia, in the Cinti Valley (as for the Jardín Oculto project), although these are ancient examples – and few would plant vines like this today. It’s an impractical way to farm, at the end of the day, one that only worked on a very small scale, but it’s clear that industrialisation has pushed monocultures too far – and agroforestry is one way in which producers are trying to fix the damage done.  Trees are remarkable in many ways, but they can have a huge impact on a vineyard. Their physical presence can influence the microclimate – protecting a vineyard from frost, heat and wind, as well as acting as a physical barrier between neighbouring properties – preventing any unwanted sprays drifting into your vines. They increase biodiversity – providing a habitat for insects and animals, in particular bats, and they absorb carbon dioxide. They reduce soil erosion (with topsoil erosion a major threat to agriculture worldwide) and increase organic matter, which in turn increases soil’s water-holding capacity – a major plus in dry regions. For Fromageot, trees help to create a resilience in the vineyard, reinforcing the vines’ natural defences, and therefore reducing the number of treatments required.   It’s easy to look at such a list and understand the principles at play. Clearly there are benefits for the environment – but what does it mean for the wine in your glass? Well, a lot, potentially. As few as five trees will influence the microclimate in a 100-metre radius; they can reduce the temperature in a parcel by as much as 2-3°C, preserving acidity, lowering alcohol and retaining precision in the aromatics. And, shielding a vineyard from extreme frost or heat, as well as providing better water reserves in the soils, allows for a more consistent yield, all of which is beneficial with climate change – with both more extreme weather conditions and global warming.  Of course, it’s not quite as simple as it sounds. “It teaches us an immense humility,” Fromageot tells me, as I start asking him about the world of agroforestry, and more specifically vitiforestry. He’s more than aware that agroforestry has become a buzzword in wine – it's suddenly very trendy. But there’s a lot of work involved in planting and managing trees. For starters, deciding where and how to plant trees is key. Their ability to influence microclimate can be both good and bad – with the potential to create frost pockets, to increase humidity, reduce airflow and therefore disease pressure. “You need to read the landscape,” Fromageot explains.  You also have to decide what sort of tree to plant, as well as the rootstock, ensuring it will complement viticulture. The first thing Fromageot does when taking on a project is look at all the local nurseries to understand the native varieties. Fruit trees are common, but as he notes, you need to ensure it has a different harvest time to grapes to avoid any conflict – he looks to apples, pears and prunes, in particular, highlighting how challenging peaches and apricots can be. Otherwise, the likes of maple, ash, mulberry, black poplar, hornbeam and linden can all work – essentially trees that share the same type of mycorrhizae (the microorganisms that attach to roots) as vines. You want to avoid anything that might taint your wine, or anything that will inhibit growth – such as walnut trees, which produce a toxic compound, juglone.  Trees have significantly different requirements to vines, needing different equipment and expertise to thrive, with – for example – extensive fertilisation to establish trees, which need richer soils. Trees will – wherever they are planted – occupy space that could otherwise be used for vines, yielding additional crop. And it’s a slow process, with it taking around a decade for trees to start influencing viticulture in a meaningful way, says Fromageot. All of this costs time and money – making agroforestry a luxury that not all producers can afford, although Fromageot feels that trees can be integrated in a different way for producers working at scale.  Alain Canet – an agronomist and specialist in agroforestry – argues that re-introducing trees is crucial for agriculture. “For some soils it is already too late,” he writes. “But for most, we have time to act... In agroecological terms, the transition to trees is the transition to life.”  There are many scientific reasons to favour vitiforestry, but for Fromageot there is a more compelling reason: the landscape fixes people to a geography, to a place, and that – he argues – is essential for making fine wine. Beauty in the landscape you live and work in helps us “find sense in life”, he tells me. Romantic? Maybe. But with the science to back it up, it’s hard not to be persuaded that trees line the way to a more sustainable future – in wine, yes, but in wider agriculture too. 

Agroforestry is the latest trend to take over the world of fine wine – but why? We sat down with Domaine Belargus’s Augustin Fromageot to find out why trees might just be the key to sustainable viticulture 

Agroforestry is the latest trend to take over the world of fine wine – but why? We sat down with Domaine Belargus’s Augustin Fromageot to find out more

Trees and wine: exploring the world of vitiforestry

Putting down roots: the world of vitiforestry 

It’s 20 years since Eduardo Chadwick gathered some of Europe’s most famous wine writers for a blind tasting – one to rival the famous 1976 Judgement of Paris (when California proved its wines could compete with – and beat – France’s best). Chadwick was convinced that critics were underestimating Chilean wines – for no reason other than snobbery against the nation. The Berlin Tasting pitched Chadwick’s top wines (Viñedo Chadwick, Seña and Don Maximiano Founder’s Reserve) against Bordeaux’s First Growths and a lone Super Tuscan (Antinori’s Solaia). Chadwick charged the late Steven Spurrier with running the event. “I never imagined that what happened was about to happen,” Chadwick tells me. To his and everyone else’s amazement, the 2000 Viñedo Chadwick took the top spot, followed by 2001 Seña, then 2000 Ch. Lafite Rothschild, and 2000 Ch. Margaux – tied equally in fourth place with 2000 Seña. Finally, there was proof that Chile’s wines deserved a place on the world stage.  But, for Chadwick, one watershed moment wasn’t enough. He repeated the tasting, first in São Paulo, then Tokyo – and onward, hosting the same blind tasting 22 times around the world, all with similarly spectacular results for his wines. It takes nerves of steel – and a certain amount of ego – to be willing to risk repeating such a tasting, and yet Chadwick was justly rewarded. His campaign is just one way in which he has forged a path for fine, Chilean wine – with a relentless, dogged determination.  Chadwick is the fifth generation of his family to make wine in Chile. Don Maximiano Errázuriz emigrated from the Basque country and was the first to plant vines in the Aconcagua Valley in 1870. He identified the location, 100km north of Santiago, with its cool ocean breezes, hot summers and rainy winters, as perfect for growing grapes. Operating under the motto of, “from the best land, the best wine”, he planted vines in this idyllic site, near Panquehue, and built a winery – that still stands today.  Gradually, the business grew – and it became the largest vineyard in the world owned by an individual, with 1,300 hectares under vine at its peak in the late 19th century. Despite this early prosperity, Chile’s wine industry didn’t continue to thrive. There was no export market and domestic consumption (which reached up to 80 litres per capita annually) was slashed by severe taxation, while political and economic turbulence, with communist then military rule, put not just the industry, but nation, in crisis. By the early 1980s, wine was cheaper than water and around half of the nation’s vines were ripped out.  It was onto this unstable scene that Eduardo Chadwick arrived. He had initially trained as an industrial engineer before deciding to focus on wine instead, going to study in Bordeaux under the legendary oenologist Emile Peynaud. His father bought the family winery back from the banks, and Chadwick started dusting away the cobwebs, re-opening Viña Errázuriz and – armed with new, technical knowledge – made the first vintage of Don Maximiano Founder’s Reserve, the property’s flagship wine, in 1984. The operation was still rudimentary – with rauli vats (a native hardwood), no temperature control and pergola vines planted on the fertile flats – but it was an early indication of what was possible. Tasting the wine four decades later, it’s held up remarkably well – with surprising vibrancy on the nose and a chiselled, savoury profile of pure Cabernet Sauvignon.  Gradually, Chadwick invested in equipment – stainless steel tanks, modern presses and barrels – and started to plant vineyards on slopes with poorer soils. Alongside this shift, pivotal elections in 1989 saw Chile become a democracy once more – and key figures from the world of wine visited. Soon entry-level wines were being exported by the likes of Oddbins and Victoria Wine. The doors had opened for Chilean wine. Robert Mondavi visited Chadwick in 1991 – and the two men hit it off, sharing an unrelenting drive to push their industry forward, and Mondavi recognised in Chile the potential he had seen in Napa in the 1960s. He knew that his partnership with Ch. Mouton Rothschild (Opus One) had been key to changing Napa’s reputation – and the duo hoped that their own joint venture might do the same for Chile: Seña (literally meaning “signal”) was born. Bob’s son, Tim Mondavi worked with Chadwick on the project and suggested looking for a site closer to the coast in the Aconcagua Valley, in search of even greater finesse, producing the first vintage in 1995.  And Chadwick didn’t stop there. His father had purchased an estate in the Alto Maipo in 1945, home to a polo field (Eduardo’s father, Alfonso, had captained the Chilean team for years). In 1992, Chadwick convinced his father to let him transform the polo field – with its pure gravel soils and 15˚C diurnal swing – into a vineyard, feeling it was perfect for Cabernet Sauvignon. Alfonso died the following year, but the first vintage of this project – Viñedo Chadwick, named in honour of his father – was made in 1999.   Chadwick knew the wines were good – but convincing the world of that fact was the challenge. He’s clear that Chile made a major error in churning out great-value, entry-level wines – good, but not fine wines – a price-point that came to define the nation. “That’s why it was very difficult to convince the audience that we can also produce world-class wines,” says Chadwick. “Chile had no recognition. We had no ratings, no Parker points, no Suckling points.” And so he set about changing that with the Berlin Tasting.  With that event’s market-shifting results (then echoed around the world), he’d created momentum for change. A decade later, he went on to break through another boundary: the 2014 Viñedo Chadwick became the first Chilean wine to earn 100 points (from James Suckling). Just last year, the 2021 vintage was the first Chilean wine rated 100 points by the Wine Advocate. When I sat down with him March this year, it was at an event paying tribute to the two decades that have passed since the Berlin Tasting – featuring early vintages from each estate, and their greatest successes. The 1998 Seña was a particular standout – a cool vintage that today is perfumed, elegant, bright and effortlessly long. Any doubters of Chilean wine were instantly quieted. And, as with the Berlin tasting, the event was being replicated around the globe – the campaign to champion Chilean wine never ending.  When Chadwick started in 1983, Viña Errázuriz had just 10 hectares of vineyard. Today, across their estates, Chadwick farms 900 hectares of vines. He bought out his siblings years ago, when he found they were more interested in dividends than growing and investing in the business. Now three of his four daughters are working alongside him – excited by the potential of coastal sites (where they make the Las Pizarras wines) and a new sparkling project. There has been no shortage of challenges along the way, but they’ve only fuelled Chadwick’s relentless pursuit of recognition for Chile and its wines. “Where we are today is beyond my wildest dreams,” he tells me, and yet it’s only because of his tireless ambition that Chilean wine has made it to this point. Fortunately, it looks like his children have inherited his determination – ready to rule over the next chapter of this epic story.  Explore all listings of Viña Errázuriz, Seña and Viñedo Chadwick or read more about Chile 

In the last 40 years, Eduardo Chadwick has single-handedly forged a place for Chile in the fine wine arena. Two decades after the pivotal Berlin Tasting, Sophie Thorpe sat down with the man himself to explore his legacy – and what lies ahead 

20 years after the Berlin Tasting, we sit down with Eduardo Chadwick – the man that created Chile’s first icon wines, Sena, Vinedo Chadwick and Errazuriz

Championing Chile – Eduardo Chadwick

Championing Chile: Eduardo Chadwick

Chiles Valley

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