BLOG
Blog
Pierre Freyermuth
Ripeness and Balance with Andrew Jefford and Julia Harding MW
KD: One of the key words we hear a lot about in the wine industry — both from wine professionals and winemakers — is a desire for “freshness” in a wine. It is a rather nebulous term (and hard to argue: who doesn’t want freshness?) but is there something to it? Have wine styles shifted toward more...
Pierre Freyermuth
Ripeness and Balance with Andrew Jefford and Julia Harding MW
KD: I want to circle back to this issue of personal taste, Julia. Do you feel that writers and educators have an obligation to at least disclose these personal taste sensitivities to their readers or students, so that descriptors of wine are seen through a lens of experience instead of something...
Pierre Freyermuth
Ripeness and Balance with Andrew Jefford and Julia Harding MW
KD: Let’s shift gears a bit. I can see how a consumer or new student of wine could easily confuse “moderate” or “medium” elements in a wine as “balance.” I know I struggled with that early on! But certainly a high-tannin or high-acidity wine, or a low-alcohol or high-alcohol wine, could still be...
Pierre Freyermuth
Ripeness and Balance with Andrew Jefford and Julia Harding MW
KD: The fulcrum analogy is a perfect visualization of it, Julia. Thank you. On to our last topic. As wine writers, we always get a front-row seat to the generational battle over ripeness, and in the age of climate change, that battle has become even more accentuated. I think of a recent trip to...
Pierre Freyermuth
Ripeness and Balance with Andrew Jefford and Julia Harding MW
KD: So much of this conversation — balance, freshness, alcohol content, etc. — stems from when the grapes are harvested. My question has to do with ripeness, because the ultimate outcome of a wine’s composition often stems from when and how the winemaker harvests the grapes. However, it means...
Pierre Freyermuth
Ripeness and Balance with Andrew Jefford and Julia Harding MW
KD: Andrew, how do you discern balance when you are tasting wines? Do you have any tips? How much of it is a feeling? AJ: The first thing to say here is that I strongly believe that the key to finding and understanding balance in a wine becomes apparent as you drink a wine, rather than when you...
Pierre Freyermuth
Ripeness and Balance with Andrew Jefford and Julia Harding MW
KD: You touched upon this a moment ago, Andrew, but currently, lower alcohol wines are in vogue within many circles of the wine industry, and among consumers. Within other circles, so-called “Parker” wines — a style predicated on boldness, richness and amplified tones — remain the driving force....
Pierre Freyermuth
Ripeness and Balance with Andrew Jefford and Julia Harding MW
KD: I want to get both of your opinions on this next question: the elements that help preserve wine long-term — for example, acidity, tannins, and alcohol — are also the ones we discuss in terms of balance. Wines that age well are always balanced, but not all balanced wines can age, correct?...
Kevin Day
Wine Education & Careers
Few, if any, moments in wine are more dramatic than when a producer decides it is time to pick fruit. Whether they rely upon a Brix reading, a visual cue from the grape seeds, or the finely tuned instrument of their own palate, making the call to harvest a plot of grapes is a decision fraught with...
Pierre Freyermuth
Latest News
The WSG is delighted to announce our support for The Golden Vines Diversity Scholarships in association with Liquid Icons and the Gerard Basset Wine Education Charitable Foundation. Liquid Icons, the fine wine research and content production company founded by the late, great Gerard Basset OBE MW...
Nova Cadamatre MW
Viticulture Insights
After several months of dormancy, the first signs of the new vintage begin to show in March (in temperate to warm climates). The fresh pruning wounds begin to “bleed.” This initial sap flow is triggered by rising temperatures. Shortly after the bleeding stops, the buds will begin to swell.
Kevin Day
Wine Culture
In many ways, wine education relies on face-to-face contact between educators and students. After all, wine is a drink to be shared and which — for centuries — has stimulated conversation among those partaking. So last March, when it became apparent that the global spread of COVID-19 was about to...
Nova Cadamatre MW
Viticulture Insights
February is still a relatively quiet time in the vineyard. Pruning continues in warm climates while in cold climates it may not begin until March or later. This is primarily due to the risk of winter bud kill. Different varieties have different tolerances for cold. February, in the northern...
Nicholas Poletto
Viticulture Insights
One of the most significant trends happening in Bourgogne today, is a movement towards sustainable, organic and biodynamic viticulture. Due to the warming of temperatures, increase in sunlight and shift in rainy season, there has been less vineyard mildew pressure, drier soil and earlier harvests....
Andrew Jefford
Tasting & Trends
Andrew Jefford, award-winning author and columnist in every issue of Decanter and World of Fine Wine, Co-Chair Decanter World Wine Awards; Vice-Chair Decanter Asia Wine Awards as well as Wine Scholar Guild Academic Advisor, gives us his insight about the 2019 vintage in France. The beat goes on....
Nova Cadamatre MW
Viticulture Insights
WSG launches “Vine to Wine,” an exciting, new blog series that will chronicle what is happening in the vineyard and in the winery each and every month of the calendar year. Nova Cadamatre, MW and winemaker, will author these authoritative and detailed posts drawing upon her studies (Cornell...
Pierre Freyermuth
What is the Future of Appellations? with Andrew Jefford and Robert Joseph
KD: Hypothetically, what would the wine world look today if it weren’t for appellations? Would the concept of terroir even be a discussion point without them? And do appellations create unrealistic expectations about terroir? AJ: Terroir would exist as a concept because there would be a small set...
Pierre Freyermuth
What is the Future of Appellations? with Andrew Jefford and Robert Joseph
KD: Andrew noted that without appellations — specifically European ones — the “global wine offer” would be simpler and that wine would have to rely more on marketing strategies. Do you agree, Robert, and secondly, would that be a good thing for wine consumers? Would it be more accessible to more...
Pierre Freyermuth
What is the Future of Appellations? with Andrew Jefford and Robert Joseph
The Great Debate: What is the Future of Appellations? with Andrew Jefford and Robert Joseph KD: It would seem that with climate change, the notion of a wine region holding on to a rigid identity over the next several years or decades is borderline ridiculous. We need look no further than...
Pierre Freyermuth
What is the Future of Appellations? with Andrew Jefford and Robert Joseph
The Great Debate: What is the Future of Appellations? with Andrew Jefford and Robert Joseph KD: One final question..., are we moving toward a future of appellation irrelevance? Has “the everyday consumer” already made them irrelevant? AJ: Not at all. Remember, as I outlined earlier, that...