Few consumer products in the world are more steadfastly focused on origin than wine. Think of the last great bottle of wine you enjoyed and, odds are, its place of origin featured prominently on the label. Known as appellations, these defined areas of wine production have fostered a fanatical...

Every wine appellation in France has a cahier des charges, a set of regulations that delineates the production zone and specifies viticultural practices and production standards. In many instances, a single cahier des charges references one zone of production and multiple wine styles within it...

KD: Separately, some natural wines have failed to qualify for their appellation status because they were deemed atypical of their region’s wines. Simon, what’s your opinion on the subject of typicity? Have regulators developed a taste for non-natural practices and allowed that to colour their...

KD: Do you see the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on the global wine market as changing the trajectory of natural wine in any way? AJ: Yes and no. Social distancing will be difficult for this movement, since it is very event-focused and venue-focused, a youthful community movement predicated...

KD: One of the most rancorous subjects in the debate is how much sulphur should be allowed. Simon: where do you stand on this issue? Is there a certain threshold where, consistently, sulphur interferes with the expression of a wine in your opinion? Or is that threshold more universal than personal...

KD: There also seem to be two currents flowing whenever natural wine is discussed. One is the fundamentals of making natural wine — organic and/or biodynamic viticulture, ambient yeast, minimal intervention in the winery. And then the other, for lack of a better word, is political. People are...

KD: Let’s shift gears and talk about flaws. Detractors of natural wine consistently point to flaws in the wine as their main point of criticism. Andrew: have people’s notions of what constitutes a flaw changed because of natural wine? Or have people lost sight of what a flaw is? AJ: I like this...

KD: How do you see natural wine and the question of terroir, Simon? SW: There are good and bad examples in any wine style or niche. Natural wine is no different. There are terrible Riojas made with oak chips and fruit that was half rotted, then there are divine examples that are amongst the...

KD: Can all regions and grape varieties be successful at making good natural wines? SW: I see no reason why not. When growers complain that they can’t convert to organic or biodynamic farming because their region is too cold or too wet, I just refer them to people like Aphros in Vinho Verde...

Wine is full of spirited debates, but few can argue that any subject matter generates more intensity these days than natural wine. Should sulphur be allowed or not? Do natural wines reveal terroir better than conventional wines? Has natural wine changed our notion of flaws? Perhaps most...

Cosecha. Joven. Viejo. And the list goes on. Many wine-producing countries use local-language wine-related terminology without realizing their consumers are unaware of their meaning. Even native language speakers are sometimes confused by these terms as they are technical and/or relate to wine...

Across the world, the coronavirus pandemic has temporarily closed classrooms and required students to learn their course material entirely from home. At the Wine Scholar Guild, many new enrollments have shifted to the online wine study option for the foreseeable future. In fact, many students now...

Are you ready to dive into one of the world’s greatest wine-producing countries? If so, our next Spanish Wine Scholar Instructor-Led course is about to start, and we would love to have you join us! If you still aren’t sure, then take a look at these ten reasons why you should be studying Spanish...

As part of a partnership between Wine Scholar Guild and Decanter, we are pleased to share with our readers this article pulled from Decanter Premium. WSG members enjoy a 20% discount on their Decanter Premium subscription! Get your coupon code HERE Over-zealous planting and heavy-handed use of oak...

There’s no wine region I enjoy visiting more than Alsace. It’s beautiful, of course – and not just the half-timbered houses around which a profusion of flowers seem to float, or the grand hillside vineyards romping up to the forested Vosges mountains, always somehow bigger and more imposing in...

The wines of Valpolicella dance across the tongue with the same lift and loveliness as the name itself. Ideal with humble pastas as well as lighter red meats and game birds, it is well-suited to the table. As the more modest bottling of the Valpolicella region, it is largely (and unfairly)...

Learning Italian wine inside and out can be a thrilling experience, but it can also be confounding. The wrinkles in Italian wine law are numerous, and staying on top of the latest modifications to DOC and DOCG regulations can feel as time consuming as the slow train from Naples to Sorrento....

The Loire Valley is one of France’s most dynamic wine regions. For every famous, household-name wine (such as Sancerre), there is at least two lesser known wines just waiting to be discovered! The Loire has it all: dry and sweet, still and sparkling, white and red. It has so much to offer… Did you...

Thinking about signing up for the French Wine Scholar program? Be inspired by what our students are saying about the program and the top ten reasons they give for enrolling.

In the search for a mapmaker for the Spanish Wine Scholar® program, I was somehow led to Quentin Sadler. I didn’t think it possible to find someone with the same love and passion for Spain as I have, but I sure did in Quentin! It was obvious that our collaboration on this program was meant to be....