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Ever hotter: A Quick Look at the 2020 French Wine Harvest

Where are we headed? This is a question which all of us have probably asked ourselves at some point during 2020, as a global pandemic unfolds chaotically across a planet experiencing runaway climate change. Both challenges have directly affected French wine growers, with trade tariffs imposed by...

Wine Trends in 2020: Bordeaux by the Numbers

Author of Inside Bordeaux, a book that has been described as the 'bible' by Le Figaro newspaper and a 'category buster' by Jamie Goode, Jane Anson has lived in Bordeaux since 2003. Here she takes a look at the wine trends that are shaping the region, its economy, its climate, the industry and its...

Wine Scholar Guild Fab 15: A Power Tasting of the Best of France, Italy, and Spain

Over the course of 15 years, Wine Scholar Guild has enabled committed students of wine to expand beyond general wine knowledge curricula and specialize in the three leading wine producing countries in the world: France, Italy, and Spain. Acclaimed for the academic rigor of its programs,...

Making Sense of the Numbers

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...

WSG Blog receives Top 101 Wine Writer's Award

We are delighted to announce that our Blog was ranked #12 on the list of the Top 101 Wine Writers Of 2020 Award by Corking Wines!

Robert Parker’s 100-point wines: Then and now

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. Try Decanter Premium for 4 weeks for just $1! More information HERE Robert Parker says a 100-point wine should be ‘as exceptional as a particular...

Focus - The Wines of Valle d'Aosta: Not Quite Italian, Not Quite French

Whether it is in the bilingual wine labels of Alto Adige, or the occasional Slavic grape name in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italian wine often reveals the duality of culture present in some of the country’s border regions. Tucked into Italy’s northwestern corner, Valle d’Aosta certainly demonstrates...

Looking Back on 15 Years of Specialized Wine Education

This month, the Wine Scholar Guild celebrates its 15th anniversary! Such a milestone gives pause for thought. I’d like to share with you—our students, members and supporters—some key moments, joys and stressors we’ve had on this extraordinary journey.

The Great Debate: Natural Wine with Andrew Jefford and Simon J Woolf - Page 005

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...

The Great Debate: Natural Wine with Andrew Jefford and Simon J Woolf - Page 008

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...

The Great Debate: Natural Wine with Andrew Jefford and Simon J Woolf - Page 007

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...

The Great Debate: Natural Wine with Andrew Jefford and Simon J Woolf - Page 006

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...

The Great Debate: Natural Wine with Andrew Jefford and Simon J Woolf - Page 004

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...

The Great Debate: Natural Wine with Andrew Jefford and Simon J Woolf - Page 003

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...

The Great Debate: Natural Wine with Andrew Jefford and Simon J Woolf - Page 002

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...

The Great Debate: Natural Wine with Andrew Jefford and Simon J Woolf

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...

25 Spanish Wine Terms You Need To Know

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...

5 Trending Italian Red Grape Varieties

Italy’s wealth of grape varieties presents wine connoisseurs with many tantalizing prospects, particularly on the red wine spectrum. While Sangiovese and Nebbiolo still reign supreme, numerous grape varieties have re-emerged from hiding in recent years to spellbind wine lovers around the world. In...

Wine Trends in 2020: Burgundy by the Numbers

As a wine region, Burgundy embodies both the past and the future. On the one hand, Grands Crus that have been celebrated for centuries remain in the hands of multi-generational family domaines. On the other hand, outside investment, adjustments to the appellation system, and the realities of...

PODCAST: Jane Anson on Bordeaux

Award-winning author and Decanter Magazine columnist Jane Anson draws us deeper into the Bordeaux conversation and reveals what she discovered while working on her massive new book project, Inside Bordeaux, and what to expect when the book is launched in Spring 2020.