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Mâconnais 2024 & 2025: Definitely Worth Your Time
France: Burgundy, featured
, Sep 2026
Like the Rocs de Vergisson and Solutré themselves, Mâconnais wines reach mesmerising peaks, though many Burgundy lovers remain blissfully unaware of just how high quality has climbed. With prices still remarkably accessible, there has rarely been a better time to discover this beautiful region.
Mount Etna: The Juggernaut of Italian Wine
Italy: Center & South, featured
, Sep 2026
From pioneering contrade and MGA classifications to an imminent DOCG ascension and a revamped sparkling category, Etna continues to push forward as a true juggernaut of Italian wine. But this ambition and momentum coincide with back-to-back volatile growing seasons, from a disease-ravaged 2023 to a drought-ridden 2024. Even so, this broad swath of new releases is full of gems that readers will not want to miss.
Australia’s Limestone Coast: The Limestone Effect
Australia Featured, featured
, Sep 2026
Though Coonawarra is well known, the wider Limestone Coast remains very much under the radar. The region’s leading wines display elegance and finesse thanks to its temperate climate and the rich veins of limestone in the soils. While the area offers classic, ageworthy Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, it has also seen an increasing focus on future opportunities and innovation with alternative varieties.
Ribera del Duero: Take a Walk on the Light Side
Spain, featured
, Sep 2026
Spain’s Duero region, which runs from Ribera to Toro via Rueda, is undergoing a period of stylistic change, especially in Ribera. This walk on the lighter side is a welcome development in a region that has traditionally produced some of Castilla y León’s most potent reds. The more than 500 wines in this report provide insight into the trends driving this transformation.
2025 Rheingau & Pfalz: Energy, Ripeness, Brilliance and Speed
Germany, featured
, Aug 2026
With its combination of warmth and sufficient moisture, the 2025 growing season yielded brilliant and juicy Rieslings full of energy and ripeness. Yields were low across the board, prompting fast-advancing ripening and turbo harvests. The Pfalz almost universally delivered juicy, brilliant wines. The Rheingau is a little patchier but holds many sweet (and dry) surprises. The 2024 Pinot Noirs are pictures of elegance.
Vintage Port: The 2024 Declaration
featured, Fortified Wines & Spirits, Portugal
, Sep 2026
The 2024 vintage marks the first General Declaration of Vintage Port since 2017, bringing an end to the longest gap between Declarations since the 1940s. Does that mean a special vintage in the Douro? You bet!
Chianti Classico: Looking Up
Italy: Tuscany, featured
, Aug 2026
After three very tough vintages, things are looking up in Chianti Classico. The young 2025s hold significant promise, while 2024 is revealing itself to be surprisingly good in spots, despite some inconsistency. That’s a big improvement over 2023 and 2022, when so many producers were impacted by severe weather events that dramatically lowered production and negatively impacted quality. I continue to be impressed with a general trend of increasing quality.
2025 Rheinhessen-Nahe and Mittelrhein: Opulence, Clarity and Sweet Marvels
Germany, featured
, Aug 2026
The 2025 growing season was marked by evenness: no frost, hail only in tiny pockets, warmth without heat spikes and sufficient rain. This spelled fast-advancing ripeness and an early harvest, which was punctuated by rain for some. The resulting wines are fruit-laden and opulent, but beautifully contoured because acids remained stable. Lovers of sweet wines will find alluring higher Riesling Prädikate in 2025, while the 2024 Pinot Noirs drive home that Germany can and does excel with Spätburgunder.
Vatan Sancerre Clos La Néore: 2005-2022
France: Loire, Verticals & Retrospectives, featured
, Aug 2026
Mention Clos La Néore and oenophiles’ ears immediately perk up. One of the world’s rarest and most distinctive whites, Clos La Néore represents the pinnacle of artisan farming and winemaking. This vertical spanning thirteen vintages back to 2005 showed Clos La Néore in many facets, from wines driven by steely minerality to those marked by textural richness and weight. With one or two exceptions, the wines were superb.
Sancerre: An Undulating Landscape
France: Loire, featured
, Aug 2026
The only thing that growers in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé can rely upon seems to be unpredictability. There is no longer such a thing as a normal growing season. Two thousand twenty-five marked yet another set of contrasting conditions to the past two vintages, creating a vastly different style of wines from those of previous years.