The birth of the ‘Super Tuscan’ is a heavily debated subject and one that is not nearly as interesting as the wines themselves. The wines were given the nickname as they fell outside the Italian classification system – made using non-indigenous grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot they were experiments that gave …
Small vineyards with small productions are commonplace in Burgundy and with the price of land increasing rapidly over the last few decades the cost of production is high. This goes some way to explaining the difficulties in finding a decent bottle of Burgundy that doesn’t cost a fortune. But this increase in land value has …
Achieving first growth status is the holy grail in Bordeaux so for two chateaux to achieve it in the same year is a rather astonishing feat. Especially as one has been the subject of a transatlantic war of words. St Emilion developed its own classification system in the 1950’s but, unlike the 1855 classification in …
Embarking upon the task of getting to know Champagne is a bit like going down a rabbit hole. It is a world of twists and turns that take you from Champagne houses, to growers, to cooperatives, to arguments over prestige and fashion, and the question of how many vintages are in each cuvée. It feels …
History Originally one estate Domaine de Leoville in St-Julien, Bordeaux became three in the 19thcentury: in 1826 Hugh Barton purchased a quarter of the estate and named it Chateau Léoville-Barton; in 1840 the remaining vineyards were divided between Pierre-Jean Las Cases, who founded Chateau Léoville-Las Cases and his sister Jeanne Las Cases whose daughter founded …
Up until the mid 1980’s the only Spanish wine that was worth drinking outside of Spain was Rioja and even then you had to tread carefully. Their exports were dominated by low quality bulk wine and their poor reputation seemed destined to remain had it not been for a seemingly well-orchestrated industry wide turnaround. Spain was suddenly producing higher …
It has been a quiet week at Nemo headquarters but this has allowed us some extra time to reflect on our current wine list. This can be a dangerous task as we invariably start on one region and find ourselves still there several hours later. However, we did think that this may not be a terrible thing and …
