Exploring the Friuli wines and the Adriatic Sea with author Paul Balke

Join us in this captivating episode as we venture into the heart of Penedés, Spain, a region renowned for its contribution to the world of sparkling wine, particularly Cava. Our special guest, Pepe Raventós, scion of the esteemed Raventós family, takes us on a journey through the picturesque vineyards that have been integral to the family's legacy in winemaking.Family Heritage:- Pepe shares insights into the rich history of the Raventós family and their longstanding connection with the Penedés region. Learn about the traditions that have been passed down through generations, shaping the family's approach to winemaking.Cava Origins:- Delve into the fascinating tale of how Pepe's family played a pivotal role in formalizing the recipe for Cava, Spain's iconic sparkling wine. Discover the meticulous methods employed to craft this effervescent elixir and the significance of Penedés' terroir in its production.Terroir Talk:- Explore the unique terroir of Penedés and its impact on the flavor profile of the wines produced in the region. Pepe discusses the interplay of soil, climate, and grape varieties that contribute to the distinctive character of Penedés wines, particularly Cava.Sustainable Practices:Gain insights into the Raventós family's commitment to sustainability in winemaking. Pepe sheds light on their eco-friendly practices, emphasizing the importance of preserving the natural balance of the vineyards.Innovations and Future Trends:- Pepe shares his thoughts on the evolving landscape of the wine industry and the innovative approaches embraced by the Raventós i Blanc winery. Learn about their experiments with different grape varieties and winemaking techniques to create wines that captivate the modern palate.Tasting Notes:- Experience the sensory journey as Pepe guides us through a virtual tasting of some exceptional wines from Raventós i Blanc. From crisp and refreshing Cavas to nuanced still wines, discover the diverse expressions that emanate from Penedés.Life Beyond Wine:- Beyond the vineyards, Pepe opens up about life in Penedés, sharing anecdotes about the local culture, gastronomy, and the unique charm of this Spanish wine region.Whether you're an avid oenophile or simply curious about the world of Cava and Penedés, this episode promises to be an engaging exploration of history, tradition, and the dynamic evolution of winemaking in one of Spain's most celebrated wine regions. Tune in and let Pepe Raventós be your guide to the enchanting world of Penedés wines. ¡Salud!

Entering the world of wine as a career path can be as challenging as it is rewarding. It's a realm where passion meets precision, where tasting, talking, and writing about wine is not just a job but a lifelong journey.To shed light on this fascinating but demanding field, we recently had the privilege of hosting a guest who knows the wine industry inside out a prestigious wine magazine editor from Decanter Amy Wislocki.Her insights are invaluable for those seeking a path in the world of wine.The Complex Landscape of Wine Careers:The wine industry is not just about sipping exquisite vintages; it's a multifaceted world encompassing viticulture, winemaking, marketing, journalism, and more. Finding one's place in this vast terrain can be daunting. The competition is fierce, and building a successful career often requires dedication, perseverance, and a deep love for wineEnd don't forget to pick up a copy of the latest Decanter Magazine and to check out their digital website here: https://www.decanter.com/

The #huntervalley Zone is around 200km north of #Sydney. It contains one o Australia’s oldest, simply called Hunter which, with plantings exceeding 2,300 ha, covers a slightly smaller area than the Hunter Valley Zone but the region is also often split, unofficially, into Lower Hunter and Upper Hunter. Lower Hunter is closer to the coast and benefits from some sea breezes, which means it is slightly cooler than the Upper Hunter. The landscape is made up of undulating hills at relatively low altitudes. Soils range from sandy loams to clay loams, often over a clay baseSemillon was first planted here in the 1830s. Hunter Valley Semillons are renowned for their ability to improve with age. The better examples develop in bottle for more than 15 years.In the theme of long maturation, we are exploring today the hunter valley with Mount Pleasant, that have been keeping alive their heritage vineyard from 1880, I connected to the @MountPleasant thanks to the work of the Old Vine Conference and is thanks to them that I managed to connect to Mount Pleasant. Maurice O’Shea’s established Mount Pleasant as the only top-quality wine in Australia and inspired the likes of Penfold’s Max Schubert, Hunter Valley legend Max Lake and countless others who would go on to make Australian wine what we recognize today. With the help of my guest we explore the region unique growing condition, how is like to work with 100 plus vines and how hunter valley climate affect the style of the wines produce. If you are enjoying the show remember to subscribe and to share the show!Find More information on the winery here:https://www.mountpleasantwines.com.au/About the region:https://www.winecountry.com.au/About The Old Vine Conferencehttps://www.oldvines.org/

An underdiscussed and under-appreciated part of the wine journey from the cellar to the end consumer is its storage which often is the cause of wines mature too quickly, losing freshness and downright oxidise.Storing wines in ideal conditions of 12 to 13 degrees with high levels of humidity constant year-round for a long time is not as easy as it may seem, Octavian Wine Services has done just that for the past 30 years.Logistically fine wine storing comes with more difficulties than one may think, Recognising the need to drive quality and have the most rigorous stock management processes possible, Octavian took the strategic decision to invest heavily in the development of its stock control function.Wine labels and packaging were never designed for stock management, so subtle discrepancies over the vintage or the chateaux are inevitable. Accuracy is vital and each case is treated equally,” she explains.As Vincent explains, for most of the lifecycle of a wine the storage facility is closer to the wines than their owners, trackability services, photos and visits are part of the services that Octavian provides to their customers

What are the many wine flavours found in the various wine aromas wheels with descriptions such as strawberries, apple and vanilla? So, when you smell wine, the alcohol volatilises and carries these lighter-than-air aroma compounds into your nose. Each wine can contain hundreds of different aroma compounds and each compound can affect the flavour of a wine. From a chemical perspective, flavours are the manifestation of compounds that are released at different stages during the wine life cycle. When we smell these compounds, a stimulus is transmitted to our brain that compares it to a “memory” of known sensations – eventually conjuring a final impression.Being fascinated by science and empirical research, in this episode, I spoke to Sietze Wijma a MSc Sensory Science graduate and founder of the art of tasting who will walk us through some of the major flavours compounds, their names and chemistry, explaining how they come about and some of the faults in wines and what are the key compound that one should know.Specific anosmia of flavour compounds Specific anosmia (smell-blindness) is the phenomenon where a person is unable to detect a specific flavour compound, where they otherwise have an intact sense of smell. For example, 30% of the population is unable to detect rotundone (black pepper-like aroma). β-ionone (violet-like aroma) has a 50% specific anosmia rate. Isoamyl acetate (banana-like aroma) has a <1% specific anosmia rate. This has implication for wine tasting. Here is Sietze website The art of Tasting: https://artoftasting.nl/And some further information about flavours compounds and other items related to the topic: https://www.jancisrobinson.com/learn/vocabulary/aromas https://www.decanter.com/learn/understanding-wine-aromas-329940/ https://winefolly.com/tips/wine-aroma-wheel-100-flavors/ Remember to Subscribe!!!

For more than 350 years, the cultures of Africa, Europe and the East have mingled in Cape Town, the gateway to the South African Winelands, a city rich in colourful history and culturally vibrant. It was here that Nelson Mandela, in 1990, took his historic walk to freedom.Today South Africa, a country of enormous diversity, is a peaceful democracy, home to the 'rainbow nation' From the very beginning, nearly 400 years ago, winemaking in South Africa has been on a zigzag course, pulled one way by considerable promise, and pushed in other ways by incompetence, self-interest, and a brutally opaque bureaucracy, to the point where, even now, it still seems to be reinventing itself.At least, and at last, it seems to be on a more enlightened path, on matters of politics—always a strong factor there—and wine, though not without a variety of hazards, many serious. As my guest today Jim Clarke, author of the book The wines of South Africa notes, “there is an entire story of winemaking and wine growing to be told.” His aim is to provide context and wide-reaching information for appreciating South African wines, and he achieves that with ease and clarity In this conversation, we covered the post-1994 movement, why Chenin Blanc is so popular in South Africa, what is the cape doctor and why is it vital to South Africa wine. The Cape Doctor is a south-easterly wind during spring and summer and extends the impact of the Benguela current. It also has the advantage of inhibiting disease and bringing some occasional rain to the South Coast. It can, however damage leaves, thus affecting photosynthesis and ripeness, and severely affect the flowering process and berry set, reducing yields. Remember to subscribe!Here are some links to learn more about the book and South Africa Wines: https://infiniteideas.directfrompublisher.com/catalog/book/wines-south-africahttps://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-south+africahttps://www.wosa.co.za/home/

Skin contact, maceration pelliculaire in french, winemaking operation with the aim of extracting flavour compounds, flavor precursors, and anthocyanins from grape skins into grape juice or wine partly inspired by the likes of gravner in friuli, and traditional winemaking techniques in georgi , winemakers have been experimenting with fermentation and ageing in modern copies of amphorae, made from clay or, occasionally, concrete the term ‘orange wine’ was credited to david harvey of uk wine importer raeburn fine wines back in 2004.He wrote: “the quest for a name arose from my concern that there was no name, let alone category for these wines, which are visually, aromatically and structurally divergent from white wines, and would therefore risk rejection in both the on- and off-trade.” During this final stage, the skin and stems slowly float to the bottom of the qvevri in a natural process of filtration.Bitarishvilli then pumps the clear orange wine into smaller qvevries for storage and aging. The winemaker says: “longer maceration means many different ingredients go from the skin into the wine - phenols, and tannins. These work like natural conservants so we have a stable wine. We don’t need to use sulfur - or just a little bit.”In 1995, radikon switched his entire production of ribolla gialla to seven-day skin contact - and lost many customers as a result. It took years to painstakingly rebuild the business but his family’s orange wines are now considered to be among the very best in the world. With today’s guest simon woolf author of the book amber wines we explore the history of the style and how it traveled the world, what considerations need to be taken when producing amber wines, and the recent classifications of amber wines. If you are enjoying the podcast remember to subscribe and leave a comment we love to hear your ideas for future episodes! Here are the links to some of further reading about the topics and Simon Woolf Book – Please consider buy a copy as it is a fantasist book! Https://amber-revolution.com/#:~:text=Amber%20Revolution%20is%20the%20rags%20to%20riches%20story,half%20a%20century%20later%20amidst%20controversy%20and%20misunderstanding. Https://felixir.com.au/what-is-amber-wine/ Https://www.awri.com.au/industry_support/winemaking_resources/winemaking-practices/winemaking-treatment-amber-wine/ Https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/you-say-orange-wines-the-georgians-say-amber-heres-what-they-all-have-in-common/2018/10/05/9a707aae-c805-11e8-b1ed-1d2d65b86d0c_story.html

In the second episode dedicated to Cotes du Rhone’s, we explore the sustainability program and the research that is taking place, other geeky episode just what we like! Inter Rhône has three main missions: economic support, promotion of the appellations, and technical support. The latter is embodied by the ‘Institut Rhodanien’, where all our Research & Development is being carried I spoke to Julie Coutton, Intern Rhone, public relations manager to discover what research is taking place in the region.Wine sustainability refers to a range of vineyard and wine production practices that are ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially responsible. Sustainable farmers may be certified (organic or biodynamic) or non-certified. Every vineyard site is different to get the best results in the bottle. Producers make decisions around certification based on how best to make their wine given the soil, climate and surroundings. Converting a site to fully organic and biodynamic also needs to be done in stages over time so the land gets used to new practices. We talked with Julie about how the region is looking to mitigate the stress from drought, a tool for estimating water stress in the vineyard is the apex method. Based on the observation of the end of the branches, it is a simple method, which characterizes a growth dynamic, itself linked to the water constraint of the vine. It is to be carried out regularly, on a weekly basis.Extensive research into new varieties is being conducted at the ‘Institut Rhodanien.’ Recently, four varieties have been accepted for experimental authorisation for Côtes du Rhône AOC due to their “adaptation to drought and late maturity.” These are white hybrid Floréal, Rolle (Vermentino), indigenous Carignan Blanc, and red hybrid Vidoc. Other, topics that were part of the conversation are the study of sites and rootstock research, and winemaking practices to be more energy efficient. Intern Rhone holds talks and seminar for its member ensuring that they are always up to date to their scientific research Remember to subscribe and leave a review if you find this episode valuable to you! Reach us on –Instagram Mattia.lookingintowineTwitter Mattia ScarpazzaMail [email protected]

In this episode, I spoke to Matt Walls author of the book The wines of Rhone about the Southern Rhone with a focus on the Cote du Rhone.To best understand the appellation system is a pyramid with three distinctive stages for the Cotes du Rhone - Cote du Rhone, Cote Du Rhone Village, cotes du Rhone Named village and then the Cru see picture here:https://boutinot-rhone.com/news?start=18With Matt we talked about how to best understand the terroirs of the Southern Rhone, as there are so many of them, it says that it is best to divide the region into three parts based on their geological period, but it has always been difficult for me to remember the various parts but this has helped immensely.We also talked about varieties that are taking afoot in the region in the last few years and their use in the blend, Cotes du Rhone is always a blend!I'm always being curious about the fluidity of the appellation with villages rising to the top of the Cotes du Rhone appellation and then becoming Crus in their own right - Mat has described the process and announced a new (23rd) village that is going to be announced next year!Here is the list of all the VillagesChusclan, Gadagne, Laudun, Massif d'Uchaux, Nyons, Plan de Dieu, Puymeras, Roaix, Rochegude, Rousset, Sablet, Saint-Andeol, Saint-Gervais, Saint-Maurice, Saint-Pantaleon, Sainte-Cecile, Seguret, Signargues, Suze-la-Rousse, Vaison-la-Romaine, Valreas, VisanSome other useful links on the topic https://www.cotesdurhone.com/en/https://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-cotes+du+rhonehttps://www.wine-uncovered.com/rhone-info/appellations/cotes-du-rhone-villages/https://www.mattwalls.co.uk/region/rhone/Reach us on –Instagram Mattia.lookingintowineTwitter Mattia ScarpazzaMail [email protected]

Alentejo the largest wine region of Portugal, is also one of the hottest wine region in the world with many sumer days above 40 degrees and is also one of the at most risk to climate change. The region has long known about this risks and formed an association dedicated to its sustanabily and future proofing called Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme (WASP)The nine members of the Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme (WASP) that have received their sustainable production certificates have been working on a diverse range of projects to improve the environmental, economic, and social sustainability of their businesses. Those projects extend across both their vineyards and their wineries, and also include work in their local communitiesAlentejo covers approximately a third of the country and is best known for its red wine, the best of which are sold under the and Alentejo DOC (Denominacao de Origem Controlada) title.Wine from Alentejo is typically made from Aragonez (Tempranillo), Castelao, Trincadeira or a rich, ripe, jammy blend of the three. Antao Vaz is the white variety of choice here, producing a good level of acidity and tropical fruit flavors.Nick Breez my guests is a climate Journalist and cofounder of the Cambridge Climate Lecture Series (CCLS)Nick is a climate communicator writing and producing filmed interviews with over 200 experts in the field of climate change. He contributes regularly to The Ecologist and envisionation.co.uk. In 2016 he cofounded the Cambridge Climate Lecture Series with Dr Hugh Hunt and Dr Tony Eva (www.climateseries.com) which, in 2018 was screened in over 15 locations globally, and features speakers at the forefront of action on climate change.Nick is also a wine and blockchain journalist linking both topics to impacts from climate change.Some other useful links on the topic https://secretsommelier.com/alentejo-wine https://sustentabilidade.vinhosdoalentejo.pt/en/wines-of-alentejo-sustainability-programmehttps://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-alentejo Reach us on:Instagram Mattia.lookingintowine Twitter Mattia Scarpazza Mail [email protected]