Falstaff Magazin International 01/2021

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More news Get news directly into your inbox with our newsletter. Sign up at falstaff.com/newsletter WINE PHILIPPONNAT RELEASES 2012 VINTAGE OF CLOS DES GOISSES Famed as the first ever singlevineyard Champagne, first produced in 1935, this Champagne is legendary. The Clos des Goisses is a south-facing vineyard of just 5.83ha in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, on pure chalk with little topsoil. Production is thus naturally limited. Vintages of the wine have been made every year since 1988, in very limited quantities. Just 13,296 bottles of the 2012 vintage were made. Charles Philipponnat, chairman and managing director of the house, said the 2012 vintage was “perhaps the best vintage of Champagne and of Clos des Goisses of the last 20 or 30 years, both the ripest, and of brilliant purity.” philipponnat.com ENGLAND CORAVIN OPENS WINE BAR IN LONDON Coravin, manufacturers of the pioneering wine preservation system, opened the Coravin Wine & Bubbles Bar in London’s Mayfair in November. Every wine on the list is available by the glass to showcase the Coravin technology. The rare and exclusive offer features wines from producers like Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Coche Dury, Château Petrus, Sassicaia, Vega Sicilia and Penfolds Grange. Flights of Châteaux Cheval Blanc and d’Yquem will also be available as well as fine Champagnes. Small plates of cheese and charcuterie will be served alongside. coravin.co.uk ISRAEL LARGE BYZANTINE ERA WINERY DISCOVERED Archaeologists in Israel discovered the world’s largest known Byzantine-era winery. Five presses, four large warehouses for aging wine and kilns to fire wine jugs were unearthed at Yavne, south of Tel Aviv. 10 falstaff winter 2021

NEWS We knew it had to be a Cabernet-Shiraz, it is part of our identity. JESSICA HILL-SMITH, Yalumba YALUMBA DEBUTS 2016 VINTAGE OF THE CALEY The 2016 vintage is Yalumba’s fifth release of this Cabernet-Shiraz blend. Australia’s oldest family-owned winery wanted to create “a wine to sit above everything else we do at Yalumba and that can sit alongside the famous wines of the world,” says Jessica Hill-Smith of Yalumba. yalumba.com 1821 BOTTLE OF GRAND CONSTANCE BREAKS RECORD An ancient bottle of South Africa’s most famous sweet wine, Vin de Constance, still in fine condition, was the star lot at the Strauss & Co auction in Cape Town in September, breaking the previous auction record in the country at ZAR967,300 (approx. US,670) incl. commission. straussart.co.za Photos: Yaniv Berman, Michaël BOUDOT - www.mkb.photos, Jayme Burrows, Brendan Homan, Cloudy Bay, Grand Constance, Shutterstock FRANCE ANGELINA JOLIE SELLS MIRAVAL Actress Angelina Jolie has sold her 50% share of Château Miraval, the Provençal wine estate she owned with ex-husband Brad Pitt, to wine group Tenute del Mondo who also have stakes in iconic wine brands Masseto, Ornellaia, Luce and Achaval Ferrer. Pitt will continue to be involved. miraval.com CLOUDY BAY RELEASES 2021 VINTAGE It was the wine that changed New Zealand’s fortunes when it burst on the scene in 1985: full of vibrant freshness and tropical notes – a Sauvignon Blanc like the world had never seen. Cloudy Bay’s technical director Jim White noted that the reduced yields of 2021 – 30 percent less Sauvignon Blanc at Cloudy Bay compared to 2020 – a result of poor fruit set after a difficult flowering, led to very concentrated grapes. He noted both the texture and concentration of the Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2021 vintage was exceptional. cloudybay.co.nz NEW OZ CLARKE WINE BOOK OUT Oz Clarke On Wine, published by the Académie du Vin Library in September 2021, is a fully revised version of Red & White published in 2018. Touted as Clarke’s “most personal book to date,” it begins with autobiographical chapters before discussing grape varieties and wine regions in the author’s famously opinionated, irreverent and witty style. academyduvinlibrary.com HISTORICALLY LOW WINE HARVEST IN EUROPE FOR 2021 European farmer organisations and cooperatives are forecasting a significantly lower and shorter harvest in 2021/2022 due to challenging weather conditions across Europe. Wine production in the three major producing countries – Italy, France and Spain – is estimated to be around 117.3 million hectolitres, an 18 percent drop from 2020. Spring frosts, hail, droughts, flooding and mildew caused the drop in yield, agricultural agency Copa Cogeca reported. copa-cogeca.eu winter 2021 falstaff 11