TMG Blog

Whole grape clusters with stems intact filling an open wooden fermentation vat, pale stalks among the dark berries — Whole bunches alter red Burgundy
Burgundy

Louis Latour and what whole bunches do to red Burgundy

Pour a red Burgundy into a glass and hold it over a white tablecloth. You...
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A negociant cellar holding mixed oak barrels from different vineyards stacked together, chalk marks faint on each end — Ownership is not the whole story
Burgundy

Louis Jadot and whether owning the vineyard matters

There is a question people learn to ask about wine early, and then ask for...
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A glass filled two thirds with red wine beside a kitchen clock reading an evening hour on a plain weekday table — Buy this for Saturday not 2040
Bordeaux

L'Evangile, Pomerol, and buying for Saturday not 2040

The single most reliable statistic in the wine trade is also the least discussed: the...
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Dark red grape skins steeping in pale juice inside a glass vat, rose tint spreading slowly under cool cellar light — Rose Champagne the harder way
Champagne

Laurent-Perrier and the harder way to make rose Champagne

There are two ways to make a pink Champagne, and they are not two versions...
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Two decanters of differing wine colour on a stone sill, one noticeably paler, Margaux vine rows blurred beyond — A second wine is not leftover
Bordeaux

Lascombes and what a second wine is really made of

A second wine usually gets explained as whatever the estate could not put in the...
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New steel fermentation tanks standing beside an old stone chateau wall, scaffolding shadow falling across vine rows — Lagrange is an estate rebuilt
Bordeaux

Chateau Lagrange and the estate that was rebuilt

Every serious Bordeaux estate throws wine away. Not literally — it sells it, under a...
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Two glasses of red wine with differing garnet hues side by side on pale stone, hazy hills silhouetted behind — Nine kilometres, two styles
Italy

La Spinetta, Barolo and Barbaresco nine kilometres apart

Two wines from villages nine kilometres apart, made from the same grape, aged in similar...
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Stacked American oak barrels lining a dim bodega corridor, chalk vintage marks faint on the barrel ends — Reserva years are not a rank
Producer Guide

La Rioja Alta and what those Reserva years really mean

Three bottles sit on a shelf. One says Crianza, one says Reserva, one says Gran...
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A mound of pale round gravel stones resting on dark earth, river mist beyond a bare wooden vine trellis — Gravel marks the southern Medoc
Bordeaux

La Lagune and the gravel at the southern end of the Medoc

For most of its history the strip of land now producing the most expensive Cabernet...
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Crushed gravel and clay soil beside a single wilting rose stem, Margaux vine rows blurring into distant mist — Soil explains perfumed Margaux
Bordeaux

Chateau Kirwan and the soil behind perfumed Margaux

Wine writing describes Margaux as perfumed and Pauillac as powerful. The words are so worn...
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A row of unlabelled wine bottles on a stone shelf above a pale chalky soil sample in low afternoon light — Too many Colins share one name
Burgundy

Joseph Colin and the Chassagne surname problem

You are looking at a wine list in Central and there are three white Burgundies...
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A handful of grapes filling a small wicker basket beside a modest hand press, a single vine row fading into fog — Small houses have real limits
Champagne

Jeeper and what a small Champagne house can and cannot do

Two producers make Champagne from the same slope in the same year. One of them...
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Recent Post

Macallan TIME : SPACE Sherry Cask and Mastery
Glass Notes
Glass Notes: Macallan's yellow case is out. Why is the red one selling for half? 黃盒上市，紅盒點解跌咗一半？
Neat rows of dark oak whisky casks stacked beneath a wooden warehouse roof, a single dram glass resting on a barrel head — One distillery, its own casks
Producer Guide
Yamazaki and why Japanese distilleries do not swap casks
Fossil flecked grey limestone fragments with tiny oyster shell imprints scattered on dark soil beside a pale tinted glass of white wine — Kimmeridgian rock shapes Chablis
Burgundy
William Fevre, Chablis and what Kimmeridgian rock does