Wine Terroirs

When you think of Greece, images of sun‑kissed landscapes, crystal‑clear turquoise waters and small but perfectly-formed whitewashed houses come to mind. The country is invariably on people's bucket list of places to visit at least once in a lifetime. Once there, it doesn't disappoint — in fact, it over-delivers, surpassing any images in the mind's eye or snapshots. It also offers delicious wines across the colour spectrum and styles on a par with the views. Last but not least are the people – with their innately extrovert personalities – who produce and serve the wines.

White wines from southern France have secured their place in every well-curated portfolio. Fuelled by growing demand for freshness, balance and authenticity, they continue to attract consumers well beyond their home regions. We explore this momentum through the lens of seven estates in Languedoc and Corsica.

The irony of our time is that we believe it's us who are evolving – integrating AI, refining systems, improving what exists. Yet nature's intelligence runs deeper, and the vine has been perfecting survival far longer than we've been trying to improve it.

There are places where geography becomes destiny. The Andes, a 7,000-kilometre backbone still in motion, is one of them. East and west alike, it conditions, sculpts, and sometimes decides everything. The Cordillera of the Andes forges, constraint by constraint, two of the most singular wine regions in the world.

In the mind’s eye, they are pale-hued, dry and fruity. But in actual fact, they come in multiple iterations. Over less than 100 kilometres, the soil types are totally different with pockets of purple rhyolite, bluish schist or clay-limestone marl dotted across the region. This diversity forms an archipelago of terroirs which do not produce a single rosé but many different rosés.

The world’s fourth most planted grape variety, Merlot is also the most widely grown red varietal in France, where its footprint covers nearly 100,000 hectares. Prized for the roundness it instils in wine, both in blends and as a single varietal, it is nevertheless raising concerns. Could climate change and new industry issues jeopardise its future?