Wine News Archives

The City of Vienna is the World’s Largest Urban Vineyard

Vienna, the capital of Austria is the world’s largest wine-producing city.

Here are some facts. Vienna has 700 hectares of vineyards, with over 276 producers. The vintners produce within the city limits, in the areas around Kahlenberg, Nussberg, Bisamberg, and Mauer, where the Danube and proximity of the Vienna Woods provides optimal climatic conditions.

Wine Heritage

Wine production is a long-established tradition in Vienna which dates back to the 12th century. Austria’s signature grape is the Grüner Veltliner, a white wine variety that ripens in mid to late October, and accounts for over a quarter of the wine produced in Vienna.

Wine Culture

Some of the best places to taste and explore Viennese wines is in ‘heurigers’ or taverns. Heuriger mean, in EN, a cosy tavern where local winemakers showcase and serve their wines. This is still a big part of Viennese city life. Vienna has over 100 heurigers scattered around the city centre. Since 2019, Viennese heuriger culture has been considered an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.

Presently Vienna’s bars and restaurants are a big part of this lively wine scene as Vienna’s creative new generation winemakers bring a contemporary twist to its ‘heuriger’ heritage. New bars rub shoulders with the ancient craft and pair the wine with locally produced food.

Vienna’s wine renaissance and the revival of this farm-to-table lifestyle make it “ A must visit destination!”

Vienna’s Wine Hiking Day

Vienna Wine Hiking Day is held each year in the fall when locals and visitors explore the urban vineyards by four different wine trails or hiking routes. At many points along the way, the Viennese vintners offer tastings from cellar and kitchen.

Tickets can be booked online for 2022

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2021 MW Exam Questions and Wines Revealed

The Institute of Masters of Wine has just published the questions from the 2021 MW exam, including the list of wines for the practical (tasting) part of the exam.

The complete list of wines can be found here: https://www.mastersofwine.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IMW-MW-Exam-2021.pdf The list also shows the questions from the theory component of the MW exam.

From August 31 to September 3 106 students sat the theory and practical exams in Adelaide, Helsinki, London, Malaga, Napa, Ontario and Singapore. The exam, usually held in June each year, was postponed to September due to the pandemic.

The practical and theory exams form the second stage of the MW study programme. Over four days students had three 12-wine blind practical papers and five theory papers on the subjects of viticulture; vinification and pre-bottling procedures; handling of wines; the business of wine; and contemporary issues.

Those who successfully pass the stage two theory and practical exams will progress to stage three, the research paper, the final stage of the MW study programme.

The first step is the stage one assessment, a one-day exam comprising a 12-wine blind tasting exam in the morning and a theory exam in the afternoon. One hundred and twenty-eight students sat the stage one assessment, which this year was held online on 4 August. Students can only progress to stage two of the MW study programme by successfully passing this assessment.

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Virgin Atlantic Airline Launches “Social Drinking Booth”

Virgin Atlantic has launched a social drinking space ‘The Booth’ on its latest A350 aircraft.

“The Booth’ will be “a cosy corner, providing comfy lounge style seating”. It will also feature two 27” touch screen monitors, and two Bluetooth audio jacks.

“We’re famous for our on-board social spaces and the introduction of The Booth elevates the customer proposition for our leisure travellers to new heights,” said Corneel Koster, Virgin Atlantic’s chief customer and operations officer.

“I’m delighted that we’ve curated The Booth specifically for our customers jetting off on holiday to our sunny destinations, such as Orlando, offering a truly stylish start to their trips,” Koster has added.

According to Virgin Atlantic, ‘The Booth’ has been “designed with beautiful, tactile finishes, including Scottish leather seats and a pressed wool effect table. It’s a luxurious spot just for two, to enjoy anything from a wine tasting experience, to a romantic dinner, a nightcap, or just a change of scene.”

People travelling between Heathrow and Orlando will be the first to experience ‘The Booth’ as a social drinking space with the first flight currently scheduled for December 2021.

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The Wine Scholar Guild launches a new sensory wine project

The Wine Scholar Guild (WSG) has unveiled a new way to assess wine that takes a deep dive into “personality,” and “terroir signature” of wine using sensory language and neuroscience.

The WSG initiative, entitled The Architecture of Taste Research Project (ATRP), involves non-traditional methods of assessment including universal criteria such as sensory perception, perceived energy and emotions to evaluate wine.

The Project Leader Julien Camus and his team took into account how language formats individual thought and collective culture and noted how olfactory notes may speak more about the genetic background, the experience and the culture of a person applying them than about a specific molecule within the wine itself.

“We need to pay more attention to the global intuitive signals our bodies give us. If we put our sole focus on wine’s structural components, we may miss the bigger message,” said WSG president, founder, and leader of the Architecture of Taste research project Julien Camus.

“Our current research is very encouraging. When using our assessment grid, certain sets of descriptors correspond to certain terroirs. There are patterns that are statistically significant,” added Camus.

The oenological research’s next phase of the study will involve sensory analysis experiments, blind-panel tastings, statistical analyses, and an expanded set of assessment criteria to encompass salinity, bitterness, umami and minerality – each within the context of how the body responds to stimuli.

The WSG has put together a multi-disciplinary, advisory committee of professionals to oversee the ATRP. Members of the committee include: Gabriel Lepousez, neuroscientist; Benoît Marsan, wine chemist; Marc-André Selosse, botanist and mycologist; Thibault Boulay, historian and vigneron; Clémence Corbière, historian and sommelière; Pascaline Lepeltier MOF, restaurateur and wine writer; Andrew Jefford, journalist and author; and Lisa M. Airey, CWE, wine educator.

The first large-scale panel tasting using the WSG’s new ATRP tasting grid will take place in Alsace sometime this month (September 2021).

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Italian Grape Prices Are Now Listed Online

The Unione Italiano Vini (UIV), in collaboration with the Association of Wine Commissaries (MEd.&A.), has set up an online service showing trends in grape pricing. Just in time for the harvest season, the Osservatorio provides daily average quotations for 15 key grape varieties (in English and Italian).

This information is available via a free trial, but the paid subscription offers a much broader range of data including weekly prices for 450 varieties of wine and must, stretching back over a decade, as well as information on global trends.

Website:

https://www.osservatoriodelvino.it/uve/medea

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