The Week in Wine Episode 30

The Hawke's Bay harvest is looking excellent (so far!), while Don is disappointed by a recent Mondavi Cabernet and Olly regrets a lager. The biggest story of the last seven days is that of California's much-reduced grape harvest while our Most Wanted Rieslings list also enjoyed the attention of our readers. Don waxes lyrical about Margaret Rand's piece on Pingus winemaker Peter Sisseck going into Sherry while the biggest news from the end of last week was clearly the passing of Bordeaux blending genius, Michel Rolland. Meanwhile, AP covers the shocking decline of Argentinian wine consumption and Château Pique-Caillou, with a new owner (a textile magnate who is also the director of the local rugby team) and plans for extensive renovation, is tipped to enter the positive babble among wine critics at Bordeaux's En Primeur within the next few years. We look at IGT Toscana allowing Méthode Traditionnelle and Charmat sparkling wines for the first time while grumblings around crisis distillation and grubbing-up continue in Bordeaux. Organic wine estates continue to fall in number in the Beaujolais; Le Figaro profiles two artists who paint with wine; and the ongoing debate over how to label wine made in Israeli settlements spillls over into Canada. Our listener gets in touch and Don is tantalisingly reticent about the wine stories on their way this week.