Wine is the subject. Vintage is the dimension of time.
Regions
Place-driven reporting from the world's serious wine regions. Vineyards, appellations, farming and terroir.
The Nine Lakes of East Tennessee AVA took effect on 23 April 2026, one of the largest American Viticultural Areas ever established. The federal decision sets the legal terms for a region better known for its lakes than its vineyards.
Since 2021, Bordeaux has allowed six climate-adaptation varieties into its blends, capped at 10 percent of the wine and banned from the label. The ten-year experiment tests whether the region can adapt its vineyards without rewriting its identity.
Final figures put the 2025 harvest at 7.55 million hectolitres, 2.6 percent below 2024. The crop was smaller, but the share of quality wine nearly doubled as growers selected ruthlessly after September rains.
The Consejo Regulador's panel tasted 2,176 samples before awarding the 2025 harvest the top rating, crowning Rioja's centenary year. Yet first-quarter sales fell 6.4 percent, with Gran Reserva down 35 percent.
On Napa Valley's western and eastern ridgelines, two mountain appellations with very different histories carried the same questions into 2025: whether a cool summer would ripen evenly, and how far the Pickett Fire's smoke would reach.
Drought, heatwaves and a shrinking vineyard area point to about 34 million hectolitres as Paris announces a €1 billion aid plan and a second mass uprooting scheme.
Burgundy shipped 19.1 million bottles to the United States in the twelve months through July, down 9.8 percent by volume and 21.2 percent by value, according to the Bourgogne Wine Board. Global exports rose in volume even as their value slipped.
