As one of our most geographically diverse offers, you’ll get a chance at wine from Old World terroirs like Bordeaux and Priorat and New World terroirs such as Mendoza, Napa, Sonoma, Stellenbosch, and Barossa Valley.
Dividing the New World from the Old World very roughly is the approach to the wines. Old World wines tend to be lighter-bodied, lower in alcohol, and show more earth-driven notes. New World wines are far more boisterous. Fuller-bodied, higher in alcohol, they are a party on the palate.
But the New World is pretty broad, no? Mendoza (Argentina), Stellenbosch (South Africa), and Barossa Valley (Australia) are in a completely different hemisphere than their Napa and Sonoma cousins! So what divides them?
The most obvious is that Northern and Southern hemisphere harvest times are different! While in the United States we associate the wine harvest with August - November, in the Southern Hemisphere harvest is February - April. They’re harvesting right now! So their vintages are nearly 6 months older than their Northern Hemisphere counterparts. In fact, 2023 wines from the Southern Hemisphere could hit the shelves before the Northern harvest has even occurred.
The biggest distinction though comes from the age of the oenological techniques. These regions are relatively new in the overall history of making wines. Makers and farmers embrace new and exciting techniques with the joy of being unencumbered by tradition. While there is work being done to determine if the higher quantity of UV rays in the Southern Hemisphere and the unique tradewinds of the southern oceans affect the wine there hasn’t yet been a definitive definition of how the two hemispheres may differ on these two points.
So get your worldwide tour of great bold reds on! Who knows? You might just find a new favorite!
|