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IT Living Wines · The Library
Wine Knowledge
You understand wine when you know the connections: why Riesling from blue slate tastes different to that from red, what makes a vintage great, when a bottle is ready. Here we gather our wine knowledge from daily work with biodynamic estates across Europe.
Every article is independently researched and cites its sources, from the soil through the cellar to the question of which wine belongs with which dish.
Terroir & Soils
Before anything at all is decided in the cellar, the soil has long since spoken: four deep core samples.
Wine from Slate: Red, Grey, Blue
This foliated rock forces roots metres deep into the stone and stores the day’s sunshine. How to taste its colours in the glass.
ReadLlicorella & Co: Europe’s Slate Wines
Black slate in Priorat, iron in Bierzo, steep terraces in the Douro: the southern, red side of this great soil.
ReadTerroir of Priorat & Montsant: Core and Ring
Llicorella at the centre, sand, gypsum and limestone in the ring around it: why a few hundred metres decide a wine’s character.
ReadTerroirs of the Rheingau
Quartzite terraces in Rüdesheim, phyllite slate in Rauenthal: the geological stroke of luck on the bend of the Rhine.
ReadRangen de Thann: The Volcano in Alsace
The southernmost Grand Cru in Alsace stands on volcanic rock, falls steeply to the south and lends its Rieslings smoke and depth.
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Vintage charts
Four regions, read year by year: weather conditions, character and drinking windows, with named sources from the Consorzio to international critics.
Piedmont
Barolo and Barbaresco year by year: weather conditions, character, drinking windows.
To the chartBrunello di Montalcino
Pure Sangiovese, with the Consorzio stars and the great tasters, open even where they contradict one another.
To the chartRhône
North and South assessed separately, from Hermitage to Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
To the chartChampagne
Why Champagne declares only selected years as vintage years, and which of them turned out great.
To the chart
Understanding Champagne
Champagne in four chapters: from the chalk soils through bottle fermentation to the final decision before the cork. Plus a comparison with Crémant, Sekt and Pét-Nat.
The Méthode Champenoise
The second fermentation takes place in exactly the bottle that later stands on your table. The entire process, step by step.
ReadDosage: from Brut Nature to Demi-Sec
The final intervention before the cork: how much sugar goes into the bottle and what it does to the style.
ReadThe 7 grape varieties of Champagne
Everyone knows Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier. The regulations permit seven, and the four forgotten ones are a story in their own right.
ReadThe terroir of Champagne
34,400 hectares at 49° north: chalk, climate and slope gradient at the very limit of viticulture.
ReadChampagne, Crémant, Sekt, Pét-Nat
Four sparkling wines compared: how the carbon dioxide gets into the bottle, how long the wine rests on its lees and where the grapes come from.
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Natural wine & biodynamics
The concepts behind our range: how our winemakers work and what ends up in your glass.
Biodynamic viticulture
The vineyard as an organism: the preparations, the rhythms and the Demeter, Biodyvin and respekt-BIODYN certifications.
ReadNatural wine
Add nothing, take nothing away: wild yeasts, unfined, unfiltered, with little or no sulphur.
ReadPét-Nat: Pétillant Naturel
Naturally sparkling, fermented to completion in the bottle: what lies behind these two tingling words.
ReadSulphur-free wines
No added sulphur at any point: the strictest interpretation and how it changes what is in your glass.
ReadAmphora wine: Qvevri, Tinaja and co.
What clay does to wine, which vessels exist and why winemakers from Georgia to the Palatinate are once again burying their ferments in the earth.
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Regions with a mind of their own
Beyond the big names: three portraits of regions that follow their own rules.
Jura: France’s most wilful region
Vin Jaune beneath its living veil of yeast, straw wine, Savagnin and a natural wine scene that draws pilgrims.
ReadTokaj: Furmint, Aszú, Eszencia
Classified in 1737, long before Bordeaux put itself in order: the art of noble rot, by no means only sweet any more.
ReadOrganic Lugana from Lake Garda
Turbiana from the southern shore of the lake: Marangona’s organic Lugana, awarded the Tre Bicchieri by Gambero Rosso.
ReadChablis: vineyard sites, styles and map
Kimmeridgian limestone, seven Grands Crus and the question of why Chablis tastes different from the rest of Burgundy. With a map of the vineyard sites.
ReadBeaujolais and Mâconnais
Gamay on granite, Chardonnay on limestone: the ten crus from Saint-Amour to Côte de Brouilly and the south of Burgundy, unfairly standing in the shadows.
ReadCôte d’Or: villages and vineyard sites
From Marsannay to Maranges: which village makes which wine, what distinguishes Village, Premier and Grand Cru, and where our producers are based.
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Reference
Two reference works for everyday use: every grape variety, every dish.
From the vineyard to the glass
Everything we write about here is part of our range: almost 3,000 wines, more than 800 of them from biodynamically certified estates.
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