North Canterbury, New Zealand (5) Fernbank
Website: https://www.fernbank.wine/ Helen and Matt Barbour run a viticultural consultancy company (Barbour Vines) as well as some very well situated
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Author: jamiegoode
2016, looking back a decade from 2026
2016 was quite a year for me. A transition year with a lot of travel.
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Highlights: Sandrine Henriot Régnié Lachat 2022 Beaujolais, France
Sandrine Henriot purchased vines and established her own domaine in Régnié-Durette after several years working for fancy Bourgogne domaines. She
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Gallo, the world’s largest wine company, has three insanely large wineries in California
Gallo (they dropped the E&J bit in 2024) own the three largest wineries in the world. They don’t tend to
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Highlights: Sommer Blaufränkisch 2020 Leithaberg, Burgenland, Austria
Website: https://weingut-sommer.at/en I’ve been impressed with the wines from Leo Sommer in the past: https://wineanorak.com/2024/11/28/sommer-beautiful-low-intervention-wines-from-austrias-leithaberg-region/ I had this last night
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Judith Beck is making some impressive natural wines in Austria’s Burgenland
Website: https://www.weingut-beck.at/ Judith Beck farms 15 hectares of vines in Gols, in the Burgenland. Farming has been biodynamic since 2007,
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Bianka and Daniel Schmitt, making impressive natural wines in Rheinhessen, Germany
Website: https://biankaunddaniel.de/ I tasted these wines with Bianka Schmitt at the VinNatur festival in Paris, November 2025. The winery has
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Highlights: Jules Desjourneys Pouilly-Loché 2019 Bourgogne, France
I visited Fabien Duparray of Domaine Jules Desjourneys back in 2018 and loved the wines. Here’s a good one that
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Another impressive Swiss producer: Domaine de Montbenay from the Vaud
Website: https://domainedemontbenay.com/ Domaine de Montbenay is run by Paul de Watteville (pictured above), who took over from his father Maurice
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Cave Biber, making lovely wines from Switzerland’s Valais
Website: https://www.cave-biber.ch/en Cave Biber began life in 1971 when when René Mathier established his winery in the village of Salgesch
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