Category: WSET Level 4 Wine

Napa Valley and Sonoma are close neighbours, but “California sunshine” doesn't explain their wines very well. Marine air, fog, elevation, aspe

Southern and central Portugal offer more than one version of generous fruit and sunshine. Alentejo's varied inland sites, Lisboa's Atlantic exposu

Dão and Bairrada make a useful comparison because proximity doesn't produce identical growing conditions. Mountain shelter and elevated inland pa

Vinho Verde and the Douro show how much can change within northern Portugal. Atlantic moisture helps frame one discussion; sheltered inland valley

Spain's Mediterranean and central regions make a poor candidate for a single “hot-climate wine” description. Coastal influence, elevated inlan

Castilla y León and Galicia offer a particularly useful antidote to the idea that Spanish wine comes from one hot, dry landscape. A structured Ri

Rioja and Navarra make a useful northern Spanish comparison because familiar names can conceal quite different production decisions. Tempranillo a

Italian wine laws become easier to understand when you stop asking the label to do every job. A protected name can tell you where grapes originate

Sardinia's wine story changes quite quickly when a fresh Vermentino is followed by a structured red or a white matured under flor. Those wines don

Sicily can offer a bright, fragrant red, a concentrated Nero d'Avola and a sharply defined mountain white without changing islands. The useful que