Pedro Ballesteros MW

Georgia proudly claims to be the cradle of wine. There is archaeological evidence that wine was being made there 8,000 years ago. It was a pioneer country, although little did this help it for many centuries. Caucasus is a land of invasions. Scythians, Persians, Romans,...
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Until very recently, Wine and Ecuador were, to my mind, two fine yet mutually exclusive concepts. Like most people, I associate wine with French, Italian and Spanish landscapes, where the seasons are identified by their temperature, and not by the presence or absence of rain,...
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Few people would associate Andorra with wine. And yet, it would seem more than natural that the Principality would produce wine, if you consider some of the conditions for quality wine production. First of all there is the latitude. Andorra is famous for its snow and cold,...
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The Amalfi Coast is a World Heritage Site.   It is an outstanding example of a Mediterranean landscape, one of exceptional cultural and natural value and a rare example of a place where the human hand has embellished nature. The Amalfi Coast is also a landscape fit for great...
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Nature can cause entire civilizations to vanish. One of the rare examples of the sudden end of a society to be recorded is that of the Minoan people. In 1650 BC the greater part of the island of Santorini disappeared in a tremendous volcanic explosion. The tidal wave which...
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Who hasn’t read and heard the stories, true stories yet still magical, of the great classic terroirs? Those almost miraculous combinations of special soils, climate and grape varieties that amaze us, and often  have us thinking about the good fortune of those who came across...
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We all know Belgium for its amazing variety of quality beers, ranging from the classic beers claiming a fine heritage to the big, well known brands, as well as many innovative beers, the result of the unique capacity of the Belgians to continuously invent new beers. Less well...
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Great wine is the result ofthe terroir. Human beings are powerless in the face of nature. If there is not a range of climatic conditions and very particular soils, which by luck or divine providence are particularly plentiful in France and, to a lesser extent, in other classical...
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We tend to associate Sicily with images of Mediterranean light, beautiful beaches and historical monuments, but not necessarily with wine.  In Spain it is particularly difficult to find good Sicilian wines, while in North European countries most Sicilian wines are displayed at the bottom of supermarket shelves. Tourism helps little because the...
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