Ludwig “Senior” appears to have actually retired. He came back to the winery after a lengthy absence to say hi to me, I was told. This isn’t common; often the elders stick around, if only to ensure the kids aren’t getting up to any mischief. But my old friend Ludwig is off to the rest of his life, leaving the estate in the able hands of his sons.   In a fundamental way, Hiedlers will always be Hiedlers. Their website is eloquent on that score. The question I find myself askin

Before we consider the delicious doings at Bründlmayer , a small bit of news. Joshua Dunning has written an excellent article on the history of sugar in Champagne; not only dosage, but the evolution of tastes among Champagne’s customers, and how it seems to have landed on a creed whereby any residual sugar is held in the deepest suspicion. Mr. Dunning’s piece is here: https://wordonthegrapevine.co.uk/dosage-champagne/   I’m quoted, as you’ll see, which is hardly surprising as

These days I’m preoccupied with trying to do what one puny guy can do to make wine less forbidding so that we can slow down (or even stop) the attrition of drinkers. A dialogue I had with my friend Meg Maker was published in the latest World Of Fine Wine and seemed to tickle some vagus nerve of the zeitgeist, and even engendered a bit of snark from some chap whose piece circled the drain while missing the points that Meg and I were addressing. But most of the subsequent onlin

I know I report on these quite regularly. That’s because the estate is remarkably interesting and consequential, and because they are very good about sending me samples. With this collection I’m unusually timely, as the Crus on the market are (still) the 2023s, and all the other wines were current when I visited them last April.   There are two more reasons for paying this degree of attention. One is, even with a winery as reliable as this one, the occasional flub sneaks thr