Author: Jacky I.F. Cheong
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The Valley of Mistral
After the prolific Languedoc-Roussillon and mighty Bordeaux, Vallée du Rhône (Rhône Valley) is by volume the third largest wine-producing region of France. Often overshadowed by the ... -
The Carpathian Linden
Situated in the centre of the Carpathian Basin and surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains, Hungary covers some 93,000 sq km and has a population of just ... -
The Gin Lane
Absinthe is well-known for its association with unruly bohemianism in 19th century France, but when it comes to social unrest, no other drinks surpass gin in ... -
The Grand Duchy
With a population of ca. 560,000 and covering just under 2,600 sq km, Luxembourg – officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg – is the 7th smallest ... -
The Other Cabernet
Whether in life or in wine, it is never easy to be living under the shadow of an illustrious relative. Due to the dominance of Cabernet ... -
The Western Kingdom
Situated in the northwestern edge of Africa, the Kingdom of Morocco is the only constitutional monarchy in the Maghreb. Unlike other countries – Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia ... -
The Quintessence of Japan IV
(Continued from “The Quintessence of Japan III” on 4 March 2016) Although independently conceived, Japanese sake classification and German wine classification bear an uncanny resemblance to ... -
The Gin Exclave
Situated in northwestern South America, Colombia covers some 1.15 million sq km (roughly as large as France and Spain combined) and has a population of about ... -
The Evergreen State
Situated in the northwesternmost of the US, Washington State (officially the State of Washington) covers some 185,000 sq km, roughly half the size of Germany. To ... -
The Quintessence of Japan III
(Continued from “The Quintessence of Japan II” on 8 January 2016) For all the cultural and technical similarities between sake and wine, the concept of rice ... -
The Eurasian Paradox
Turkey (officially the Republic of Turkey) is one of the few contiguous transcontinental countries in the world. Situated on the European side, its capital Istanbul used ... -
The Golden State VI
(Continued from “The Golden State V” on 29 January 2016) There seems to be two watershed moments, largely concurrent, in the meteoric rise of Californian wine ... -
The Levantine Cedar
Home to one of the most ancient winemaking cultures in the world, Lebanon has been producing wine for at least 5,000 years. Archaeology indicates that vitis ... -
The Burgundian Heritage
The comparison and contrast between Bordeaux and Burgundy seem to have an uncanny power to constantly attract passionate arguments from both camps. This age-old topic is ... -
The Golden State IV
(Continued from “The Golden State IV” on 24 December 2015) As California’s largest and most prolific county-level AVA (American Viticultural Area), Sonoma County has under its ... -
The Spanish Kaleidoscope
Covering just over half a million square kilometres, Spain accounts for a lion’s share of 85% of the total area in the Iberian Peninsula. Often ranked ... -
The Cisalpine Ethos II
(Continued from “The Cisalpine Ethos” on 18 December 2015) Revered since Roman times, Piemonte (or Piedmont in English) has always been one of the leading wine ... -
The Quintessence of Japan II
(Continued from “The Quintessence of Japan” on 11 December 2015) Although the origin of sake remains shrouded in mystery, it is commonly held that it did ... -
The Mongolian Symbol
Mongolia’s most famous son Genghis Khan – and his descendants – may have created the largest contiguous empire in world history and reigned supreme along the ... -
The Golden State IV
(Continued from “The Golden State III” on 27 November 2015) For long periods in its viticultural history, the US did not have any formal appellation system ... -
The Cisalpine Ethos
Situated in northwestern Italy, Piemonte (or Piedmont in English) neighbours France to its west and Switzerland to its north. As revealed by its name, which literally ... -
The Quintessence of Japan
It is widely accepted that cereal wine originated from East Asia, and subsequently reached Southeast Asia and South Asia. The umbrella term “cereal wine”, referring to ... -
The Russian Emblem
By far the single largest country in the world, Russia spans from 41st to 82nd parallels north. Barring its limitrophe regions bordering Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine ... -
The Golden State III
(Continued from “The Golden State II” on 30 October 2015) The Central Coast is a large and geographically elongated regional AVA (American Viticultural Area) stretching from ... -
The Belgian Jester
At the crossroad of Germanic and Latin cultures, Belgium is one of the youngest countries of the Old Continent, becoming an independent state only in 1830. ... -
The Green Coast
Situated in northwestern Spain bordering Castilla y León to its east and Portugal to its south, Galicia – not to be confused with the other Galicia ... -
The Irish Spirit II
(Continued from “The Irish Spirit” on 1 October 2015) The Irish diaspora is unique that an overwhelming majority of people claiming to have Irish ancestry live ... -
The Golden State II
(Continued from “The Golden State” on 9 October 2015) Roughly the size of Sweden and with approximately 1,200 producers, California is overwhelmingly the largest wine-producing state ... -
The Catalonian Cession
(Continued from “The Catalonian Hinterland” on 25 September 2015) That the Catalan region of Roussillon (Spanish: Rosellón; Catalan: Rosselló) is French but not Spanish and, therefore, ... -
The Mediterranean Heart III
(Continued from “The Mediterranean Heart II” on 17 July 2015) The British penchant for fortified wines may variously be due to the cool climate of the ... -
The Golden State
The US is the 4th largest wine-producing country in the world and, by some distance, the largest in the New World. Wine is produced in all ... -
The Irish Spirit
For various reasons, Irish whiskey is often overshadowed by Scotch whisky; little known is the fact that whiskey actually predates whisky by nearly a century, and ... -
The Catalonian Hinterland
(Continued from “The Catalonian Littoral” on 28 August 2015) Situated along the western boundary of Catalonia bordering Aragón, Costers del Segre (literally: banks of the Segre) ... -
The Most Serene
Arguably the most glamorous of Italy’s 20 administrative regions, Veneto is surely one of the most important in terms of fine wines. Whilst Piemonte is rightly ... -
The Gemstone of Saint-Julien
Multiple parallels can be drawn between Burgundy’s Nuits-Saint-Georges and Bordeaux’s Saint-Julien, and not just for the “Saint” in their illustrious names. Both are sometimes unfairly overlooked ...
