Stories Behind the Bottle
L’Entêté: The Word That Had to Be Made Legal Again
For most of the twentieth century, a distiller in France could make an absinthe and could not call it one. The liquid was permitted. The word was not.
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Stories Behind the Bottle
Drink
What Kusu Means: Okinawa’s Culture of Home-Aged Awamori and the Idea of Inheriting Time
Kusu is more than aged awamori. Okinawa’s home-aging culture, ceramic jars and shitsugi reveal how families preserve and inherit time.
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Stories Behind the Bottle
Save Wines of the Loire: What Does It Mean to Save a Vineyard?
Domaine du Closel shows the difference between preserving family ownership and keeping a living vineyard's land, team and knowledge intact.
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Stories Behind the Bottle
Muscadet Renaissance: When a Region Began Naming Its Differences
How ten communal crus, longer lees ageing and exact vineyard work changed the resolution of Muscadet.
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Stories Behind the Bottle
Domaine Dominique Gruhier: Restoring a Place to Its Purpose
A vineyard lost twice, a dilapidated abbey, and the work that returned both to a living purpose.
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Stories Behind the Bottle
Domaine Lionnet: What It Means to Inherit a Hillside
At Cornas, succession is measured in old vines, new plantings and the decisions made between them.
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Stories Behind the Bottle
Kanegasaki Herbal Distillery: Four Seasons from One Field
How Kazuma Oikawa turned Kanegasaki’s changing field into four seasonal decisions for the WAKA series.
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Stories Behind the Bottle
Crème de Cassis KUBO: The Bartender Behind the Name
Why KUBO names a working bartender, and how a Burgundian category became a dialogue between Hachinohe and Kanegasaki.
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Stories Behind the Bottle
Distillerie Combier: The Back Room That Became a Living Heritage House
How a still behind a Saumur confectionery became a dedicated distillery, a political chapter, and a living heritage house.
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Stories Behind the Bottle
Patrick Baudouin: The Long Return to Chenin
Patrick Baudouin returned to Anjou in 1990 to rebuild a family estate, centred it on Chenin, and chose how the work would continue in 2026.
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Stories Behind the Bottle
Clos Regain: The Estate Within the Estate
A new wine estate does not always begin with new land. Sometimes, it begins with a decision to look again.
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Stories Behind the Bottle
Château de Garnerot: A Renaissance Chosen, Not Inherited
How Caroline Fyot left insurance to build Château de Garnerot in Mercurey through organic farming, parcel-led winemaking and the separate Chai Garnerot.
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