Oliver Walkey

Interview With Emilien Boutillat – Chief Winemaker at Piper-Heidsieck

By Oliver Walkey / 17th October 2024

The love of Champagne is infinite, a language that everyone can understand, a sparkle that can shine in anyone’s glass, it can connect people, brings them together and places a smile on faces around the world. In this exclusive feature on Glass of Bubbly, we speak with Emilien Boutillat, the Chief Winemaker at Champagne Piper-Heidsieck,…

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Mexican Wine

By Oliver Walkey / 16th October 2024

The history of Mexican Wine started with the Spanish in the 16th century, they brought with them vines from Europe and knowledge of Winemaking. Mexico was a country that did have its own indigenous grapes growing before the Spanish, but there is no evidence that anyone used them to create Wine. Mexican Wine took a…

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Giró del Gorner – Interview With Marta Giró i Via

By Oliver Walkey / 15th October 2024

One of the biggest regions in the world of sparkling wine, Cava stands as its own style of bubbly, from the historic country of Spain, with so many brilliant producers utilising tradition and innovating for the future, there’s a lot to explore, so Glass of Bubbly is on a mission to highlight this wonderful region…

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Bolivian Wine

By Oliver Walkey / 14th October 2024

The first Grapevines were planted in Bolivia in the 1560s by Spanish missionaries, which were brought over on Spanish ships. The tropical environment in particular regions really tested some of the Grape varieties, but they found that the high-altitude plains in the Andean mountain served as a very fitting location for viticulture. The first bottle…

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Uruguay Wine

By Oliver Walkey / 11th October 2024

It was harder to find a date for Uruguay’s Wine origin, but it has been in operation for at least 250 years, it wouldn’t be until 1870, with the help of Italian and Basque immigrants with the planting of the Tannat grape that the modern Uruguayan Wine industry started to really grow. Producing over 18 million…

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Chilean Wine

By Oliver Walkey / 9th October 2024

The first Vines planted in Chile were transported over on Spanish ships, we sort of know the grape variety as well and it could have been ‘País’ or ‘Vitis Vinifera’, they planted them in the middle of the 16th century in 1554 during the Spanish Conquest. There is even a legend of conquistador and former…

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Discovering Pays d’Oc Wines

By Oliver Walkey / 8th October 2024

If you need to find a reason to travel down to the South of France, other than it’s fantastic weather, yacht filled blue waters, fantastic architecture and Michelin star food, then let me share with you, one of the biggest reasons of all. If I had to give a quick summary of Pays d’Oc in…

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Argentinian Wine

By Oliver Walkey / 7th October 2024

The Spanish transported Vines from Spain over to Argentina during the early Age of Discovery, the first time a European stepped foot into Argentina was in 1502. The city of Santiago del Estero serves as a birthplace for Argentinan Wine, housing the first commercial Vineyard in 1557, planted by Jesuit Missionaries The country has in…

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Portuguese Wine

By Oliver Walkey / 4th October 2024

In Portugal, vines were planted in the Sado and Tagus valleys in at least 2000 BC, it was in the 10th century BC when the Phoenicians introduced new grape varieties and some new Winemaking techniques to the country. The main wine regions of Portugal are the following: Vinho Verde Trás-os-Montes Dão Bairrada Beira Interior Lisboa…

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