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  • Decanter

    The joy of clay

    Aug 07, 2019 6 minutes

    THEY’VE BECOME A must-have accessory for wineries everywhere on the planet, in much the same way that hip restaurant kitchens boast a kamado grill, or craft breweries proudly show off their clutch of used Sherry barrels. Their primeval form commands attention: they are an Instagrammer’s dream. Progressive winemakers gush about their unique properties and their innate suitability for making great wine. Make no mistake, amphorae have carved out an increasingly visible and trendy niche in 21st-century winemaking. Yet just a decade ago, these archaic clay vessels were largely dismissed as part of wine’s history, barely relevant to modern viniculture. Why have winemakers across the globe fallen so in love with them?

    Fashion may have a part to play, but the return to clay as a medium for fermentation and ageing has been driven more by a quest to find the perfect vessel. We’ve been here before: supposedly unhygienic barrels gave way to cement tanks in the 1950s and ’60s, only for those

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