“Wine is geography in a bottle,” Jancis Robinson observed as she presided over a tasting that established her point.

Robinson, at a stop at the CIA, Greystone in St. Helena, said the changing  climate due to global warming as well as “the expanding nature of the worlds wines” was the source of the most changes in the sixth and newest edition of  “The World Atlas of Wine.” co-authored with Hugh Johnson.  

Opening and closing with new Spanish wines, the dozen wines selected for the tasting came from all over the world map, from old regions, like Germany, where a warming climate is producing a different kind of wines to newer regions like Brazil, whose wine, made 60 degrees above the Equator is  “not a wine to put on a list of grand wines,” she noted, “pretty nasty on the finish.”

Even her own England is making wine, she noted, although she did not comment on the quality, and it was missing from the line-up:

The list in the order poured, included:

1. As Sortes, “Val de Bibei” 2005 from Valdeorras, Spain.

2. Keller Riesling Trocken “Westhofen Kirchspiel” 2006, Rheinhessen, Germany

3. Quinta do Voldoeiro White (arinto, bical and chardonnay) 2006, Bairrada, Portugal

4. Rusentberg Stellenbosch Chardonnay 2005, Stellenbosch, South Africa

5. Rio Sol “Parallel 8” Red Wine, Brazil

6. Curly Flat Pinot Noir, “Macedon Ranges” 2004, Victoria, Australia

7. Felton Road Pinot Noir, 2006, Central Otago, New Zealand

8. Cullen “Diana Madeline (cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petite verdot, malbec) 2003, Margaret River, Australia

9. Clonakill “Canberra District” Shiraz Viognier 2005, Australia

10. Passopisciaro Red Wine, 2005, Sicily, Italy

11. Donald Hess’s Colomé Red Wine (malbec, cabernet sauvignon, tanant), 2004, Valle Clachaqui, Salta, Argentina

12. Fina Sandoval (syrah, mourvedre, bobal) 2005, Manchuela, Spain.

The tasting concluded, Robinson asked the tasters to vote on their preferences. Top vote getter: Hess’ red, crafted on his mountain top in Argentina, reportedly the highest winery in the world. Another favorite was the Sicilian red (10), which Robinson noted, “is made by a madman on the slopes of Mt. Etna — a ‘hot spot’ for new wines.”