Terroir, natural wines and indie producers: how booze has changed since 2001

Since the first issue of Observer Food Monthly in 2001, the world of wine has altered radically

OFM began publishing in what now feels like a decisively different era for wine. It was a time when a very particular style of winemaking was approaching its peak – a style that, with hindsight, seems very much in keeping with the credit-fuelled pre-2008 economic boom: big, brash, loud, crafted from a limited set of well-known grape varieties in expensive, toasty French oak barrels.

This was a style designed to please the axis of powerful American critics led by Robert Parker and the glossy Wine Spectator magazine. Its origins were in California and Australia, but the lure of a 100-point score, particularly from Parker, led winemakers all over the world to adopt the same recipe, often from the same small set of consultant winemakers.