Category: Recent Columns

Ingredients and allergy information likely are coming to a wine label near you. Much already is mandated in Europe. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is taking comments to fine-tune U.S. mandates. Continue reading →

Next Monday brings us to the annual bittersweet pivot from the adventures and tribulations of summer to the prayed-for succor of autumn. Labor Day. Continue reading →

I hate to break it to you, but the days of good cheap wine are numbered. Very drinkable wine under $10 was a holy grail of wine drinkers and wine writers for years. Alas, those days are fading in the rearview mirror of our lives. Continue reading →

Is a glass or two of wine good for you or bad for you? Experts: It is good for you, you will live longer. Experts: It is bad for you, it will shorten your life. Continue reading →

Most wine is produced by a small number of large wineries. At the same time, most wineries are small producers. Continue reading →

As this gruesome summer of heat domes burns on, incidents of rosé slurping likely have increased in your wine world. Rosé has long been considered a quintessential bellwether of hot weather, so global warming is a boost to the rise of rosé. Continue reading →

“Old vines”—marketing hype or a real and important thing? For the creators of the Old Vine Registry (OVR), old vines are a real and important element of the wine world. Continue reading →

American Viticultural Areas attempt to tie wines to places. Ideally, vineyards in a specific AVA share similarities in soil, climate, geology, and elevation. Those various things, along with human interaction, comprise what winemakers call “terroir.” Continue reading →

If you live in the southern part of the USA, summer 2023 has been a horror. Record-breaking high temperatures, the sort of records no sane person wants to brag about. Continue reading →

John Steinbeck, riffing from Shakespeare’s Richard III, wrote: “Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun…” Continue reading →