Category: Recent Columns

Beaujolais is a lovely French region sandwiched between Burgundy and Lyon. Last century, it was known for its kitschy, flash-in-the-pan plonk—Beaujolais nouveau. Today, it is known for being the next big thing in quality wine. Such are vino’s vicissitudes. Continue reading →

Newspaper readers and online followers know of my advocacy of decanting—pouring wine into a vessel to expose it to air to soften tannins and encourage wine to “open up” and become more balanced. Continue reading →

Is wine art? For some, this is a silly question. No. Yet, this has been debated for hundreds of years. Continue reading →

Thing to know about “wine rules”—most people ignore them. Continue reading →

You get seriously into wine. You decide to put down some bottles to drink in the distant future. What should you expect? Continue reading →

“Ripeness” may be a winemaker’s most important decision. Ask three different winemakers their definition of ripeness, however, and it is possible you will get six different answers. Ripeness is just that complex. Continue reading →

“Vigneron” “vintner” “négociant” are wine terms. What are their exact meanings? This being wine, they don’t really have exact meanings. Here is an overview. Continue reading →

Farming has never been easy the past 8,000 years. Workers are the current challenge in the wine world. Continue reading →

With the beginning of a new year, a look forward to trends in wine. Continue reading →

New year. No matter if you look back on 2022 with a sigh of satisfaction or you are grovelingly thankful to survive another solar circumnavigation, time for optimism. Continue reading →