Category: Recent Columns

While wine snobbery may be irritating, it certainly is nothing new. Some 2,800 years ago, the Greek poet Homer in The Iliad and The Odyssey used wine references to signal privilege. The higher in society in Homer’s day, the better wine you drank. Continue reading →

Box wine, or more correctly wine in a plastic bag that is inside a box, is no longer the red-headed stepchild of the wine world. Several wineries now deliver quality wine in a box. Bota Box (Delicato Family Vineyards), Black Box (Constellation Brands), Bandit, Almaden, House Wine are among the leaders. Continue reading →

We bid farewell to July and anticipate August. We are in the hottest days of the year. High summer. The dog days. Wine strategies: Continue reading →

As veteran readers know, I am an advocate of decanting. But this is wine, so when it comes to how to decant and when to decant, things can get problematic. Some guidelines. Continue reading →

Wine tasting descriptions, whether by wine pros or the supercilious jerk next to you in the wine bar, are a fertile field for bloviating blather. Truth is, there is hard evidence we all taste things differently. God made us that way. Continue reading →

Bulk wine gets a bad rap. It is associated with plonk in a box purchased by impoverished college students and parsimonious parents of the bride. Continue reading →

Organic and biodynamic are two big buzzwords in wine. What exactly do they mean? While many practices overlap, they do not mean the same thing. Continue reading →

While some people prefer their wine sweet, dry wines are the most popular. Trouble is, how do you define “dry?” Continue reading →

The COVID-19 pandemic is a psychological, cultural, and—regrettably—political event as well as an epidemiological cataclysm. It also changed the wine world. Examples: Continue reading →

French wine labels can flummox even experienced, sophisticated enjoyers of wine. Continue reading →