Wine is in turmoil. People are turning to alcohol alternatives. Red wine sales are down, white and rosé are up. French and Italians and Spanish are drinking less wine. There is a glut of wine. What?! Continue reading “White wine ascendant 11-27-2024”
Category: Recent Columns
Thanksgiving pinot noir 11-20-2024
Thanksgiving is the great American gastronomic holiday. Halloween is for foolishness, costumes, and candy. Christmas is for worship, family, and unseemly lust for gaudily wrapped material goods (somewhat antithetical to the Christian origin of the holiday). Continue reading “Thanksgiving pinot noir 11-20-2024”
Wine barrels 11-13-2024
It takes two to four centuries to grow the oak tree for a wine barrel. Then, after tree harvest, four, usually more, years to season the wood and the staves. Finally, it is time to turn the staves into a wine barrel. Continue reading “Wine barrels 11-13-2024”
Wood and wine 11-6-2024
Wine is an agricultural product. Hardly an earth-shattering revelation. But consider its scope. Not just wine vines, as essential as they may be, but in many cases—trees. Continue reading “Wood and wine 11-6-2024”
Wine odds and ends 10-30-2024
Some facts and trivia to lighten your mood as we prepare for the horrors of “fall back” when the government gives back the imaginary hour it stole from us on the second Sunday in March. Continue reading “Wine odds and ends 10-30-2024”
Halloween and wine 10-23-2024
Halloween is next week, but if you are giving wine advice it’s best to give your audience some time to act on it. Continue reading “Halloween and wine 10-23-2024”
Wine column reflections 10-16-2024
October begins the 17th year of this wine column. Reflections. Continue reading “Wine column reflections 10-16-2024”
Alcohol risks 10-9-2024
Scare headlines: “Drinking any alcohol is a cancer risk.” Well, okay, the question is how much of a risk? Continue reading “Alcohol risks 10-9-2024”
Wine name revolution 10-2-2024
If you go into almost any wine shop, liquor store, or supermarket wine section in the United States—and now in most places in the world—you will find wine bottles arranged and named by the variety of grape used to make the wine. Continue reading “Wine name revolution 10-2-2024”
Wine barrels 9-25-2024
Winemakers: To oak or not to oak, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take up oak to craft your wine to shake the spheres of ordinary. Continue reading “Wine barrels 9-25-2024”