Category: Recent Columns

Last week, regulated wine label terms. This week, other terms on labels that mean whatever winery wants them to mean. Continue reading →

Look closely on label of wines made in U.S. and you find phrases indicating where grapes came from and wine was made. Continue reading →

Cliché: best way to make small fortune with winery is to begin with a large fortune. That has not deterred individuals and governments from chasing vineyard visions. Continue reading →

Ah, tomorrow is the turkey day and you shamefully put off buying wine. Continue reading →

Thanksgiving can be high anxiety wine time. Continue reading →

Prices rise and fall for agricultural commodities—ask any local farmer or rancher—and wine grapes are no exception, although grapes have less volatility. Continue reading →

What in the world is “natural wine?” Continue reading →

Cabernet Franc is an important grape variety for a variety of reasons: its progeny, its role as a ubiquitous blending grape, as insurance, and—finally—as a splendid lead grape in its own right.
In 1997, Cal Davis wine wizards proved Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc were parents of Cabernet Sauvignon, arguably world’s premier red grape. Stop there and Cab Franc is venerated in viniculture. Continue reading →

Wine factories—producers of “commodity” wines—hit the jackpot with varietal wine naming. No French or Italian or Spanish or, shudder, German über-confusing wine words to learn. No arcane labels to decipher. No humiliation from snotty sommeliers. Continue reading →

Branding wine varietals—selling the name of the grape—is marketing breakthrough that elevated American, then world, wine consumption to levels enjoyed today. Continue reading →