Category: Recent Columns

Are you pressed to find last-minute, perfect holiday gift for a wine lover or developing wine appreciator? Ideas: Continue reading →

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Bing Crosby ringing in your ears. Yuletide carols sung by a choir, folks dressed up like Eskimos—Christmas, season for loving nostalgia. Continue reading →

To decant or not to decant. That is the question. Is it nobler of the vine to suffer the slings and arrows of tannic tightness, or to take up arms against it with a sea of aeration, and—by so opposing—soften them? Continue reading →

Which is more important: grape or place the grape grows? Depends on who you ask and how much argument you want. Continue reading →

Thankfully, Thanksgiving is easiest of wine times. Continue reading →

French make more wine than anyone else, some so sublime it defines wine at its best, some absolutely terrible. To help find your way with French vin, third of three-part primer; today, niche regions. Continue reading →

French make more wine than anyone else, some so sublime it defines wine at its best, some so mundane French distill it into biofuel.
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French make more wine than anyone else, some so sublime it defines wine at its best, some so mundane French distill it into biofuel. Continue reading →

Halloween tempts you into cloyingly kitsch novelty wine plays. Trouble: clever names and campy labels often are inversely related to wine quality. Continue reading →

Wine has five components that determine taste and quality: alcohol, acid, tannin, sweetness/dryness, fruitiness. This week, final component: fruitiness. Continue reading →