We’ve all heard it said a hundred times—women are better at tasting wine than men. But can that possibly be true? For most of my professional wine career I, for one, have been skeptical of… Continue reading
About this time of year, some wineries in the Napa Valley, where I live, start heralding cabernet as the perfect wine with chocolate. I know what I think (and will share in a minute), but… Continue reading
It’s been a phenomenal year. Over the course of 52 editions of WineSpeed, we tasted thousands of wines. And so many wines stood out—a phenomenal 2017 Vintage Port (Dow’s), a luscious shiraz (Penfold’s St. Henri),… Continue reading
Guest Blog by Anne-Marie Failla Note from Karen: Anne-Marie Failla, the newest member of our team at Karen MacNeil & Co. takes “research” seriously. Here’s everything you wanted to know about the best egg nog. Oops, I… Continue reading
Guest Blog by Carrie Dyke Note from Karen: Writer Carrie Dykes explores the fascinating new world of vinous ciders in this guest blog. Try one of her recommendations below. A vinous cider is a combination… Continue reading
I once found myself staring at a grenache vineyard in the southern Rhône Valley, along with a young California winemaker and a famous French winemaker. The latter was showing us the old vineyard that had… Continue reading
Guest Blog by Nina Rosas Note from Karen: Our friend Nina Rosas, a lover of wine who has worked in the industry for over 20 years, spent hours researching this alarming piece on the historic… Continue reading
The 75th Anniversary of the Napa Valley Vintners seems like a great time to open one of the valley’s stunning top cabernet sauvignons (read on for a list of my top choices), and to think… Continue reading
Note from Karen MacNeil: My friend the geologist David Howell, a former scientist with the United States Geologic Survey and now a visiting instructor on geology and wines at Stanford University, has become our go-to… Continue reading
Montalcino may be one of the most beautiful places in Tuscany. The town itself sits bathed in sunlight atop a large hill, with sweeping vineyards and forests descending from it in flowing circles like the… Continue reading
John Terlato is more than a man on a mission. He’s a man possessed. Terlato, the co-owner of Chicago-based Terlato Wines, has spent the last 15 years trying to elevate the family’s crown jewel in… Continue reading
A WineSpeed reader recently sent me this article: Shitting Good. That’s What I Like About Natural Wine. In addition to the crude title (unless maybe the wine had a weird manifestation of Brettanomyces?), the piece… Continue reading
