“Châteauneuf-du-Pape is an ancient cultural necessity and very much one of mine. I did a wine course, and then realized that [learning about wine] would take the rest of my life and I had other… Continue reading
“Great, complex wines are wonderful, enthralling, life-affirming, soul-stirring, but it’s worth asking whether they are relaxing. Good, simple wines speak to our spirit of play and ease and repose, exactly because they don’t demand our exclusive… Continue reading
“Many drinkers think of white wine as foreplay and feel somehow unsatisfied with a meal that doesn’t lead eventually to red.” —Jay McInerney, Bacchus & Me
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that umlauts scare away American wine lovers. For whatever reason, bottles with labels bearing those diacritical points, floating above terms like spätlese or grapes called spätburgunder or müller-thurgau or… Continue reading
“Great wine is all about nuance, surprise, subtlety, expression, qualities that keep you coming back for another taste. Rejecting a wine because it is not big enough is like rejecting a book because it is… Continue reading
Cathy Corison is always one of the first winemakers to harvest in the Napa Valley. When we asked her about perfect ripeness, here’s what she said: “Waiting to pick so long that the bright red and… Continue reading
Come, send round the wine, and leave points of belief To simpleton sages and reasoning fools; This moment’s a flower too fair and brief To be wither’d and stain’d by the dust of the schools.… Continue reading
“Making great pinot noir is like being a chef. Making great chardonnay is like being a pastry chef—the margin for error is very small.” —Josh Bergström, manager and winemaker, Bergstöm Wines, Willamette Valley, Oregon (Bergström… Continue reading
“Bubbles are emptiness, non-liquid, a tiny cloud shielding a mathematical singularity. Born from chance, a violent and brief life ending in the union with the nearly infinite.” —Dr. Andrea Prosperetti, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at… Continue reading
“I look forward to the day when more rosés achieve that ‘wow’ factor now given only to great reds and whites; to when restaurant wine lists for reds and whites are rivaled by their selection of… Continue reading
