You may recall the issue of so-called cork taint that ravaged the wine industry not so long ago. Many natural corks were infected with a compound called TCA (short for trichloroanisole, which forms through interactions between plant phenols, chlorine, and mold). TCA was a huge problem until recently, spoiling many bottles of wine, including some…
Wine Talk: Big Winners of 2020
The many setbacks of 2020 notwithstanding, there were numerous bright spots for the wine industry over the course of the year. As regular readers of this column know, I oversee four major international wine competitions. The insights I gain as I digest the competition results—from new trends and developments to the confirmation of long-held truths—give…
Pompeii Is Famous for Its Ruins and Bodies, but What About Its Wine?
Pompeii is famed for plaster-cast bodies, ruins, frescoes, and the rare snapshot it provides of a rather typical ancient Roman city. But less famous is its evidence of viticulture. Wild grapevines probably existed across peninsular Italy since prehistory, but it is likely the Etruscans and colonizing Greeks promoted wine-making with domesticated grapes as early as…
Wine Talk: A Schramsberg for the Ages
When the late Jack and Jamie Davies purchased the historic Jacob Schram winery in Calistoga, California, in 1965, they embarked upon what must have seemed at the time to be the impossible dream. Their goal was to produce the finest sparkling wine in America at the 100-year-old winery up on Diamond Mountain. They dreamed of…
Wine Talk: Why Champagne Dominates
Given a choice between a bottle of Champagne or a sparkling wine from any other corner of the world, most reasonably sane wine enthusiasts would opt for the Champagne. Of course, they would. It’s more expensive than other bubblies, so it must be better. That’s what the smart crowd thinks. Champagne’s unique station in the…
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