Professional wine judging isn’t all that it seems to be. It sounds like a lot of fun, but it rarely is — and it’s also hard work. And it usually involves at least 10 years of experience before you even understand how to be a decent judge. Any particular wine is really a reflection of…
Fourth of July Wine Sparklers Are Fun and Festive
Fourth of July recipes can be so fussy, instructing you to carve watermelon baskets, make precise stripes of fruit on flag-shaped desserts, and whip up elaborate, food coloring-tinted layer cakes. Yeah, definitely not my thing! Enter these spritzers…er, sparklers. (See what I did there?) A cocktail with two ingredients, made right in the serving pitcher,…
Regionality
As a winegrowing paradise, California has always been blessed with loads of sunlight and beneficent weather, allowing it to ripen wine grapes almost anywhere. But in the early years, distinctiveness was nonexistent. In the era between the end of Prohibition (1933) and the end of World War II, pretty much every wine made here was…
Wine’s ‘Absurd’ Prices
When I began writing about wine in 1979, almost every fine-quality California chardonnay sold for $4.50 a bottle. Occasionally I’d find a bottle at $3.75 and considered it a bargain. Times change, obviously. As wine reputations grew exalted, and as the number of potential buyers worldwide for the best exploded, the demand for the top…
Volcanic Signature
It doesn’t matter where you go on this small island, you’ll find a feast for the eyes, like the clusters of white buildings that cling to the edge of plunging black cliffs, or the fire and fury of the ancient volcano, its remnants still steaming out in the middle of the caldera. You can walk…
Summer Sippers
From unusual whites to lighter reds, to the ultimate sparkler, here are top summer wine picks from experts across the country. California Dreamin’ Oceano 2017 Spanish Springs Vineyard Chardonnay, San Luis Obispo County, $38 This chardonnay is the definition of a coastal wine. The grapes come from the closest vineyard to the ocean in California….
Pink Wine Season Is Upon Us: The 10 Best New Rosé Bottles, Rated
By Elin McCoy From Bloomberg News When the temperature soars and the sun is shining at 7 p.m., you know rosé days are underway again. What people call the “happy wine” has always been something to sip without taking it, or yourself, too seriously. Rosé is about embracing fun, the beach, day-drinking and personal style,…
Wine’s Fragility
Winemakers around the world have tools and strategies today that they never had decades ago that help to make wine a lot more stable than it ever was back then. Unless a bottle of wine has been held under horrible conditions, especially excessive heat or temperatures that vary up and down, most of the time…
Bait and Switch
Sometimes it’s simply just a mistake, but it seems always to backfire against the consumer. And sometimes it is a nefarious strategy intended to put one over on unsuspecting diners, almost always with the intent of making a lot of money. It’s about wine “bait and switch” in restaurants. This column is not aimed at…
Tabletop Chemistry
You’re browsing the wine aisle in your local supermarket or wine shop and see a bottle that looks interesting. And the back label carries purple prose about how superb the wine’s fruit is. But not all wine label text is accurate. What if the “dramatic fruit” the label says really refers to prunes? We all…
US News
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