Say No to Wine Monopolies – Say No to the Cork Tax

As I get my bag ready for another day on the road in snowy New Jersey, I had to take a few minutes to ask for your help in fighting off a dire… Continue reading →

My Summer Trip to France – Less Dogma, More Substance

As I sit here watching December’s college basketball games pass by, I feel incredibly guilty for not yet sharing my thoughts regarding my June trip to France with the folks from Louis/Dressner/McKenna.* I… Continue reading →

Leave Some of the Mystery in the Glass

This morning I woke up to a fun article about vineyard microbial activity in the New York Times.  Yes, I just typed that.  In short, the article (link here) – proposes that there… Continue reading →

Terroir as Opportunity and Potential..

Perhaps terroir is best explained as the opportunity for a site to express, through climate (big and little), weather, soil, aspect and light-handed* vineyard management, its potential^.  And for the anti-flavor elites, terroiristes… Continue reading →

The Debate Should be Over the Nature of Wine

For months, maybe even years now, there has been a ferocious – and increasingly boring – debate regarding the tenets and virtues of natural wine.  And it shouldn’t come as a surprise to… Continue reading →

Are We Just Talking to Each Other?

Over the past few months I have been immersing myself in wine books. The main motivation for my crash course on the social and economic history of wine has been threefold.  First of… Continue reading →

A Traditionalist’s Loss is the Modernist’s Gain – Sausal Family Closes Shop

Before I became a man of the vine, I was a graduate student in the Rutgers history program.  One of the projects that we worked on was imagining and designing a museum project. … Continue reading →

Revisiting the Classics – Alexis Lichine and The Wines of France

Recently, I have been reading older wine books – most of them written by legendary wine writers.  Perhaps my new found enthusiasm for the classics has been born out of a desire to… Continue reading →

Tradition on Spring Mountain – The Wines of Smith-Madrone

This past July, I was lucky enough to visit a few winemaking areas in California.  My trip stretched from Table Mountain in Santa Cruz to vineyards hidden in the trees of Mount Veeder. … Continue reading →

Luring Wine Drinkers Into the Tree of Trust

I haven’t written much recently as I have taken full advantage of living near the sandy beaches of New Jersey.  When not sitting on the beach, I have been running, cycling and recouping… Continue reading →