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… Read More →

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… Read More →

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… Read More →

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. … Read More →

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… Read More →

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. … Read More →

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… Read More →

Say What You Like About the Tenets of Biodynamics Dude, But at Least It’s an Ethos…

As you can see from the lack of posts, I have put blogging on the back burner. I have made it a point to take less pictures of what I’ve been eating &… Read More →

The Evolution of a Wine Critic – James Laube and Mayacamas Vineyards

While visiting a local bookstore that sells mainly used books (yes, they exist), my mother phoned me to see if she should pick up a few older wine books for me.  My usual… Read More →

A Sense of Time and Place – Sunday Spring in the Garden State

Spring is here in the Garden State.  We had a few days of 80+ degree days a few weeks ago, a few sporadic snow showers a couple of days after that and then… Read More →