Month: January 2018

Here’s the thing…cheating (in wine) is not a new thing. For centuries, less scrupulous producers have blended grapes from other regions into their wines in order to make their wine seem more impressive. It used to be, that, the culprit was found out because wine drinkers were generally in agreement upon how a wine was[…]

Wine is not particularly self-evident, meaning that when you look at a wine, you really don’t know very much about it. Many people claim that they know something about a wine just by looking at it, but they are just fools or liars. Or both. To understand anything at all about a wine, one has[…]

Nebbiolo is the grape that grows in Piedmont, in Northwest Italy, and in Barolo and Barbaresco, arguably, better than any other place on earth. Nebbiolo is difficult to ripen, its finicky about rain and wind, and  its susceptible to vine diseases. It also does not adapt particularly well to differing vineyard soil types, preferring soils[…]

No. Next question? Yes, Virginia, beers can be seasonal creatures. And yes, one can imbibe cold beverages in the winter, just as one can drink hot beverages in summer. (you drink coffee year round, don’t you?). Seasonal beers (like Oktoberfest) have been produced for centuries, and ‘winter warmers’ have been prevalent since the pagans celebrated[…]