This is the weekly colum It takes two to four centuries to grow the oak tree for a wine barrel. Then, after tree harvest, four, usually more, years to season the wood and the staves. Finally, it is time to turn the staves into a wine barrel. Staves are planed into the correct shape, tapered and beveled to fit exactly together. A master cooper—the barrel maker—arranges 30-32 staves in a circle held together by temporary hoops. At this point, the future barrel resembles a flower with the bottom...

This is the weekly column Wine is an agricultural product. Hardly an earth-shattering revelation. But consider its scope. Not just wine vines, as essential as they may be, but in many cases—trees. Wine and wood have a marriage dating back millions of years. Wine vines are tree climbers, a relationship accelerated after the astroid-Armageddon when 75% of all plant and animals species became extinct. Trees and grapevines survived and flourished in the aftermath. Fast forward to recent times and...

This is the weekly column Some facts and trivia to lighten your mood as we prepare for the horrors of “fall back” when the government gives back the imaginary hour it stole from us on the second Sunday in March. • Do heavier glass bottles indicate higher quality wine? Glass weight does not affect wine quality. But there has long been a marketing illusion that better wines come in heavier bottles, and winemakers have tended to put their premier efforts in heavier bottles. But so have lesser...

This is the weekly column Halloween is next week, but if you are giving wine advice it’s best to give your audience some time to act on it. First, I know of no decent pairing of wine with treacly sweet trick-or-treat candy. With somewhat less sugary candy, you can go with light, sweet wines. Wine must be at least as sweet as the candy. If the treat is dark chocolate, you have real options. Dark chocolate typically contains 50-90% cocoa solids. The higher the percentage of cocoa, the better to...

This is the weekly column October begins the 17th year of this wine column. Reflections. • Quality wine is made by grape farmers in a vineyard, not by lab coats in a winery. When this column started, I could enjoy mass production wines manipulated by oak and tartaric acid and Mega Red. As years and tasting passed, my palate grew to more appreciate wines truer to place and variety. Supermarket mass production wines have their place, but as your wine odyssey unfolds their role diminishes. •...

This is the weekly column Scare headlines: “Drinking any alcohol is a cancer risk.” Well, okay, the question is how much of a risk? In this discussion, remember the adage popularized by Mark Twain: “Three types of lies. Lies. Damn lies. And statistics.” Stories about cancer risk with alcohol often can be taken with a grain of salt. No question alcohol can put you at a greater risk of cancer. But how much greater risk? That is where the statistical hanky-panky emerges. A popular reference...

This is the weekly column If you go into almost any wine shop, liquor store, or supermarket wine section in the United States—and now in most places in the world—you will find wine bottles arranged and named by the variety of grape used to make the wine. When the bottle contains a predominant percentage of a single grape variety (generally 75% in the U.S., 85% in Europe) it can be labeled as a varietal wine. It has not always been that way, and you have an iconic American wine family to thank...

This is the weekly column Winemakers: To oak or not to oak, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take up oak to craft your wine to shake the spheres of ordinary. Oak and wine were made for each other. The wood and how it is treated introduces flavors compounds and textures. Oak barrels allow slow oxygenation, which engenders complexity and depth. Malolactic fermentation in oak converts tart malic acid into softer...

This is the weekly column What makes a great wine? There is a hard and fast answer: “great wine comes from great vineyards.” What makes a great vineyard? • Terroir. This is big net answer because the French term includes soil composition, climate, topography, even the culture and experience of the vineyard-winery workers. • Soil. Different grape varieties thrive in different types of soil. Merlot is particularly suited for clay soil that holds water. Cabernet sauvignon prefers gravelly soil...

This is the weekly column Wine is your friend, especially when sipped with friends during a convivial meal. You are obliged to protect it from its enemies. Classic factors that negatively impact wine quality: • Oxygen. Exposure to oxygen can be wine’s valued friend or its mortal enemy. The key is moderation. Readers know of my advocacy of decanting—exposing wine from a freshly opened bottle to air to soften tannins, blow off odors, integrate elements. That exposure is relatively brief,...

This is the weekly column Wine snobbery is a detestable trait. But you can be a “good” wine snob. Here’s how. • Respect the preferences of others. Never be condescending or judgmental. Basically, don’t be a jerk. Good advice for many situations. • Be a life-long wine learner. Wine knowledge is vast and ever-evolving. Anyone who claims to know everything about wine just proved they do not. That applies to you and your fellow wine drinkers. • Enjoy wine. Wine is a palate pleasure, not a vehicle...

This is the weekly column Even if you only dip your big toe into wine wonkiness, you likely encounter the term “malolactic fermentation” or MLF. What is that? Well, this being wine, it actually is not fermentation, which involves yeast. It is a conversion, which involves bacteria. The primary bacteria is Oenococcus oeni—try saying that three times in a row after a couple of glasses of wine (or even before). The process is a decarboxylation conversion—malic acid turns into lactic acid. What...

This is the weekly column Commercialization defines wine 8-21-2024 Wine is fermented grape juice, an agricultural product like green beans and corn. But that is not how we think about wine. Why? We think of wine as a consequence of culture rather than agri-culture. Wine is treated like an aesthetic product, similar to the arts, with special terminology, in-depth discussion and analysis, reviews by experts. But wine also is a commercial product. It has been for thousands of years, and the...

This is the weekly column Did the extinction of dinosaurs play a part in the creation of wine? While it may sound far-fetched,  according to an article in the prestigious, peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Plants, there is scientific evidence to support the theory. Researchers discovered fossil grape seeds in South America dating back 60 million years. Fossil grape seed evidence in India dates back 66 million years. The dinosaur extinction occurred 66 million years ago. Coincidence?...

This is the weekly column August. For many, triple digit degree days. Time to beat the heat with chilled rosé. Except, what exactly is rosé? Surprisingly, in the often rigid, rule-ridden world of wine, there is no consensus definition of what is a rosé. Are not wines divided into red, white, rosé, and amber/orange? It might be nice, but they are not. Turns out, only white wine has a strict definition. At an event in London, renowned rosé specialist and Master of Wine Elizabeth Gabay stated:...

This is the weekly column Tasting science used to be so simple. Alas, no more. Back in 1901, a German scientist opined various taste receptors were orderly segregated on your tongue in specific places. Sweet on your tip, salty on the sides, sour behind them, bitter in the back. Nice, neat, wrong. Modern science—the flawed German study is from 1901—confirms the perception of taste is remarkably complex and not limited to your tongue. Judging flavors is deeply integrated into what is good for...

This is the weekly column Direct-to-consumer (DtC) wine shipping enjoys exponential growth. This is a great and welcome boon to wine makers, especially smaller ones who effectively are ignored by mega wholesalers. But the trend rattles those same near-monopoly wholesalers—Southern Glazer’s and Republic National. And they are fighting back by lobbying to restrict DtC in state legislatures and making delivery more complicated. Fear mongering about DtC leading to minors securing alcohol is a...

This is the weekly column A miracle is happening right now in vineyards throughout the northern hemisphere. “Véraison” is the French term for the time when a wine vine’s tiny, tight green nubs morph into plump, tasty, colorful globes. Red grapes transition from green to red, purple, blue, or black. White grapes transition from green to translucent yellow, orange, or gold. Olivier Lemoine In addition to color changes grapes undergo other vital changes. • Grapes soften, become juicier and more...

This is the weekly column As the Nat King Cole song goes, “Roll out those lazy, hazy days of summer.” But instead of soda and pretzels and beer, it is so much nicer to sip well-chilled rosé. The rosé cliché is that it is only a summertime wine. Not remotely true, but rosé certainly is a lovely libation—both in taste and color—as we endure the trials Sol slings at us. Rosé is light-bodied, fresh and fruity, moderate alcohol. Those are all good things for a scorching day thirst quencher. Rosé...

This is the weekly column We celebrate the 248th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence tomorrow. There may be fireworks and parades, but most of us will simply honor the Fourth with family and friends. And barbecue, or at least outdoor time. What wine do you pair with backyard festivities. Some ideas: • The day is very likely to be hot. While heavy, bold, high alcohol red wines work well with barbecue and grilled steaks, such libations do not work well with July heat....

This is the weekly column Pét-Nat or Pétillant-Naturel. What the heck is that “next big thing” in wine? The “next big thing” designation is ironic because, in truth, it is the oldest thing in sparkling wines. It was how sparkling wine was made before the development of the methods you know today. In English, Pétillant-Naturel simply means “naturally bubbling.” Pét-Nat is made using a technique—“méthode ancestrale”—that originated in Limoux in southern France in the 1500s. It involves a single...

This is the weekly column There is panic and turmoil in high dollar wines you and I do not buy. This is not about big dollar wines we could buy—Caymus, Jordan, Daou. You can purchase them at higher-end grocery stores. The turmoil is with wines you only can buy from an allocation list or very high-end wine stores. Covid and an influx of wines competing at pompous price points upended everything. A lot goes into wines in that rarified price category. Millions invested—in Napa vineyards, in...

This is the weekly column Most of us drink a bottle of wine soon after purchase. From an hour after we get home to a couple of days or weeks. Wine storage in such cases basically is unimportant. But what about those who actually age wine. Maybe you bought a case at a winery and want to savor it over the next year or two. Or you open one bottle a year on a special day for the next dozen years. Or, maybe you really have gotten into wine and have a sizable collection you want to preserve and...

This is the weekly column “If you could only drink one wine for the rest of your life, what wine would that be?” I get that question often. As a Catholic, my tongue-in-cheek answer: “Consecrated communion wine because I am in Hell.” Related question: “What is your favorite wine?” As a humorist, my quip: “Whatever you are pouring.” The answer to the base question: I enjoy all competently-made wines. When I taste sweeter wines, although not my first choice, I strive to evaluate the wine from...