Seeking to Define Natural Wine

Except for the absence of tie-dye, the second annual Natural Wine Week in San Francisco could have been an event right out of 1967.

A Tasting Primer: Easy Tips to Learn About & Enjoy Wine

Tasting wine can be a wonderful experience that incorporates nearly all of your senses with a wide variety of aromas, flavors, and sensations. However, it can also be an intimidating experience if you’re a wine novice. While learning about all the intricacies of wine tasting can be a time consuming commitment, there are a few basics that you can easily learn and practice making the experience even more enjoyable.

Spokane: Washington’s Hidden Gem

The coffee finally started kicking in somewhere around the outskirts of Spokane. I had just spent the previous five days on a non-stop tour of wineries in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, then moved on to the Yakima Valley in Washington, followed by the Wine Bloggers’ Conference in Walla Walla. The only thing keeping my sleep deprived body going was a large cup of my favorite stimulant.

Eighth Annual Petite Sirah Noble Symposium

In 2002, the year PS I Love You executive director Jo Diaz began keeping records, there were some 60 growers and producers of Petite Sirah (PS) in California. Now, owing in part to her tireless efforts, Ms. Diaz may proudly count in excess of 126 growers and a staggering 723 producers in the state.

Spontaneous Fermentation: Bubble, Bubble, Less Toil, or Trouble?

Open a refrigerator in the back of many wineries and you may find some leftover pizza, cheese and fruit for tomorrow evening’s mixer, and a few rectangular foil packages that look suspiciously like bread-baking yeast. However, those packages of yeast—and they are yeast—are for the wine, not bread dough.

Oregon Wineries Take Advantage of Innovative Packaging for Wine

Keg wine. It might not sound very romantic, and it’s certainly not an entirely original idea, but Oregon’s Wooldridge Creek Vineyard and Johann Vineyards are taking a risk in a tough economy by selling wine kegs to restaurants for their by-the-glass pours. I think it’s nothing short of genius.

At Vinoble, The Biennial International Sweet Wine Conference

After a whole generation of ignoramuses, it’s the younger people who are starting to appreciate the great sweet wines of the world. Snapple®, Cosmo cocktails…sweet wines: is this their liquid progression? This is what I found at Vinoble, the biennial sweet wine conference held recently in Jerez, in the south of Spain.

Indigenous American Grape Varieties, A Primer

Can American Vitis species produce wines that compare with those made from vinifera on a global stage? If so, will the wine traditionalists ever accept them? While continued research and experimentation with these varieties will hopefully answer these questions, perhaps an educational introduction will get the ball rolling.

Small Family Winery Goes Global with Social Media

I belong to a small family of Port Wine producers based in the Douro Valley for many years.

Inside the CIA: What I Learned in Wine School

I’ve covered the wine industry for a decade, but always from the business end. Facts, figures, and farming trends? Yes. Distinguish a Pinotage from a Pinot noir? Not so much. So I didn’t hesitate when I recently had the chance to take the weeklong course “Mastering Wine I” at the Culinary Institute of America, Greystone.

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