Donnafugata and the New Western Sicily

Mary Cressler
Features
7 min read
I’m not going to lie, before heading to western Sicily earlier this month I had my reservations. There seemed to be a prevailing opinion on the region reflected in comments like, “enjoy those volcano wines,” to “does Sicily even make quality wine yet?” to “you’ll just find lots of bulk
By Jeff Kubina [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Countdown to New Year’s Eve: Prosecco

Becky Sue Epstein
About
4 min read
Each week until the end of the year we’ll take a look at different types of sparkling wines -- champagne included, of course -- so you’ll be able to make a great choice for your New Year’s Eve occasion. Rather than an exhaustive explanation of champagnes and sparkling wines, this

The 8 Wrong Ways To Drink, Serve And Enjoy Wine

W. Blake Gray
Features
3 min read
Is there a "right" way to drink wine? I'm not sure. But there are wrong ways. Some might want to deny this because we don't want to be exposed as wine snobs. But the prevailing American culture around wine is far more prescriptive than that. The food media constantly tells

Wine is more than just a product

Simon J Woolf
Features
3 min read
2014 might just be the year of the fruit-flavored wine. If you've missed this trend, just do a quick Google search – fruit-flavored cocktails with wine as their base have been gaining massive market share over the past three years, with growth of “aromatized wines” at 70% a year, compared

Countdown to New Year’s Eve: Franciacorta

Becky Sue Epstein
Feature Stories
3 min read
Never heard of Franciacorta? No worries. It’s this week’s featured sparkling wine. [Franciacorta -- pronounced FRAN-sha KOR-tah] Each week until the end of the year we’ll take a look at different types of sparkling wines – champagne included, of course – so you’ll be able to make a great choice for your

134 year-old California wine research: Conclusions pending

Erika Szymanski
Features
6 min read
In 1880, Dr. Eugene Hilgard asked the California state legislature for $3000 to start a wine research program at the University of California, and he got it. His first start-up – the “California Agricultural Experiment Station,” now transmogrified into the University of California Davis's massive agricultural extension program – had