"Wine is just too fancy for Maryland," explained Rob Deford, the owner of Boordy Vineyards in Baltimore County, as he discussed the local wine industry's challenges. "We eat crabs here; we drink beer." The audience at this year's Drink Local Wine conference chuckled in agreement. Blue crabs and Natty Boh
For the past three decades, wine enthusiasts have shuddered when presented with American rosé. The reason? Domestic rosé has long been associated with the cheap, sweet "blush" wines that became popular in the 1980s, like Sutter Home's White Zinfandel. While these wines will always have fans, they're quite different from
This week, more than 100 wine producers are gathering in San Francisco to celebrate America's take on the 22 grape varieties originally made famous in France's Rhone Valley. The producers -- known collectively as the "Rhone Rangers" -- trace their roots to the 1980s, when a small group of California
Twice in the past three months, the wine world has been rocked by news from Robert Parker, the world's most famous wine critic. In December, Parker announced that he'd sold a "substantial interest" in the Wine Advocate, the influential magazine he founded in 1978, to a trio of Singapore-based investors
Sniff, swirl, sip. Whether at home or at a restaurant, analyzing wine is a fairly straightforward process. And when you stick your nose in a glass of wine, you'll typically encounter pleasant aromas like fruits, flowers, and spices. Sometimes, though, a wine will seem off. One unfortunate truth about wine
On Super Bowl Sunday, some 1.25 billion chicken wings were consumed alongside 11 million pounds of potato chips, 4 million pounds of pretzels, and 2.5 million pounds of nuts. Massive quantities of beer helped wash all that down -- nearly 50 million cases worth were sold on Sunday alone. It's
Mention Zinfandel to most wine consumers, and it’s quickly dismissed. It’s easy to see why. For starters, many Americans associate the variety with the cheap, sweet “blush” wines that became popular in the 1980s, like Sutter Home’s white Zinfandel. This style of wine will always have fans, but to my
Ask a wine enthusiast to name his favorite value wines, and he'll likely to steer you towards bottles that cost between $15 and $25 each. This makes sense -- many oenophiles think nothing of dropping $25 or more on each bottle of wine. But this ignores market realities. The average