Author Meg Houston Maker

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Meg Houston Maker
Columnist
Meg Houston Maker, MA, CSW, is a writer curious about nature, culture, food, wine, and place. She’s passionate about traditional food-ways, artisanal food and wine production, and the human connection to landscape. Meg is former columnist and former Executive Editor of Palate Press. Find her essays about communications, social information, and writing on megmaker.com. Find her essays about food, wine, and the pleasures of the table on Maker’s Table. Follow her on Twitter @megmaker.

Wine Writing: No Laughing Matter

Meg Houston Maker
Features
4 min read
Robert Parker, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Nicolas Joly walk into a bar. The bartender looks up and says, “What is this, some kind of joke?” • • • Wine journalists Mike Dunne and Andrew Jefford love a good joke. But they’re not finding much to laugh about these days. Both men

Five Bottles: A New Old Way to Evaluate Wine

Meg Houston Maker
Features
6 min read
There is a small fraternity of bottles that have, over the years, ebbed and flowed as my family’s house wine. They’re mostly red—Côtes du Rhône, Vacqueyras, Barbera, Valpolicella—plus a little white and rosé. All are under $20, and even cheaper by the case. These are table wines, drunk with meals

2012 Redux: Tasting Wine, Broadly Speaking

Meg Houston Maker
Features
1 min read
Palate Press has selected our top ten stories from 2012 and will publish a 2012 Redux article each weekday until January 4, 2013. These stories highlight our featured columnists, widely recognized contributors, and most popular works published through the year. The Palate Press editorial board hopes you enjoy these highlights

Best Wines for Comfort Food

Meg Houston Maker
Features
5 min read
Comfort food. It's polenta and pasta, roast beef and beef stew, pot pie and Shepherd’s pie and macaroni and cheese. It’s hamburgers, French fries, and toasted cheese sandwiches. It’s Chinese takeout and sushi and Chili con Carne; Osso Buco, Braised Short Ribs, and Fish and Chips. And, of course, bacon.

Five Reasons to Love Austrian Red Wines

Meg Houston Maker
Feature Stories
6 min read
I recently polled a few friends to get their quick take on Austrian reds. Replies ranged from “Yum!” to “Huh?”—but heavily weighted toward the latter. True, Austria’s better known for crisp whites like Grüner Veltliner, but red grapes are grown everywhere, too, and make up a third of vineyard plantings.

Best White Wines for Fall

Meg Houston Maker
Features
8 min read
There’s a crunch of leaves underfoot and a tinge of wood smoke in the air. Monarch butterflies, little jags of flame, meander in a big cerulean sky. Fall’s upon us here in New England. Gone are the high summer patio days that found me grilling quick suppers at 8:30 p.m.