Author Roger Morris

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Roger Morris
Roger Morris writes about wine, food and travel for a variety of publications including Beverage Media, Town & Country, Details, Drinks Business and Wine Enthusiast. Morris lives in Pennsylvania and travels frequently to the world's major wine regions.

Fifty Shades of Grenache

Roger Morris
Features
5 min read
A multifaceted grape gets not-so-tough love at a Roussillon competition. Outside our jury room, where we are sequestered in a restaurant on the outskirts of Perpignan, the February sun is fighting to overcome the chill of the night before. On another day, the room might be hosting a boisterous wedding

Best of 2017: The 7-Year Niche

Roger Morris
Features
4 min read
Readers of a certain age will remember Orson Welles assuring us in a 1979 TV commercial for Paul Masson – preserved on YouTube – that “we will sell no wine before its time.” But what is a wine’s time, especially a tannic red one?  When is it ready? Not surprisingly,

Things are looking up in Dão

Roger Morris
Feature Stories
4 min read
A wine region’s reputation is often frozen within a slice of time, like a specimen encased in paraffin awaiting the guillotine cut of the microtome followed by the analysis that occurs under the wine-glass microscope by the consumers of the world. Take Dão.  The region is located in the interior

Corvina, my first love

Roger Morris
Feature Stories
3 min read
Even if they've drunk it before, most everyone experiences a serious first encounter with wine – one moment when you know you’ve really latched onto something magical. When I escaped Appalachia after college, the people I associated with, first academics and journalists, then corporate types, mainly drank cocktails, starting at

Make Bourbon, not Biofuel

Roger Morris
Features
4 min read
Melvin Matteson has serious reservations about becoming a media star. For decades, he has grown hundreds of acres of corn on his farm in Winthrop, Iowa, with little more to worry him other than the occasional tornado. Now, in semi-retirement, everyone, it seems, wants Matteson to show them his cornfield.

Not Done Yet in Sonoma

Roger Morris
Features
5 min read
Joel Peterson. Brice Jones. Richard Arrowood. Not so long ago, these three men were among the most-recognized winegrowers in Sonoma County, and all three can still draw a crowd whenever they pour wine. It has been years, however, since Peterson was in full cry at Ravenswood, demanding “No Wimpy Wines,”

Sardinia: Beyond Cannonau

Roger Morris
Feature Stories
4 min read
Is Cannonau the magic elixir that keeps Sardinia’s centenarians clicking their heels rather than turning up their toes? So it’s said. Is the Mediterranean island the place of origin inscribed on Grenache’s birth certificate? There are Tweets that argue that Spain’s paternity claim is “fake history.” It certainly is true

The Sauternes Dilemma

Roger Morris
Feature Stories
6 min read
Sauternes has a problem. And the fact that Sauternes’ problem is not unique among businesses in a constantly changing world, nor even unique among wine regions, doesn’t make the difficulty any less painful. Nor has the problem just raised its head, as it’s been growing for some time now. It’s