So you’ve tried a lot of the regular wines you find on wine lists and in shops. You’ve been to a few (or more than a few) tastings. You know what you like. And now you’re looking for the next type of wine to try. Not just something that is
In recent years we have seen many wine myths debunked in the US and Europe. However, some of them still resist fiercely, mainly with older people. For example, in America, many older people believe that only dry wines are quality wines. In Italy there’s a wine myth that “sweet wines
Last night I was disappointed by a bottle of wine. I have a larger point to make, about how science and wine appreciation are at cross purposes, but let's start with this experience that you have also had. It wasn't a 98.3-point trophy bottle, but it was a wine I
For Brits like myself, 2016 got off to a decidedly queasy start, with the extraordinary proclamations of the UK's Department of Health as it released new, draconian guidelines for alcohol consumption. Let's begin 2017 on a more positive note, ignoring for a moment the various political calamities on both sides of
Are we underestimating Merlot? While most people in the wine trade recognize Merlot is making a comeback in the U.S. after its numbers slipped in the wake of Sideways, perhaps there is something much bigger is happening. What if Merlot is really in the middle of a run to replace
I had expected great things from my first experiences with cocktail bitters. Bitter flavors are great, and so are condiments. Make me a kale and radicchio salad spiked with anchovies, garlic, and mustard and I'll nosh contentedly. So I was surprised, when I splashed some of the classic Angostura on
It is 5 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, and I am gingerly sipping a flaming cocktail called the Passion Fruit Volcano in a dark, underground bar in central Frankfurt – an ironic place to be starting my somewhat curious mission to drink a lot of Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque in an
I was in Cognac one hot summer day, trying to make conversation with a producer who spoke about as much English as I do French, and the situation was getting sticky in every way when he suddenly asked me whether I had been to Scotland. Yes, I had. Well, then,