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Keyword Organic: What does this mean in Italy

Elisabetta Tosi
Features
3 min read
In Italy, people go crazy for anything “organic.” Food, wine, buildings, the economy, the environment, clothing... it all has to somehow be “green” or “natural.” In the collective imagination, “organic” is synonymous with health and cleanliness.  It is respectful of nature’s rhythms -- much more so than the ordinary things

A Consumer Revolution in Wine

David White
Features
2 min read
"This democratization of wine is great," asserted Jancis Robinson, one of the world's leading wine authorities, over coffee one recent morning. Robinson was in Washington, D.C., to promote the seventh edition of The World Atlas of Wine, the indispensable reference book co-authored with Hugh Johnson. Robinson has spent the last

Indian Wines: Our Cycle of Love and Loss

Dorothy Gaiter
Features
6 min read
A colleague at The Miami Herald pointed us to her favorite place, the House of India, on a side street in downtown Coral Gables, Florida. There, in the 1970s, we discovered swoon-worthy, cloud-light samosas, fiery vindaloos, crisp papadum, sweet mango chutney, and what came to be viewed by our family

Napa Valley 2013 Harvest

Michelle Locke
Features
3 min read
The exciting news about the 2013 Napa Valley wine grape vintage is … that it was pretty darned dull. No killer frosts struck in the spring to menace tender new shoots. No monster heat waves mauled the ripening grapes in the summer. And even the labor shortage that growers had

Ten Easy Tips to Make Delicious Cocktails

W. Blake Gray
Features
4 min read
I used to make lousy cocktails. Not anymore. I didn't go to a bartending class. Instead, I just paid attention to what good bartenders do, and took a few simple steps. Now I'm going to share. This is not going to be a cocktail geek piece. These are things anyone

Toss Those Tasting Notes

David White
Features
2 min read
Ever tasted a boysenberry? What about cat pee? Can you easily discern Irish breakfast tea from English breakfast tea? And do you ever drink kirsch, the brandy made from sour cherries? If you're anything like me, your answer to all these questions is "no." Yet descriptors like these fill the

The Team Sport of Trained Sensory Tasting

Erika Szymanski
Features
8 min read
[box] (and why electronic tongues are cool, but insufficient)[/box] Proteins in saliva bind tannins. Tannins are molecules responsible for astringency (and some bitterness) in red wine. When tannins bind with salivary proteins, which ordinarily keep your mouth feeling nice and slippery, your saliva becomes less viscous – dry-feeling – while