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Taking it Slow in Central Otago (Part 1)

L.M. Archer
Feature Stories
3 min read
Challenged by climate change, lack of available land and rising production costs, some of Burgundy’s top producers have established wineries in Oregon. But the more adventuresome are now flying much further afield -- to New Zealand’s Central Otago. Located on the 45 parallel in the Southern Hemisphere, Central Otago is

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

Crossing Trentino

Elisabetta Tosi
Feature Stories
4 min read
In 1494, a young German painter living in Nuremberg, just married but unhappy, took the opportunity of a black plague outbreak to leave the city, and to leave his wife - at least temporarily. His aim was to explore Italy, the country of the Renaissance, and to study the art

The State of PA Wine

Fabian Jauregui
Feature Stories
4 min read
It's been nearly five years since Joe Roberts visited with a dozen Pennsylvania winemakers to learn about their commitment to quality dry wines, so an invite to the recent PA Sommelier Judgement Day event -- hosted at Nectar restaurant in the Philadelphia suburb of Berwyn -- seemed like a good

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
biserno-vineyards

Discoveries: Giant Cabs Back in Balance

Becky Sue Epstein
Feature Stories
3 min read
Whether you tend to open a luxury wine for weekday meal or for a once-a-year celebration, I think you’ll be much happier now with the recent vintages of high-end cabernet sauvignon-based wines and Bordeaux-style blends from Napa – and from some exalted wineries in Italy, too, for that matter. It

The vexed question of winery tasting fees

Simon J Woolf
Feature Stories
3 min read
Perhaps it should be listed under "First world problems", but the issue of how much wineries charge for a tasting is alive and well, as I learned firsthand last weekend. It is, of course, partly cultural. Wineries in most European countries, unlike their American counterparts, have tended historically not to

Malibu Coast: The Reluctant AVA

Roger Morris
Feature Stories
6 min read
It is a warm afternoon in early May, and the skinny shoulders of the Pacific Coast Highway – “PCH” to locals – are lined for miles with single files of parked cars as Angelenos enjoy a few hours of Sunday sun-soaking on the beaches along the Malibu Coast.  Traffic moves