Best of 2015: Do “hand-picked” grapes mean better wine?

Erika Szymanski
Features
6 min read
This piece by our resident wine science specialist was short-listed for the Born Digital Wine Awards in the Best Investigative/Journalistic Wine Story. Erika ended up winning in this category, but for a different technical piece, published on her own site.  Stanford linguistic professor Dr. Dan Jurafsky's recent book on The Language of Food:

Best of 2015: The Oregon Chardonnay Clone Wars

Mary Cressler
Features
7 min read
Staff writer and Pacific Northwesterner Mary Cressler explores the controversial nature of discussing Oregon's clones of Chardonnay in this piece from March. Oregon’s controversial history with chardonnay clones culminated into one question earlier this month: do clones matter when it comes to chardonnay? We were there to find out at the fourth

Best of 2015: Irish spirit

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
4 min read
Michelle Locke has picked up some of the Palate Press spirits beat, and this year her pursuit of spirits for this publication has taken her to Mexico, Scotland, Ireland, and France. Her Irish travel piece, though, stands out since it has one of the best ledes we've ever run. “Business or pleasure?” asked

Old fashioned virtues

Michelle Locke
Features
3 min read
Spirits, sugar, drop of water, bitters, twist – there’s nothing very complicated about the old fashioned. But those five ingredients -- along with a few dashes of over-the-top kitsch -- have added up to an action-packed history. A few cocktail details: Glass Act The old fashioned is one of the