Fear and Loathing on the Wine Trail

n Jackson Pollock, Red Composition To an outsider, a wine trip seems like a dream junket where we, the anointed industry professionals, are escorted in luxury from winery to winery in some foreign exotic locale. And once there, we’re treated like royalty by winery...

The Winemaker Dinner from Hell

n René Magritte, The Portrait, 1935 It was April 2006. I’d been in Portugal for the better part of a week with good friend and fellow MS Keith Goldston. We were guests of AMORIM, Portugal’s largest cork producer. For the past several days we had toured cork factories,...

Glassware Stance: The Art of Smelling Wine

Something often overlooked in tasting books or even tasting classes is basic instruction on how best to pick up a glass of wine and, for lack of a better term, address it. Further, the value of discovering the best angle to hold the glass and smelling techniques to...

Holiday Book Bag

n ​Everyone, hope you are keeping safe and well. Welcome to the holidays in a time of pandemic. Odds are you’ve done more reading this year with the quarantine thing than in previous. I know I have. And we could all use a good book right about now. Here is a list of...

Your Lockdown Holiday Wine List

n Hola from New Mexico. I hope everyone is keeping safe and well. Welcome to the lockdown version of the holidays. We may be huddling in our bunkers with immediate family or roommates, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a delicious bottle of vino or two with our...

Judging Wine Quality

n Paul Klee – Fire at Full Moon 1933 There is no faking it. As professionals we are judged by how well we do it. It separates the novice from the professional, and it’s the unwritten–even unspoken–goal of any wine training. What is this mysterious...