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Discovering Vermentino

Vermentino is Italy’s best shot for an indigenous variety that could go international. Years ago, some journalists wagged their fingers at producers warning them that the name “Vermentino” could be confused for a diminutive term for “vermin”. But the trade and the public has, either mercifully or by chance, chosen...
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Riccetelli and Lopez

Master and apprentice, behemoth and beauty, yin and yang: two complementary personalities and temperaments make this newly formed team creating wine at Bodega Norton. The winery was founded by Edmund James Palmer Norton, an English engineer who’d come to Argentina to help in the gargantuan task of building the Transandean...
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Gin’s Revival

While it’s true that the predominant low-end domestic segment, that represents over 7O% of gin’s 11 million-case annual total volume sales in the US, continues to be static and largely disappointing, the upwardly mobile performances and brand expansions in the high-end import tier is cause for genuine celebration in this...
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Screwtops

Pro-Stelvin testimonials, trickling in from wineries worldwide, are raising voices against all corks, natural and plastic. We report the findings and learned commentaries of three respected wineries, Bonny Doon from Santa Rosa, California, Mitchell from Clare Valley, Australia, and Kim Crawford from Marlborough, New Zealand. But first, let’s begin with...
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When Wine Gets Refused

One of the most difficult and time-consuming situations for a sommelier, manager or waiter is when a client refuses a bottle of wine. This is mainly because it is such a subjective situation. If a customer sends a dish back because it is over or underdone there really isn’t any...
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Revisiting Champagne

Sophie Larmandier (Champagne Larmandier-Bernier), of Vertus in the southern end of the Cote des Blancs, and her husband, Pierre, have taken a biodynamic course as a way to nurse their land back to health. Pointing down at the ground in her vineyard, she exclaimed, “This soil is alive again. Pierre’s...
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Profile: Mary Myers Kauppila

MARY MYERS KAUPPILA • CEO & Co-Owner, Snows Lake Vineyard • Red Hills, Lake County AVA, CA Mary Myers Kauppila is CEO of a sizeable vineyard in the new Red Hills AVA. This blonde farmer’s daughter is Nordic through and through: both sides of her family are Scandinavian and she’s...
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A Libation Education Menu

CONJUNCTION, CONJUNCTION, WHAT’S YOUR FUNCTION . . . Thought I’d share that classic School House Rock tune with you, because it’s been going around and around in my head ever since I decided to write about Wine Education. Education, education, what’s your libation? Whether you’re new to the wine world...
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The Rise and Fall of FMB’s

Alcopops, malternatives, “FMBs’, hard drinks: whatever you call them – and what you do call them probably identifies your slot in the alcohol beverage business – these sweet, beer-strength drinks have had an amazing and fast-moving career. From odd and abortive beginnings in the ‘6Os and ‘7Os – StingRay, Hop’n’Gator,...
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