Terroir Review

Drawing of a range of wine bottles stylized with flowers

Features, Rosé Wines, Wine Science

A Rose by Every Other Name

by Meg Maker

Rosé wine is booming, but myths (and secrets) linger

Clouds over Cornas

Essays, Features, Wine Writing

Genotype, Phenotype, and the Essence of Wine

Painting of a bottle and glass of white wine sitting on a table. Sunlight is streaming through the objects making reflections and shadows.

Essays, Features, Wine Writing

Checking in on The New Languages of Wine

Marco Di Grazia

Features, Italy

Listening Recklessly to Marco de Grazia

Wine bottles lined up on an exterior windowsill

Essays, Features, Wine Writing

Inside The Machinery of Story

Organizers in the town square in Montefalco for the preview they called "A Montefalco"

Features, Italy, Visual Essays

To Montefalco

Features, Portugal, Visual Essays

Whither Port?

Features, Reference, Wine Science

What is Malolactic Fermentation?

Features, Reference, Wine Science

Acidity In Wine

Joško Gravner in his fermentation cellar in Oslavia

Features, Italy, Visual Essays

The Gravner Notebook

Barefoot in the Douro

Essays, Features, Portugal, Travel

Barefoot in the Douro

IACP Food Writing Awards 2024

“What is Malolactic Fermentation?” is a finalist for Narrative Beverage Writing Read the article

All features

Profiles, essays, travelogues, tasting roundups, and more

Drawing of a range of wine bottles stylized with flowers

A Rose by Every Other Name

Meg Maker in her office

Interview With Meg Maker on the New Languages of Wine

Clouds over Cornas

Genotype, Phenotype, and the Essence of Wine

Painting of a bottle and glass of white wine sitting on a table. Sunlight is streaming through the objects making reflections and shadows.

Checking in on The New Languages of Wine

Video: The New Languages of Wine

Marco Di Grazia

Listening Recklessly to Marco de Grazia

Wine bottles lined up on an exterior windowsill

Inside The Machinery of Story

Organizers in the town square in Montefalco for the preview they called "A Montefalco"

To Montefalco

Champagne corks

Festive Flights and How to Take Them

View Features

Terroir Review

A journal of nature, culture, food, wine, and place About Terroir Review

Chianti Classico Volpaia vineyard landscape

GOOD READS ELSEWHERE

How Preservation Efforts Keep Chianti Classico Intact

A tour of Castello di Volpaia, I Fabbri, and Castello di Monsanto leaves wine writer Kevin Day hopeful about the future of this storied region. Kevin’s article, on his publication, openingabottle.com, is free to read. Read it now.

Essays

Award-winning narratives on wine, food, and place by Meg Maker Read more

PRESS, AWARDS & SPEAKING

VIEW ALL ACCOLADES

Food

Terroir-driven foods (including lots of cheese) READ ALL FOOD STORIES & REVIEWS

megmaker

Working on a new surface pattern. Mad respect for

Working on a new surface pattern. Mad respect for all who succeed at this craft. It’s… hard.

#surfacepattern #surfacepatterndesign #surface #surfacespatterns #surfacedesigner

A scholar examines how our understanding of cuisin

A scholar examines how our understanding of cuisine is shaped by what we say about it, and vice versa.

Her scope is broadly Western, starting in ancient Greece then racing through Europe to America, highlighting prominent commentary on dining, cookery, service, and haute cuisine.

I was hoping for more specifics of food language, the tone and flavor of food commentary. But the author is, after all, not a linguist but a sociologist, one who looks at food talk for the ways it creates the social world.

“Talk anchors this food world by making it possible for us to share the unshakable — that is, our sensual, powerfully private experiences of eating…. Without food talk, from recipes to criticism, and without food talkers, from cooks to consumers, the most glorious meal would be forgotten.”

#food #foodcriticism #criticism #sociology #foodwriting #language

Helped this tender one across the road. #newt #ef

Helped this tender one across the road.

#newt #eft #redeft #salamander #rurallife #whydidtheeftcrosstheroad

Pinot noir day, eh? I’ll bite. Here are a few

Pinot noir day, eh? I’ll bite.

Here are a few photos I took in 2015 while visiting Champagne Bollinger in Aÿ.

Behind the winery they husband an old clos planted to own-rooted Pinot noir, which they use for their cuvée “Veilles Vignes Françaises.” Only a few hundred cases are made each year, and a single bottle will set you back nearly $2,000. The hornets like it, too.

#wine #champagne #pinotnoirday #pinot #pinotnoir #ownrooted #prephylloxera #ungrafted

Deliciously readable and filled with delightful li

Deliciously readable and filled with delightful linguistic and culinary surprises. It also reminds us that words we consider “ours” have lengthy histories in the mouths of others.

#language #linguistics #food #foodwriting #culinaryhistory #words #writing #foodhistory

I’m thrilled to be a finalist again in the @iacp

I’m thrilled to be a finalist again in the @iacppix Food Writing Awards!

My @terroirreview feature, “What is Malolactic Fermentation?”, is nominated for best Narrative Beverage Writing. You can read it at the link in bio and stories or at https://terroirreview.com/2023/04/08/malolactic-fermentation-wine-science/.

Honestly, I’m gobsmacked the judges chose a wine science explainer in this category — especially because the other nominated pieces are just so good, full of warmth and humanity and lovely writing and gorgeous photography.

On the other hand, this has been one of my most-read pieces, so I know readers want this info. 🥂

Congratulations to my friend and colleague Kevin Day @openingabottle and to Noah Arenstein @noah.m.arenstein for their terrific articles!

#wine #winewriting #winewriter #winescience #wineeducator #wineeducation #vino #vin #winelover #winelovers #winewritingaward #foodwriting #foodwriter #science #malolactic #malolacticfermentation

Happy Ella Jane Adoption Day to all who celebrate!

Happy Ella Jane Adoption Day to all who celebrate! Ten years today with this fluffernutter. 💖

I loved talking with @_ciliegiolo for their terrif

I loved talking with @_ciliegiolo for their terrific Substack, The Fizz. We had a rich conversation about the evolution of wine writing, wine language and lexicons, intersubjectivity, and where wine communications might be (or should be) headed.

Link in bio and stories and https://thefizz.substack.com/p/the-fizz-81-meg-maker-lobbies-for

#wine #winelover #winelovers #winewriter #winewriting #winecommunications #wineeducation #wineeducator #vino #writing #winelanguage #winelexicon #winelearning #winetasting #winespeak

On Saturday I made a thing! It was my first time w

On Saturday I made a thing! It was my first time working with stained glass and I’m hooked.

#stainedglass #glassart #glassartist #artist #art #design #glassstudio #vermont #craft

Strolling by my office window. Next I scared him o

Strolling by my office window. Next I scared him off. Shoo, bear!

#bear #blackbear #shoobear

Last night’s libation, enjoyed over dinner at @t

Last night’s libation, enjoyed over dinner at @thymewrjvt before a gobsmacking teenage (really) performance of Cabaret at @northernstagevt.

The day was hot, the evening sultry and close. I’d booked us for the patio but we quailed, choosing instead an indoor two-top washed with conditioned air. I’d had pink wine in mind, but the restaurant listed only a single, lonely option, Elvio Tintero’s spritzy blend of Barbera and Arneis which, a tasting sample proved, was unable to meet the moment.

Bethel Heights to the rescue. I’d visited the winery a decade ago, in July 2014, meeting with second-generation winegrower-maker Mimi Casteel (who’s since begun her own project, Hope Well wines, to great acclaim). Bethel Heights was one of the pioneers of wine growing in the Willamette Valley, the family purchasing property in Salem in 1977 and making wine in their basement until the 1984 vintage, when they actually had some to sell.

Which is to say they’ve been doing this long enough to know what they’re doing. This wine, a 2021, is satiny but textural, with shimmery acidity that feels vital and vivifying. Fruit is there but beside the point. This vintage spent ten months in a mix of stainless and neutral oak, without malolactic, then this bottle reposed another few years before the server pulled the cork, and the wine wears all of this like flowing silken robes.

Fewer than 200 cases were made, and the 2022 is, according the Bethel Heights website, sold out. I’ll be watching for more.

#wine #willamettevalley #oregonwine #pinotblanc #eolaamityhills #winelover #winelovers #vino #winewriter #wineeducator

Reading. Delightful. The kind of delightful you ca

Reading. Delightful. The kind of delightful you can’t stop reading but don’t want to finish.

As new communities discover wine, they also discov

As new communities discover wine, they also discover the limitations of wine writing that relies heavily on the language of flavor. In my inaugural Chair’s column for the @circleofwine Circular, I share some insights and offer examples of members’ work that provides fresh perspective and voice.

Link in bio and stories or https://www.circleofwinewriters.org/from-the-chair-wine-writing-reimagined/

#wine #winewriting #winewriter #vino #winecommunication #wineeducation #wineeducator #winebusiness

And of course I had to make a mixed wines version.

And of course I had to make a mixed wines version.

#pattern #patterndesign #patterndesigner #patterndrafting #patternmaking #design #illustration #illustrator #artist #procreate #wine #vino #coffee #winelovers #coffeelover #foodart

Red wine, white wine, amber wine, pink wine, coffe

Red wine, white wine, amber wine, pink wine, coffee, coffee, coffee. 🍷☕️

The week’s been nutso but I managed to continue my experiments with repeating patterns, cleaning up one of my favorites, a wine and coffee combo, and playing with colors. I’m learning as I go along (thank you, YouTube), but planning to open a @spoonflower storefront soon. 🌻

(Yes, it’s unidirectional, but I’ll also make some multidirectional patterns for #sewistsofinstagram.)

Fun, hard work. Love learning new skills.

#pattern #patterndesign #patterndesigner #patterndrafting #patternmaking #design #illustration #illustrator #artist #procreate #wine #vino #coffee #winelovers #coffeelover #foodart

I was inspired by @rieslingfans’s photo of an Em

I was inspired by @rieslingfans’s photo of an Emerald Tanager to experiment with repeating patterns. It’s tricky! But I think I’ve wrapped my brain around it with this test.

I’ve always loved the richness of repeating tile and wallpaper and textile patterns, and while this one’s pretty simple I’m encouraged to push further.

#art #pattern #repeatingpattern #fabric #textile #illustration #illustrator #bird #birdart #birdartist #artist #artistsoninstagram

I was interviewed by email for @wineindustrynetwor

I was interviewed by email for @wineindustrynetwork about my wine writing approach and inspirations, my current research focus, the state of the craft, wine language and lexicons, advice to new pros, and the prospect of making a living (or not). Enjoy.

Thanks to @carlgiavanti for the great questions.

Link in bio and stories or https://wineindustryadvisor.com/2024/07/15/turning-the-tables-on-meg-maker/

#wine #winewriter #wineeducator #winebusiness #wineindustry #winewriting #vino #winelovers #winearomas #winereviews #winecriticism #winelanguage #winelexicon

Back today for another sniffy-sniff. At this point

Back today for another sniffy-sniff. At this point I’d prefer he stick to the woods.

#bear #blackbear #livingwithbears

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