Terroir Review – Award-winning commentary on food, wine, and place

Barolo landscape

Features, Italy

The Piedmont Diaries

by Meg Maker

Notes and sentiments from four days tasting wines in the cradle of the Alps

Features, France, Visual Essays

Six Women of Languedoc Wine

Nerello Mascalese and olive trees

Italy, Red Wines, Rosé Wines, Sparkling Wines, White Wines, Wine Reviews

Tasting Report: Red and White Wines of Mt. Etna

Features, Portugal, Visual Essays

Whither Port?

Features, Reference, Wine Science

What is Malolactic Fermentation?

Features, Reference, Wine Science

Acidity In Wine

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Barolo landscape

The Piedmont Diaries

Six Women of Languedoc Wine

Charlotte de Béarn with her wine in Terrasses du Larzac

Charlotte de Béarn

Isabelle Champart outside her winery

Isabelle Champart

Noémie Vidil at a tasting of St. Chinian white wines

Noémie Vidil

Céleste Renault opening bottles of Picpoul wine

Céleste Renault

Corinne Woodland and Nathalie Caumette

Corinne Woodland and Nathalie Caumette

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

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Essays

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

Wine Reviews

Tasting notes and reports

2021 Domaine Anderson Estate and Dach Vineyard Pinot Noirs

by Meg Maker

Bright and snappy Pinot noirs from Anderson Valley

2021 Domaine Anderson Estate and Dach Vineyard Chardonnays

by Meg Maker

Corison Kronos and Sunbasket Cabernet, and Graham's vintage port

Hail Fellows, Well Met

by Meg Maker

Nerello Mascalese and olive trees

Tasting Report: Red and White Wines of Mt. Etna

by Meg Maker

Drawing of a range of wine bottles stylized with flowers

A Rose by Every Other Name

by Meg Maker

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PRESS, AWARDS & SPEAKING

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Food

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

megmaker

The world in tatters, we still have tea.

The world in tatters, we still have tea.

I live in the past, also the present and future.

I live in the past, also the present and future.
#maplesyrup #maplesugaring #horse #horses #newengland

That time of year again. #maplesugaring #maplesug

That time of year again.

#maplesugaring #maplesugaring #maplesyrup #newengland #mapletree #tap #rurallife

Wine education relies on tasting grids and formal

Wine education relies on tasting grids and formal lexicons to help novices build foundational skills. These tools help cultivate an “analytic mindset” and get learners off to a strong start.

But once they’ve attained basic mastery, learners need different tools to make the leap to expertise.

Read what two researchers have discovered, and some thoughts about what it means for wine communicators, in my latest Chair’s column for @circleofwine.

Link in bio/stories and https://www.circleofwinewriters.org/from-the-chair-to-become-a-taste-expert-move-from-specific-to-holistic/

#wine #wineeducation #winetasting #winewriting #winelexicon

Isabelle Champart, winemaker of Mas Champart Isab

Isabelle Champart, winemaker of Mas Champart

Isabelle Champart originally trained in Geography in Paris. Her husband, Matthieu, was from a farming family in Champagne. When the couple took over a family estate in St. Chinian in 1976, the fields were crowned with old vines, but they needed work.

The Champarts got going on renovations, and also planted an additional 12 hectares. For the next decade they sold grapes to the coop, but started bottling wine under their own label in 1988. Matthieu labored in the vineyard, while Isabelle made the wine, ran the cellar, and negotiated sales.

Isabelle retired in 2021, and the estate’s wines are made by a fresh talent, Noémie Vidil, whose portrait I’ve also featured in my project, Six Women of Languedoc Wine.

https://terroirreview.com/2025/02/22/isabelle-champart/

#wine #art #portrait #painting #fineart #portraiture #languedoc #vinsdulanguedoc #stchinian #winewriter #winelover #winelovers #winecountry #winetasting #winetravel #wineartist #languedocwine

Charlotte de Béarn She is the thirty-second gene

Charlotte de Béarn

She is the thirty-second generation owner-winemaker of Château de Jonquières in the Terrasses du Larzac.

Charlotte studied economics and English and earned a Master’s in Reims before returning to the estate with her husband, Clément de Béarn. The couple worked with their parents for two years to gain expertise, then in 2014 formally took the reins.

Read more and see the portrait (with details) at https://terroirreview.com/2025/02/22/charlotte-de-bearn/

#wine #art #portrait #painting #fineart #portraiture #languedoc #vinsdulanguedoc #terrassesdularzac #winewriter #winelover #winelovers #winecountry #wnetasting #winetravel #wineartist #languedocwine

Paint what you see, not what you know. Last June

Paint what you see, not what you know.

Last June, I revisited the Languedoc, one of my favorite territories in France. Instead of a standard tasting report, I’ve painted portraits of six women who work in the Languedoc wine industry.

Read my introductory essay explaining my thinking and process, then link through to each portrait.

Start here or link in bio:
https://terroirreview.com/2025/02/22/six-women-of-languedoc-wine/

#wine #art #portrait #painting #fineart #portraiture #languedoc #vinsdulanguedoc #winewriter #winelover #winelovers #winecountry #wnetasting #winetravel #wineartist #languedocwine

Our Christmas greenery’s second act as wildlife

Our Christmas greenery’s second act as wildlife feeding station.

“Hosting a big group provides them an excuse to

“Hosting a big group provides them an excuse to gather in force, throw a party, open a slew of wines, visit, socialize, kvetch. I suspect the producers like these events even more than we do.”

A new illustration from my travels.

#wine #illustration #terrassesdularzac

https://megmaker.com/2025/02/pausing-for-a-photo-in-terrasses-du-larzac/

Self Portrait I’ve been experimenting with natu

Self Portrait

I’ve been experimenting with naturalistic portraiture, learning how to capture light, expression, and character with brushstroke. In this self portrait I’ve merged myself into another of my paintings, combining imagery to shift the mood.

Also, I’m just putting this out there: if you’d like me to paint your portrait, or a portrait of someone special to you, I’m open to commissions.

#painting #portrait #portraiture #selfportrait #fineart

Neighbor #superbowlsunday🦉 #barredowl #owl #ow

Neighbor

#superbowlsunday🦉 #barredowl #owl #owls #owlsofinstagram #🦉

I’m thrilled to have been invited to deliver a p

I’m thrilled to have been invited to deliver a paper at the inaugural Pinot Noir and Identity Symposium at Oxford University.

The Symposium, to be held July 10–12, aims to focus attention on the variety’s unique place in the world of wine by examining how its identity has been constructed over the centuries. The event is open to all wine scholars, academic and non-academic, as well as those involved in the production, promotion, and consumption of Pinot Noir wines.

My paper uses Pinot Noir as a case study to examine the shift in descriptive motifs used to make sense of this wine. It evaluates how the lexical and linguistic choices have evolved over the last few decades to keep up with Pinot Noir’s evolving significance, and considers whether these approaches differ depending on a specific wine’s territorial origins. Finally, it considers how insights from these explorations extend to other wines to offer broader implications for wine’s role in shaping cultural identity.

Join us! Registration is now open.

More information: https://www.thepinotnoirproject.org/events-2-1/event-one-bjz9y
Registration: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/pinotnoirproject/1434504

#pinotnoir #pinotnoirwine #pinotnoirproject #wineculture #winetradition #culture #materialculture #winelanguage #winelexicon #Oxford #oxforduniversity

More snaps from last week in the Langhe. #wine #b

More snaps from last week in the Langhe.

#wine #barolo #barbaresco #roero #albeisa #langhe #nebbiolo #arneis #barbera #freisa #dolcetto #winemaking #winewriting #winetravel #winemedia #presstrip #italianwine #vino #vinoitaliano

About last week. I visited the Langhe to taste a p

About last week. I visited the Langhe to taste a parade of young wines, with events and excursions organized by the Albeisa Consorzio.

1. Ampelographer Dr. Anna Schneider gave an excellent presentation about Nebbiolo’s origins and genetics.

2 & 3. An expert crew of somms poured 176 wines over four days in the tasting room.

4 & 5. On Sunday, Alba finally enjoyed a wash of sunshine.

6. I dined with winemaker Virna Borgogno and tasted her excellent Cannubi Barolo, grown on vines just in front of her winery. Virna was the first academically trained woman enologist in the Langhe, joining her father in the winery in 1991.

7. I also dined (and the next day tasted) with Giulio Abrigo of Abrigo Giovanni. Among other wines, he produces an outstanding Dolcetto Diano d’Alba, concentrated and floral with shiny acidity.

8. Preserved porcinis in an Alba shop window.

9. Writer Kevin Day with a producer. We journalists sat through successive rounds of speed tastings, as 30 producers on Day One, and another 30 on Day Two, worked their way around our tables. Each was given six minutes to present three wines, during which we had to make notes and ask questions. Intense doesn’t begin to describe this experience.

10 & 11. One of the tastings was held at the cellars of Angelo Negro. They keep a small library of Arneis, having been among the first to bottle a dry version.

12. The tiny town of Barolo.

13. The Barolo vineyard.

14. I had the opportunity after the group events to taste privately with Francesca Vaira. Detailed notes to come.

15. Buona notte, Alba!

#wine #barolo #barbaresco #roero #albeisa #langhe #nebbiolo #arneis #barbera #freisa #dolcetto #winemaking #winewriting #winetravel #winemedia #presstrip #italianwine #vino #vinoitaliano

Textural words switch on readers’ palates. Becau

Textural words switch on readers’ palates. Because words themselves have texture. They have literal texture, in the mouth, when we speak them. They have virtual texture, in the mind, when we imagine them.

My latest column for The Circular — “Texture is the New Flavour” — link in bio and:
https://www.circleofwinewriters.org/from-the-chair-texture-is-the-new-flavour/

#wine #winewriting #tastingnotes #winetasting #texture #taste #flavor #tasting #writing

“What do we owe wine? I don’t mean any specifi

“What do we owe wine? I don’t mean any specific wine: this bottle, this vintage, this producer. I mean what do we, as wine writers, owe wine writ large?”

My latest column for @circleofwine was prompted by a humble glass on a cold and rainy night.

TL/DR: Context matters.

Link in bio and https://www.circleofwinewriters.org/from-the-chair-critical-thinking-skills/

#wine #writing #prosecco #unpretentious #nosnobzone #contextiseverything

Ella Jane wishes you a happy 2025.

Ella Jane wishes you a happy 2025.

Also works in reverse. #wine #beer

Also works in reverse.

#wine #beer

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