Essays

An Apologia for Terroir in an Era of Tribalism

The fashion for political tribalism suggests terroir might be a concept for a closed élite. Not so.

Wine is a constellation of traits fixed and mutable. The taster must understand both.

Reflections on my research on the evolution of wine commentary, the reactions it’s provoked, and how it’s changed me, too

Ask of a piece of wine writing — any writing, really — What’s working? What’s not working? And how might it work better?

Cider commentary can profit from active efforts to rethink the lexicons of wine

When writing about food, probe five main questions

My introductory remarks from a panel session on rethinking the language of wine

I’d come to the Douro to see port being made. Now it was my turn to help make it.

A family makes its own traditions

Sweet memories of days at the lake.

Without the farmer there would be no farm. There would be no food. And, to our focus today: Without the farmer, there would be no wine.

Arguments and revelations, courtesy of Müller-Catoir’s luminous Rieslings.