All posts in April 2021

Wine grape varieties don’t generally send out end of year letters as many families do. But if they did, some of the more interesting would surely be those leaking from the pens of the Sangiovese family — a large and diverse vinous clan with claims to a long and noble history. Some sense of the extreme antiquity…

A few years ago, I visited the island of Vulcano, one of a flotilla of small land masses that poke up from the Tyrrhenian Sea off the northeast coast of Sicily. It’s the place that gave European languages the word volcano, and one of four of Italy’s active, above-ground volcanic centers is located here. I didn’t climb its…

The mystery of what exactly constitutes human nature seemed a step closer to solution when, in 1800, a young boy was found living without family or adult supervision in the wilds of the Aveyron in south central France. To contemporary theorists of human behavior, the apparently feral child presented a unique opportunity to observe what an individual who had never been subject to socialization of any…

THIS WEEK IN THE WINE CORNER: Good of you to take time to talk with us here in the Wine Corner, Easter Bunny. Few people know that you’re passionate about wine. We have so many questions for you. EASTER BUNNY: I’m all ears. TWWC: We hear you have an extensive wine cellar in your hutch.…