Author: Stephen Meuse

Dear Publisher, Excuse the impersonal greeting, but I am sending this along to quite a few of you bow-tied literary types and I really can’t be bothered looking up all your … Champagne ConfidentialRead more

Some of the chief pleasures wine affords derive from its effects on the special, hyper-sensitive tissue that lines the inside of our mouths — grasping the lips, tongue and palate in a … Lessons from the HaberdasheryRead more

the first one does the talkin’. Or so goes the rule we learned as novice readers. It’s why we pronounce ROAD as if it were RODE, and not RAID and why RAID rhymes with … When Two Vowels Go Walkin’Read more

Beg pardon. We don’t mean that kind of nouveau riche. Ambitious arrivistes, pretentious parvenus, up-from-nowhere nabobs are the furthest things from our minds this time of year. Rather, we bring our progressive trifocals to bear on … Certifiably Nouveau RicheRead more

When Harry Met Sally and the now famous line “I’ll have what she’s having” was just getting cultural traction, the Internet was still some nerdy DARPA project hardy anyone knew about. Trillions of Web searches … I’ll Have What I’m HavingRead more

Well, if it isn’t our old friend Heraclitus, come to pay a visit. He’s been hanging around for 2500 years or so now and just refuses to go away. True, it’s … On its Way to SomewhereRead more

It may just be my historical imagination run amok (as it tends to do), but I see traces of the momentous struggle between ancient Romans and their German antagonists still drawing … Toga v. Trousers: the RematchRead more

The tiny  Italian wine appellation of Boca shares some important features with elite neighbors a hundred kilometers or so to the south, Barolo and Barbaresco.  Both employ Nebbiolo, a noble and … Wine Secular and SpiritualRead more

I’ve written elsewhere about the age-old romance between the wine vine and trees, and of the numerous ways in which the two have interacted over the centuries. It’s understandable that this symbiosis goes … Still Over a BarrelRead more

I won’t mention a name. But his story, or at least one part of it, is one I’ve never been able to forget. He was forty, or thereabouts, when bitten by … The Fox, the Hedgehog<br> and the Flying WinemakerRead more

Wine talk is surely as old as wine itself, or, if not quite, then at least as old as wine whose source could not be taken for granted by the person consuming … ‘Splain Me Some WineRead more

An American’s first wine encounter while in Europe can elicit surprise. It’s not that Europeans keep the best for themselves — a strangely persistent canard.  Rather, it’s the temperature at which … Differences of DegreeRead more