Author: Stephen Meuse

I drew this cartoon a few years ago after a conversation with my wife about just how much the where and the when of wine affects our experience of it. It’s … <span class="entry-title-primary">When we drank it in Tuscany . . .</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">Imagination is wine's secret sauce</span>Read more

One of the more remarkable things about wine is the reverence that people seem to have for it. And I don’t just mean among geeks; you see this in people with … <span class="entry-title-primary">Water into wine</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">America's Test Kitchen Radio</span>Read more

Let’s talk about wine bubbles. Not bubbles as in Champagne, but the kind of bubbles that are created when a market overheats. Think real estate, for example, the stock market, or, … <span class="entry-title-primary">Is it time to make up with Merlot?</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">America's Test Kitchen Radio</span>Read more

I get asked with surprising frequency which alcoholic beverage first passed our greedy lips – was it beer or wine?  Since it’s not a case of needing to have one before you can … <span class="entry-title-primary">Which came first – wine or beer?</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">America's Test Kitchen Radio</span>Read more

The late Yogi Berra is credited with saying that you can observe a lot by watching. As with many of the late Yankee catcher’s quips, it seems silly at first. Only … <span class="entry-title-primary">Rhymes with Radicchio</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">Food friendly Verdicchio has become our go-to white wine</span>Read more

If you’re a regular listener to America’s Test Kitchen Radio, you know that all sparkling wine is not Champagne and cannot be so-called, and that in most places where winemaking has long … <span class="entry-title-primary">The pet-nats are coming</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">America's Test Kitchen Radio</span>Read more

ARENI, ARMENIA.  As caves go it’s not the sort to attract attention. There are no souvenir shops on the approach and no dramatic lighting within intended to highlight the kind of … <span class="entry-title-primary">Dropping in on Neolithic Happy Hour</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">Child sacrifice and cannibalism at the world's oldest known winery</span>Read more

There was a time in our wineshop when we took pains to identify wines made with organically farmed grapes or via the method known as biodynamics. And there was good reason … <span class="entry-title-primary">Should you be buying only organic or biodynamic wine?</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">America's Test Kitchen radio</span>Read more

At least once a month we play a game in the wine corner at Formaggio Kitchen that we call three bottle monte. The name is an allusion to three card monte, … <span class="entry-title-primary">Tasting a wine that doesn’t exist</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">America's Test Kitchen Radio</span>Read more

Judging from the questions I field every day in the wine department of Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge and the mail I receive from America’s Test Kitchen Radio listeners, food and wine … <span class="entry-title-primary">A Brine Time Was Had by All: <br/>Choosing the Right Wine for Seafood</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">America's Test Kitchen Radio</span>Read more

Previously, the Cambridge Formaggio Kitchen wine department took care to identify the wines on its shelves that were made from organically or biodynamically farmed grapes and with no — or minimal — … <span class="entry-title-primary">Farewell to the ladybugs</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">If organic and biodynamic certification doesn't guarantee good wine or responsible agriculture, what does?</span>Read more