Author: Stephen Meuse

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

    It’s a provocative question but not a facetious one.  The thought came to me while having lunch recently with an old friend who was instrumental in making two once-celebrated … <span class="entry-title-primary">Arf!</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">How winemaking resembles dog breeding</span>Read more

A chat with Julia Hallman, general manager at Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge this week about the shelf talkers that I had been busy rewriting.  The time between taking the old ones down and … <span class="entry-title-primary">Confessions of a Shelf Talker</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">How is a wine defined?</span>Read more