Author: Stephen Meuse

THE SKETCH AT LEFT is a bit of graffiti scratched by a first century Roman who may have been keen to have some fun caricaturing then Emperor Nero – as some … Of sassy barmaids, drinking by the numbers, and barbarian mannersRead more

            THE STORY OF HOW a genial Swiss wine importer named Christoph Künzli undertook the recovery of the Boca vineyards in Italy’s Piedmont region when they were … Is there a bias against the blend?</br>Read more

LAST WEEK A FRIEND showed up with a bottle of 20 year-old grand cru white Burgundy that for some reason had rather fully oxidized despite having been kept in a wine-friendly … <span class="entry-title-primary">Of orange wine, faded jeans, and shabby chic</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">What distinguishes intentionally and accidentally oxidized white wine?</span>Read more

FOR AMERICANS, France’s Loire Valley is familiar as the source of the lively, mineral-inflected white wines of Sancerre and Muscadet. The region is also home to a broad, if less frequently … Light, appetizing, <em>chilled</em> Loire reds </br>Read more

CENTRAL BOTTLE  WAS POURING three so-called orange wines at its most recent Thursday Night Wine Bar event.   We’ve written twice before on a category (I’ll cite those posts momentarily), that … The House of OrangeRead more

IN WEDNESDAY’S BOSTON GLOBE FOOD SECTION we reported on our crawl of newish, higher-end burger joints in Atlanta, but last week we ducked out of town to snatch a few days in … Québec, au bar, en brefRead more

Was the deed done by Mother Nature, in the vineyard, with her little heat index?  Or was it done by Mr. Winemaker, in the cellar, by means of a doubled-barreled roto-fermenter? … Of horsepower, megapixels, thread count, and alcohol in Napa cabernetRead more

AXA is a big French insurance company that also owns a number of important wine properties. The wine part of the business is run by Englishman Christian Seely whose blog I … Tokai: How they get the sweet inRead more

A WINEMAKER FORTUNATE ENOUGH to have a vineyard within a prestige appellation is entitled to the cachet the name conveys and earns a correspondingly high price for his wine. Another, whose … Drinking One Tier down</br>Read more

WHEN suppertime rolled around last Sunday night and I had an open bottle of a favorite red wine standing by (2008 Closerie des Alisiers Hautes Cotes de Beaune), I decided not … On whether red wine can ever be fish wineRead more

IF YOU HAVEN’T at least heard about the natural wine movement, it could only be because you haven’t been paying  attention. If you have been, you probably know that it’s an … Absent-minded Winemaking and the Romantic TraditionRead more

IT’S EASY TO FORGET that at one time the celebrated  vineyards of northern Europe were nothing more than wooded hillsides. The Romans, who generally took the long view of things, planted … Hautes Côtes de VermontRead more