The Wine Idea

The wine experience is readily sorted into three distinct areas of operations. And, while two of these — the making of wine and its imbibing — draw the bulk of our interest, the … Stem Snatcher or Foot Pincher?Read more

Here in the wine corner, we have real admiration for winemakers who do things the old-fashioned way, who work with traditional materials and methods, who eschew needless interventions with the aim … Manipulation Not a Four Letter WordRead more

  What is wine made of?  It’s not an easy question to answer. One could say fresh fruit, I suppose, but that will hardly do, since in the fermentation vat fruit undergoes … A Brief History of Time . . . in a BottleRead more

From an evolutionary point of view, a grape is really nothing more than a little seed bundle whose sweet flesh and bright color serve to attract the birds who, ingesting it, subsequently … What the Birds KnowRead more

The wine world has always been obsessed with representations of quality. Strange, then, that quality should remain so elusive a concept. This is in part because, while all material objects have … Not the Same as Large or BlueRead more

The chalkboard that hung over the old wine corner shelves at 244 Huron Avenue prior to the move to our new location listed a hundred or so lesser-known grapes from which … No sex, please. We’re wine grapes.*Read more

It’s gone from Val day, to Gal day, to Pal Day. Maybe, to cover all our bases, it should just be Enthrall Day — a day to celebrate, or at least wonder … The Heart Has its ReasonsRead more

Birds gotta fly, vines gotta climb. It’s the way of things, and for most of the history of winemaking, it proved convenient to give domesticated grapevines the opportunity to do what … At the Corner of Elm and VineRead more

An unexplained interest in the categorory of functional foods having recently gripped me, I uncovered a couple of New York Times stories that proved helpful.  One, Dessert, Laid-Back and Legal, from 2011 reported … Good for what ails you?Read more

Real journalism isn’t created in newsrooms, but in the places where news actually happens.  That’s why from time to time your intrepid correspondent packs his duffel, dons trench coat and fedora, … Wine god saithRead more

A few months ago, I said something in this spot about having multiple bottles open at a time being a sign of a certain maturity in your wine drinking. The title … Is this the year you finally install a cellar?Read more