“Casanova’s Europe” reveals a refined and visually seductive culture on the cusp of modernity—one characterized by pleasure seeking, movement across boundaries, and self-invention. Casanova himself inhabited many roles—entrepreneur, social climber, spy, … In Love with Love . . . and WineRead more
Make Mine Brustianu
As a child, your correspondent loved television, cars and the newspaper. He grew up with three outlets for TV programming, a trio of automakers, and a daily Boston Globe. How very quaint and … Make Mine BrustianuRead more
Wine is Sexy. But is it Gendered?
Considering the antiquity of winemaking and wine drinking, wine writing (at least as we know it) is a fairly recent phenomenon, not reaching back more than a couple of hundred years. … Wine is Sexy. But is it Gendered?Read more
Wait, Wait Don’t Drink Me
When is a wine ready to drink? It’s not so much a complicated or difficult question as it is a misunderstood one, we think.
Who Made Wine What it Is?
No wine intended for market rather than for immediate local consumption has a credible claim to be solely the creation of its winemaker, no matter how visionary.
Austerity Measures
It was in the midst of the hangover resulting from the 2008 Greek debt crisis, and I was packing up a case of wine for a customer when I noticed I … Austerity MeasuresRead more
Champagne Confidential
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
Lessons from the Haberdashery
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
When Two Vowels Go Walkin’
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
Certifiably Nouveau Riche
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
I’ll Have What I’m Having
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
On its Way to Somewhere
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