The two biggest dangers to wine are wide temperature fluctuations and high temperatures for a sustained period of time. For wines that you plan to consume in the next week to the next year, which will probably be most of your wine, a dark, low-vibration closet in a home or apartment with a normal household [...]

Obviously the answer to the above question depends partially on who you are, a wine consumer, a winery, or a wine reviewer. If you are a novice wine consumer, wandering through the wine section of your local Fred Meyer store, how else will you have a clue as to where to start in identifying a [...]

If you know exactly what wine you want to buy, then the only issues are availability and price. A big box store like Costco or Sam’s, a wine mega-store like BevMo in California, Spec’s in Texas, Davidson’s in Denver, or Total in the Southeast (if you have one of those in your area) may fill [...]

Wine is a beverage to be enjoyed, preferably in the company of friends. Unfortunately, though, many people find wine intimidating. For many, making it through the onslaught of bottles at the local grocery store or wine shop and actually choosing a bottle is just half the battle. Now, it’s time to drink it. If all [...]

Wine clubs are very popular among newbie and seasoned wine lovers alike. It’s easy to understand why. You visit a tasting room, like the ambiance, like the wines, and like the friendly tasting room host. So when he or she offers you a way to get 20% off of your wine purchases, you jump at [...]

Wine lovers spend a lot of time talking about wine itself but very little time talking about the glasses in which that wine is served. As we have said before, good wine glasses do make a difference. However, before you roll your eyes in disagreement or, conversely, fear that you’ll have to take out a [...]

Only in America (and in some other New World wine regions) can you plant whatever grapes you want to plant where you want to plant them, irrigate if you wish, harvest the grapes when you want to harvest at whatever sugar level you desire, blend varieties as you wish, so on and so forth. In [...]

After more than fifty years since my first sip of wine, I have a pretty good idea of what I like in a wine and what I don’t like…and what’s good and what is not really good. And I’m not easily fooled by a wine whose proponents call it a product of unique terroir when, [...]

What first attracted me to this book, A Taste for Wine: 20 key tastings to unlock your personal wine style by Vincent Gasnier, Master Sommelier, was the subtitle, because I believe there are many wine consumers who sort of know what they like in wine but haven’t equated it to a particular wine style. “Wines [...]

When the infamous Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, his answer was, “That’s where the money is.” When I’ve asked winery owners from Eastern Washington why they’ve opened a tasting room in Woodinville, the answer has most often been, “That’s where the people are.” Makes sense, doesn’t it? In fact, I wrote a [...]