“Where every bottle tells a story”
Exploring the world of wine through the lens of wine literature and media
There are some pleasures in life that feel almost embarrassingly simple: the sound of a cork easing its way out of a bottle, the first swirl of garnet or pale gold in a glass, the way a room seems to soften as the first sip is taken. Wine, for all its centuries of history and its sometimes intimidating vocabulary, is really about that moment: a quiet, private thrill, shared with others or stolen...
The road wound up from the coast in slow turns. The sea fell away behind and the land closed in. The hills were not gentle. They were hard and broken and the color of old blood and rust and dried bones. The men who worked them were the same. They did not talk much. They worked and they drank the wines that came from those hills, and they knew that both the work and the wine were honest. This is...
It is a truth very generally acknowledged, that a gentleman or lady in possession of a well-laid...
The madness started with a glass of red that smelled like a rockslide. Not the polite, curated...
The river moved slow and wide, like an old soldier who had seen too much and now kept his own...
There are places in the wine world that feel less like regions and more like...
There are places in this world where time seems to walk a little slower, where...
Oh, my dear, pour yourself a little something and pull up a chair—because by the...
There are some landscapes that feel as if they were drawn not with pencil and ink, but with a wine...
There are some landscapes that feel as if they’ve been slow-cooked by the sun, basted in sea breeze...
The wind came down from the scrub hills and crossed the vines and went on to the sea. It carried the...
It is a truth, perhaps not yet universally acknowledged, that a person in...
On the far eastern edges of Europe, where empires once rose and fell like...
Oh, my dear, pour yourself a nice glass of something—preferably from somewhere...
If you love wine, maps, and a good armchair adventure, pour yourself a generous...
You arrive in Bordeaux expecting refinement. Crystal stemware. Starched linens....
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The year in wine was like any other year and not like any other year. Vines woke...
Oh, what a delicious subject we have today. Pour yourself a glass of something...
Oh, how marvelous that you’ve come to talk about Tuscan wine! Pour yourself a...
You probably think you know French wine. You don’t. Not really. You know...
There are places on this earth where the gods still bother to show up, and...
The first glass hits like a velvet hammer. It’s late—the kind of late when...
In the cool of an early evening, as light drains gently from the sky, a hand...
There are wine books that taste like homework, and then there are wine books...
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The first thing you need to understand is that fermentation is not cute, it’s...
It is a truth not universally acknowledged, but very much felt by those who have...
You may think of wine as a simple pleasure—red in a glass at twilight, white on...
There are places on Earth where time does not merely pass, it settles—layer upon...
You don’t set out to become a “wine person.” You just want a drink. Maybe it...
It is a truth not universally acknowledged—but which deserves to be—that a small...
It begins, as so many human stories do, with a simple act: someone, somewhere,...
On a quiet hillside, as the sun sinks and the air cools, a vine clings to the...
You’re sitting in a dim bar with a glass of red in front of you. You swirl it,...
Oh, my dear, if you’ve ever wanted a wine that behaves like a velvet robe for...
There’s a quiet road that runs from Dijon down to Santenay, a ribbon of tarmac...
The first thing you learn, if you survive long enough, is that most of the wine...
Oh, my dear, pour yourself a little glass of something red and sturdy, and let’s...
On a quiet hillside, as dawn first brushes the sky with pale light, a vineyard...
There’s a narrow strip of land in eastern France, pressed gently against the...
There are books you sip at and books you gulp, but some you decant, letting them...
In the soft, slanting light of a late summer evening, as the sun sinks behind...
For as long as humans have stood beneath the stars and wondered at their place...
It is a truth very generally acknowledged, though seldom expressed in polite...
In the soft, slanting light of an Atlantic morning, a mist rises from the...
You don’t really get wine until you’ve seen it at its ugliest. Not the...
There is a moment, somewhere between the second glass and the third, when wine...
It is a truth not universally acknowledged, but very often felt, that a person...
In the soft morning light, as mists curl above the Garonne and Dordogne rivers,...
The first thing you need to understand is that Barolo is not a wine. It’s a...
The first time you open a book about wine, you expect lies. You expect the soft...
You don’t really get wine until you’ve seen behind the label. Not the...
There comes a moment in every drinker’s life when beer won’t cut it, whiskey...
On a cool autumn morning, as mist clings to the folds of gentle hills, a narrow...
The first time you hear a Champagne cork explode in a quiet room, it sounds like...
The first time you meet this thing, it doesn’t shake your hand. It grabs you by...
Oh, what a delicious little subject we have today. Pour yourself a glass of...
The first time you taste a wine that stops you, you remember it. Not the label....