Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category
It’s pretty clear at this point that I’m incapable of looking at something then not saying something about it. This affliction can’t be addressed through medication. It’s something I’ve known for some time now that I just have to give in to the compulsion. And that’s what I’ve done for the past 17 years and through 3,500 posts here at Fermentation. It’s my intent to continue to do this at a new subscription-based newsletter/website version of Fermentation hosted by Substack…
The wine media is a slow-moving ship. Its turns and transitions come slowly. When changes do come to the wine media, they are notions and innovations at first, then the spigot opens and it seems as though it must have always been this way. Up until the 1960s and into the 1970s, the wine media in the United States consisted primarily of books providing the basics on a select number of regions and wines One occasionally would find newspaper articles…
I’ve often thought it would be a fascinating project to map out The Family Tree of Winemakers. The project would consist of connecting present-day winemakers to winemakers of the past and follow the influence and inspiration down the line: Smith worked under Jones; Jones worked under Washington. Washington worked under Johnson, etc, etc. In the U.S., this would essentially be an exercise in tracing back most of our great winemakers to Andre Tchelistcheff. This could be done with winemakers because…
I don’t remember the last time I saw the sun. Surely it peeked through the slate grey Oregon sky at some point in the past four weeks, but honestly, it couldn’t have been for an hour or two. Before we moved to the Willamette Valley, we were warned of the winters. We were warned particularly good and hard by our friends who lived here and understood we were coming from Napa Valley where it rains and is grey in the…
Having just completed my 16th year publishing FERMENTATION, I look back at these past 12 months and, as is my tradition, seek to understand what I’ve learned or confirmed about wine, my industry, and its people in the course of my reading and writing and living. These are those things. CONFIRMED: Wine Communications Remains Vibrant: When I think “Wine Communications” I’m thinking real writers and media, not influencers. I’m thinking about the emergence of The Drop, From Pix. I’m thinking…
