Archive for the ‘Wine Education’ Category

Dec 8, 2021

What Has Been Confirmed and Learned in My 16th Year of Wine Writing

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…

Nov 29, 2021

Yes! Go Ahead and Obsess Over Wine and Leave Bad Wine For Others.

No…No, let’s not defend bad wine. I stared at my phone with incredulity as I woofed down a morning pop tart and read Henry Jeffreys’ ode to icky wine drunk in memorable times over at PIX. Jeffreys, a man with a palate and a lover of fine wine who wants us to believe that good times past might have something to do with the wine we drank: “some of the best times in my life have been spent drinking very…

Nov 4, 2021

The Stench of Envy is Rising in the Wine Industry

Oliver Styles’ recent call for drinking equity for wine industry workers is a variation on a common theme. It’s not a theme you see so enthusiastically endorsed these days primarily because long experience has demonstrated that the Marxist/communist principle “from each according to his ability to each according to his needs” has proven to be such a disaster for humanity. But to Styles’ argument, laid out at Tim Atkin site, put simply he advocates that the most coveted wines in…

Sep 14, 2021

Women and Wine—From Then to Now

GuildSomm has published a rather wonderful article exploring the historical place of women in the wine industry that deserves to be read by…well, everyone. Written by Tanya Colleen Morning Star Darling (who clearly has the best name in the wine industry with perhaps the exception of Emily Wine), “Women in Wine: Systematic Exclusion & the Success of Tenacious Women” explores the long exclusion of women from the wine industry, while delving into the various ways women have or must have…

Aug 26, 2021

The Corruption in the Wine, Beer & Spirits Trade Was Anticipated

In 1933 a small book, Toward Liquor Control, was written and published. Sponsored by John D Rockefeller and written by Raymond B. Fosdick and Albert L. Scott, the book had a singular goal: to provide guidance to state lawmakers and policy wonks that, in the wake of Repeal, were tasked with creating a new alcohol regulatory system for their states. The philosophy behind the recommendations in Toward Liquor Control was a real fear that, in the wake of Repeal, America…