Archive for the ‘Wine Media’ Category
The idea that “Terroir” is the source of fine wine flavor is a myth. This is according to Professor Mark Matthews at the University of California, Davis in his new and controversial book: “Terroir and Other Myths of Winemaking.” As the title of this new book implies, the myth of terroir is only part of Matthews’ investigation. This post wants to explore only that part of Matthews’ new work that addresses terroir. In “Terroir and Other Myths of Winegrowing”, Matthews…
At the risk of sounding like the guy shouting at the kids to get off his lawn, I have to ask: Is it really necessary for Jordana Rothman to fabricate history in order to profile Punch Editor Talia Baiocchi in Food & Wine Magazine and demonstrate the really great work she is doing at that site? In a lead-in to a profile on Baiocchi, Jordana writes: There was a time, not so long ago, when wine and spirits writing was…
Below is a chart produced via Google Trends. It depicts the relative interest in the term “Wine Blog” over time based on Google search queries. As you can see the relative interest in wine blogs has been waning now for a good six years since interest peaked in 2009. What happened? Whatever happened did not only happen to wine blogs. It has happened to blogs in general. What happened was social media. Above is another chart produced by Google…
After 25 years or reading the wine media fairly closely I can honestly say I still enjoy reading it closely. In large part this is because the drink and the culture that surrounds it still fascinates me, but also because I’ve learned how to be discerning about which writers I read for pleasure. However, I really do feel burdened reading about wine at this particular time of year. In November and December it seems a vast majority of wine writing…
It has been an interesting year in wine. No single story dominated the wine news. There was no economic disaster. There was nothing that had an overwhelming impact on the wine world. Still, a diverse set of very interesting stories emerged from the U.S. wine world. Below are those stories from 2015 I thought most important, particularly for members of the wine trade. They are in no particular order. However, I can say that the story listed as #1 will…
