WORDS ON WINE.
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The Unpretentious Guide to Portuguese Wine
“The ultimate concise and portable guidebook for travelers, casual wine enthusiasts, aficionados, and professionals.”
NOW AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE!
2025 Content.
‘Wine Improvement Districts’ Promise to Sell More Wine, So Why Are They So Contentious?
As Published by VINEPAIR
… It’s been a spicy topic for a California wine industry approaching economic panic: the “Wine Improvement District” — or “WID” for those actively at odds in the debate. The idea sounds sensible enough: a small regional levy on direct-to-consumer sales, with the goal of raising funds for collective regional marketing. God knows wine needs every advantage it can muster given the current hand-wringing environment, but the seemingly reasonable proposition has set off heated exchanges. …
October 7, 2025
Not Having a Written Wine List Is Trendy—and a Bad Idea
As Published by WINE ENTHUSIAST
… Asking to see the wine list at a bar or restaurant is part of the gig for any group’s “wine person.” For pros and the civilian wine cognoscenti, that’s the moment to earn our keep with the crew. But I’d wager that few responses are more frustrating than when the staff comes back with, “Tell me what you like and the style of wine you’re looking for.” The subtext? “We don’t have a written wine list.” In the current era of wine service fashion, it’s become a frequent refrain. …
October 6, 2025
America’s Bulk Wine Glut Should Have Sparked a Brand Boom. Why Hasn’t It?
As Published by VINEPAIR
… While this year’s totals are still up in the air as harvest and crush continue, the January 2025 data according to California-centric bulk wine broker Turrentine shows about 25 million gallons of California wine on the market, the majority of it red. Within the context of the past two decades, that’s an unprecedented ocean. … All this potentially sets up a prime opportunity to pair domestic bulk wine greatness with a winning value-brand concept, right? …
September 23, 2025
Portugal’s Antique Drink Kiosks Might Be the Cure for Modern Loneliness
As Published by WINE ENTHUSIAST
… It’s a call to meet up at one of Lisbon’s little standalone outdoor bars for a drink. Typically government-owned and privately-leased structures, the quiosque (“kiosk” in English) is a place to leave productivity behind. The quiosque stop has long been a beloved ritual among Portugal’s residents, but over the past decade, the country’s “Quiosque Strategy” of urban renewal has become a surprising source of real-world solidarity in a global society struggling with loneliness. …
September 15, 2025
Moroccan Wine Is Ready for Its Close-Up
As Published by WINE ENTHUSIAST
… For winemaking countries on the eastern and southern edges of the Mediterranean basin, it can’t be easy living in the shadow of Europe. But right at the foot of the Iberian Peninsula, just a stone’s throw away from Spain, sits an aspiring wine world contender: Morocco. … Given its geographical and religious positioning, one might dismiss Moroccan wine culture out of hand, but doing so would ignore millennia of tradition. “Viticulture here dates back over 2,000 years—long before the arrival of Islam.” …
September 15, 2025
The Controversial Cru Bourgeois Classification Gets Another Upgrade—But Does It Matter Anymore?
As Published by SEVENFIFTY DAILY
… The Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc and its member châteaux are leaning hard on the message that this time the bar is higher, with stricter criteria and rules ensuring a renaissance of affordable greatness. It’s a daunting global moment, though, with grape gluts, health scaremongering, tariffs, and a generational reckoning for wine. Within this context … can the designation possibly move the needle toward meaningful brand adoption among industry professionals and consumers? …
September 4, 2025
After Nearly Disappearing, This Chillable Portuguese Red Wine Is Cool Again
As Published by WINE ENTHUSIAST
… One country in particular, though, has quietly but confidently been hustling to promote it as a patriotic calling card. Portuguese Palhete (pronounced “pall-YET”), however, isn’t your typical red wine, though it’s usually categorized as one. It’s a relatively rare throwback style of field-blended, reds-plus-whites, kitchen-sink winemaking. But what’s more exceptional is that Portugal isn’t chasing any trends with it: they’ve been leading the way for almost a thousand years. …
September 2, 2025
The Prized White Wines Collectors Covet Most — That Aren’t Chardonnay
As Published by VINEPAIR
… For this list, Chardonnay is out. It’s time to give the best of the rest their due — the world’s most coveted “other whites.” We’re also excluding sparkling, dessert, and fortified wines — so no Château d’Yquem Sauternes, Royal Tokaji Aszú Essencia, Egon Müller Trockenbeerenauslese, Klein Constantia Vin de Constance, or crazy-old Madeira. What’s left? A lineup of white table wines that inspire genuine cult devotion around the world. …
September 2, 2025
As Scotch and Bourbon Stumble, Continental European Whiskeys Wait in the Wings
As Published by VINEPAIR
… Back in 2019, momentum for mainland Europe’s whiskey was building, but they hadn’t yet reached the popularity of Irish, Canadian, and Japanese whiskeys — let alone Scotch or bourbon. It’s been a hell of a mess since then. … Industry headlines have been trained on global marquee products, but what’s been happening with Europe’s aspiring alternatives — and are these current whiskey curiosities on a trajectory to ever compete with the big boys? …
August 25, 2025
Is Still Prosecco a Clever Bid or a Branding Blunder?
As Published by VINEPAIR
… There comes a time in the lifespan of wildly successful products when it seems the world is not enough. Think: Crystal Pepsi, Facebook’s pivot to Meta, and non-alcoholic hard seltzer. Prosecco, that chipper Swiss army knife of sparkling wine, may be having its moment trotting out the trope. Much to the confusion of everyone, the confounding era of bubble-free Prosecco is nigh. It’s already available in Italy, of course, but also now the U.S. and Prosecco-obsessed U.K., in addition to other export markets. …
August 11, 2025
Big Wine Backing Away From the Entry Level Should Worry the Entire Industry
As Published by VINEPAIR
… A spicy rumor riled up the wine industry earlier this year: Constellation Brands wanted out. And not just a few labels here and there: the whole kit and caboodle. … Instead of opting out of its founding heritage entirely, though, Constellation quelled worst-case-scenario fears by offloading all its value-tier labels. … But if a more starkly foundational value-wine realignment is underway, it could hint at future systemic deterioration of industry health. …
August 4, 2025
Color-Coded Branding Sells Seltzer and Scotch — So Why Not Wine?
As Published by VINEPAIR
… It’s possibly the ultimate example of color coding done right in the spirits world. Those diagonal labels on tall, rectangular bottles are magnetic in their appeal. Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky has become synonymous with that chromatic progression. … Yet in the wine industry, few brands have embraced a similar strategy. Despite endless SKUs and fierce shelf competition, color-coded labeling remains an untapped design tool. Why haven’t more wineries taken advantage? …
July 7, 2025
Is ‘English Single Malt’ Really a Threat to Scotch?
As Published by WINE ENTHUSIAST
… What’s in a name? A hell of a lot if you’re a devotee of single malt Scotch whisky. Earlier this year, the U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs began consideration of an English Whisky GI (geographical indication) proposal that would allow whisky makers to leverage the official moniker “English Single Malt” on their products. But without equivalent standards regarding production location, the Scotch Whisky Association isn’t on board …
July 4, 2025
Nothing Can Stop Julien Miquel: The ‘YouTube King of Wine Pronunciation’
As Published by VINEPAIR
… With a rapidly expanding toolbox of social platforms, a new generation of wine media figures set out to develop this new online frontier — experimenting, adapting, and building audiences in real time. … Among them was Julien Miquel, a young winemaker from southwest France dipping his toe into the wine mediascape. While that era produced plenty of colorful personalities and forged many a path, perhaps no other journey — save that of Vaynerchuk — has been quite as oddly compelling …
June 9, 2025
With White Wine Dominating, Can Richer Expressions Make a Comeback?
As Published by VINEPAIR
… It’s a certainty that many wine consumers, professionals, and civilians alike share the same dirty little secret: an unfashionable love for big, rich white wines. … A fear of being outed and shamed by colleagues has kept many a mouth shut in hopes of avoiding pop-culture humiliation. But as the long arc of fashion begins its overdue retreat from an apex of acid excess, might this guilty pleasure finally be coming back into style? …
May 21, 2025
After Decades of Growth, Could Sliding New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc Sales Spell Trouble?
As Published by VINEPAIR
… It’s been a spectacular success story — one of the most dramatic and consistent ascents in modern wine history. Essentially out of nowhere, beginning around the turn of the millennium, New Zealand wine exports lit the candle and cleared the launchpad. … But there’s a catch. About 85 percent of those New Zealand exports are one lonely variety: Sauvignon Blanc. That’s a whole lot of eggs in one little basket …
May 6, 2025
Champagne Sales Are Slumping. Is Prosecco to Blame?
As Published by VINEPAIR
… A clear champion has emerged in the global race for effervescent influence. In relative comparison to wine overall, the good times continue to roll for all things bubbly, but none have dominated the field more so than that Swiss army knife of fizz, Prosecco … The gearbox now appears to be seizing up for Champagne, as sales have recently slumped … The question begs to be asked: Is the Italian sparkler coming for the French wine’s crown? …
April 14, 2025
Prestige Alcohol Brands Are Difficult to Build — and All Too Easy to Ruin
As Published by VINEPAIR
… Luxury in and of itself often rings hollow, but prestige has soul to it: a sort of timeless essence of cultural meaningfulness … That elevation into the near-universally respected prestige level is an ultimate goal for many alcohol producers and marketers … But cautionary tales abound, and even if smart and lucky enough to hunt down true brand prestige, mucking it all up and squandering the hard-won treasure is far too easy …
March 17, 2025
Long Associated With Sherry, Solera Aging Is Redefining Spirits and Cocktails
As Published by VINEPAIR
… Sherry’s old-school strategy of aging and blending, known as the “solera” system, has trickled its way into all kinds of drinks culture over the past few years as a buzzworthy technique for distillers, mixology pros, and even breweries. And within that cadre, it’s becoming a trendy brand of sorts, a stylistic stamp of solera-club membership. … The intrinsically geeky solera system is slowly inching toward potential (drinks) pop culture status …
March 3, 2025
Can U.S. Supermarket-Branded Wine Follow Europe’s Blueprint for Success?
As Published by VINEPAIR
… The shock experienced by an American when faced with a legitimately lovely bottle of bubbly emblazoned with a supermarket’s logo would probably be lost on the current crop of European residents. … Hell, with zero hint of shame or irony, many are even comfortable bringing the mid-range and posher supermarket bottlings to nice dinner parties. So what is Europe doing so right with its grocery private label wine culture that many outfits in the U.S. haven’t quite figured out? …
February 27, 2025
Is This Once-Iconic Portuguese Wine’s Affordability Now Its Biggest Problem?
As Published by VINEPAIR
… At first glance, with its accessible pricing and seemingly ideal origin location, one might think Moscatel de Setúbal is favorably positioned to once again climb the ranks. But facing a shrinking fortified market, as well as surrounded and outshined by the three most bankable wines of the genre, does the faded star have the slightest chance at pulling off a Cinderella story and regaining its elite fortified status? …
February 17, 2025
This Englishman Put California Wine on the Map Well Before the ‘Judgment of Paris’
As Published by VINEPAIR
… But there’s a forgotten name hidden in the shadows, collecting cultural cobwebs despite its critical importance and prior fame. It’s a name now consistently omitted from the list of those who deserve credit for the overall grand arrival of California wine on the international stage. That name is Harry Waugh, born 1904 just north of London, and lovingly known among his American contemporaries as “the man with the million dollar palate.” …
January 2, 2025
