Category: Wine

I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes in a “mini-review” format. They are meant to be quirky, fun, and (mostly) easily-digestible reviews of (mostly) currently available wines (click here for the skinny on how to read […]

(image: Lugana DOC) Back in October `22, I was invited for a virtual tasting of various Lugana DOC whites, organized by Civilta del bere and Alessandro Torcoli. Longtime 1WD readers might recall Torcoli, who I met in Argentina when judging the Argentina Wine Awards, and for whose Italian magazine I once wrote an overview of […]

Dry January is over, for those quixotic enough to try it – but the shiver it provokes in the French wine industry continues. Ever since the battle over the first official French “Défi de Janvier” in 2020, when President Macron dropped public funding for the campaign under industry pressure, Dry January has a become a […]

(image: NVWA) Every so often, the idea of challenging the merit of earning wine certifications becomes de rigueur, and we start to see articles pop up meant to prod that debate. This is, I think, in part due (unfairly) to the ridiculous modern cultural war against expertise in general (there’s a very interesting book on […]

A confession: I’m pretty sure I used the term ‘Kafkaesque’ before I’d read any Kafka. In itself this could count as faintly Kafkaesque in its admission that authenticity and the appearance of authenticity are sometimes interchangeable. So it was ok, then. When I did read Kafka – first The Trial, then The Castle (which was […]

Have you ever wanted to tour Tuscan wineries, visit cultural sites, all while staying in 4-star hotels? Well, who hasn’t right? But this spring, you can have the chance to do all of this–with me! I have organized two consecutive one-week tours. The groups are small but some spots have recently become available (4 on […]

I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes in a “mini-review” format. They are meant to be quirky, fun, and (mostly) easily-digestible reviews of (mostly) currently available wines (click here for the skinny on how to read […]

In 1966, the US Senator and presidential candidate John McCain’s father, Admiral John S. McCain, Jr. spoke about wine in congressional testimony: Gallo’s “Thunderbird,” to be exact. Yes, that “fortified” wino’s wine (20-21% ABV) that floated Gallo’s boat to such a degree it came to submerge competitors in the California wine industry. The 4-star Admiral […]

YOWZA! My partner Shannon recently celebrated a milestone birthday [ editor’s note: Shannon is quite a bit younger than the Dude ], and so we deemed it necessary to both celebrate a bit early (due to her demanding work schedule, since she is a consummate and dedicated professional) and to dip into the wine sample […]

I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes in a “mini-review” format. They are meant to be quirky, fun, and (mostly) easily-digestible reviews of (mostly) currently available wines (click here for the skinny on how to read […]