Clark Smith is a tough act to follow. By this, I don’t mean that it’s hard to step on a stage after he has danced his ideas across it, but rather that it’s often hard to understand what he’s getting at. In the last few months, I heard Clark Smith
Taylor Fladgate CEO Adrian Bridge has the kind of resume that makes other resumes shuffle their feet sheepishly in a corner. He spent six years as an officer in The Queen’s Dragoon Guards after attending Sandhurst, Britain’s military academy, and then went on to six years running the U.S. equity
It hit me in one of those ubiquitous olive oil shops. This oil reeks of tomato leaf. Just like one I tasted a minute ago. Turns out they were made from the same olive variety. As with grapes and wine, single varietal olive oils showcase the distinct aromas & flavors
Picture a public tasting, an important one, held in Montpellier, France. People are tasting American wines. And grimacing. The wines are too sweet. Too primitive. And too funky. People want to like them, really they do, but these American wines just don't seem good enough to save the wine world,
Hangups? I've got plenty, but don't worry - I'm not about to start using this column as therapy. But when I pick up a bottle of wine and the alcohol content is listed as more than 14%, a whole host of prejudices kick in. Is this going to be an
I feel as though I need to whisper this, but I think that yeast might be trendy. The furor (both supportive and critical) over natural wine is bleeding over into an interest in the “wild” yeasts that contribute to their distinction, and whether or not they're really “wild.” Meanwhile, a
There is a maddening chicken-and-egg problem with most restaurant wine lists: Are wine lists stupid because customers don’t know much about wine, or are customers uneducated about wine because restaurant wine lists are stupid? I realize that most wine drinkers don’t spend all that much time looking over restaurant lists,
In a roomful of powerhouse producers, in a region full of icons, it's always nice to find a hidden gem - and a great story more than 40 years in the making. I first met Mario Bazán at Premier Napa Valley last February. The annual event, which takes place at