By Brian Sterling (Flickr: Vineyard on Montebello Ridge) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Do Lower Yields Mean Higher Quality?

W. Blake Gray
Features
3 min read
One of the main statistical canards about wine is that smaller yields equal better quality. This is so widely believed in Europe that wine seminars become predictable. If a winemaker is on a podium talking about a wine, the first question is never about philosophy or intention, but "What was

Give me a word beginning with “N”

Simon J Woolf
Features
4 min read
Is there a single word that's caused more controversy and argument amongst wine connoisseurs/geeks/lovers than “natural”? At least recently, I doubt it. The debate about “natural wine” has raged for a good few years now. During that time, zealots and detractors have nailed their colours to the mast so frequently

What Jane Goodall taught me about wine science

Erika Szymanski
Features
5 min read
The international authority on chimpanzees taught me something about wine this past month. If you were fascinated with animals as a kid or even enjoyed reading non-fiction, you probably remember Jane Goodall; the story of the fearless young woman sallying out into the African forest to live with the chimps

Out in the Fields Drinking Old Vine Zinfandel

Ben Carter
Feature Stories
4 min read
The Lodi Native Project highlights non-interventionist winemaking and individual style. When I headed off to Lodi for a press visit, I got some ribbing from other wine writers.  All good natured, but if you’re already irritated by the stereotypical California style of wine, Lodi might seem to be the worst

Wine at the Rodeo means Big Competition

Mike Riccetti
Feature Stories
4 min read
That one of the world’s biggest wine competitions is associated with a rodeo might come as a surprise.   The images of an oenophile studiously judging wine and one of a cowboy flailing atop a frantically bucking bronco across a dirt-laden corral are a bit discordant, but the fact that the

The Ghost Grape: Renaming “Tocai”

Elisabetta Tosi
Feature Stories
5 min read
Surrounded by a sea of vineyards with a few rural houses sprinkled here and there, a tall white tower rises up in the countryside close to the small village of San Martino della Battaglia. The setting is Northern Italy, near Venice. Here on the 24th of June 1859, a bloody