Anyone following wine discourse remembers what happened in early 2023. That was when ChatGPT appeared, seemingly threatening the jobs of wine writers: an “extinction level event,” some declared. Soon after,...
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What You Want It To Be
It feels odd today, but there was a time when science was considered an aristocratic pursuit. Tycho Brahe was a nexus of Danish noble lineage, Lavoisier was the intellectual face...
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France’s Next Great White
We think we know where to look for fine white wine in France: Burgundy, obviously; Alsace Riesling, Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé, Pessac-Léognan and a few other highly regarded whites from...
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Looking Back At Kiwi Pinot Noir
New Zealand winemakers have blazed a trail across the global white wine landscape with Sauvignon Blanc. Now the country’s most planted red grape, Pinot Noir, is demonstrating equally compelling potential,...
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Aiming High
The drive from Tarija to the Cinti Valley challenges your imagination as well as your lungs. You leave a bustling city at 1,900 metres and begin the switchback climb to...
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Travelling Light
‘Trouble is,’ said my old friend, ‘that’s just not what I want to drink any more.’ He was referring to the cellar he’d built up over 30 years and more:...
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Wine, Liberty And The Birth Of Economics
Wine shaped the earliest debates about trade, taxation and political authority far more than we usually admit. As the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether a president can impose sweeping global...
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In Praise of NoLo
Regarding Andy Neather’s recent article on low and no alcohol wines, I would like to offer a few reflections: far from polemics, far from ideologies, far from rigid viewpoints. Simply...
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Making It Count
Early in Charles Dickens’s A Tale Of Two Cities, a wine cask rolls out of a cart in a Paris street. It promptly breaks, spilling its contents. Hilarity ensues. Men...
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The Curse Of Low And No Alcohol Wine
Exciting news! Elton John has launched his own alcohol-free wine. Granted, to many of us it seemed scarcely believable that Sir Elton hadn’t previously done so: he’d already been beaten...
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Is Objectivity Overrated?
Over the last two years, I have been interviewing wine writers. I have asked them about their views on the field and to reflect on their own writing. Initially, I...
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The Earthworms Are Safe
Much has been made, in both mention and meme, of the recently announced MICHELIN distinction for wine. Not to be confused with the MICHELIN Sommelier Award, or the recognition of...
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