My dad just turned 80. I could devote many column inches on the enormous impact my father has had on the fabric of so many people's lives over the years (google “John Rosenberg AppalRed” or “John Rosenberg...

Super Tuscan. Yet another WineSpeak term that can make a novice wine drinker feel over his or her head -- like "full malo" or "highly extracted." This term for certain Italian reds was all the rage for a few years, and I think has died down just...

Hand it to the folks at Planet Bordeaux. They're a creative bunch. As I've mentioned before, Planet Bordeaux is the marketing arm of the winemakers who produce Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur wines. These are the wines that often get lost between the more inexpensive “vin de pays...

Hangovers -- a hazard of the occupation. No one can work with wine without tipping back too much from time to time. The morning after. The headache, the nausea, and the sun, as Nicholas Klar once wrote, "is like God's flashlight." Nobody to blame but yourself...

I love it when I’m lucky enough to score a couple of wine samples. I opened the box to discover a couple of cabernets from Lake County, California -- two 2005's from Snows Lake Vineyards named "One" and "Two." "One" was 100% cabernet sauvignon. "Two" was a 3-1 blend of cab sauv and cab...

There are occasional perks to being a shamelessly self-promoting fledgling wine writer. Every now and again, perks appear. Several weeks ago, I was working with my fellow blogger Harlan Weikle, proprietor of "Here's Cooking at You, Kid." We did some commentary on the Build a Better Burger...

One of many wine-related befuddlements is trying to understand what the big deal is about oak. If you listen to some wine folks at (usually higher-end) tastings, as part of the oenological word salad that they're coming out with -- they make reference to oak, the amount of time spent in oak, oaky flavors...

“Do you like dogs?” The Sweet Partner in Crime and I had been dating for a few weeks when she invited me to swing by her place for some food and a glass or three of wine. My family had had dogs while I was growing up, although my sister was much more interested in them. I like pooches, though, and since I had some...

"You know, Mike -- by nature, you're a cynical bastard. But when you write about wine, you always find the good stuff. Have you ever run into a wine you didn't like?" Actual quote from a recent conversation. And it's a good question. I mean, I'm usually pretty lucky with...

Ah, Italian wine. Love it. Love it. Love it. As the foodie that I am, I’m hard pressed to come up with wine that goes better with a meal than Italian wines. After all, one of the few things that Italians do better than making wine is cooking, and because they’ve been making wine as long as they have, winemakers in...

Men like wine. Why don't we see it advertised to them? Watch typical "male" programming. You know, sports, wrestling, action movies, "24," and so on. You don't see wine ads among the deluge of "light" beers, gadgets, and Howie Long and Denis Leary arguing...

When in doubt...pink. Words to live by when you're considering food pairings. Few things go better with...well...everything than rosé. As I've pointed out in the past -- I'm not talking about white zinfandel here. White zin is perfect for...

So, I get mail... Vine reader Steve K. asks: "You go through a lot of wine, and you seem to like most everything. I get it -- there's a lot of good wine out there. But do you ever get surprised by a wine at this point?"

On the world wine stage, Washington's a relative newcomer. Not long after settlers started moving to the Pacific Northwest in great numbers in the late 1880's...along came Prohibition to throw a big ol' monkey wrench into the works. Once the Dark Ages were over, Washington started cranking out some

Fumé blanc. Sounds interesting and a little exotic, doesn’t it? You may have seen a few bottles of it the last time you were perusing the “American whites” section of your local wine shop. Almost identical in body and color to sauvignon blanc, fumé blanc is the creation of Robert Mondavi in Napa. Mondavi...

The Scene: A novice wine drinker scurries nervously down the aisle of a local wine store. He studiously avoids eye contact with the "overly helpful" store employees who hover like Eddie Bauer associates around a 2-for-$25 rack of mock turtlenecks. All he wants is a bottle of wine...

Viognier is a notoriously tough grape to grow. One theory about the name of the grape is that because of low yields and susceptibility to mildew, "Viognier" is actually a modification of the Latin "via Gehennae"—which means "road to hell." Modern winemaking techniques have improved the production of the...

A few months ago, longtime Vine reader and erstwhile neighbor Christine asked, "So, when are you going to do a column on box wines." I mentioned to her that planned to do one for April Fool's. "No, seriously," she said with an edge in her voice that gave me goosebumps. This is, after all, a woman who hiked the state of Vermont in five weeks...

I wasn't always a big fan of whites. I'd drink them, sure—and it was nice to have something cold around the house, but I chilled them almost to freezing and basically used them like light beer. Once I started learning, I grew to tolerate them. I thought most were too tart or too oaky. I discovered good Riesling and my eyes opened—my gateway white...

Syrah—the juicy grape. Our final red class focuses on Syrah. (Or Shiraz, if you prefer—same grape.) Of the three reds, syrahs are biggest and fruitiest. Now, I use "biggest" to mean the fullest body—not necessarily the strongest flavor. I had a misconception about Syrah. I was under the impression that the French cultivated...

Chardonnay, the ubiquitous white. Chardonnay is the United States' most popular wine—and perhaps the most popular in the world. Walk into almost any neighborhood bar or five-star restaurant. Nine times out of 10, the "house white" will be Chardonnay. The history of Chardonnay...

Great writing, art, romance, and history have all sprung up under this wine's influence. Grown just about everywhere, cabernet sauvignon is the world's most popular red. Known also as "claret," learning cabernet is an absolute must for a would-be wine enthusiast. So read on—you'll find something...

Sauvignon blanc, the light white... Of the six major varietals, sauvignon blanc is the most delicate. Sauvignon Blanc follows only Chardonnay in domestic U.S. production—although the difference between first and second place is a factor of six or seven. As people became somewhat "chardonnayed...

Let's now explore the differences between wines made from the same grape. While it's easy to tell a pinot noir from a syrah, learning how a single grape like pinot noir can differ gives you an opportunity to find a wine you really like and to find the perfect wine for a specific occasion, food, evening, gathering, person, etc...

When I started drinking wine, I thought that red wine came from red grapes and white wine from white grapes. I was a little surprised when I saw a picture of ripening sauvignon blanc grapes next to some cabernet sauvignon grapes. They're practically identical...