Is Texas Wine on the Cusp of Greatness?
We have visited most of the wine regions in the United States. Texas is closest to the West Coast in overall wine quality. The High Plains near Lubbock, where most […]
Category Archives: Wine Culture
Stags’ Leap Winery: Sometimes Big is Beautiful
Regular readers of this blog know we’re most interested in small wineries making unique, distinctive wines. We also indulge in some criticism of large industrial wineries and their tendency to […]
KC Wines: To Vinifera or not to Vinifera? That is the Question
Kansas City is a crossroads sandwiched between the South, the East, and the Midwest, a city split in half with one side in Missouri and the other in Kansas. This […]
Mission Accomplished
Today we close out the agenda we set for ourselves when we hit the road in June visiting emerging wine regions in Southern Oregon and Idaho, learning to taste cold-hardy […]
The Lure of the Grape and Wisconsin
To get into winemaking many people give up lucrative jobs and stable careers. The lure of working the land, creating beauty, and sharing it with enthusiasts in an atmosphere of […]
The Grapes from Minnesota are Cold Hardy
We’ve taken the plunge, a deep dive into non-vinifera grape varieties. The wines we are all familiar with—Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay—almost every wine you find on the shelf in […]
Meat, Mead and Mountain Wine in Missoula, Montana
Can wine grapes be grown in Montana? There are some hardy souls who try. Excessive cold, meaning sustained temperatures below –10 degrees, will damage the wood on all vitis vinifera […]
Idaho Wine: Working for Grapes
Idaho may not be the first state you consider when the topic of U.S. wine comes up. But if you’ve been paying attention to the wine press lately, Idaho, especially […]
Wine and Food in Oregon’s Umpqua Valley
There are advantages to being less well-known in the wine world. There are fewer expectations so you can focus on what you want to do rather than what is conventional […]
Wines of Southern Oregon
Southern Oregon is under-the radar, sandwiched between the long-established California regions to the south and the more recently prominent Willamette Valley to the north. My crystal ball is as cloudy […]
Roving Decanter 