“Everybody knows the blackcurrant bush.”
-Le Nez du Vin, Jean Lenoir
Blackcurrant is the most common flavor descriptor of the most popular grape variety in the world: Cabernet Sauvignon. At least the British think so. American wine writers tend to use the term cassis, which [...]

On behalf of our crack map team, I apologize for the delay in releasing our California Wine Map. It will now be available March 24th. The saddest part is that the map’s been 99% done for the past month and a half . It’s as if we’re trapped in Zeno’s paradox. Or [...]

Breaking News: The Wine Tasting Notebook Hardbound Version is now available for purchase.

An expanded hardbound version of our Wine Tasting Notebook will be in stock this coming Tuesday, December 9th. It has 160 pages with the Wine Tasting Terms as a pullout in the back of the book and will retail for $14.95. [...]

Update: Wine Map of California is now available.
As soon as we released our first wine map – of the Iberian Peninsula – I started getting emails like this: “Dude, when are you going to do a California Map?”
For some reason, I was under the impression that a bunch of good [...]

The one and only Clark Smith is on the hot seat this week at Enobytes.com. Stop by to ask him any question concerning wine making, the wine industry or just to see the discussion. For those of you who don’t know him, he owns the world’s largest wine consulting company – Vinovation – and [...]

¿Por qué Iberia?

We started with Spain and Portugal for 3 main reasons:

It’s the most dynamic (and constantly changing) area in the wine world today
There wasn’t a good map currently available (for France there are a few)
It’s a great looking land mass!

This is simply the only up to date wine map of the region [...]

Move aside Hondarribi Zuri (of Txakolina fame), there’s a new grape in town.
We were in New York City last week for a wedding and the 2006 Stadlmann Rotgipfler was one of the wines flowing freely. The newlyweds are serious foodies so their choice of the latest, coolest and most obscure grape variety wasn’t too [...]

Is it Cabernet Sauvignon or cabernet sauvignon?
The New York Times and Slate.com don’t capitalize the names of grape varieties but practically everyone else does. What, then, is the correct usage?
This may seem a little geeky or pedantic but it’s important for anyone who writes about wine. I seem to revisit this question [...]

I just got back from a trip to Rome with a bitter taste in my mouth. No, it wasn’t a bad trip or anything like that. It’s just that amazing bitter aftertaste in so many Italian wines both red and white. Is there any country that does bitter better than the [...]

“I’ll be pouring some excellent Cab Francs today.”
Whatever happened to “We’re tasting some excellent Cab Francs today?” Everyone seems to be pouring everywhere these days. Am I the only person who thinks that this sounds strange? What would the equivalent be with chocolate chip cookies? “I’ll be placing some excellent [...]