Vinography

Finding the grapevines amidst all the sagebrush isn’t easy at Weathereye Vineyard on the crest of the ridge that backs up the Red Mountain AVA within the Yakima Valley in eastern Washington State. The high-density, echalas-trained vines with their grey wooden posts purposefully blend into the scraggly sweep of the hill far above the valley floor.

Hello and welcome to my weekly roundup of the wine stories that I find of interest on the web. I spend each week trolling the web for everything published about wine online, and here’s everything that I think would be worth your valuable time.

When the Rhône Ranger movement in California selected Syrah as the variety to champion above all others, they bet on the wrong grape. Syrah’s struggling sales over the last 20 years offer clear proof of that. I find myself wishing that they had chosen Grenache instead. Especially as more producers begin to bottle lower-alcohol, whole-cluster influenced, energetic versions of ...

Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up on my doorstep asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of the better bottles that have arrived recently.

This past week included a few new releases from the Raventos family in the Penedès region of Spain. Their <...

It’s hard to imagine a more idyllic French wine country village than Jongieux, which lends its name to the small commune in the Savoie region known for stony, bracing white wines made from Altesse and Jacquère. Situated in a glacially carved valley, the vineyards climb the sloping hillsides surrounding the town, making the whole place feel like it sits in a bowl of green.