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From the land to the label
The rising white wine wave of the southern Rhône
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From the Chair: Considering criticism
This month Meg Maker examines whether a wine communicator can ever really be objectively critical.
I enjoy reading criticism of books, art, cinema, and architecture. As a writer who does some wine criticism, I find it instructive to see how critics from other domains approach the exercise.
I was particularly struck by a recent New Yorker piece, an essay by Julian Lucas reflecting on the critic ...
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Let’s talk pink and qvevri!
Liz Sagues reflects on May’s two Let’s Talk About... sessions which explored the ancient and the modern.
On 6th May, CWW member and Georgia expert Carla Capalbo explained the 3,000-year-old tradition of Georgian qvevri wines. A fortnight later, another member, Liz Gabay MW, joined by her son Ben Bernheim and producers from Austria, Greece, and Italy, led a lively discussion on all things rosé —...
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From the Chair: Are we trying too hard to explain wine?
Circle Chair Meg Maker questions the role of the reader in wine writing, and in doing so, reflects on the purpose of the writing itself.
I recently published a long memoiristic essay about a press trip I’d taken in Northern Italy. A fellow wine journalist posted a comment asking, “Who’s the reader?”
It’s a valid question. Whenever we sit down to write an article, we should consider our reader, a...
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Let’s Talk About… April’s extremely topical sessions
Liz Sagues recaps the highly topical talks this month in the Circle's Let's Talk About... series.
The second of the two April Let’s Talk About... sessions could hardly have been more topical. As Benjamin North Spencer recounted the story of the new wines of Etna, Europe’s largest active volcano rumbled and grumbled in the background, in its most explosive eruption for more than two decades. The...
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From the Chair: In praise of editors
In this month’s column, Circle Chair Meg Maker reflects on why a skilled editor is one of a writer’s most valuable collaborators — especially in today’s fast-moving world of digital media.
“Every smart person wants to be corrected, not admired.”
—Marvin Minsky
I’ve recently completed two large wine media projects. The first was a series of naturalistic portraits of women who...
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From Barça to bodega and Camp Nou to DO Manchuela
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From the Chair: Texture is the new flavour
Meg Maker explores the second sense in wine — texture.
For a few days last week, a rhinovirus gripped my system. My normally prismatic sensorium went dark. Flavours were reduced to the basics: salty, sweet, bitter, sour, savory. My morning tea was hot, astringent, wet but curiously drying. A segment of orange was cold and juicy, sweet and sour. Cheese seemed sticky, fatty, salty. Bread was spong...
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Perusing a Prosecco pearl
Dijana Grgić takes off to the bubbling core of the Veneto, to Valdobbiadene, and savours the spumantes from Villa Sandi and prized other members of its porfolio.
Over the past couple of decades, Prosecco, which is produced primarily in Veneto as well as in smaller areas of the Friuli region, has seen a surge in global popularity. For a sparkling wine to be labeled as Prosecco, it must be made w...
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