My favorite recent wine article — and one of my favorites of all time — is Lettie Teague’s Nov. 6 column in the Wall Street Journal, “Which Wine Substacks Are Worth the Subscription Price?”, in which she recommends this publication. So welcome to all my new subscribers! This is an occasional feature in which I point to interesting wine articles I’ve read, often with a bit of personal snark. Unfortunately, Lettie’s column is behind a paywall, but you can create a free account on the website, which gets you access to a small number of articles each month. (Link).
Probably my best effort with AI yet.
Paradigm shifts: Devin Parr writes about 10 wines that changed the world — the wine world, at least. She doesn’t take the obvious route, though. There’s no mention of the wines that won the Judgment of Paris, for example. Rather, she looks at wines that opened eyes and wowed palates, leading to changes in how wine has been made and viewed. A must read! (Link)
Now You’re Talking! Tom Wark, in Fermentation, gives us 10 reasons to keep drinking, as well as 10 arguments against the “nannies” who are trying to convince us to stop. Bonus! Drinking may benefit one’s career prospects and financial future. (Link)
A Bay Area Paragon Celebrates 20 Years: The San Francisco Chronicle profiles the amazing Leslie Sbrocco, host of “Check Please! Bay Area” on KQED public television for the past 20 years. The article highlights Sbrocco’s charm as well as her tenacity in facing cancer. Can you tell I’m a fan? I’ve known and admired Leslie since my Sidewalk days in the late 1990s, when she worked on the San Francisco version. She later became one of my editors on WineToday.com, a New York Times website run out of the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat. (Link)
More fan-boy gushing: Food & Wine profiles Dr. Laura Catena 😍 as one of 2025’s Drinks Visionaries for her efforts to counter The New Prohibition’s campaign against alcohol with the scientific evidence for benefits of moderate wine consumption. (Link)
A Virginia Luminary Honored: The American Wine Society presented its 2025 Award of Merit to Virginia winemaker Michael Shaps last week at the organization’s annual conference in Chantilly, Va. The AWS lauded Shaps for helping to elevate the quality of Virginia wine through his own wines and mentoring other winemakers throughout the Old Dominion. Shaps, who earned his winemaking chops in Beaune, also makes Burgundies under his Maison Shaps label, based in Meursault. (Link)
Thanksgiving: Meg Maker thinks ahead and breaks down the Thanksgiving feast in order to give us sound suggestions on wines to open. I haven’t even ordered my bird yet, but I’ve scheduled my own turkey day reflections for the week of, so stay tuned. (Link)
Tariffs: Wine Spectator’s Mitch Frank reports on the recent Supreme Court oral arguments over the legality of President Trump’s tariffs, in a suit brought by a wine importer, V.O.S. Selections, and other small businesses. (Link)
OOPS! Costco is recalling more than 941,000 bottles of Kirkland Signature Prosecco di Valdiabbene because the bottles might explode. The recall affects wines sold at Costco outlets in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. (Link)
Do we really need that many?: Okay, it’s a listicle, my least favorite type of article, but in Palate Press, Becky Sue Epstein gives us “Ten Reasons to Drink Port Wine.” I’ve never needed more than one, if even that much. (Link)
The Magic of Burnt Hill: After my post last Friday on Burnt Hill Farm, Drew Baker, one of the three siblings behind that magical new wine experience in Maryland, posted a heartfelt and moving response on the winery blog. (Link)
Jed Steele, the winemaker who created this country’s most popular chardonnay, the Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve, died Oct. 31 at age 80. As a young winemaker, Steele was tasked by Jess Jackson in 1982 to create a chardonnay blend out of various cuvées, some of which had stuck fermentations and were not totally dry. The result was a runaway success. Steele later popularized Lake County as wine country with his own label, which became a reliable source of good quality wines at affordable prices. Wine Spectator reports on Steele’s life and legacy. (Link)
If you enjoy keeping up with news of the wine community, I highly recommend two daily email newsletters. Wine Business Monthly compiles an industry-oriented list of articles emailed each weekday morning (subscribe here). And Tom Wark, author of Fermentation here on Substack, recently launched The Spill, a similar concept with a broader reach of consumer-oriented articles. (Link)
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