Swiss Natural Wine Festival: Three Years Later As a seasoned taster, you might think the biggest downer to afflict a natural wine event would be the opinions of a few chip-on-the-shoulder wine critics who write for magazines nobody reads anymore. But you would be wrong. The biggest downer, as I recently discovered, is a climate […]
Tag: Natural Wine
Calling Mr. Natural — A Battle Cry
In his recent essay entitled Are We Entering the Post-Natural Wine Era?, author Jamie Goode attempts to answer one question by asking another: “Where does natural wine finish and conventional wine start?” The implication is that the two sides are now so close in their practices that to distinguish between them is nearly meaningless. There is no doubt, […]
In Wine We Trust: The Valentina Passalacqua Saga
The explosive Valentina Passalacqua saga is a cautionary tale for anyone who would exploit a human being for business advantage. It’s also a deep dive into business accountability, transparency and crisis communication. It may also mark the moment when the wine world begins to worry less about sulfite additions and native yeasts and more about […]
An Open Letter to Cameron Diaz
Dear Cameron: Let me be among the first to congratulate you on your new wine project, Avaline. This is very exciting news in our little world of wine where fellowship and “you’re the asshole on Twitter” are the front and back labels of our public face. You’re one of us now and you can rest […]
A Modest Proposal: Let’s Call Wine What It Is (or What We Want It to Be)
The excellent timatkin.com website recently featured an article by fellow Master of Wine, Christy Canterbury. In it she asks a very important question: Is an imitation wine better than a fake? It’s not a trick question. Wine forgeries, and the fraudsters who create them, are very much in the news lately as many of us […]
Domaine de la Ville de Morges: A Natural Pivot
A wise winemaker/photographer friend given to platitudes offered up the following: A perfectly focused photograph and a flawless wine are of no interest to me. I need more. Buried in there somewhere is the observation that a focused photograph and a flawless wine both require technical proficiency to execute, but, without more, may fail to […]
Some New Wine from Geneva’s “Monsieur Natural”: Paul-Henri Soler
It’s been awhile since I last visited with Paul-Henri Soler (see: Profile) so I recently caught up with him at his usual Saturday haunt, the Carouge Farmer’s Market in Geneva. Unlike a lot of wine on offer at such venues, Paul-Henri’s are really attention-grabbing and worth exploring. He’s very engaging and encourages impromptu tasting among […]
Profile: Weinbau Markus Ruch (Neunkirch, Schaffhausen)
There’s no easy way to shake things up in conservative rural Switzerland. Take the wine business, for example, and the plight of Markus Ruch. Some nonplussed locals have asked how a newcomer has the nerve to charge more for his wine than do legacy wineries. Other local skeptics want to know why he plumps for biodynamics when conventional agriculture works just fine. Still others wonder why he does women’s work by […]
A Brief Chat About Natural Wine with Jérôme Aké Beda
Recently I spoke with one of Switzerland’s great wine professionals, Jérôme Aké Beda. Not only is he co-proprietor of the highly regarded Auberge de l’Onde in Saint-Saphorin, he is also its Maître d’Hôtel, sommelier and resident wine philosopher. He was named Gault & Millau’s Best Sommelier in Switzerland in 2015 and he is co-author, with […]
Profile: Domaine de la Maison Carrée (Auvernier, Neuchâtel)
There is a very special quiet to a traditional wine village at rest. No people, no sounds, no stress and only meters from the past season’s slumbering wine behind the solid walls that line the street. For me, walking the streets is the perfect preparation for tasting. I call it calibrating the senses — listening […]
artisanswiss 