Method not actually endorsed by Terroirist!

“Wine reviewers should spend more time with wines they are reviewing just like book reviewers spend hours, if not days, with the books they review. They should aim to be more than just reviewers, but actual writers. Just as with [a] book, not all the subtleties of a wine are noticeable at first.” Kyle Schlachter envisions a new type of wine review. I agree.

“We buzzed past fields of corn and soybeans, down slippery dirt roads and around the occasional tractor. At times, my wife and I heard cattle groan and whiffed the acidic scent of manure amid a landscape dotted with peeling, wooden barns and silvery silos.” In the New York Times, John Eligon visits “the southeastern corner of South Dakota to visit wineries.”

In Chasing the Vine, Lauren Mowery catches up with Erin Scala, “a female force on the NYC sommelier scene [who now runs] the wine show at The Musket Room” in New York City.

Alfonso Cevola imagines what the United States might have been like “if Italian wine had come west with the great expansion in the 1800’s.”

Time to nuke your Pinot Noir. Recent trials at the University of Tasmania found that “grapes heated in the microwave allowed the researchers to thoroughly but gently extract tannins and color compounds during fermentation, which may make it attractive to winemakers.”

In Wine-Searcher, Adam Lechmere chats with Serena Sutcliffe MW, who has been Sotheby’s international wine specialist since 1991.

On Palate Press, Kristina Anderson profiles Josh Phelps and Carlo Trinchero, the two friends behind Taken Wine Company.

“Napa County needs to think about ways of diversifying its economy.” That’s the advice attendees at the Napa Chamber of Commerce’s “Innovation Napa Valley Conference” heard from economist Robert Eyler, Ph.D., of Sonoma State University.

Tom Wark lists “Napa Valley’s Top 10 Iconic Images.”