Theresa Downs

Image via https://www.ferrari-carano.com/ Join the club… that is, the wine club. Wine clubs have proliferated to the degree that practically every type of establishment that sells wine offers its own exclusive wine club. To wineries and wine retail shops, large and small, wine clubs offer cake with the cherry on top. Particularly true for wineries. Due to archaic laws stemming from the Volstead Act, better known as Prohibition, wine must be sold through a 3-tier system: producer...

Image via Wine By Appointment LLC/ChatGPT Think you know nothing about wine? You're wrong. You Know More About Wine Than You Think The second-most-asked question I'm asked is, "Can you recommend a wine because I don't know anything about wine?" (The first question, if you're interested, is, "What's my favorite wine?"). Then that person immediately launches into a discussion about why they like a particular Chardonnay for its oak, vanilla, and yada yada yada! And then the same person will...

Image via Wine By Appointment LLC/Chatgpt Wine is not just the 13% to 15% of ethanol in a bottle. Sure, that's what's on the label, but if wine were only about alcohol content, we'd all be guzzling Everclear. We don't, because wine is about something else entirely: culture, community, and centuries of tradition that transform drinking into something much more than promoting a physical reaction.  When it comes to wine, think context, not content.  The Ritual Matters You don't do Merlot...