Monthly Archives: June 2023

We just watched Drops of God, the Apple TV+ series about wine. No spoilers here, although Dottie, a frustrated screen writer, ruined it for John by guessing way too early a pivotal plot line.  Nevertheless, we would recommend it for wine lovers and those who have wondered what the fuss surrounding wine is all about. It was most interesting to us when it touched on the importance of terroir in thoughtfully made wines. Not just geography, as many people think of terroir, but the people who make it, how they make it, and the consequences of climatic factors that Nature deals them in every vintage.

The recent attention being given to the Okanagan Valley and its wines inspired us to travel there to meet with its lead winemakers who are women. Our goal in visiting was to learn about their presence as winemakers in the region, colloquially referred to as "the Okanagan," and the career paths that led them there.

Has this ever happened to you? It’s summer. You need a pleasant, thoughtful, inexpensive white. You just realized you don’t have anything in the refrigerator and your usual wine store seems too distant in the heat. You go to the so-so store in the nearby strip mall, or the supermarket, and get…what, exactly?

Domaine Alain Voge exemplifies the mastery of Cornas winemaking, capturing the spirit of the land and the artistry of the winemaker. With each bottle, it offers a profound and captivating experience that showcases the unique and extraordinary qualities of this exceptional appellation.

Two separate interviewers over the past couple of months have asked us the same question: Was there one wine that provided your “aha” moment? We both stumbled on that for a few seconds. So many wines were special to us; we wrote a memoir about many of them called “Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage.” After those interviews, we thought about that question, how we had answered it, and what other wines were signposts for us. Let’s go through a few of them and why they are not just relevant to our lives but maybe important to the world of wine going forward.