Monthly Archives: February 2025

  1. Love at First Fizz: Why Cava is Your Valentine's Day Soulmate

    Love at First Fizz: Why Cava is Your Valentine's Day Soulmate

    For this Valentine's Day, forget what you know about expensive Champagne and trendy Prosecco – Spain's Cava offers all the romance and bubbles you need for a magical evening, without emptying your wallet.

  2. Free the Good Memories: It’s Time for Open That Bottle Night

    Free the Good Memories: It’s Time for Open That Bottle Night

    When Sarah O’Herron and Ed Boyce founded Black Ankle Vineyards in 2002, people told them they couldn’t make fine Syrah in Maryland. HA! Not only is the Mount Airy winery well-known for its Syrah, but on Feb. 22, in front of the world, O’Herron and Boyce will open their Syrah from 2007 and 2022 and taste them along with a very famous French Syrah. “Throw down with that one,” O’Herron told us. “Go big or go home,” Boyce added.

    Why Feb. 22? Because it’s Open That Bottle Night 2025, when so many of us, from Prague to Walla Walla, uncork memories from a special wine. We created OTBN in 1999, when we wrote The Wall Street Journal’s wine column, because the most common question we received was some version of this: “I have this bottle from our wedding/my grandfather/an auction that I keep saving for a special occasion. When should I open it?”

  3. Pais Grape: The OG of Wine, Now Making a Comeback Like It Never Left

    Pais Grape: The OG of Wine, Now Making a Comeback Like It Never Left

    For centuries, Pais was the big shot of Chilean wine, the grape equivalent of sitting at the cool kids' table. But then the 1980s happened - and just like shoulder pads and mullets, what was once cool became decidedly uncool. International varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon strutted in like they owned the place, and poor Pais was ghosted faster than a bad Tinder date. The grape equivalent of your grandpa's vinyl collection gathered dust in forgotten vineyards.

  4. Weingut Carl Loewen: Where Old Vines Tell New Stories

    Weingut Carl Loewen: Where Old Vines Tell New Stories

    Christopher Loewen stopped by Grape Collective to share his thoughts on working with old vineyards, the challenges of low-intervention winemaking, and the lessons learned from generations before him. 

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