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"Cab Franc is an immigrant success story," says John Leo of Onabay Vineyards, describing how this classic European variety has found a proper home in New York State. A new coalition, Cab Franc Forward NY, agrees and is championing it as the state's signature red variety. Their inaugural Grand Tasting in Manhattan on February 4, 2025, brought together thirty-five wineries and over 500 attendees, including 280 wine professionals. The unprecedented gathering displayed Cabernet Franc's growing prominence—it's now New York's most planted red vinifera grape, with 638 acres under vine. 

Grape Collective talks with winemaker Saïd Ouhmad and agronomist Yassine Dahouri of Domaine de Baccari about winemaking in Morocco.

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?”

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.

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. 

Michael Hirby and Schatzi Throckmorton, owners of Relic Wine Cellars in Napa, which makes complex small-batch wines using old-school methods, have a lot to celebrate this year. “It’s our 25th harvest. It’s our 10th year in our winery and it’s our 20th wedding anniversary,” Throckmorton told us when we called the other day to interview them.

Every January, we smile at the first sightings, regular as clockwork: people in new running outfits, determined this year—after perhaps other false starts—to finally get into the habit of running. We nod at each other, recognizing the new class of hopeful souls, and silently wish them success.

New Year’s resolutions can be difficult to honor. Committing to the gear can only get you so far.

If your new interest is wine, you’ve selected a challenging time to dive in. Some beverage alcohol drinkers are embracing Dry January, a pause from imbibing that’s intended as self-care. We say, good for them if that’s what they want to do. They’re adults. In all things, one should act responsibly. Personally, we are more aligned with the Gentle January view of Hadley Douglas, who with her husband T.J. Douglas owns the Drink Progressively Group and The Urban Grape wine shops in Boston and Washington D.C.  We’ve written about their annual Urban Grape Wine Studies Award for Students of Color. “Gentle January is all about embracing what makes you feel complete, satisfied and happy. Punishment-based resets are not allowed,” she writes in the newsletter “Hadley’s Guide to Gentle January.” Throughout January, she enjoys sparkling wine, she writes.

“I worry about Westernization of January -- do more, be better and never rest all in the name of guilt, punishment and regret. I don’t want to pick up a new routine in January, or set rules that can’t be broken.” 

The wine world right now is awash in controversies, from the excavation of the colonial underpinnings of historic wine regions to the classist remnants that still haunt the enjoyment of our favorite libation today. And concerns abound. If you’re worried about wine and its effect on your health, it probably hasn’t helped that you likely feel some whiplash from the competing research on that question. Just last week, the surgeon general proposed that wine labels carry new health warnings about cancer, and camps for and against that idea have been at it.

Along with other industries, the wine industry is nervous about President Trump’s campaign promise to impose tariffs on foreign goods. During his first term, he slapped tariffs on some European goods including wine, which caused higher prices. President Biden rescinded those tariffs. Trump’s aim with tariffs, he says, is to create jobs and boost home-grown manufacturing. However, once again there’s concern about rising prices not only on imported wines but also on domestic wines as distributors and others in the chain of the domestic wine industry, including restaurants and wine shops, increase their prices to make up for the losses in the imported wine segment.

We have enjoyed wine almost daily since 1973. It enriches our lives. It encourages us to slow down, to see and hear each other more clearly, to delight in the food  before us or the way the setting sun plays on nearby trees and buildings. It transports us to where the wine was made, to the rich history of the place and the people responsible for it. Friendships, our understanding and appreciation of others, have been forged with it.

But back to the issue of gear and what you truly might need for your enjoyment of wine. If anything is so complicated that it staves off enjoyment of it, it’s our experience that folks will just walk away from it. Yep, shoes need to be comfortable and supportive if you are going to run in them, but you don’t need a different glass for every type of wine you drink. Dottie collects vintage glasses and china. Name the shape and we’ve got it, probably multiples of it. Remember when Champagne coupes, said to have been shaped like Marie Antoinette’s breasts, were out and flutes were in and then tulips? Enjoying wine is a multi-sensory experience. Treat your eyes to it, too. In other words, choose what feels special and appropriate to your mood and the mood of the wine. We acknowledge that a lot of time and money have been spent designing wine glasses to enhance the taste of wine, but we also believe that enjoying wine should not be stressful. John did require pliers to open a bottle of Cristal to propose to Dottie in 1978. But usually when it comes to stress and wine, the grape grower and winemaker have done the heavy lifting.

We have had a few wonderful wine experiences with clunky hotel glasses. And for the holidays, Zoë gave us John and Dottie Bobble Heads made by an artist with Etsy and it features us holding Styrofoam glasses. In fact, what Dottie was really holding was a clear plastic cup of some nondescript white wine that was poured at the world premiere of Colette Robert’s Off-Broadway play “The Harriet Holland Social Club Presents the 84th Annual Star-burst Cotillion in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel.” Zoë was part of the three-person band that played on stage throughout the riveting production. Needless to say, the wine and the after-show nibbles were enjoyed.

For the record, we believe that all wine vessels should be clear glass, free of any sort of adornment, and for most types of wine, everyday glasses should hold at least 20 ounces, not that you’re going to fill them to the rim. (We use some of Dottie’s small, delicate vintage glasses for sweet and dessert wines.) Everyday glasses should have long stems so that you can swirl and your hands won’t be so close to the bowl that they warm the wine, unless you want to warm the wine. And they should be dishwasher safe and affordable so that you don’t worry about breaking them. (These are great gifts for the w...

Salvino Benanti talks to Grape Collective about the challenges and rewards of winemaking on an active volcano. He shares the stories behind Benanti Winery’s origins, discusses the region’s unique winemaking history, and reflects on the emotional connection between the winemaker and the volcano.

We paid $7.25 for a 1978 Château Meyney in 1981. That same year, we spent $12.99 – the equivalent about $45 in today’s dollars – to buy a 1979 Ste. Chapelle Chardonnay from Idaho. Why in the world did we do that? Because we’d never seen a wine from Idaho before.

Parés Baltà is a family-owned winery located in the Penedès region of Catalonia, Spain, with a winemaking history dating back to 1790. The winery is currently managed by the third generation of the Cusiné family, specifically Joan and Josep Cusiné, along with their wives, Elena Jiménez and Marta Casas, who serve as the lead winemakers.