Bryce Wiatrak

The Time Has Come for Ontario Wine: Can It Meet the Moment?

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 19:30:00 GMT

Since the late 20th century, Ontario has rapidly evolved into a world-class winegrowing region. While global recognition has grown steadily since Icewine’s arrival on the international market in the 1990s, this past year has provided a confluen...(read more)

A Refresh of Blaufränkisch: Central Europe’s Great Promise for Red Wine

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 13:40:00 GMT

In his 1992 book The Wine and Food of Austria, one of the most comprehensive texts on Austrian wine to date, the British writer and wine historian Giles MacDonogh wrote of Blaufränkisch: “One of Austria’s most widely planted black gr...(read more)

German Bubbles on the Rise: A Sparkling New Era for Sekt

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 15:05:00 GMT

The global market for sparkling wine continues to grow. With a market size of US$41.6 billion in 2024, the sector is expected to reach US$69.1 billion by 2033. Prosecco and Champagne still dominate, as emerging cool-climate sparkling regions such as ...(read more)

Cabernet Sauvignon in Sonoma

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 21:53:00 GMT

“As a group, Sonoma cabernets tend to be overlooked—an indignity, and it needs to go,” wrote the wine columnist Frank Prial in a 2000 New York Times article. I could not agree more. Cabernet Sauvignon is rarely an underdog. After al...(read more)

An Introduction to Muscat

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 21:14:00 GMT

Wine lovers often marvel at the tremendous versatility of Chardonnay. Ever the chameleon, Chardonnay gives us such disparate entities as Montrachet and Champagne; steely Chablis and buttery California examples; hordes of supermarket bottlings and a h...(read more)

Musigny

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 21:02:00 GMT

“Imagine Musigny like a big lake. It’s a large, luminous, and deep lake. A lake that includes Amoureuses, by the way, that includes also most of the premiers crus, but that doesn’t include Bonnes Mares. Bonnes Mares is at the edge o...(read more)

Sangiovese on Edge

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 17:01:00 GMT

Chianti Classico is the first wine I truly loved. In the summer before my junior year of college, I spent two months studying opera in Arezzo, just east of the appellation’s edge. On that trip, I visited my very first winery, San Felice, where ...(read more)

Pioneers of Place

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Fri, 22 May 2020 14:50:00 GMT

Where do wine regions come from? The question might seem overly simplistic, yet every region has an origin story. While the Old World has several orders of monks—or perhaps Roman soldiers, or maybe Phoenician traders—to thank for the prol...(read more)

La Landonne

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 15:00:00 GMT

“Today’s a Landonne day,” Philippe Guigal says to me with boyish delight. As he reiterates later, Landonne was his vineyard. “I was born in January 1975, and Landonne has been planted in January 1975,” he explains. Phili...(read more)

The Ghost of Prohibition

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 18:04:00 GMT

In an 1840 speech to the Illinois House of Representatives, of which he was then a congressman, Abraham Lincoln argued, “Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes b...(read more)

Indigenous Grapes

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 19:05:00 GMT

Late one evening a few years ago, I stumbled across a question in some dark corner of an online wine forum. “Can you name 100 grapes that you’ve tasted?” the user asked the oenophilic interwebs. There was even a whole organization, ...(read more)

Sauvignon Blanc in the Wild

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 14:15:00 GMT

GuildSomm Staff Writer Bryce Wiatrak considers Sauvignon Blanc's successes and challenges in the New World regions of Napa Valley and New Zealand.(read more)

Revisiting the Bourbon Boom

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 11:28:00 GMT

Staff Writer Bryce Wiatrak considers the bourbon boom and the developments and challenges that have emerged in the 10 years since.(read more)

Interview: Generational Succession

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Fri, 03 May 2019 17:20:00 GMT

Bryce Wiatrak interviews Marilisa Allegrini, Erwan Faiveley, Maya Dalla Valle, and José Lovaglio Balbo about the advantages, challenges, and sacrifices of keeping wineries in family hands.(read more)

Cartizze: Prosecco’s Peculiar Grand Cru

Bryce Wiatrak MW — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 18:50:00 GMT

Staff Writer Bryce Wiatrak explores the Cartizze vineyard and the unique place it holds within the category of Prosecco.(read more)