For over 20 years I have staged what I call The Last Supper to mark the end of vintage at Coldstream Hills, the Yarra Valley winery I founded in 1985. The wines have always come from my personal cellar, thus it has survived the changes in ownership of Coldstream Hills over that time. Since 1996 Coldstream Hills has been part of what has become Treasury Wine Estates, but that has in no way changed my attitude to Coldstream…

Spring and early summer in the vineyards is when the wine is truly made. Springtime for a viticulturist is like fighting a war, or like surfing a huge wave, depending on whether you’re a man-against-nature type or you tend to eat mushrooms and marvel at its magnificence. Either way there is no question that it is the most intense time in the vineyards. Mother Nature deals her hand in the spring, and how the cards are…

It has often been said that we taste with our eyes. How a wine appears in the glass matters a great deal, because ‘taste’ itself is a multimodal perceptive event involving a number of senses, including vision alongside touch, taste and smell. Even the information we have about a wine influences the actual perception of the wine: brain-scanning studies have shown that experienced sommeliers process the taste of wine in…

Many students and fellow Master Sommeliers (including me) consider the tasting exam to be by far the most challenging of the three segments of the overall examination.  With that I’ve coached an untold number of students taking the tasting exams at both the Advanced and Master’s level over the years.  Here’s a summary of advice and suggestions I’ve commonly given to those preparing for the exams.…

What cities across the U.S. have the most vibrant, up-and-coming wine scenes?  This time around, the Guild takes a look at the emerging scene in Atlanta through the eyes of five of the city's top sommeliers.  

Why Atlanta?  In the words of Eric Crane, one of the city's (tireless) advocates: "Few cities in the country offer the same diversity of dining and drinking choices as Atlanta does.  While Atlanta is …

Germany established its first tourist “wine route”, the Deutsche Weinstrasse, in 1935 in the Pfalz.  The road officially spans 85 km, beginning just south of Worms and ending at the “Wine Gate” (Deutsches Weintor) in Schweigen, at the French border.  The Pfalz’s most historic wineries and best-known vineyards are located in the region’s northern sector, the Mittelhaardt.  Life appears…

IMPORTANT NOTE: This article was written in 2012, and the US Federal tax laws changed significantly in 2017—especially with regard to individual deductions. We highly recommend that anyone who has a sole proprietorship or corporation, or is itemizing deductions, see a tax professional in their state. No consideration is made in this article for other countries' tax laws.

Many sommeliers, at some point or another…

The mission

Simple.  Fly into Paris.  Train to Dijon.  Rental car to the Maison des Vins de Chablis.  Taste through all 2010 producers.  

The inventory

• One clueless American.  Check. 
• One effective tour guide (Eric Railsback).  Check.  
• One suitcase full of clothes.  Check.

The execution

United flight 948 pushes into Charles De Gaulle an hour late.  No sweat.  Get track shoes on; hustle to baggage claim and...no suitcase. 

Cut to…

The following feature is co-written by Drew Larson and Sayre Piotrkowski, two Certified Cicerone ® beer directors based in Chicago and Oakland, respectively. 

With beer pairing dinners taking place at Michelin rated restaurants, craft-beer festivals featuring celebrity chefs, and people like Ferran Adria and James Syhabout creating proprietary brews, the integration of craft-beer into our contemporary culinary culture…

The story of Dom Pérignon and champagne – the blind monk who accidentally made sparkling wine and cried, “Come quickly! I am drinking the stars!” – is well known, as are the problems with the story.  Although many wine drinkers accept it at face value, there’s no evidence that Dom Pérignon was blind, no evidence that he had a heightened sense of smell or taste, and – very important – no evidence…