MW Perspectives

Question Everything: How to Apply Critical Thinking to Sustainability

Tim Wildman MW — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 14:45:00 GMT

Sustainability is everywhere. Environmental concerns permeate every corner of our lives and our industry, from vineyard to cellar to marketing. This was the impetus for my film project, Sustainability: Countdown to 2030, which I created with the cine...(read more)

AI in Wine Education: Help or Hindrance?

Anne McHale — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 16:15:00 GMT

From Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics, penned in the 1940s, to the dystopian Terminator movies, the first of which was released in the 1980s, hype and panic over artificial intelligence (AI) are nothing new. Yet this can be easy to forget ...(read more)

How Production Methods Influence Fortified Wines

Demetri Walters MW — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 15:55:00 GMT

Using examples from around the world, assess how fortified wine styles are influenced by their production methods. A fortified wine has had distilled grape spirit added to it before, during, or after alcoholic fermentation. Historically, grape spirit...(read more)

McLaren Vale’s Grenache Renaissance

Andrea Pritzker MW — Fri, 26 May 2023 18:40:00 GMT

How has the perception of Grenache changed in McLaren Vale? What is driving this change? High up in the picturesque Blewitt Springs subregion of McLaren Vale GI, South Australia, stately old bush vines stand sentinel. Small and gnarled, some are over...(read more)

Hungarian Wine Regions in the Shadows

Caroline Gilby — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 16:25:00 GMT

Ask anyone outside Hungary about the country’s wine, and Tokaji and Bikavér (the blend also known as Bull’s Blood) will be top of mind. Furmint may get a mention thanks to the multiyear Furmint February program that has done so muc...(read more)

Australia’s Wine Identity

Annette Lacey — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 17:07:00 GMT

How has the Australian wine industry developed its identity over recent decades? The Australian wine industry has undergone a great amount of change in a short amount of time. In the 1960s, Australia was a fortified-focused nation; fast-forward ...(read more)

A Cultural Exploration of Wine in China

Gus Zhu MW — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 22:02:00 GMT

What are the key factors that shaped the current landscape of the production and sale of wine in mainland China? An exploration of local culture can illuminate how a country’s wine industry took shape and inform an understanding of its current ...(read more)

Making Bulk Wine for Export

Rob MacCulloch — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:45:00 GMT

What are the key factors a winemaker needs to address when producing bulk wine and preparing it for export? Exporting wine in bulk has been one of the growth areas of the wine industry in the past two decades. While bulk wine can be traded and transp...(read more)

Cabernet Sauvignon in Stellenbosch

Cathy van Zyl MW — Fri, 13 May 2022 15:01:00 GMT

What makes Stellenbosch a favorable location for growing Cabernet Sauvignon? A late-budding, late-ripening variety, Cabernet Sauvignon needs warmth to ripen. In Bordeaux, it’s the gravel that plays a major role coaxing the grape to ripeness, wa...(read more)

Study Strategies: Evaluating Wine Quality

Natasha Hughes MW — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 14:40:00 GMT

For more than one reason, my first-ever IMW trip, taken in 2015, a year after I graduated as a Master of Wine, came as quite a shock. The first was the sheer bewildering pace of the thing: eight days, three Australian states, 11 wine regions, and God...(read more)

Viticulture in Great Britain

Stephen Skelton MW — Fri, 11 Mar 2022 13:30:00 GMT

What are the main challenges facing growers in Great Britain? Grapevines are not native to the British Isles, and there are no wild examples. It is claimed that the Romans introduced them, although the archaeological evidence for this is almost non-e...(read more)

Research Paper: Wine Retailers & Packaging

Melissa Saunders MW — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 16:11:00 GMT

The challenges associated with the Research Paper, Stage Three of the Master of Wine Examination, are often underestimated. I have an undergraduate degree in English literature as well as a law degree. I thought my background would have better prepar...(read more)

Science vs. Romance in Wine

Susan R Lin MW — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 16:00:00 GMT

Has science taken away the romance of wine? Wine, as a product and as a societal and cultural force, comprises both the scientific and the romantic. It is a substance that is defined by science in that it can be broken down into its biological and ch...(read more)

Comparing Global Marselan Styles

Elizabeth Gabay — Fri, 14 May 2021 14:00:00 GMT

Marselan has increasingly appeared around the world over the past 20 years. Compare and contrast global Marselan styles. How are regional styles developing? In just 30 years, Marselan has progressed from commercial introduction to holding a minor rol...(read more)

Canopy Management in Napa & the Finger Lakes

Nova Cadamatre MW — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 14:03:00 GMT

The United States has many diverse wine regions spread across the country. California’s Napa Valley and the Finger Lakes of New York are on the extremes in terms of climate. How would a vineyard manager handle the differences when looking at ca...(read more)