The Whole Story: Have a proper dive down a rabbit hole this month.
Instructions for turning your love of wine into a thirst for history.
The Whole Story
A monthly roundup of perspectives and realities your formal wine studies might not cover.
Death In The Vineyard - Part I
The best storytellers in wine teach the nuances of a topic without bogging you down—Adam Huss is particularly gifted at this. This podcast episode considers that regenerative viticulture is still in mid-conversation and uses voles to make an important point: sustainability isn’t always affordable…and that makes it…unsustainable.
Viennese Winemakers Are Using an Ancient Method to Make Climate-Resilient Wine
Field blends are often painted as a poor man’s approach to wine, but this article asks us to consider how problematic monoculture is, and why co-planting different grape varietals might be a wiser approach to winegrowing.
20 Years Of Vranec At Chateau Kamnik: A Talk With The Winemaker
Learn about Vranec, a grape from North Macedonia. Like other Eastern European countries, Macedonia is an ancient wine region that was relegated to making bulk wine for the Soviet Union. The wine scene began to re-energize after Yugoslavia dissolved about 3 decades ago.
Call For Relief Funds
I am reposting this call for mutual aid posted by @lamiaabukhadra on Instagram, please consider donating to relief in South Lebanon.
“Funds go towards mutual aid for people forcibly displaced from South Lebanon. Funds will go towards providing medicine, supplies, groceries and meals, as well as securing rent for displaced people.
Venmo @Lamia0Abukharda or @Nour-Annan // Paypal @lamiaabukharda1 // by the end of Saturday, 9/28
Please use the words “Solidarity donation” in the memo, DO NOT MENTION PALESTINE OR LEBANON. Donations sent too late will be returned.
We will send a transfer of funds via Western Union on Sunday, September 29, 2024 and friends on the ground in Beirut will start distributing cash/supplies ASAP. Receipts of distribution will be shared later.”
Wine 2 Ways
Do you talk about wine for your job? Then you’re a wine communicator, my dear! Each month, I’m demonstrating the world of possibility for you. One wine bottle written two ways—feel free to land anywhere in the middle.
Terre di Montalto 2022 “Sole di Sud-Ovest” Etna Bianco DOC
Tasting Notes: Lemon, starfruit, kiwi, flinty minerality. High acidity, medium-bodied. Long, balanced finish.
Personal Take: The wine is restrained, but it’s also a fully formed thought. The aromas are sitting properly in the glass, void of the kind of insecurity that leads one to try and dominate the conversation. No, this wine is confident. It has something important to say, and when it’s time to speak it won’t say any more than is necessary. The point it makes is profound in it’s simplicity.
Homework Assignment: Get Into It
A suggested exercise for you to build a personal relationship with the topic of wine.
There’s something magical about learning the context of the wine you’re drinking. The context is all of the things that surround your wine and its making. The grape name, why the grape is, what the grape is, where the grape is, the history that’s shaped it’s journey into the world so far.
This is a no-bells-and-whistles assignment: sit down with your beloved bottle or glass and favorite person, and have you a proper rabbit hole dive. Get to googling, my friend.
Need help getting started? Google the grape with the goal of finding out where it originally came from. Then do some research to find out how it got there, to that original place, or try googling what was going on during and right before it was first documented. Everytime you come across the name of a historical event, person, kingdom, or legal concept you’re not familiar with, google it. You will inevitably end up on Wikipedia or someone’s history YouTube channel—lean into it.