That’s the idea. This living word. This word of mouth. This living history. And I feel like what I’m getting to do here is apply that concept to a region and to a variety. I’m writing a new thing in the same lines. It’s a re-search, it’s looking again. Taking another l...
When I first began The Color Collector, I could not have imagined that it would involve moving into an off-grid tiny house on a remote piece of raw land or digging a thousand holes with a spade. But the past few months have given me a chance to draw inspiration from ex...
I have been thinking a lot about trust when it comes to winemaking. Even in light of everything we've learned since 1857 when Louis Pasteur proposed that yeasts provide the mechanism for fermentation, the process of turning grapes into wine can still feel like alchemy.
Sometimes, when you stand on life's high dive long enough, something comes along that pushes you right into the deep end. No matter the perfectly executed swan dive you envisioned. Momentum has you now in an invigorating free-fall toward the deep, clear water below. I...
Before Oregon and winemaking school, I retailed fine wine at a small shop in Jackson, WY. Here was born the dream that emboldened me to pack my things and leave one of America's most beautiful landscapes in order to go back to school. If I thought that my decision woul...
These precious last days of summer - so often filled with decadently final swimming hole plunges - have this year been shrouded in a thick cloud of smoke. It has been heartbreaking to watch a careless spark grow to consume hundreds of acres of beloved forest. In my tin...
I arrived to pour at this incredible event with a bundle of lilacs and a heart full of enthusiasm. I left with gratitude and respect for the creative people and exceptional place that surround me.
I can't explain why it has taken me so long to put words on paper about my trip to Beaujolais. Even worse, why I can't move on to write about other things until I do. My best theory is that we live in a world of headlines - BK Goes to Beaujolais: Changed Forever! But t...
This is Jean-Claude. I met him on a recent trip to Beaujolais where I traveled to seek out the great Gamay producers of France (more on that soon). Jean-Claude is a vine tender. I imagine his father and his grandfather might have been too. He smokes cigarettes and driv...
