Wine Fight in T&C? It's a Natural

In the current issue of Town & Country is an article I wrote on why so many wine people are brandishing their corkscrews over what is a natural wine and whether they are intrinsically bad, good or somewhere in between. It's complicated.

'The Calling' Card: Nantz & Deutsch

On Friday, I traveled to Foxborough to interview CBS sports commentator Jim Nantz and wine importer and distributor Peter Deutsch about their new joint venture - the establishing of a new Sonoma-based brand of wines named "The Calling." We sampled the first releases, a Dutton Ranch Charbonnay and a Rio Lago Cabernet, and discussed what they've been thinking since they met by chance - or was it chance? - at a Greenwich restaurant a few short years ago. Read the full story next week in The Daily Meal.

Until the next time... Roger Morris

Books Fly Off the Shelves!

We are just launching The Brandywine Book of the Seasons, have sold a couple of hundred copies pre-launch and are now stocking it in northern Delaware and Chester County, PA, shops and stores as we write. You can buy it locally at 9th Street Books, Centreville Cafe, Janssen's Market, Va La Vineyards, Willowdale Shop, Hagley Museum, Winterthur Museum, Chester County Books, Market at Capers & Lemons, Apropos in Greenville - and more to come soon. Signings set up for Darden Bistro at U of D (Oct. 11), Fair Hill Inn (dinner, Oct. 19), Va La Vineyards (Sunday afternoon, Oct. 21) and Janssen's (Oct. 24). Check with these venues for details. Live out of town? Order through your bookstore.

The White & The Red

The end of an evening at Quinta Malvedos with Rupert Symington

Must we tread? Tread we must! Must pit at Quinta Vesuvio. Two of the last three weeks, I have been on assignment in several Germany regions and in Portugal's Douro Valley. A week of white wine, followed by a week of rest, followed by a week of red wine. It's the most-balanced tasting schedule I've ever had. I've already started writing about the German whites in my iSante blog (http://www.isantemagazine.com/blog/more-dry-riesling-please), but more articles are to come over the next days, weeks and months in Sommelier Journal, Beverage Media and Sommelier News. I'll be posting a piece on my Douro trip in the next couple of days on iSante, followed by articles on The Daily Meal, with my new Front of the Line slide show, and in Sommelier News and in the Polish journal, Magazyn Wino. If you are as impatient as I am for articles to be written and to appear, here are two of my ah-hah moments - from the German trip, how really fine are the best table Rieslings from Urzig in the Mosel, and from the Douro venture how much I enjoy vintage Ports of the intermediate age of seven to 11 years old, the time that many connoisseurs won't touch them. Their loss! Until the next time...

Australian Rieslings & Personal Custom Crushes

Two new articles of mine have just been published - one on <b>Australian Rieslings in the Aug. 31 edition of Sommelier Journal and one on personal custom crushes in the October issue of Wine Enthusiast. The lead of the Australian Riesling article begins below:

A Taste of the Rhone

Drinks magazine is a quarterly that I've had the opportunity to write for the past several years. Part of the content is general, part is customized for the wine store that distributes it - and there are several across the country that do. There is no newstand distrbution. Below is my story on Rhone wines in the Fall 2012 issue.

Sommelier Journal: Cruse & Gimblett Gravels

There are two new articles of mine in the July 15 issue of Sommelier Journal. The first is an interview with Emmanuel Cruse of Chateau d'Issan, who is head of both the Commanderie du Bontemps and the Grand Conseil du Vin de Bordeaux. The second is a profile of the Gimblett Gravels growing region in New Zealand - until 150 years ago a natural fish farm as the bed of a flowing river. The opening page of each is below, but for more information, please go to www.sommelierjournal.com.