Author: Moris Senegor

I generally shy away from immersing myself in the details of technical winemaking. I figure I am a member of the “audience”, and for me it’s the “performance” that counts, rather than what it took...

Is there life after CEO tenure in one of the best known wineries in the world? For Michael Mondavi, there certainly seems so. Michael, the eldest son of the famed Robert Mondavi, who passed away in 2008, ran his father’s...

An old Turkish proverb goes, “it’s not who reads a lot that’s knowlegable, it’s who travels a lot”. A suitable point for the middle ages when what you read was mostly religious dogma, but what you...

Magazines that take ads from winemakers and have a vested interest in promoting wine consumption generally have a tendency to report bad news in tangential euphemisms or positive spins. I am referring to such publications as...

Sometimes it is difficult to draw take-home conclusions from theme-tastings involving less than 10 bottles of wine. I experienced such an anticlimax last month with a Chilean Carmenere tasting. They all tasted like California...

Bad wine experiences are, thankfully rare. But when they happen, they can be quite educational. Here’s one I had never experienced before. At the tasting room at J winery near Healdsburg in the Russian River area of...

The the current “great recession”, as it has come to be called, has turned the wine world topsy turvy. Wine Spectator summarizes its main effect by noting that wine consumption has not decreased; rather consumers...

Those who read my blog are already familiar with the fact that a vast majority of wines bought are consumed within a few hours of purchase. Various writers estimate this to be around 95% plus. Those who buy and lay down a bottle...

I am sure you have all heard about cult wines. These are celebrated labels that repeatedly appear in wine related articles which we are told are in high demand and very expensive. They are mostly California Cabarnets, with...