Jeff Siegel

  • Too Much of a Good Thing: How Vine-Pull Schemes Can Help Grow a Sustainable Industry

    Shannon Gunier doesn’t mince words. “We’ve reached a saturation point, with too many grapes,” she says. Gunier runs North Coast Winegrape Brokers with her husband, Rick. She continues, “Too many people have planted too m...
    • Nov 8, 2024
  • Reshaping the Relevance of Wine Competitions

    It’s a scene unlike anything most people have ever seen (including many in the wine industry)—a ballroom with a dozen or so tables, four or five places set at each table, and up to a dozen filled wine glasses at each place at the table. O...
    • Aug 1, 2024
  • Montepulciano: The Next Great Grape?

    The wine industry is always eager for the next big thing: a previously overlooked category, often defined by a grape hailing from a region with remarkable terroir, yielding wines of great value and made by independent-minded winemakers. Oregon Pinot ...
    • May 17, 2024
  • The Case for California Colombard

    Yannick Rousseau owns a winery in Napa Valley, so, of course, he makes Merlot, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon. But for 15 years, he has also made wine with Colombard, first as a varietal wine and later in a blend. The white grape isn’t thou...
    • Feb 3, 2024
  • Tracing the History of Craft Beer

    In the early 1980s, Lew Bryson was a young beer drinker who was eager to try something new, something that wasn’t his father’s mass-market suds and fizz. He had stumbled on a new style—flavorful, intense, and made in small batches b...
    • Nov 21, 2023
  • A Brief History of the Three-Tier System in America

    Four years ago, the Supreme Court decided the most important alcohol case in a generation, overturning a Tennessee law that allowed only people who had been two-year residents of the state to get a retail liquor license. Justice Samuel Alito, writing...
    • Sep 22, 2023
  • Nutrition Labeling for Wine on the Horizon

    Joel Butler, MW, isn’t convinced that adding nutrition and ingredient labels to wine will make much difference. “When someone orders a bottle of wine for dinner, they want a good bottle,” he says. “They’re not so much co...
    • Apr 7, 2023