As I enjoyed my morning coffee, I was saddened to read something that, while I basically knew was true, I didn’t want to have validated. Just as I make the effort to go to Peet’s to get my Sumatran coffee and don’t drink Folgers or Nescafe because I know that they use inferior product multi-sourced from lesser areas and as such it doesn’t taste as good, I would like to believe that people select their wines with some similar level of discernment. Well, burst my bubble… Continue reading »

The wine industry has been going back and forth on this for years. The beverage category that pioneered its life with Orson Welles claiming that we ‘serve no wine before its time’ has gone back and forth as to whether their market base is older (baby boomers and empty nesters) or younger (millennials or those Gen Xer’s), aficionados (those who read the Wine Spectator) or ‘every person’ (those who read Redbook or Family Circle) or… men or women. And it seemingly changes like the weather in Baltimore (if you wait for five minutes…)! Continue reading »

Have you been suckered at some level by an offer that appeared to be too good to be true, and when you engaged, it indeed turned out that way? I am forever cynical, and have heard enough advice over the years from folks who always offer up that if it appears too good to be true then it is. And that’s in fact the case with everything from a myriad of infomercials peddling diet pills and real estate scams in the newspaper to “gotta have” wrinkle creams and of course those products that can age your wines in minutes so you don’t have to cellar them at all. And no, that’s not what this blog is all about.

I was chatting with a friend who was asking me about wines that were being closed out for very little, purported to be very good or once in a life time deals. Continue reading »