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The Work of Sensuality
“Live in the moment” has been the advice of sensualists from Epicurus to Camus. Peak experiences, moments of extreme pleasure or catalyzing emotion, can nourish life especially when not burdened with...
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Has Science Compromised the Art of Winemaking?
Winemaking has undergone a scientific revolution over the past 30 yrs. Young winemakers now graduate from university programs laden with chemistry courses. Sugar levels in the vineyard can be...
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The Controversy Over “Natural Wine”
If you want controversy, use the word “natural” in any context and someone will challenge your intent. Food and cosmetic companies have been using the word for decades to imply their competitors are...
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Natural Wine: Moral Purity or Moral Preening?
The Natural Wine movement is dividing brother from brother, citizen from citizen, rending friendships, tearing the land in two…Well it’s not quite the Civil War. But it is causing lots of heated...
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Terroir is No Myth
Few terms in the wine world are more controversial than “terroir”, the French word meaning “from the soil”. Terroir refers to the influence of soil, geography, and climate on the wine in your glass....
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The Cube Project Demonstrates the Fragility of Terroir
Having just defended the idea of terroir in my last post, let me add some complexity to the issue. Terroir refers to the influence of soil and climate on what you taste in the glass. No doubt climate,...
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Wine and Spirituality
Edible Arts is on a brief hiatus. Meanwhile, enjoy this post from the past. The spiritual dimension of wine has a long history. Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, was said to inhabit the soul with the...
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Ugly Food
While my brief hiatus continues, please enjoy this post from 1/12/2012–in the spirit of Halloween. One persistent, serious argument against the view that food preparation can be an art is that food...
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No One Really Thinks Wine Tasting is Subjective
It never fails to set my teeth on edge. I’m focused on trying to “get” this pinot with strange vegetal notes in front of me, and emerging out of the random background chatter I hear someone prattling...
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Hype, High-End Wines, and Originality
Last week Steve Heimoff defended the hype surrounding famous high end wines such as Premier Crus from Bordeaux. What critics of expensive wine fail to understand is that the wine drinking experience...
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Food Fights
Edible Arts is extending its reach. I’ve been asked to supply a monthly column for the widely-read blog 3 Quarks Daily. My first column entitled “Food Fights: Are they about Mouth Taste or Moral Taste”...
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Do Not Make a New Year’s Resolution, but if you do…
It’s New Year’s Eve. Time for my annual post on why you should not make New Year’s resolutions. As one of my favorite writers Anne Lamott implored the other day ”please join me in not starting a diet...
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Habits and Heresies: Authenticity, Food Rules, and the People Who Break Them
My monthly column is up at Three Quarks Daily in which I try to make sense of the idea of authenticity when applied to food traditions. Dishes are a representation of the food tradition from which...
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Wine, Enchantment and the Art of Performance
My reconnection with an Artesa Pinot Noir–the wine responsible for my “aha” moment when I recognized wine could be extraordinary–got me thinking about how we assess the real value of wine. Of course,...
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Not Just a Matter of Taste
My disagreement with Wilfred Wong regarding a Pinot Noir from Monterey got me thinking about the objectivity of wine and food criticism again. I thought the wine was flabby and disjoint; Mr. Wong...
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The Idea of Wine
This post by From Vinho Verde to Barolo With Love got me thinking, once again, about why wine is fascinating. It seems that often those who love wine, also love food, and also love to travel. Because...
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The Joy of Cooking
Recipe and Photo by Pure Ella In a very interesting post about the growing influence of food blogs especially in academia, Judith Newton makes some critically important, more general, claims about the...
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Can Wine Be Sexy?
An advertising poster of “AKADAMA Port Wine” for Suntory Limited. Creative Commons License Valentine’s Day is fast approaching; it’s time to think about which wine will precisely calibrate the proper...
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Wine: Will Chemistry Destroy the Romance?
What do we seek to know when we gain wine knowledge? We learn to distinguish the taste of Cabernet from Zinfandel, recognize the different flavor profiles of French and American oak, uncover details...
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If You Want Romance with Your Wine, Drink Local
In a recent Wine Spectator column, Matt Kramer laments the decline in loyalty that afflicts much of the traditional wine world, especially Bordeaux, which led to some long faces at a recent Bordeaux...
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