Author Archives: James Sligh

Wine Pairing, i

We sometimes fixate on the idea of perfect pairings: two ounces that are the only acceptable match for a single forkful of ingredients.   But ‘what do I drink?’ is a question with no single correct answer. And it’s as much about the moment as it is the food.  Here’s what that calculus looked like for me,Continue reading “Wine Pairing, i”

Class Recap: “Crossing the Rhine”

Alsace may be in France, but it faces Germany. There is sausage, and coq au vin made with riesling, and grape varieties named on the labels of your tall, fluted wine bottles. Across the Rhine, Baden grows a bunch of grape varieties whose names mean “from Burgundy”. Württemberg drinks juicy, glou-glou red from a grapeContinue reading “Class Recap: “Crossing the Rhine””

“Licking Rocks”

Show notes for an in-person tasting exploring minerality at Winona’s in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn on Wednesday, 11.3.2021.

Class Recap: “Biodynamic, Permaculture, Fukuoka!”

Our ability to make natural wine depends on the soils we farm. If we’re talking about minimal intervention, it starts with the interventions we make as farmers first. This can start with what we aren’t doing in the vineyard: spraying synthetic pesticides, applying herbicide or chemical fertilizer — the minimum for organic viticulture. But it’sContinue reading “Class Recap: “Biodynamic, Permaculture, Fukuoka!””

Chile’s Dark Side of the Moon

The people writing the histories of Chilean wine usually start the clock in the 19th century, in the Central Valley south of Santiago, where titled families who got rich through crown concessions for silver and copper mining went into politics and then retired as gentlemen farmers, on big irrigated haciendas where they planted Bordeaux varietiesContinue reading “Chile’s Dark Side of the Moon”

Languages of Taste

How do we talk about wine, and to what end? Is it to remember what we’ve tasted, or to describe our experiences to others? To give, or receive, recommendations for something that the person asking might like? To to communicate luxury or prestige, to sell a product? To evaluate quality? Here are some (genuine) examplesContinue reading “Languages of Taste”