Many people have heard of the Wine Aroma Wheel.
Here’s a version that will fit in your wallet and is spot-on useful.

April has been a busy month. After a few days in Anaheim, CA at the Disneyland Resort and a few days in Santa Barbara wine country, I’ve been working on getting caught up. The next thing I knew, it was April 22, and I haven’t written a single thing here this month–yikes!
So, I’d […]

When Kim first invited me to join the group of columnists here, she said that the management team really wanted to have someone who was a podcaster, so I fit the bill. Since I have some qualifications to talk about wine podcasts, I thought it might be worthwhile over the next few columns to offer […]

Porn, guns, or wine?

Which one do you think is hardest to order online? [Disclosure: this link takes you to a post on my own blog.]

When we last left off, I told you about the three-tier distribution system and the challenges it poses for wine consumers in certain states. In this article, I’ll tell you the tale of a group of hearty Indiana wine collectors who set out to change the world.

But first, let me acknowledge El Jefe’s comment/correction. I wasn’t very clear in my first post–trying to put things in a historical perspective, but you’re right, El Jefe, California is no longer a reciprocal state. But let’s get back to the story…

In the mid-1990s, the Indiana state legislature did something that very few people noticed. It changed Indiana’s laws on direct shipment of wine. While direct shipment to Indiana consumers from outside Indiana was always unlawful, it was rare that anyone was penalized for working a case of wine inside Indiana’s borders. But with this change in the law, Indiana made it a felony to ship wine into Indiana without going through the three-tier system. In other words, your mom and pop winery in California could be charged and sent to prison for at least a year just for shipping your wine home so you didn’t have to carry it on the airplane.

Sooner or later it happens to almost every wine enthusiast who is Internet-savvy. She’s sitting at the computer, surfing around, and comes across a site like wine.com. She looks over the available wines and realizes, “I can’t get some of these where I live.” Deciding that she’d like to try one of the pinot noirs that she’s only heard about, she gets her credit card and begins to place an order.

Then, all of a sudden, it hits her: she can’t complete the transaction. Why? She doesn’t live in one of the states where she can receive shipments of wine.

“What the heck?” she wonders. “I can order khakis from Eddie Bauer’s web site, books from Amazon.com, but I can’t order wine online?”

Sadly, this is a problem for far too many wine consumers who like to engage in electronic commerce. It’s also a problem caused by various state laws, and I happen to know more than the average bear (or even average lawyer) about them. Believing that education is the key to freedom, I offer this primer on the legal issues surrounding wine shipping.

For years, wine lovers in Illinois have enjoyed the ability to order wine and have it shipped to them. This ability is under attack in the Illinois legislature. Below I’ve posted a message I received from one of my wine sources. If you live in Illinois, or do business in Illinois, you may wish to contact the committee members and ask them to oppose this legislation.

This email arrived in my mailbox this morning. The Bounty Hunter is a wine seller in Napa who gets great stuff. I’m a very happy customer, but I might not be a customer if this bill passes.

Why would a winegeek like me want to write about two weeks without wine? Well, it’s not some experiment to see if I can go without. You see, like many folks in this country, I have a good too many pounds around the waistline. And I’ve heard from a couple of docs that while my […]

As I wrote over on my main blog, I think the start of a new year is the perfect time to make a resolution that you’ll want to keep. The resolution is simple:

Pick some wine topic that you don’t know much about, and spend the year learning about it. Read everything you can, drink as many related wines as you can, and enjoy the process. If you want to go really crazy, blog about your learning experience and share it with all of the wine enthusiasts out there.

Today is Wine Blogging Wednesday, the wine blog event held monthly. If you’re not familiar with it, WBW has wine bloggers all write about wines that follow a particular theme. Lenn at LennDevours started this a while back, and it’s a great thing to look forward to each month. This month’s event is sparkling wines other than Champagne.

You can read my post about six sparkling wines. Look for a wrap up by Culinary Fool this weekend.