The conventional wisdom that has pervaded the wine-loving community for the past several decades could very well be updated by newer rules that make more sense. But for reasons that are unclear to me, the new rules have never been widely disseminated. One of those old “rules,” in which we talk about serving white wines…

As we resume dining out, a few things might have changed during the pandemic shutdowns, and one of them is wine service. When people who are skilled in serving wine in restaurants are laid off for 18 months, many end up taking positions in other fields, leaving some restaurants with inexperienced servers. Experienced wine servers…

Look at the label on any bottle of wine, and you’ll see how much alcohol it has. Except for some very rare examples, the law requires it. I prefer wines with 13 percent or so. They appear to me to be better balanced. They work better with food and don’t intoxicate as fast. But most…

If you pay strict attention to the wines you buy, you may notice that there often are slight differences between two bottles of the “same” wine. This phenomenon is called “bottle variation.” Wine makers know it’s a hard-to-avoid pitfall. In particular, with wines made in the millions of cases, variations can be great. A 10,000-gallon…

End-of-summer patio parties call for tossing steaks onto coals. And choosing the right wines for such fare seems simple enough—dark reds to go with grilled meats. But no one eats just steak at these parties. Patio shindigs start with chips and dips, nuts, crackers, cheese, and olives, plus finger food (bruschetta, lahvosh sandwiches), dips (hummus,…