Author Archive: Sarah
Never one for rules or boundaries, Sarah was raised in Florida, and educated in New Hampshire. She explored India, South East Asia, Europe, and the USA before running out of money. She did some time in New York earning a regular professional living, then signed on as the cook for a ship that sailed her across the Pacific. She is currently pursuing her dreams and studying wine in Adelaide, South Australia.
In addition to sustainable viticulture, the global wine trade, local markets, culinary treats, and sharing good times, Sarah gets a kick out of journaling, hiking, rock climbing, theater, and the occasional game of tennis.
Cape Cod: Oysters, Meet Wine
If heaven hasn’t got oysters and wine, count me out. I’ll go to Cape Cod instead. Cape Cod is home to Wellfleet oysters, and a more luscious, firm but supple, textural and sweetly briny mollusc you could not want to find. Add a lemon, et voila. The particularly beautiful thing about enjoying these delicacies on [...]
Selling Less
I’m befuddled by a nagging question, so I put the conundrum to you: how do you sell less and survive? That is, how does one market the philosophy of “less.” Or, can small stay small without being subsumed by something bigger? Can the corner store compete with the big box? In my time away from [...]
The Cost of Oak
How picturesque is a winery’s barrel hall? How lovely is that oaky, toasty, vanillin smell? How quickly does a wine barrel conjure up images of rural warmth, rustic hospitality, refined revelry? What would wine be without the barrels? But what happens to barrels after the wine? Most wine spends time with oak before it [...]
The Etiquette of Wine
etiquette: n., the understood and stated rules of social manners by which people live in harmony and peace. Where I was brought up in The South, etiquette is a way of life and the standard of good living. This is not a matter of being stuffy and old-fashioned; well-understood and constantly practiced etiquette sets the [...]
Tasmania in a Hurry
Tasmania is a pretty small island, size-wise, and Australians give the place a bad rap. They peg it as a backward place and say the people down there have two heads. Of course that’s silly, and I think the mainlanders are just jealous of what a beautiful place the Tasmanians call home. I just spent [...]
Holiday Wine: A Story of Family
Mine ain’t a family of wine snobs. That’s not to say my relatives don’t have fantastic taste (they do!), but—as this holiday season has reminded—we all have different criteria when it comes wine. Dad, for example, enjoys a good drop but he’s also happy drinking wine that has sat open for a week. Grandfather likes [...]
Biodynamic… Organic… Natural… Oh My!
There’s an exciting buzz in the wine world about sustainably grown, harvested, and produced wine. It isn’t really new stuff, but terms like “biodynamic,” “organic,” and “natural” are grabbing consumer attention more these days than ever, so well worth it to take a deeper look at the philosophies and practices underlying the labels. Is it [...]
Put Some Alternative in Your Glass!
Barbaresco, Aglianico, Graciano, Nebbiolo, Primitivo, Saperavi, Trebbiano… the names on wine bottles left over on the table this morning sounds like role call at a mob boss meeting! My housemates, also students of wine (one is completing her Masters degree in winemaking, the other in viticulture), hosted an “Alternative Varietals” tasting last night to great [...]
Dispatch from Australia: Wine Seasons
‘Tis the season for port, muscat, fortifieds, late harvest wines, and sherries! I’m curled up by the fire with a beautiful 20 year-old Liqueur Shiraz Tawny from family-owned Langmeil Winery in the Barossa Valley. The kitten is in my lap, dog on the floor at my feet; we’re a Norman Rockwell painting of wintery bliss. [...]
A World Without Terroir
Perhaps it is the romantic in me. When I take a sip of wine, what I am hoping for is a journey. I want to be transported to the vineyard itself. I want to feel the warmth of the sun, the waft of sea breeze through the vines. I want to see the rocky outcropping [...]
