All posts by Stephen Meuse

  It was the Widow Clicquot (Veuve Clicquot) who around the turn of the 19th century developed several now­-standard techniques for making Champagne both reliably sparkling and profitable when produced on a mass scale. And it’s really from this time forward that the heavy­-duty marketing of Champagne as an indispensable accompaniment to the good life gets…

We long ago settled the question of whether cigarettes are bad for you and whether seat belts save lives.  While nothing seems more obvious now, it wasn’t always the case.  When I was growing up in what is now settled science on these topics was still up in the air.  Where it would come down no…

Chris and I have spoken on air several occasions here about appellation wine—the most prestigious category of wine, wine made according to the rules you might say. On a recent segment we chatted about wine that flaunts the rules. You could call it outlaw wine if you wanted to be dramatic, but perhaps we’d be…

TBILISI, REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA.  If the steeply winding, cobble-stoned climb from Tibilisi’s old town up Metekhi Rise leaves you with any breath at all, be prepared for the view from its heights to take it away.  Before you a broad swath of this wildly romantic city unrolls like an exotic carpet– from the gracefully curving…

We’ve devoted several radio spots to the question of how wine is priced and whether it’s always possible for even experts to accurately guess a wine’s price by taste alone. Recently Chris and I discussed a similar question, one that I know troubles many wine consumers: What factors contribute to making one wine more expensive…

I drew this cartoon a few years ago after a conversation with my wife about just how much the where and the when of wine affects our experience of it. It’s especially common, we decided, with people who have just returned from vacation with a bottle or two in their suitcases. It seemed almost supernaturally…

One of the more remarkable things about wine is the reverence that people seem to have for it. And I don’t just mean among geeks; you see this in people with no special relationship to wine. Even among novice wine drinkers, there is the idea that there is something rather special about this ancient and…

Let’s talk about wine bubbles. Not bubbles as in Champagne, but the kind of bubbles that are created when a market overheats. Think real estate, for example, the stock market, or, even tulips. In a wine bubble, a particular kind or category of wine becomes wildly popular—far too popular for its own good. To meet…

I get asked with surprising frequency which alcoholic beverage first passed our greedy lips – was it beer or wine?  Since it’s not a case of needing to have one before you can have the other, the first-drink problem isn’t as daunting as the chicken/egg conundrum, but it does seem to linger. I don’t think there’s actually…

The late Yogi Berra is credited with saying that you can observe a lot by watching. As with many of the late Yankee catcher’s quips, it seems silly at first. Only upon reflection do you begin to see that there’s something meaningful hiding behind those tortured semantics. If we were to apply the Yogism to…

If you’re a regular listener to America’s Test Kitchen Radio, you know that all sparkling wine is not Champagne and cannot be so-called, and that in most places where winemaking has long been a part of local culture, there is a tradition of making bubblies of some sort. Chris and I have tasted and talked about fizzy…