Top 10 1WineDude Articles of 2020 (Year of the Book Edition)

1WineDude

And so here we are… finally… with 2020, the year of SiP, virtual tastings, and no being able to actually visit one another about to head into the rear-view mirror, well, view.

It seems an appropriate time to take a brief look back on the last twelve months in this particular corner of the Global Interwebs, and countdown the top 10 articles on 1WD for 2020. I’m ignoring the weekly mini-review roundups in this list, though some of those did get a fair amount of pageviews (which is good, since I don’t plan on halting their publication… I mean, I’ve got about a decade of momentum behind them at this point!), and am focusing instead on the “full-length” (whatever that means when it comes to online) articles only.

As you will see below, when it came to 2020, it was the Year of the Book(s): with the writing and publishing of my new books happening this year, articles about those dominated this little ol’ website. And for that, I am incredibly grateful to all of you – you folks showed real passion and interest in those modest publications, helping them to secure an enviable average review score on Amazon and making me love you even more than I already did!

Anyway, here they are – the top 10 1WineDude articles of 2020 (as measured by pageviews):

10. Wine in the Time of Coronavirus, Part 6 (Attack of the Single Vineyard Clones with Gary Farrell)

Nice! Glad to see this producer get some viewership love, as I’ve long considered them one of the best in Sonoma (and among the best in all of CA, for that matter).

9. Past Masters (Aging High-end Austrian Grüner Veltliner)

So, basically, you’re all a bunch of total wine geeks, wanting to get all up in the details of aged Austrian GV! Who knew…

8. Holy Crap! Wine Taster’s Journal Available for Pre-Order!

7. Wine Taster’s Guide Now Available for Pre-order! (That’s “Published Author Joe Roberts” to You!)

6. We Interrupt Our Programming for This Interruption (Book Hiatus)

5. Get Ready to Shove Some Wine Down Your Face! (Wine Taster’s Guide Official Release!)

Numbers 8 through 5? All about the books. Again, I cannot overstate how grateful I am to all of you for making the books successful. I owe (too many of) you (too many) drinks!

4. Virtual Wine Tastings: Stop Overthinking It

We all needed some help during our SiP sipping in 2020. This was my small contribution to that cause, after having done what felt like about 750 or so virtual online wine tastings…

3. We’re a Bunch of Lushes (Thoughts on the Wine Intelligence US COVID-19 Impact Report)

Even a global pandemic could not thwart our collective desire to get sloshed on insanely tasty, high-quality adult beverages!

2. Wine in the Time of Coronavirus (What We Drank on My Sequestered Birthday)

I’m reasonably sure that the popularity of this post had a lot less to do with it being about my birthday and a lot more to do with the fact that we were talking about 2006 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs and La Jota Vineyard Co. Cab…

1. Wine in the Time of Coronavirus, Part 7 (In Which I Award An A+ to TWO Wines… WHAT?!?)

I am so, so, so very glad that this was the number one post this year; not only are the wines featured in this article some of the best to come out of California in years, they might be the best reds ever made in Livermore. And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer, guy, either. Just a feel-good story all around, really.

Cheers – and have a happy and safe New Year’s Eve!

Upscale your palate! My new books are now available from Rockridge Press!

Copyright © 2020. Originally at Top 10 1WineDude Articles of 2020 (Year of the Book Edition) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

Daily Wine News: End-of-Year Reflections

Shelby Vittek

Avaline, one of the so-called “clean” wines to pop up this year. (Credit: Avaline Wines)

In the New York Times, Eric Asimov offers his thoughts on the clean wine movement. “If political, environmental and ethical considerations enter into your decisions about which foods to buy, they should inform your wine-buying as well. But let’s not rationalize wine as healthful. The reason anybody should seek out minimally processed wine made from conscientiously farmed grapes is not because it is healthier but because it is better. It’s an aesthetic choice, not a medical or “lifestyle” decision. No matter how a wine is made, it contains one inherently dangerous substance: alcohol.”

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Esther Mobley highlights the most overlooked wine stories of 2020.

Wine Spectator remembers the innovators, luminaries, friends and family of the wine industry who died this year.

The Economist looks into China’s fascination for Chilean wine. “The absence of tariffs helps. Since Chile signed a trade deal with China in 2006, the value of its wine exports to that country has rocketed from $5m to $250m in 2019. Another factor is Chile’s ability to make wine that is specially branded and packaged for the Chinese market, known in the trade as “private-label” wine.”

In the Wall Street Journal, Laura Neilson explores a new generation of wine clubs (subscription req.)

On Wine Anorak, Treve Ring explores the wines of Champagne Agrapart & Fils, founded in 1894.

In Grape Collective, Jackson Mattek talks with Cath and Kingsley Edwards from the Ashbrook Estate about the potential of western Australia’s Margaret River.

Antonio Galloni looks back on 2020 in Vinous.

Gonna Take a Newwwwwws Break (Follow 1WineDude on the New App!)

1WineDude

So… I went and did a thing.

I’ve partnered up with news app News Break to provide some (hopefully!) fun and informative wine content. I’ll be steadily ramping up articles on their platform over the next few months (1WineDude.com isn’t going anywhere, by the way; this is an additional venture that I took on, in my continual efforts to completely devoid myself of all free time).

Gonna Take a Newwwwwws Break (Follow 1WineDude on the New App!)

Incidentally, I cannot read the term “News Break: without singing it my head to the tune of AC/DC’s “Jailbreak.” Because, well, I’m pretty weird.

Anyway… here’s how you can all play along at home:

  • Download the News Break app on your platform of choice (unless it’s an Apple OS… in which case, what is wrong with you for having that?!? Just kidding, they have one for Apple’s OS. But seriously, though, what’s wrong with you?).
  • Follow my News Break articles.
  • Ok, that’s basically it. Almost as easy as drinking way too much Champagne! Almost.

Oh, one more thing: News Break is looking for content creators, so if you’ve got a penchant for the written word and are a subject matter expert at something, then they might have a spot for you, too.

Cheers, and Happy New Year, you filthy animals! Stay safe, and I’ll see you on the app!

Upscale your palate! My new books are now available from Rockridge Press!

Copyright © 2020. Originally at Gonna Take a Newwwwwws Break (Follow 1WineDude on the New App!) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

Daily Wine News: Better With Age

Shelby Vittek

Photo via Wikimedia

A new study suggests appreciation of wine grows with age. Linda Geddes explores the details in the Guardian. “Changes in the composition of our saliva and how much of it we produce appears to intensify our perception of smokey and peppery aromas in red wine, new research suggests.”

In Wine Enthusiast, Derek Brown explores the new wave of non-alcoholic sparklers.

Also in Wine Enthusiast, Matt Kettmann charts the rise of California’s Central Coast wineries. “The best of these brands aren’t content to remind us of yesteryear. They’re also focused on the future, evolving constantly to compete with the best wines in the world.”

In Decanter, Chris Mercer looks back at 2020’s top wine stories.

“Paolo Foradori, an Alto Adige pioneer, passed away on December 22, 2020, at the age of eighty-five,” WineBusiness.com shares. “Foradori helped to write the history not only of the J. Hofstätter Estate Winery in Tramin, but in particular also that of the culture of winegrowing in Alto Adige and Italy.”

“South African President Cyril Ramaphosa reimposed a ban on alcohol sales and ordered the closure of all bars Monday as part of new restrictions to help the country battle a resurgence of the coronavirus, including a new variant,” reports AP.

In Slate, Seth Stevenson explores what makes Manischewitz the ultimate nostalgia product.