Value Bordeaux is Not an Oxymoron

Value Bordeaux is Not an Oxymoron

The French, and Bordeaux wine in particular, have long cultivated an image of wanton elitism. The words Champagne, Luis Vuitton, and Douchebag, all carry an understanding of affluence before any mental cognizance of a product is even formed. The 2008 Bordeaux vintage, for instance, has set new standards in the...
Drink Bravely, or, A Gentleman's Guide to Getting Crunk

Drink Bravely, or, A Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Crunk

This is a book review of Mark Oldman’s Brave New World of Wine (that’s what we’ll call it.) Chapter 14, page 100 had me at Vermentino. Actually, it had me at “Sprite-ing,” which is Mark’s method of smuggling white wine into theaters using a 20 oz. Sprite bottle. Here I...
An Ode to Pabst Blue Ribbon

An Ode to Pabst Blue Ribbon

I don’t read food blogs, but I doubt anyone has ever written an ode to toothpaste, despite the fact that this mundane product is an essential aspect of the long-term continuity of their craft. Frankly, nation, I find this a travesty of Holocaustic proportions. It’s the simple things in life...
What are the Best Android Wine Apps?

What are the Best Android Wine Apps?

The era of the modern mobile application began with the opening of the iTunes app store on July 10th, 2008, just over two years ago. That’s an entire geological era in interweb years, but to normal people it’s just two Christmases ago. If you happen to be one of those...
Sacrilegious wine talk:

Guiding the Blind

I am a regular guest on Wines.com’s blog the Wine Crush Blog and in this installment I take on Dara Grumdahl’s technophobic non-sequitur, read on. In a column titled “No, There’s Not An App For That,” Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple, expressed her consternation over always being asked to recommend her favorite...
What's Your Favorite New Way to Learn About Wine?

What’s Your Favorite New Way to Learn About Wine?

The path to being a wine rockstar is littered with dead sentences, you literally need to read as much as you drink, and you need to be drinking a hell of a lot. There’s important stuff you gotta learn, like the difference between le Chambertin and simply Chambertin. You don’t want to be the fool...
Sauvignon Blanc, a Rant

Sauvignon Blanc, a Rant

- Today’s post is provided by Vidas Germanas, a complete badass who is a regular reader and commenter on Brokewino.com. He hails from Chicagoland, and when he isn’t shooing migrant hipsters off of his lawn, he enjoys fine wine and the culinary arts. During last Thursday’s WineChannelTV Wine Chat with Sam the Broke Wino –...

My Wine Predictions for 2011

I pride myself on not being a typical blogger. I strive not to write boring meta-narrative drivel such as, “So, last night I was having drinks with my boys, pounding down the PBR like I was trying to solve world hunger when I realized, over a half eaten chicken wing and a serendipitous update from...

Tuesday Link Roundup

Here are some wine links to tide your day over. Vintage America is a new series on Eater National by Talia Baiocchi. Each weekly installment will traverse through the pockmarked timeline of U.S. winemaking history. Get your wine history geek on, say goodbye to your social skills. Master of Wine, Tim Hanni, wants to know what...

Boxed Wine Isn’t Just for the Birds

Despite being uneducated in wine, I’m more than capable of observing a key distinction in the wine world that usually flies under the radars of those who most need to know about it: the folks who don’t have the money to flush down the toilet in the crapshoot that is fine-wine selection. As with other...