Levi Dalton, who empowers the list at Convivio, might be the high priest of wine geek sommeliers. Early his summer he had a crazy thought and posted a come hither on the wine board, winedisorder.com, a thread by the name of 'Show Me Some Skin.' He was talking about the chimerical wine category now called Orange. Count me in', I said. The night came. MORE >>

It’s that time of year when millions of Americans gather around campfires, saying “I hate white rabbits&# as they try to get out of the smoke. Of course, once positioned upwind, thoughts inevitably turn to…S’mores! And a wine lover’s thoughts might also drift to an inevitable pairing with wine! MORE >>

Here's an assortment of wines (first three from Savio Soares, importer) that have me hanging on to the bottles. All are organic in reality, if not in certification (chianti does have cert). certainly fooled me in a blind tasting. Absolutely charming wine, made by supposedly crazy winemaker 16 k south west of Orleans. Somewhere around $30? MORE >>

“French wine exports have plunged 25 percent in the first half of this year as consumers worldwide scaled back on non-essentials amid the global financial crisis…Exports of luxury products such as Champagne and Cognac fell 45 percent and 27 percent respectively.&# [ AP ]. MORE >>

This is a re-post from November, 2008. This is part 1 of 2. Will post part 2 tomorrow (corkscrew types) WHERE AND WHY, THE CORKSCREW Wine bottle openers or corkscrews are gadgets used to remove corks from the neck of wine bottles. It was a long spiraled piece of metal that could remove unspent charges from the barrel of their weapon. MORE >>