Everyday Drinking is a newsletter and podcast by Jason Wilson on the wide world of wine and spirits.
So excited to share this feature on the new wave of winemaking in Jerez for ! (Link in bio). I love Sherry and I love how dynamic the region is becoming, with new rules and a new focus, but with a backbone of tradition. Click on the link to check out what’s going on.
Back in September I was lucky enough to attend Cheese in Bra, Italy, which was an amazing and overwhelming several days. I met so many amazing people and it’s taken me a little bit to process what I wanted to write about it, but the first piece I wanted to tackle was the tasting workshop pairing grappa and cheese, a fascinating exercise that has led to this meandering essay on taste, , and the nature of taste. Link in bio,
as always.
My feature on the new wave in Cognac in - it’s an exciting time in Cognac as tastes are changing and there is more focus on single barrel selections. I look beyond the big names to find the real energy in Cognac right now.
In today’s Everyday Drinking, I write about the comfort pairing of grüner veltliner and chicken paprikash - inspired by ’s recipe - as well as thoughts on life, autumn, and the cold November rain. LINK IN BIO.
Latest Everyday Drinking on wine education, the new wave of wine bars in America, and how learning about wine needs to keep up with what’s on wine lists these days. With mentions of
Link in bio!
Always great to be in print! My Barcelona wine bar tour is in the November and thanks to it looks great!
With stops .barvins and others.
Thanks to my Barcelona friends for all the insider tips!
Always great to be in print! My wine bar tour of Barcelona is out in the November issue of and it looks great thanks to !
Thanks to Barcelona friends for the insider tips ;)
It’s more obscure Piemontese grapes this week in Everyday Drinking - this time, the whites! For instance, how can you resist a wine made from a nearly-extinct grape called literally “cat balls”? (baratuciat)
However, for me, my whole journey into obscure wines — the one I wrote about in Godforsaken Grapes — begins with timorasso, which was saved from extinction by in the early 1990s. You can almost chart the popularity and influence of indigenous grapes on the wine industry by looking at the rise of timorasso.
Beyond timorasso, I also look at erbaluce, arneis, cortese, and nascetta. Link in bio.
Today in Everyday Drinking I write about one of my absolute favorite red wines, grignolino. I recently got a chance to visit a number of producers in Monferrato, the grape’s spiritual home. Grignolino is a wine to scramble your brain, both light and very tannic, and it can be both easy drinking and complex. Link in bio as always!!
I swear, I started off my summer with serious intellectual ambitions. I intended to hole up on a dry island with no bars and read big books. For my beach reading, I intended to plow through the 900 or so pages of Walter Benjamin’s unfinished masterwork The Arcades Project.
But restlessness, the wanderlust gene, or whatever impulse always drives people like me to travel, quickly kicked in. And so I went wandering. I would find myself at, say, a South Jersey local karaoke night…drinking root beer liqueur, Surfsides, and green tea shots…
My latest, for Everyday Drinking, eventually gets around to recommending a number of excellent, if obscure, Spanish and Portuguese wines. Link in bio as always.
I’m super excited today to announce a unique new content partnership between my newsletter Everyday Drinking and Wine Enthusiast! This has been in the works for a little while, and the company has formally announced our partnership today.
I’ve already been writing for the print but in our expanded partnership, I will be writing a column each week for Wine Enthusiast’s website, focused on issues and ideas within the wine and spirits industry. I will also be developing longer-form content, new experiments, and special features for Wine Enthusiast. We’ll be cross-promoting and sharing content across both publications. Looking forward to working with
Links in bio to the official announcement, and my first column!
As president/publisher says in the official release: “Jason’s engaged following and provocative essays make him an interesting writer for this innovative content partnership. This collaboration gives us an opportunity to lift niche voices in the wine industry, reach a specific audience of wine readers, and deliver content they are looking for while helping our partners target new segments.”
This is a huge boost for my little self-published newsletter. Meanwhile, nothing will change with Everyday Drinking. It will still be published twice a week, and I will still be in full editorial control of the content. My recommendations and advice on wines, spirits, travel, cocktails, and recipes will still be as independent as always.
Yeah, it’s been a pretty good (if strange) summer so far.
Today in Everyday Drinking, I’ve published my travel guide to the Finger Lakes wine trail. If you’ve never been, this fall is a perfect time to visit what may be America’s premier cool climate wine region. Link in bio for all my picks.
Life as a professional taster 😬
In Everyday Drinking, some of my favorites things in a can. Link in bio.
In Everyday Drinking, an ode to ginger beer, the Dark and Stormy, and my favorite ginger beer cocktail of all, the Cloudy Sky, with sloe gin. Link in bio.
In my latest Everyday Drinking, I dive into the barrel pick phenomenon in bourbon and look at and its new model of single cask whiskey releases. Dare we call them American whiskey “négociants”? Link in bio.
Been a lot of chatter in Everyday Drinking about terroir this week. So why not end the week with some terroir-driven wines from - Link in bio.
Here’s my reaction to the recent NYT Magazine piece about a coveted winemaker from Oregon. I feel bad for the winemaker because the piece leans on all the old embarrassing tropes that general-interest media always does when it sprains its ankles covering wine. Link in bio. Apologies in advance for some complaining.
Today in Everyday Drinking, it’s all about liters of Italian red - simple, cheap, but still special wines for summer drinking. LINK IN BIO.
Two years ago, on the 4th of the July, I went to Spain a couple of weeks after the EU opened its borders to vaxxed Americans. What grew out of that trip became a cover feature in the (the dearly departed Sunday magazine). It’s also one of my favorite pieces of travel writing. It’s the story of a summertime Spanish road trip, and it’s about what changes, and what doesn’t. LINK IN BIO.
Amazing 📸 by
My requisite July 4th cocktail post for Everyday Drinking! Keep it classy and unfussy. Lots of “one+one” soda plus booze ideas, and my recipe for a Sorta Fussy Pimm’s Cup. Link in bio.
🍹
I recently cleaned out my liquor cabinet, and it was a walk down memory lane, so I wrote an essay about it. I also recently went to and so that’s part of the essay too. (Link in bio as always)
In looking at these old bottles in my cabinet, many of them dating to the days of the so-called “cocktail movement” in the late aughts made me think about the state of spirits and cocktails.
There’s an odd vibe at this kind of spirits event. The low-key desperation of the startup booze entrepreneurs contrasted by relentless corporate fun put out by the bigger brands creates a weird energy. This dynamic is hard to put a finger on, but I believe it’s having an effect on the world of spirits and cocktails.
In 2023, I don’t know how you can look at American mixology or bartending (or whatever you want to call it) and not see it as something that calcified in the 2010s. There’s a certain pervasive style of cocktail-making around the world that just feels stale.
It’s an immutable law of wine writing that you must do a rosè article before Memorial Day. I don’t make the rule. Link in bio.
Anyone up for Dirty Martini Pasta? It’s the Dirty Martini’s world and we’re just living in it.
In my latest Everyday Drinking newsletter, I look at flavor trends and why “dirty martini” might be the new “bourbon-flavored” or “everything bagel” seasoning. Link in bio.
On my dastardly betrayal of natural wine. (link to essay in bio)
Spend enough time with natural wine people, and you’re eventually going to be called out for sinning against some principle of the natural wine doctrine. At least, it will happen if you’re someone like me—someone who very much loves to drink natural wine…but perhaps not so much the Kool-Aid from the more cult-ish fringe of the movement.
This is a story of what can happen if you don’t drink the Kool-Aid. It takes place on a gorgeous, sunny afternoon in the town Sanlúcar de Barameda, in Andalusia, in southern Spain.
Throwback Thursday to my essay on being hated in Genoa for my inauthentic pesto, and then being invited to speak at a pesto conference (link in bio)
We just launched an exciting new feature on Everyday Drinking — travel guides to our favorite places to drink and eat in our favorite destinations!!
We launched with 10 guides - Lima, Lisbon, Cognac, Oaxaca, Loire Valley, Aosta, Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley, and a guide to the best new restaurants in Latin America. With a new one on Rioja coming Friday and more new guides rolling out every month.
Guides are written by me, and
They’re for paid subscribers only, so now is a great time to upgrade. I’m currently offering 25% off - link in bio.
My latest piece for Everyday Drinking looks at the abysmal piece on natural wine published last week in the - it is a masterclass in everything wrong with wine writing. I propose that legacy publication start instituting term limits on wine columnists, among other ideas. Link in bio as always.
.nyc
A year ago today, I published this longform travel essay in the about my epic trip to Spain in the summer of 2021 (link in bio). I traveled from Madrid into Basque Country and La Rioja and then ended up staying an extra bit of time because I caught covid. It’s about a lot of things: the siesta, a couple of guys running around “de Rodriquez,” great food and drink at places like Etxebarri, trying to ride a bike, the unavoidable Señor Hemingway, and something of a meditation on aging into another phase of travel. Amazing photos by . This is one of my favorite pieces of travel writing, and it’s likely the kernel of my next book.
Why are both wine writing and travel writing generally so bad? I delve into this thorny topic in the latest Everyday Drinking (link in bio).
I wrote about the looming Chartreuse shortage in today’s Everyday Drinking (along with cocktail recipes! Link in bio).
Last month, a letter from the Carthusian monks in Voiron, France circulated through the world of spirits. The letter explains a decision by the monks to limit the production of Charteuse, their famed Alpine liqueur dating to 1605, in order “to focus on their primary goal: protect their monastic life and devote their time to solitude and prayer.”
Apparently this decision had been made quietly in 2021 (quietly being how most decisions are made in a monastic order sworn to a vow of silence). A growing Chartreuse shortage started being noticed by spirits enthusiasts during 2022.
Chartreuse will now only be sold exclusively under allocation, making it much more difficult to find. From the monks’ letter:
“Making millions of cases does not make any sense in today’s environmental content and will have a negative impact on the planet in the very short term…Basically, we look to do less but better and for longer.”
I applaud this stance by the Carthusian monks. I deeply admire their willingness to say “enough” to the relentless market forces pushing them to produce more, more, more, at all costs. “Less but better and for longer.” What a refreshing thing to hear in 2023. In nearly every other realm of our soul-crushing age, the focus is to scale everything as big as possible, quality be damned. As someone who operates in a media industry that values an endless stream of cheap, SEO-driven clickbait over well-written, thoughtful content that costs effort and money to produce, I stand with the monks.
In today’s Everyday Drinking, my ode to - as well as kimchi grilled cheese. I’m not a huge fan of the RTD category but I do love me some Long Drink. Link in bio.
I wrote something in response to reporting on the report on the State of the US Wine Industry. The report claims wine has an “old people problem” and warns the industry is missing out on younger wine drinkers. I disagree and would argue that the American wine industry’s problem is that it promotes crappy $12 wines and then whines when young people don’t want them. The kids know what’s up. Maybe the American wine industry finally needs to grow up and start making good value wines like the chardonnay from Mâconnais that I also write about this piece. Link in bio as always….
It’s Schnapps Week at Everyday Drinking! We’ll be delving into kirsch, pear Williams, slivovitz, apricot, quince, rowanberry and every other way de vie you can think of. Friday is my tasting guide so don’t miss it. Click the link in bio.
Additionally, I explore the roll of fine spirits like these in what I’m calling “The Age of Fireball”
“Radicchio is really punk.” Ponder that for a moment. Radicchio is really punk. Then, consider this: “Italian radicchio is having a moment in the US.” Can both of these things be true? Is one or the other true? Honestly, is anything true anymore? Let’s just go with it. Radicchio is punk. And radicchio is having a moment.
I read both of those statements not too long ago, and they’re the basis of my latest Everyday Drinking essay, about the relative “punk-ness” of radicchio, particularly paired with young Langhe Nebbiolo. (Link in bio)
Both radicchio and Langhe Nebbiolo occupy interesting places in the universe of food and wine. Are they mainsteam? Yes, sort of. But also, not really. Are they divisive? Yes and no. Does any of that matter? No. But here’s the thing. When you serve radicchio and young nebbiolo together, you bring out the inherent punk-ness of both—the bitter, earthy edge of the radicchio, the raucous tannic, acidic, weird rose-plus-asphalt elements of the nebbiolo. Unlike most food and wine pairings, this one accentuates the thing in each that threatens to turn people off.
Langhe Nebbiolo is the sort of everyday red wine that’s reliably available, reliably good value, and reliably delivers unique flavors and aromas. It’s also the sort of wine that’s the opposite of trendy, rarely touted by influencers or celebrity sommeliers or characterized by wine media as “of the moment” or pretty much anything else.
Nebbiolo is an amazing, distinct grape, combining the finesse and intensity of pinot noir along with the power and tannins of cabernet sauvignon. Yet the Langhe Nebbiolo you can find at $20 is simply better than almost any pinot noir or cabernet sauvingon at the same price. Full stop. This is a hill I will die on.
Those familiar with elegant, highbrow Barolo are often shocked by how brash younger nebbiolo can be. Langhe Nebbiolo is full of rambunctious acidity, earthiness, rusticity, and tannins ready to brawl. Young nebbiolo has edge. Come to think of it…is young nebbiolo…dare we say it…sort of…punk?
Sparkling wine cocktails like the Kit Royal, Negroni Sbagliato, and Aperol Spritz are all the rage. But here are three new variations you’ve likely never tried. Click on the link in bio for recipes.
Last stop on our light reds tour take us to the Canary Islands. I love these wines made from listán negro and listán prieto! They deserve so much more widespread love. Seek them out! Link in bio.
My latest Everyday Drinking connects New Nordic cusine and Alpine reds while holding forth on Nina’s closing. Link in bio.
One of the most satisfying things that’s happened over the past few years was that my book, Godforsaken Grapes, was translated into Chinese. It’s a beautiful cover and I especially love my Chinese title. There’s no literal translation of “godforsaken” and so the title in Chinese is “The Rebellious Grapes.”
Philadelphia, PA
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Planet of the Grapes is a new wine publication that explores why we drink what we drink, where it comes from, how to better understand it, and why wine matters. All with pleasure. As Saul Steinberg once said: “Wine is the only thing that makes us happy as adults for no reason.” We cover the world of wine, with pleasure. https://medium.com/planet-of-the-grapes
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