Gus Clemens on Wine explores and explains the world of wine in simple, humorous, fun posts

This is the weekly newspaper column. Mother’s Day 5-3-2023 May is the Mother’s Day month in the United States. The argument easily can be made that every day should be Mother’s Day. Mothers are, after all, absolutely essential to the survival of our species. But we especially celebrate moms and grandmoms and mother figures Sunday, May 14. To give you plenty of time to prepare, suggestions on Mothe...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Wine myths 4-26-2023 Wine can be complicated—hardly a dumbfounding revelation. It does explain why there are some false rules about wine. Let’s bust some myths. • Champagne is only for weddings, New Year’s, and special occasions. While Champagne may be above your pay grade as an everyday drinker, Champagne—and sparkling wine in general—is one of the most versat...

This is the weekly newspaper column. I inadvertently failed to attach the podcast on the original posting. This includes the podcast. Mass production vs great wine 4-19-2023 The wine world divides into two camps: factory wines and distinct wines. That artificial division is black and white while the wine world is grey; it is simplistic and annoys those who recognize nuance. But the paradigm works...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Wine and Mexican food 4-12-2023 Beer or margarita is the knee-jerk response to alcohol pairing with Mexican and Tex-Mex food. All well and good, but wine can be in the conversation, too. OK, big tannic red wines don’t play well with Mexican fare, but there are a host of wines that snuggle nicely with corn, beans, chilies, spices, beef, and pork. Rule of thumb:...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Wine grapes 11,000 years old 4-5-2023 It is long established that grapevines and wine date back thousands of years. Until recently, the accepted date was 8,000 years ago. New research has pushed that back to 11,000 years. The previously accepted narrative is the first domesticated wine grapevines emerged in Georgia (the country located at the intersection of Ea...

This is the weekly newspaper column. What is your vinotype? 3-29-2023 What type of wine do you like? If you are unsure, there are many online tests to point you in the right direction. The most popular determines your “vinotype.” Master of Wine Tim Hanni developed the test. He found personality traits and food preferences determine how different wines taste to different people. Hanni proposes wine...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Wine questions answered #2 3-22-2023 Answers to your pressing wine wine questions. • Port wine can still be made by human feet stomping grapes. Are feet sanitized for this? Feet are sprayed with sanitizing solutions, then rinsed off before the stomping begins. That is good practice, but because of alcohol content, human pathogens do not survive in wine even if...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Wine’s love-hate relationship 3-15-2023 Wine has a love-hate relationship to oxygen. Not enough oxygen when it is in the winery and wine can be reductive—engendering volatile sulfur compounds. Burnt match and rotten eggs are common odor descriptors. Too much oxygen and the wine tastes “tired” and eventually turns to vinegar. When wine lives in the Goldilocks zo...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Today’s humor An ironing board is just a surf board that gave up on its dreams and went to work. Wine time. Wine questions answered 3-8-2023 Answers to whimsical wine questions. • I am going to a wine tasting and want to look my best. What should I do? It is imprudent to wear white, but otherwise go with what is comfortable and appropriate for the event. There...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Finally, rain in California wine country 3-1-2023 After suffering desiccating drought for years, California found itself awash in alluvian floods in 2023. The state that produces almost 90 percent of U.S. wine is almost 170 percent ahead of normal precipitation. So, what is the impact of deluges in our nation’s most important wine region? As you can imagine, th...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Glass and its alternatives 2-22-2023 Glass wine bottles have enjoyed a long and storied run since they were adopted after advances in glass making in the 1600s. Now, however, glass has competition. Prior to glass bottles, wine was transported and stored in wooden barrels, clay amphorae, and sheep skin bota bags. Glass provided instant advantages. Glass is durab...

This is the weekly newspaper column. What is wine? 2-15-2023 What is wine? For many, that question was answered thousands of years ago. Wine is grape juice after yeast converts its sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Fruit wines that are not made with grapes and grape wines made with aromatic additives—vermouth, for example—are not wines. More than 20 years ago, the European Union codified that...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Champagne’s rise 2-8-2023 The land was sheep country, too far north for grapes. The local wine was mediocre, pawned off to roughhewn wool buyers or consumed by locals as vin de table . Nevertheless, to raise money for monasteries, Benedictine monks steadily improved their vineyards. They learned what grapes fared well in the cool climate and chalky soils around...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Wine sales statistics 2-1-2023 Which of these statements about the wine industry is correct? Demand decreases, the industry faces rocky times. The industry is doing fine, even if volume is down, value is steady. The industry has a rosy future as drinkers switch to higher-priced wine. Rob McMillan of Silicon Valley Bank—a go-to source—says “anyone who says they...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Wine is the most interesting drink 1-25-2023 Wine is the world’s most interesting alcoholic beverage. You expect wine columnists to make such an assertion, but we can back up the claim. There are three essential types of alcoholic beverages: beer, wine, spirits. Thanks to cultural and economic factors, beer has long been the most popular in the U.S. for several...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Wine drinking tips 1-18-2023 As life semi-returns to pre-Covid normal, we return to restaurants and order wine. We have folks over for dinner. We pay attention to things besides vaccinations and masks. Observations, tips. • At a fancy restaurant, what do you do when the sommelier presents the cork? Easy: Nothing. The cork presentation is a vestige of a world lo...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Pressing wine questions 1-11-2023 As we hurtle into the new year, answers to pressing wine questions. • What does “second label” mean? It often means great value. A winery’s “first label”—their grand vin in Bordeaux—is made using the winery’s best grapes and then finished in the winery’s best barrels. The second label is made using excess top-quality juice and...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Optimism 1-4-2023 New year. No matter if you look back on 2022 with a sigh of satisfaction or you are grovelingly thankful to survive another solar circumnavigation, time for optimism. If you make wine or enjoy wine, wine is an expression of optimism. Growers gaze across pruned vineyards stark and bare, maybe swaddled in snow, maybe resolutely defiant against t...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Start the year with wine good news 12-28-2022 Let’s end this year and begin the next on a high note. A Japanese study found people over age 75 may benefit from a regular glass of wine. The study followed 1,226 men and women in Japan aged 75 to 87. Health professionals asked participants about their drinking patterns and measured cognitive function with a standa...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Christmas summer 12-21-2022 It is high summer in South America. Time to hit swimming pools and beaches while wishing everyone “Feliz Navidad!” Christmas traditions are remarkably similar around the world. The faithful celebrate the religious dimensions while others enjoy the secular elements of the series of end-of-year holidays. South Americans enjoy Christmas...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Five key winemaking decisions 12-14-2022 There are five terms you often will find in reports about wine. Understanding what they mean and how they affect wine can help you make choices. A quick review. • Harvest date. The day grapes are picked significantly influences wine. Grapes picked earlier will be higher in acidity, lower in alcohol, and sometimes have he...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Napa agonistes 12-7-2022 Once upon a time Napa Valley was a place of pastoral legend. Blessed with the bucolic beauties of wooded knolls, forested slopes, springtime fields dappled with mustard flowers, summertime’s lush greenery, the valley aflame in reds and yellows come fall. The human presence was a smattering of vineyards and family-owned wineries, dairies...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Wine world disruption 11-30-2022 The pandemic shook the wine world—as it did everything in the world. More to the point, it accelerated trends forever changing the wine landscape. Examples: • Bottles and corks are for wine. Cans are for beer. Cartons are for milk. Not anymore. Wine in cans is a booming trend, especially aimed at younger drinkers who want someth...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Paso Robles 11-23-2022 When you think quality California wine, Napa and Sonoma leap to mind. Today, a sound argument can be made to include Paso Robles in the conversation. The region lies north of Santa Barbara County and south of the Monterey’s Santa Lucia Highlands—roughly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It is inland from the ocean, giving it...

This is the weekly newspaper column. Thanksgiving 2022 11-16-2022 Some people are intimidated by wine choices for the big Thanksgiving family feast. There is no reason for discombobulation. The Thanksgiving meal arguably is the easiest repast of the year for wine pairing. Typically there are so many different things to eat and so many different people to eat them, almost any wine will pair with so...