Juicy garnacha from Spain and pinot grigio from the mountains of northeastern Italy give us two great-value wines this week, packing a lot of punch for just $12 a bottle. For the adventurous, we have two natural wines from Georgia, aged underground in clay qvevri as wine has been for thousands of years. And we top off the week’s recommendations with a rich, fleshy white burgundy for chardonnay lovers.

It’s hard to deny that that “natural wines” are increasingly bantered about these days. From the cool kids who have been into the scene since it began to the newcomers eager to understand and appreciate the minimal intervention mindset, everyone seems to be intrigued by this category of wine and style of winemaking.

In Washington D.C., Supra is like a temple of Georgian cuisine. The restaurant serves several types of khachapuri, which is more of a category of topped or stuffed (or sometimes, both) breads than a specific dish.

Georgia (the country!) is in the Caucasus, a region on the edge of eastern Europe, and more exciting than that, is the official birthplace of wine (some 8000 years ago)!

Are you ready for Earth Day?! Let’s raise a glass and celebrate this beautiful floating rock that we are all so honored to inhabit. Don’t know what you want to to sip on? No worries, we’re here to help you find the perfect drink produced by this fine planet.

In this episode, we’re facing down some serious controversy. Natural wine–or wine that’s farmed and produced with minimal intervention—has attracted a lot of new wine drinkers, and it’s also been scorned by many who prefer traditional bottlings.

The pre-Christian festival of Berikaoba nearly vanished before one woman made it her mission to revive it.

From wine clubs to store shelves to Instagram feeds, “clean wine” is popping up all over the place these days, with marketing claims promoting health consciousness, sustainability, transparency in ingredients and more. You may even have a bottle of it in your home right now.

Mark and Jeff Pisoni grew up in an agricultural family. Their grandfather farmed fruit in the Salinas Valley in 1952 but their father was determined to grow vineyards and bought a ranch in the rugged Santa Lucia Highlands.

For over a year, my wanderlust has been frustrated and stifled. I’ve dreamed of vacations in far off lands, drinking regional wine, exploring unusual cuisines, nestling in at a neighborhood pub in an unfamiliar place, listening to music, chatting with locals and absorbing the vibe and local culture. Obviously, in 2020 and early in 2021, exotic holidays were the stuff of fantasies, so my husband and I have made do with quick, although infrequent, getaways.