Please visit Randy Caparoso Photography to see the original version of this post and the author's full gallery of wine country images. I fought against the bottle, but I had to do it drunk - Leonard Cohen I am a wine journalist who takes photographs.…

Originally published in Organic Wine Journal, March 6, 2009 Collette once wrote of France’s Jurançon: When I was a young girl, I was introduced to a passionate Prince, domineering and two-timing like all great seducers… My lifelong affair has been…

American sommeliers during the 1970s and most of the '80s were still few and far between. The pay was measly — primarily because a only a fraction of Americans appreciated the taste of wine — and so the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to a…

When I was a 21-year-old sommelier I honed my craft like many others — through constant blind or double-blind tastings. Something I rarely do these days except in the occasional wine judgings spread out over the course of each year. Youth will be…

Note: This article was originally written in 2003 for a book on on-premise wine merchandising that was never published, then posted in October 2007 on Robin Garr's Wine Lover's Page. Restaurant wine lists are far more adventurous today than 15 years…

Originally published in The SOMM Journal (December 2019/January 2020) I admit, after over 40 years in the business, I still gloss over umami when teaching basic wine tasting. I find it easier to put everyone through the paces by focusing primarily on…

Originally published in The SOMM Journal: Here’s a topic we’ve been talking about for some 40 years: Namely, how good are restaurant wine programs compared to the quality of cooking that has been unleashed by restaurant chefs ever since the days of…

When I was a young man and never been kissed, I got to thinking about what I had missed... or so goes that wonderful old song. Which also describes my wine career. I was 18 when I began working as a busboy in a white tablecloth steakhouse. Since…

Originally published in The SOMM Journal (Oct./Nov. 2018) Are you a longtime restaurant wine professional? Then most likely, like me, you’ve had more than a few personal experiences in other people’s restaurants that make you want to grit your teeth.…

Anyone who has worked successful restaurants in different places – on the East Coast, the West Coast, or anywhere in between – will tell you the same: Each market is different, but in many ways the same. Everywhere you go, wine lovers respond to…

Originally published as a Sommelier Journal Bottom Line column in December 2010 (still pertinent today!) The value of esoteric vs. “comfort” labels – or unknown vs. well known wines – on our wine lists has been a subject of debate for as long as I…

Originally published in The SOMM Journal (Jan./Feb. 2018) In Italy, it is said, you learn that simple things can be the best. Volumes of books have been written about that ethic, so this is no big revelation. When I went to Italy in 1996 I had…

In 2014 David Glancy MS (CEO/Founder of San Francisco Wine School) and I sat down with CRN Digital Talk Radio to chat about how we first got into the wine industry (while revealing some pretty personal details), and then gave our best advice on how…

A rewrite of one of my Bottom Line columns originally published in The SOMM Journal: Everyone probably has a seminal moment – an epiphany, or sudden clarity of vision. As a sommelier, mine came in early 1989; after over 10 years of managing wine…

Originally published in The SOMM Journal (February/March 2017) Do you aspire to be a sommelier who makes a difference in the restaurant world, or entire wine world? Anything is possible, but anything takes considerable resolve; although it’s never…

(the author, on left, in 1980; decidedly un-hipster, but cute!) On July 2, 2016, Rachel Signer blogged something called A Brief Response to a Heinously Unprofessional Piece of Wine Writing. At first I clicked on the site with fear and trepidation…

What are wine lovers really looking for in this day and age? Let’s break it down... The “new American wine” In a recent piece in The Washington Post, longtime industry observer Dave McIntyre projected the evolution of what he calls “the new American…

What are wine lovers really looking for in this day and age? Let’s break it down... The “new American wine” In a recent piece in The Washington Post, longtime industry observer Dave McIntyre projected the evolution of what he calls “the new American…

(Randy Caparoso, circa 1987) Originally published in The SOMM Journal (Aug./Sep. 2014) Here in 2014, we may be a few years removed from the worse of the recent economic downturn, but we’re not out of the woods yet. At least according to Sandy Block…