Bryce Wiatrak

Cabernet Sauvignon in Sonoma

2021-08-27T21:53:00Z

“As a group, Sonoma cabernets tend to be overlooked—an indignity, and it needs to go,” wrote the wine columnist Frank Prial in a 2000 New York Times article. I could not agree more. Cabernet Sauvignon is rarely an underdog. After al...(read more)

An Introduction to Muscat

2021-03-04T21:14:00Z

Wine lovers often marvel at the tremendous versatility of Chardonnay. Ever the chameleon, Chardonnay gives us such disparate entities as Montrachet and Champagne; steely Chablis and buttery California examples; hordes of supermarket bottlings and a h...(read more)

Musigny

2020-10-14T21:02:00Z

“Imagine Musigny like a big lake. It’s a large, luminous, and deep lake. A lake that includes Amoureuses, by the way, that includes also most of the premiers crus, but that doesn’t include Bonnes Mares. Bonnes Mares is at the edge o...(read more)

Sangiovese on Edge

2020-06-26T17:01:00Z

Chianti Classico is the first wine I truly loved. In the summer before my junior year of college, I spent two months studying opera in Arezzo, just east of the appellation’s edge. On that trip, I visited my very first winery, San Felice, where ...(read more)

Pioneers of Place

2020-05-22T14:50:00Z

Where do wine regions come from? The question might seem overly simplistic, yet every region has an origin story. While the Old World has several orders of monks—or perhaps Roman soldiers, or maybe Phoenician traders—to thank for the prol...(read more)

La Landonne

2020-04-09T15:00:00Z

“Today’s a Landonne day,” Philippe Guigal says to me with boyish delight. As he reiterates later, Landonne was his vineyard. “I was born in January 1975, and Landonne has been planted in January 1975,” he explains. Phili...(read more)

The Ghost of Prohibition

2020-02-28T18:04:00Z

In an 1840 speech to the Illinois House of Representatives, of which he was then a congressman, Abraham Lincoln argued, “Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes b...(read more)

Indigenous Grapes

2020-01-03T19:05:00Z

Late one evening a few years ago, I stumbled across a question in some dark corner of an online wine forum. “Can you name 100 grapes that you’ve tasted?” the user asked the oenophilic interwebs. There was even a whole organization, ...(read more)

Sauvignon Blanc in the Wild

2019-10-04T14:15:00Z

GuildSomm Staff Writer Bryce Wiatrak considers Sauvignon Blanc's successes and challenges in the New World regions of Napa Valley and New Zealand.(read more)

Revisiting the Bourbon Boom

2019-07-12T11:28:00Z

Staff Writer Bryce Wiatrak considers the bourbon boom and the developments and challenges that have emerged in the 10 years since.(read more)

Interview: Generational Succession

2019-05-03T17:20:00Z

Bryce Wiatrak interviews Marilisa Allegrini, Erwan Faiveley, Maya Dalla Valle, and José Lovaglio Balbo about the advantages, challenges, and sacrifices of keeping wineries in family hands.(read more)

Cartizze: Prosecco’s Peculiar Grand Cru

2019-04-11T18:50:00Z

Staff Writer Bryce Wiatrak explores the Cartizze vineyard and the unique place it holds within the category of Prosecco.(read more)

Seyssuel & Its AOP Quest

2019-02-22T22:34:00Z

Bryce Wiatrak considers Seyssuel, a region just north of Côte Rôtie, outlining its history, modern resurgence, and quest for AOP status.(read more)

The Dessert Desert

2019-01-03T14:30:00Z

GuildSomm Staff Writer Bryce Wiatrak explores the historic dessert wine regions of the Douro Valley, Tokaj, Sauternes, and Pantelleria, where dry wine sister categories now flourish as well.(read more)

The Winding Path to Prestige Rosé

2018-11-02T16:35:00Z

“The problem with rosé is you’re asking too many things that are different,” Daniel Ravier, winemaker at Bandol’s esteemed Domaine Tempier, says. The wine must be “fresh, but not too acidic; round, but not too muc...(read more)