by Monte Belmonte | Dec 11, 2018 | Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
When I started pursuing wine snobbery, I would’ve identified myself as a “red wine drinker.” Now that I have academically pursued alcoholism for the better part of a decade, one should expect some hard-core side-eye from me if you deign to say something as audacious...
by Monte Belmonte | Nov 27, 2018 | Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
From a fermentation perspective, your traditional “hard” cider is basically apple wine. It certainly isn’t beer. No hops. No malts. Just apple juice and the magical yeast that turns sugar into alcohol. So, I hope you’ll indulge me in this, a wine column, as I write...
by Monte Belmonte | Nov 8, 2018 | Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
The sound was terrifying. It was like nothing I’ve ever heard in the Valley. Was it the high-pitched, piercing shriek of a machine, desperately in need of lubrication? No. It was birds. Thousands of birds. A scene and a sound straight out of the Hitchcock movie....
by Monte Belmonte | Oct 11, 2018 | Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
“It’s a white boys’ game, dude. When I first went to take the somm exam, I had this idea that there is going to be one other black person there and it’s going to be a woman. And there’ll be, like, two Indian guys and everyone else will be white. There was actually one...
by Monte Belmonte | Oct 26, 2018 | Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
Airports are not known for elegance. They exist in a particular hell, somewhere between a hospital and the Registry of Motor vehicles. Bad food, bad lighting, an unwelcome groping from a TSA agent: all to ready ourselves as we prepare to experience the miracle of...