W. Blake Gray
Best Online Wine Columnist in the World! 2013 Roederer Award in that category, and they stopped giving out that award immediately afterward. In perpetuity!
- The only type of alcohol that's growing in sales is Ready To Drink cocktails (RTDs) -- and they're growing a lot. So much so that, for the first time, Americans spent more money last year on spirits than beer. www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/02/rt...
- If you canceled your Washington Post subscription in the past, please don't complain today about its layoffs. Newspapers are a business. I know. I worked for several that no longer exist. If you want a newspaper to continue publishing, pay for a subscription.
- Only in America: People are paying $20 for a 3D-printed plastic tray so they can eat a cheap hot dog and Coke while standing up. www.sfgate.com/food/article...
- This fast-growing group is focused on one issue only: reducing emissions. "We're having a hard enough time selling wine right now," Frog's Leap's Tori Williams said. "Our industry feels a little battered and bruised. This work makes you feel better." www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/02/wi...
- This is a beautiful song to begin with, and his version is the best. RIP Chuck Negron. One is the loneliest number after all. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrD1...
- A real estate agent just sent me a winery listing. I don't need to embarrass the sellers, but I can see why this business failed: they're selling mixed-vintage wines blending grapes from their home state, in the US Southeast, with California and Washington, for $55 a bottle!
- Good coyote story here: A lone coyote swam from San Francisco to Alcatraz to feast on birds. Rangers want to trap it and <del>kill</del> "relocate" it. Turns out coyotes colonized nearby Angel Island when one coyote made the swim and howled for friends. www.sfgate.com/local/articl...
- I see a lot of horror movies, but this is real: she had an apartment in Nigeria's capital city, and apparently a cobra entered and bit her while she slept. She went to a clinic, then a hospital, and neither had the needed two doses of antivenom. nypost.com/2026/02/02/e...
- An M&A expert predicts the total value of US wineries and vineyards sold this year to be less than half of 2021. The problem is simple: thousands of properties are for sale, but there aren't many buyers ... ESPECIALLY from the wine industry itself. www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/02/wi...
- Dear Headline Writers: The average price of a bottle of wine sold in the United States is NOT the same as the average price of a bottle ordered direct from the winery. The actual average price is significantly lower because most wine is sold in supermarkets. Please get it right.
- Sign of the times: California grapegrowers attended a seminar this week to learn how to get out of the grape growing business. www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/01/ca...
- Reposted by W. Blake GrayAssumption of the Virgin, by Guido Reno, 1598-99, 📸 by Jose Manuel Alvarez Rey
- Uncertainty is the theme of the wine industry this year, so much that two of the industry's leading analysts made a bet. Will California have a grape shortage this summer? The analysts put actual money on it. Which side are you on? www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/01/ca...
- Why don't more Americans drink wine? Research shows 30 percent of American adults simply don't like the taste. For the rest of us, many people have health concerns -- but not the health concerns you might expect. www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/01/wi...
- Reposted by W. Blake GrayJOURNAL OF WINE ECONOMICS: “Sip or smoke: The link between wine consumption and cannabis use” by Sophie Ghvanidze, Milan Ščasný and Jon H. Hanf. Free access: www.cambridge.org/core/service...
- California has had so much excess wine that half of its grapes may not have been harvested in 2025. This might be a bit of welcome news for farmers: an industry analyst says big wineries may be scrounging for grapes this summer. www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/01/ca...
- A useful guide for people who want to work a harvest. People sometimes ask me how to find such a gig. Good luck, and be warned: making wine is hard work. daily.sevenfifty.com/so-you-want-...
- Another one bites the dust, this time Arista Winery in Healdsburg (sorry, paywall). www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/ar...
- I have spend the last year trying to be objective and apolitical. But after President Trump's latest threat to tariff French wines and spirits 200% for personal, not economic reasons, it's time for the Supreme Court to step in. A red line must be drawn. www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/01/ti...
- Reposted by W. Blake Gray[Not loaded yet]
- Interesting chart. I'd like to see how it compares to a generation ago.
- Very interesting to read this chart while considering historical events.
- A California natural wine producer that was up to 20K cases per year runs out of money and ceases production. (Sorry, paywall.) www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/ar...
- "Wine porn isn’t like food porn. Visually, it is one of four coloured liquids in a glass. It doesn’t give the viewer’s imagination much to go on. So to communicate anything meaningful about the liquid, we often over-intellectualise it." www.the-buyer.net/opinion/tom-...
- This isn't good for anyone, including Chile's struggling wine industry. This area in the southern part of the country makes some really interesting cool-climate white wines. Climate change is real, folks, and it's here. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/w...
- A lot of people online would benefit from reading this. "Another potential sign of rumination is if you’re overthinking issues that lack a solution ... People with depression who ruminate also tend to experience worse depression, and for longer." www.nytimes.com/2023/02/01/w...
- I am preparing to cover the looming US Supreme Court decision on tariffs. Not going to write a whole story about this development, but if any SCOTUS justice hasn't finalized their opinion, I think this will sway them against the administration. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/u...
- Neo-Prohibitionists never give up, even when discredited.
- I gotta admit, I read some of the endless pretentious navel-gazing commentary that Cevola criticizes here, and felt the same way. I write about wine, so you'd think I might be interested in writers writing about wine writing. Instead I generally find it insular and boring.
- Many wineries are expected to be sold this year for a fraction of what they were worth 5 years ago, as an influential report says wine sales aren't predicted to improve until 2028. "If you're not selling, we don't know what you're waiting for." www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/01/ro...
- As a fan of one of the non-Dodgers baseball teams, I support a salary cap.
- The waiter came upstairs with a special request to open a rare bottle of Silver Oak — perhaps the first private indication that Harbaugh was ready to sign. “He said, ‘The coach wants a glass of wine to celebrate,’ ” Salouros said. nypost.com/2026/01/15/s...
- Many wineries are for sale, and some owners of famous wine brands are going to give up this year and accept a lot less money than they hoped. This is my main takeaway from Rob McMillan's annual State of the wine Industry report. www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/01/ro...
- The new US Dietary Guidelines for Adults showed Canada what was wrong with its own process for attempting to create new drinking standards. www.winelaw.ca/2026/01/13/u...
