I've always followed the rule that anything worth doing is worth doing excessively.

From a wine critic's perspective, there are far too many innocuous, over-oaked, over-acidified, or over-cropped wines emerging from California. While those sins would not be a problem if the wines sold for under $20, many are in fact $75-$150. That's appalling.

I've always followed the rule that anything worth doing is worth doing excessively.

I'm a common-sense kind of guy.

I'm an anti-industrial kind of guy.

The first famous winemaking consultant was the late professor Emile Peynaud, who reigned over Bordeaux throughout the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s.

No sane man can afford to dispense with debilitating pleasures; no ascetic can be considered reliably sane.