On September 17, 2026, I submitted the following public comment to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau regarding the proposed Llano Uplift and Hickory Sands District American Viticultural Areas. The comment grew out of research and reporting I had already been doing on the Llano Uplift and on the more narrowly defined Hickory…
Souzão is not a grape most American wine drinkers have had much reason to learn to pronounce. That may be changing. As I explored in Nobody Does It Better, the Texas Hill Country is quietly producing some of the world’s highest-rated examples of this little-known Portuguese variety. With Souzão making such an impressive showing in…
Bite into most red wine grapes and you may be surprised by what you find. Beneath a dark purple or nearly black skin, the flesh is generally pale. Much of the color in red wine comes from pigments extracted from those skins during fermentation. A small group of grapes is different. Known as teinturier varieties,…
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