These are the topics I write and talk about, pretty much in that order, though all are clearly interconnected. I currently published a newsletter, Everyday Drinking, and host a podcast, also called Everyday Drinking.
I’m the author of the book Godforsaken Grapes: A Slightly Tipsy Journey through the World of Strange, Obscure, and Underappreciated Wine (Abrams Books), which The New York Times named one of “The Best Wine Books of 2018” and Smithsonian named among the “Ten Best Food Books of 2018.”
I’ve also written Boozehound: On The Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits (Ten Speed), which Anthony Bourdain called “superbly informative, entertaining, and yet deeply subversive.” Serious Eats called Boozehound one of the “10 Essential Books for Cocktail Lovers.” My latest book, The Cider Revival: Dispatches from the Orchard, was also named among “The Best Wine Books of 2019” by The New York Times.
I have been the series editor of The Best American Travel Writing annual anthology since 2000.
I have worked as wine & spirits critic for Vinous, where I covered Loire Valley, Cognac, Armagnac, Calvados, and the Finger Lakes. For more than six years, I wrote a popular drinks column for the Washington Post, which won awards for Best Newspaper Column three different years from the Association of Food Journalists. I’ve written a wine column for Philly.com, a beer column for the San Francisco Chronicle, and was a columnist for Harpers Wine & Spirit magazine in the UK.
I write regularly for the Washington Post and Heated, and my work has appeared in many other magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, New Yorker, AFAR, Preservation, Travel & Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler, Boston Globe, Salon, Town & Country, Outside, Whisky Advocate, and the Washington Post’s Sunday magazine. I was previously the restaurant critic at Philadelphia Magazine and a food columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News.
Beyond writing, I also teach wine and spirits classes, both privately and for the trade.
What else? Well, I have a breakfast sandwich, a pizza, and a dessert named after me in three countries. Go ahead: Be amazed. Read about this in my interview with World Hum to get the inside scoop on this rarest of travel feats.