Drink Your Way Through America’s Natural Wine Bar Capital
An essential guide to the bars and retailers that have turned Oakland into an epicenter of progressive wine culture.
- story: Jenny Eagleton
- photo: Bex Wyant
The Wine Aeration Industrial Complex Will Not Rest
The undying obsession with letting wine “breathe” has moved beyond dedicated gadgets to recruit everything from milk frothers to Vitamixes.
- story: Saman Hosseini
- photo: Punch
Everybody Knows Josh
The memeification of one bottle offers a glimpse into the ways we cope with the confusing world of wine.
- story: Mary Anne Porto
- illustration: Andy Bourne
What Drink Trends Should Disappear in 2024?
This was the year people made Martinis their whole personality, 1970s basements suddenly became fashionable and “cocaine chic” was the dominant wine-bar aesthetic.
- story: Punch Staff
- photo: Davis Digital
So Long to the “Somm”
Both the “sommelier” and its swaggering, scandal-riddled sibling are on the outs. What should wine professionals call themselves?
- story: Miguel de Leon
- illustration: Mallory Heyer
A Subjective List of Our Best Stories From the Past 10 Years
Current and former staff share their picks, from a diary of a 24-hour dive bar to a personal plea to eradicate wine’s culture of gatekeeping.
- story: Punch Staff
- illustration: Punch
The Only Wine You Need for the 2023 Holiday Season
The only thing better than a bottle of this fresh, light-bodied Chilean cinsault is a magnum of it.
- story: Megan Krigbaum
- photo: Punch
What Even Is “Fine Wine” Anymore?
The spectrum of luxury wines has gotten wider—and weirder—in recent years. Here are five bottles that represent what's coveted right now.
- story: Zachary Sussman
- photo: Punch
It’s Time for a Glorious, Uncompromising Re-Politicizing of Wine
The longtime plea to "keep politics out of wine" ignores the fact that wine has always been political, and that drinking it can act as both rebellion and discovery.
- story: John McCarroll
- illustration: Alycea Tinoyan
No, Really, Pasteurization Can Be Sexy
The preservation technique has become a bad word in wine, but it can actually make some beverages, even fermented ones, better.
- story: Jenny Eagleton
- illustration: Kaitlin Brito
The Cheap, Gluggable Liter of Grüner Got Weird
Meet the avant-grüners, a new generation of the classic Austrian party wine.
- story: Zachary Sussman
- illustration: Jarett Sitter
Has Pét-Nat Jumped the Shark?
The category of lightly fizzy, sometimes cloudy sparkling wines has gone from somewhat-niche party wine to full-on brand.
- story: Megan Krigbaum
- illustration: Mallory Heyer