The Wine Curmudgeon’s favorite posts of 2023
by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On
These seven posts weren’t necessarily the most popular, but they were among my favorite posts of 2023
We begin the blog’s 16th annual Birthday Week with the Wine Curmudgeon’s annual year-end top 10 list, which is not about the most read posts. Or necessarily has 10 items.
Instead, these are the posts that I enjoyed writing, thought were important to write, or both. Why not a best read list? That’s because, on the old blog, Google determined that, and the various Barefoot posts were always the most read.
Here, then, in no particular order, are my favorite posts of 2023:
• The Vintner Project’s plan to solve wine’s problems with $30 wine. As I wrote: “How in the world did anyone there think this story has any relationship with reality? We’re going to convert Bud Light drinkers to wine by suggesting they buy a $40 Nebiollo sparkling? Which, by the way, has one listing in Wine-Searcher.” And it brought in six new subscribers.
• No, ChatGPT isn’t the answer, either. I interviewed a chat AI about wine’s future, and the results were hardly impressive: “It also rambled, often talking about things that had nothing to do with the topic. It tied wine’s popularity with ‘typical millennial DIY generation creating fun experiences based on stuff lik macaroni boxes.’ ”
• The Frankie Celenza podcast. Which explained why young people don’t care for wine, and was mostly ignored by readers.
• More truth about Prohibition. I could probably write about Prohibition every week, given the subject’s popularity — as well as the efforts to bring it back.
• Decades and decades of wine books. Want to see what the Winestream Media was writing about 30 years ago? Or that the Wine Spectator once recommended $10 wine? Then check out this post.
• Something called “Birthday sex wine.” I wish I was making this up.
• Wine prices, and why one bottle can have six different prices. This is the kind of writing that almost no one else does — and that we need more of.
More of the WC’s favorite posts:
• Favorite posts of 2022
• Favorite posts of 2021
• Favorite posts of 2020