Meg Maker
Verified
(She/Her)
As seen in:
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wine, food, traditional foodways, sustainability, organics, viticulture, winemaking, wine science, terroir, the language of wine, wine lexicons, wine writing, wine discourse
Writer, editor, artist, adviser
Articles by Meg Maker
Owendee
October, November, December, the most wine-soaked time of the year. It can make or break a wine shop, bar, or restaurant, really any business whose currency is empty bottles. We see evidence of it in search trends. Wine-related queries slump in the dog-days of July but rise sharply through October, hitting peak frenzy on December 31. After that they fall precipitously as the Resolutionaries swear off wine then (try to) sweat off excess.
N is for Noirien
Noirien is both an ancient synonym for Pinot noir and the name given to a large ampelographic group of grapevines from northeastern France. Modern ampelographic groups are useful in illuminating not just genetic but also cultural and practical relationships between grapes. Noirien, pronounced as in French, nwahr-ee-EHn, is an old French word for Pinot noir; noir means “black” in French, from Latin niger, “black” or “dark.” (The origins of the name Pinot are contested.
Pairing Wine With Fall
This week we lit the season’s first fire. It was the cat’s idea. The day had been damp and sniveling and darkness fell early. As we scraped the last of dinner from our plates, Ella Jane ventured onto the raised hearth of the woodstove and parked herself by its door, looking not ahead, into the cold steel of the stove, but back toward us with steely reserve. It wasn’t a trick she’s pulled before, but nonetheless her message was clear: Make me a fire.
Tasting Report: Red and White Wines of Roero
The Roero wine growing region lies in the green heart of Piedmont, in the bumpy foothills of the Alps. In September I spent five days there, and while it wasn’t my first trip through Roero, it was a chance to deepen my understanding of the region’s modern wines made from ancient, hyper-local grapes. I found many wines to love. Favorite producers included Angelo Negro, Antica Cascina dei Conti di Roero, Benotti Rosavica, Deltetto, Filippo Gallino, Matteo Correggia, and Nino Costa.
Autumn Elegy
The trees are flying at half-staff here in northern New England. The weather has been handing us a mix of sparkling skies and windy rain, sometimes both within the hour, driving gales of leaves aloft. Spent foliage in orange and yellow carpets the lawn, even as the rain makes it impossible to gather it for mulch. Anyway, I’ve been suffering a chest cold since returning from Italy. The leaves will have to wait.
Red and White and Roero All Over
I’ve just returned from Roero after a four-day whistle-stop tour. The itinerary was orderly but busy. At 9:30 each morning I’d leave the hotel with my colleagues for the first producer visit. These invariably started with a cruise through the tank room before progressing to a seated tasting. (Winemakers love their tanks.) Harvest was just wrapping after the earliest start in memory, so all of the season’s whites and most of its reds were in house and cooking.
From the Chair: From competition to collaboration
Meg Maker analyses how our sphere as wine writers has changed over recent years, and what – if any – opportunities remain for writers to make an income in the future. As an active writer and chair of the Circle, I’m in routine contact with a diverse crowd of journalists, critics, and commentators about wine and spirits. I cannot recall any recent conversation in which my correspondent has reported making more money today than they did ten years ago. And not even the same money—less.
Heading Out
I’ll be in Piemonte next week, touring Roero to taste wines and handmade foods: cheese, truffle, hazelnut, honey. It’s a press trip, and I’m looking forward to it, but I’m also feeling a degree of trepidation, because as usual the itinerary’s so tight one couldn’t slip a silk thread between appointments.
What Flavor of True Are You?
Congratulations, you’ve launched a Substack. I look forward to learning what interests you, but I’m equally eager to discover your nonfiction style and voice. Those also say a lot about who you are and what you’re trying to do. Substack writing is nonfiction writing. There are rare exceptions; a handful of writers work in serialized fiction, poetry, or short story.
Do the Right Work
Lately I’ve been pondering questions of authenticity in wine commentary. Not the authenticity of the liquid in the glass (my usual preoccupation), but that of the writing itself. It’s not a joyful pursuit, this pondering, but generative A.I. has forced my hand. Yesterday, the 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Awards were announced, then swiftly earned criticism for a winning piece that reads like it was made by machine.
Who Holds the Mic
Welcome back to The Salt, my weekly roundup of favorite writing about wine and food, hospitality and taste, and communicating about it all.
M is for Method
We often talk about wines categorically. We refer to color, sweetness, textural style (still or sparkling), and whether it’s a table wine or meant for occasions. Another useful category is method. Method is about process, not product. It names the technique used to produce the wine, not what the wine looks or tastes like or how it’s meant to be served. Method is about making. On the other hand, a method is designed to ensure a predictable outcome.
Wine Gets a Category
A week ago, the Community team lead at Substack, John Malatras, emailed a group of two dozen Substack wine writers with a proposition. He was planning a new Wine & Spirits category, and would we like to join the list? Would we ever. Substack’s category feature lets contributors specify their publication’s main thrust. This helps readers discover writers in that category’s Top Bestsellers and Rising leaderboards.
More Cafeterias, Please
I spent the spring term of my junior year in Florence, Italy, studying Italian Renaissance art. Our small group of American students was domiciled in a pensione one street back from the Arno, close to the museums and churches, piazzas and streetscapes that were our classroom. I’d arrived with about $200 in my pocket expecting, with irrational optimism, that my scholarship funds would swiftly come through.
Re-entry
In early June I added a daily walk to my morning routine. I’d spent the winter hunched over writing projects, HappyLight ablaze to stave off seasonal gloom. I’d tried to stick to my daily exercise routine, but by the end of each dark, cold afternoon I’d often chosen the comforts of my kitchen over those of the gym. What’s the use, I’d grumble to myself. My stupid post-menopausal body isn’t responding, anyway. I reckon I’d reduced my activity by about twenty percent.
L is for Lexicon
A lexicon is a language’s catalog of words, its complete set of meaningful units. Lexicon derives from the Greek lexikon, “book of words,” from lexis, “word.” Lexicon is also used casually to refer to a subset of words embraced by specialists in a particular domain, a professionalized vocabulary. Wine has its own lexicons, not one but many. The language of wine includes terms in common vernacular use, like smooth, fruity, and bold.
The Beginning, The End, and Things in Between
Welcome back to The Salt, my roundup of favorite recent writing about wine and food, thirst and hunger. The Salt is returning from a brief hiatus as I cranked out other projects. Last week I finished a long essay I’d been developing over months, then pitched to a favorite editor. Fingers crossed for success, but if it doesn’t land there at least you’ll read it here.
K is for Potassium
Potassium is an elemental metal with atomic number 19 and symbol K in the periodic table. It readily gives up its sole outer electron; in fact it’s so reactive it doesn’t exist in nature as a pure metal but is instead bound as a compound or salt. The symbol K derives from the Neo-Latin word for potassium, kalium. The word potassium derives from potash (literally “pot ash”), historically made by soaking wood ash in water to yield caustic lye.
J is for Jurançon
Jurançon (zhoo-rahn-SOHN) is an appellation in southwestern France, in the bumpy foothills of the Pyrenees, producing dry and sweet white wines from indigenous grapes. The dry wine, Jurançon Sec, is crisp and aromatic, with flavors of ripe stone fruit and spice. The sweet wines, Jurançon and Jurançon Vendanges Tardives, or late harvest, are the main attraction, produced by a process called passerillage (pah-seh-ree-YAZH) in which bunches are dried on the vine, desiccating and concentrating sugars.
Sour Grapes, Sweet Wines, and the Literal Taste of Change
Welcome back to The Salt, my weekly curated collection of writing and marginalia at the intersection of wine, food, and culture. The Michelin Guide, which has long issued ratings for restaurants (using Stars) and hotels (using Keys), recently announced they would begin rating wine producers (using Grapes). They started with Burgundy, an approach about as sensible as setting an electrical apprentice to work on the track’s third rail.
I is for Indigenous
Indigenous means arising within or naturally occurring in a particular place. The territorial nature of indigeneity is key to its application to wine. The word stems from Old Latin indu, “within,” and gignere, “to beget,” “give birth,” or “bear.” These roots also give us genesis, genetics, and genre. In wine, synonyms for indigenous include native and autochthonous.
Notable Releases from Troon Vineyard
Troon Vineyard recently released their 2025 Vermentino and 2023 Syrah, grown and made in Oregon’s Applegate Valley. By chance I’d been aging one of their earlier Syrah releases, the 2021, so I had an excuse to A/B these vintages. I’m here to tell you that a little bottle age looks great on this wine. The Applegate Valley lies entirely within the bounds of southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley AVA.
The Menu, the Wine List, French Drinks, and a Mouse
Welcome back to The Salt, my weekly curated collection of writing and marginalia at the intersection of wine, food, and culture. Dining in and out in Paris The New York Public Library’s Buttolph archive catalogs a trove of menus collected between 1880 and 1920, America’s dawn of dining out. Writer Stephen Lurie reviewed thousands of these early menus to decipher what they signal about the evolution not only of food, flavor, and taste but also social status, entertainment, and access.
Prats & Symington: Flavors of the Douro
I recently attended a virtual tasting of two premium Douro table wines by Prats & Symington, a joint project between Port producer Symington Family Estates and the Prats family, former longtime owners of Cos d’Estournel. Bruno Prats, who until 1998 was Cos’s winemaker, and Rupert Symington, Symington’s C.E.O., led the tasting.
H is for Hospitality
Hospitality derives from the Latin hospes, meaning both “host” and “guest.” The root also gives us “hospital,” “hostel,” and “hotel.” We tend to think of hospitality as flowing principally from host to guest, but originally it referred to generous reciprocity between both parties. The Greeks especially embraced a reciprocal view of hospitality.
Seats at the Table, Ice in the Wine
The Salt is my weekly curated collection of writing and marginalia at the intersection of wine, food, and culture. But first: To honor America’s 250th, I’m offering a 25% discount off annual subscriptions to Maker’s Table. Paid subscriptions give me freedom to research, report, write, illustrate, and publish this independent commentary. If you value what you read here, please consider subscribing now at the discounted rate of $60 for the first year. The sale runs through Friday, July 10.
Body of Work
In graduate school I took a course from a professor who held doctoral degrees in both philosophy and cognitive science. We read broadly about the philosophy of mind, computational theory, connectionism, and embodied cognition. This last theory asserts that our physical being and perceptual systems are essential for generating our higher thoughts. Mentation and sensation, in other words, are not separate processes; the mind makes the body perceive, and the body makes the mind think.
The Pope, The Hamptons, Substance and Style
Welcome back to The Salt, my weekly curated collection of writing and marginalia at the intersection of wine, food, and culture. It’s not surprising that the Pope maintains a large estate in the countryside of Lazio, outsize of Rome, where he can kick off his papal regalia and crack open a book not written in Latin.
G is for Gouais Blanc
Gouais blanc is an ancient and historically important grape, but its significance lies in its genetics, not its wines. Grape scientists have determined that Gouais blanc (goo-WAY blanh) gave rise to at least 81 other varieties, leading to its nickname, the Casanova of Grapes. Ripening Gouais blanc in the demonstration plot of Champagne Bollinger, in Aÿ Geneticists believe Gouais originated in the area that’s now northeastern France and southwestern Germany.
Sunny, Chance of Savory
Welcome back to Notable, where I write about interesting wines from recent tasting. I have a grab-bag of bottles today, linked not by geography but by deliciousness. There’s the Saint-Joseph Blanc from Cuilleron, Bollinger’s Special Cuvée champagne, an Etna Bianco from Pietradolce, the Cerasuolo di Vittoria from Cos, and three wines—Chardonnay, Pinot noir, and a Pinot-Gamay blend—from a new project called The Set, in the Sta. Rita Hills.
F is for Fining
Fining derives from the Latin finire, “to finish.” To fine a wine, the winemaker stirs a fining agent into a vat. This material attaches to microscopic particles in solution, an action called flocculation. This mass then precipitates to the bottom of the tank. Fining removes protein, long-chain tannin, pigment, phenolics, and other soluble materials that could later cloud the wine. Most commercial white wines and many reds are fined one or more times.
Authenticity, Readability, A.I., and Data
The Salt is my weekly curated collection of writing and marginalia at the intersection of food and culture. Today’s roundup is heavy on A.I.—as subject, not method. I also share new data on the state of wine industry both globally and at home, and plug a new ingredient I can’t cook without. Art director Zoë Yasemin reflects on what luxury image-making has become now that no one believes their eyes.
E is for Élevage
Élevage is a French term deriving from the verb élever, “to raise up,” from Latin elevare, “to lighten.” Our English words elevate and elevator share the same root. The word also implies rearing or husbandry, reflecting the care and effort required to bring wine to maturity. In wine production, élevage is the period of cellar aging after primary alcoholic fermentation but before bottling.
Wines of Andreola and Frasca La Guaragna
Welcome back to Notable, where I share notes on interesting wines from recent tasting. In the last few weeks I’ve participated in virtual events with producers from the Veneto and Piemonte, so I have an excuse to use geography as today’s organizing principle. Not that the wines, or even the geography, are much alike. Italian wine is vigorously territorial; a two-hour drive deposits one into an entirely different vinicultural context.
Books, Books, Books
Welcome back to The Salt, my weekly curated collection of commentary and marginalia at the intersection of wine, food, and culture. My bookmarks folder was slender this week, so instead of the usual half-dozen articles, I’ve recommended seven wine books from my shelf, mostly memoiristic. I’d love to hear about some of your favorite wine books. Drop titles in the comments and let’s get reading.
D is for Dry
Ripe grapes have abundant sugar, mostly fructose and glucose. During fermentation, yeasts eat the sugar and produce alcohol as a byproduct. Once these fermentable sugars run out, the yeasts die and fermentation stops. There remains a trace of residual sugar (RS), but not enough, and not of the right types, to support fermentation. The wine is now dry. This is dryness as a laboratory metric, and it describes the vast majority of still wines on store shelves and wine lists.
From the Chair: Personal taste
Meg Maker questions what makes wine writers unique in a world of automation and AI in her column and Letter from the Chair. I put off writing this Letter from the Chair. What do I know about AI? I’m not a mathematician or computer scientist. I’m not a technology researcher or academic. I did take a course in graduate school about the philosophy of mind in which I learned about the Turing Test and Chinese Room Problem.
Fire Wine, Marx and Engels, Cheese Words, Serving Temps, and Lessons From the Glass
The Salt is my weekly curated collection of essays, articles, and marginalia at the intersection of wine, food, and culture. Waiting at the Bistro, Reims, France Karl Marx was a lush. So was his friend Engels.
C is for Connoisseurship
The word connoisseur derives from the French word connaître, earlier connoistre, meaning “to be familiar with” or “to know about.” A connoisseur is someone who uses their knowledge about a subject to guide decision making, especially but not exclusively in matters of taste. In the late 19th century, the term came to refer to a class of art historians and theorists focused on attribution, the technique of identifying the artist who made a piece of work.
Public Displays, Private Gestures, Design Thinking, Doing the Work, and Deconstructing Taste
The Salt is my weekly curated collection of essays, articles, and marginalia at the intersection of wine, food, and culture.
B is for Bouquet
Bouquet is a derided term of wine speak, but it does useful work by summarizing complexity. Although often used interchangeably with aroma, many professionals reserve bouquet for the impression of development and maturity—the complex of aromas that arise as a result of cask and bottle aging. Primary aromas arise from the fruit itself and reflect its varietal character. Secondary aromas develop when fermentation generates new aromatic esters.
Chasing Aged Bordeaux
Welcome back to Notable, where I write about interesting wines from recent tasting. Lately I’ve enjoyed many wines without a pen or tablet at hand, poured with dinner as distractions from the world rather than attractions unto themselves. But every few weeks my husband and I host a friend for a purposeful tasting. The friend provides wines that have slumbered for decades in his cold northern cellar, and I provide whatever samples I’ve been working through.
New Tech, Novice Drinkers, Pinot Talk, Vermouth Summer, Transhumance, and Humanizing Wine
The Salt is my weekly curated collection of essays, articles, and marginalia at the intersection of wine, food, and culture. These are the stories that caught my attention, conveyed new insights, and sparked creative thinking. But first, a shameless self-promotion. World of Fine Wine has put my recent print cover story, The Evolving Languages of Pinot Noir, onto its website, free to read. The article is a lengthy consideration of the evolution of wine writing, using Pinot noir as lens.
A is for Acid
Author’s note:Abecedaria is a new Section of Maker’s Table defining important concepts in wine and gastronomy. Think of it asaglossary that grows over time, from A to Z—or Acid to Zweigelt. Each short post also considers how the concept is talked and written about to help readers decode jargon and decide for themselves what words to use. When possible (as here), I link to additional articles that expand on the topic. We begin with A is for Acid. Enjoy.
The evolving languages of Pinot Noir
The traditional Burgundian emphasis on a wine’s origins, rather than its aroma or flavor, heavily influenced most early writing on Pinot Noir. Photography by Jon Wyand. In a paper originally presented to the Pinot Noir and Identity Symposium at Oxford University, Meg Maker charts the evolution of writing on Pinot Noir, from the evaluative, to the descriptive and metaphoric. “We talk about Cabernet the way we talk about sports.
Vermont Wine Grows Into Its Future
American wine has lost its mojo. So say the headlines. Older wine customers are aging out, younger customers are looking elsewhere, and discretionary spending is stretched to the limit. The industry struggles with oversupply, economic downturn, and lackluster engagement. Those still buying wine want assurances of pleasure and fewer but better experiences, emphasis on experiences. There are glimmers of hope.
Brunello, Biodynamics, Press Trips, a Fellowship, and a theory of “Post-natural” wine
Welcome back to The Salt, my weekly curated collection of essays, articles, and marginalia at the intersection of wine and food. These are the stories that caught my attention, conveyed new insights, and sparked creative thinking. Late April budding in an Umbrian vineyard Robert Camuto interviews political philosopher Roberto Frega about his theory of “post-natural” wine.
Taste of Change
I was speaking recently with a fellow wine writer about the nature of palate. After noticing changes in his own sensorium, he’d been reaching out to colleagues to ask how their palates have evolved over time, and how much of that evolution was thanks to changes in physiology versus the impact of memory and experience. He had received various responses, including from a few writers who said their palates had not changed at all. I was gobsmacked.
Blouge, Beer, Failure, Frost, and Drinking Local Wine
Welcome back to The Salt, my weekly curated collection of essays, articles, and marginalia at the intersection of wine and food. These are the stories that caught my attention, challenged my opinions, and deserve a wider read. Enjoy. Sharp-lobed hepatica, Hepatica acutiloba Blouge hits mainstream media. A pastiche of blanc and rouge, blouge is the graceless moniker for a new class of wines made by blending white and red grapes.
Vines With a View of the Tyrrhenian Sea
Welcome back to Notable, where twice a month I report on the most interesting wines of recent tasting. Last week I participated in two online events with Italian producers: Argentiera, in Bolgheri, on the Tuscan coast; and Tenuta di Castellaro, on the tiny Aeolian Island of Lipari. Let’s dive in. Spring Sky, oil on canvas Bolgheri is famous not for Italian grapes but French.
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