Very cool article in the NY Times Magazine today – The Wrath of Grapes – exploring the new trend of “anti California” wines that are (slowly) becoming more popular. I love to try new, off the beaten path wines, and this article inspired me to try find something new, different, interesting…that probably also boasts an embarrassingly low score from the eminent Mr. Parker.

They might be bottled without sulfur, which is used by a vast majority of winemakers to ward off bacteria, or aged underground in amphorae. They might look cloudy, or have a slight carbonation, or still be undergoing fermentation. In short, they’re just the sort of quirky (and occasionally faulty) beverages that Parker believed he had driven from the earth, or at least from American wine shops.