NPR Interview featuring Keith Wallace
Katie Britton of WAMC/NPR interviews Keith Wallace. The interview revolves around Keith’s cookbook, Corked & Forked. It’s a awesome interview and quite long. It was originally supposed to be edited down …
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Media and Press Stories. Notice of Fair Use: www.vinology.com/fair
The European tradition of mulled wine started in ancient Greece.
My friends in Great Britain insist no holiday can be merry without mulled wine. But why should the Brits have all the fun?
The European tradition of mulling wine started in ancient Greece where heat and spices were used to salvage old wine once the summer’s harvest went bad. In the Middle Ages, mulled wine was credited with medicinal and aphrodisiac powers (what serf wouldn’t love to snuggle up with a hot toddy), and in Victorian England a spot of tea was added to a glass of mulled wine and dubbed “Christmas tea.”
In the United States, nearly everyone cites eggnog as our most typical holiday libation. Historically this creamy holiday tradition has beat out mulled wine due to the availability of milk and eggs from our plentiful farms, as well as the rum that’s been an affordable U.S. import from the Caribbean.
Direct sales invigorate wine-lovers
Local wine aficionados love to grouse, often with good reason, about how state regulations can sometimes stand between them and that coveted vintage.
But they are divided over whether a favorable decision in a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court would do much to make more varieties available, or cheaper, in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The court is being asked to decide whether states can limit direct, winery-to-wine-lover sales.
Keith Wallace, president of the Wine School in Philadelphia, had 53 phone messages the day after the Supreme Court heard arguments, and knows that oenophiles are watching the case.
Wallace spends $30,000 a year on wine. He said that recent innovations by the Liquor Control Board mean that “you have an enormous selection available.
“The problem is that the price point is often 10 to 30 percent higher than anywhere else,” he said.
The best-case scenario, he said, would be a Supreme Court decision that dealt a mortal blow to the state-store system.
But the odds are that Pennsylvania’s unique system, criticized for decades but politically resilient, will survive relatively unchanged.
An NPR Interview featuring Keith Wallace on Wine Myths
Michelle Norris of All Things Considered interviews Keith Wallace about wine myths.The story originally aired on All Things Considered (NPR) on December 11, 2009. The article is reprinted solely for educational purposes. It …
Sommeliers: A rare vintage
At the five-year-old Wine School of Philadelphia, located in Fairmount, 60 students are taking sommelier courses, even though director Keith Wallace decries the profession as “the worst position on the face of the earth. At most places, they’re glorified restaurant managers, talked down to and condescended to.”
Beverage managers, responsible for all libations served, make “marginal income,” between $30,000 and $40,000 after long hours, Wallace says, “at the very top, you can make $60,000 to $80,000,” but the hours are punishing. “The wine industry itself is an amazing place to work,” Wallace says. He directs students to industry positions, advertising for a large wine company, importing, running portfolios for distributors all offering the possibility of better pay, travel, nights and weekends off. (Contrary to assumptions, there are import and distribution jobs in Pennsylvania, but only one buyer.)
How a Class Can Enhance Your Wine Experience
The story was originally published by the Wall Street Journal on February 10, 2006. Learning the Ropes About Vines:How a Class Can Enhance Your Wine ExperienceBy DOROTHY J. GAITER and JOHN BRECHERAbout …
City Paper: Class Act
The story was originally published by the Philadelphia City Paper on April 10, 2007. The article is reprinted solely for educational purposes. It is intended to offer insight into the history of wine …
The Wine Princess Bride
A précis of Tara Nurin’s Sept. 7, 2011 article, “The Wine Princess Bride,” published by Philadelphia Magazine. Tara Nurin framed the marriage of Wine School of Philadelphia founder Keith Wallace and …
Philly Wine?
Keith Wallace, the fearless leader of the Wine School of Philadelphia, gets his geek on about the origin of wine in the United States. His comments will surprise you! via Uwishunu
Jersey Wins!
Keith Wallace (the founder of the Wine School) hosted an event for National Public Radio. It was a blind tasting pitting his top picks from New Jersey with comparable wines from …
Sommelier Smackdown & WWE
The WWE tried to prevent us from running our Sommelier Smackdown classes (they claimed it violated their trademarks) In turn, I turned it into a media feeding frenzy. It was a …
Keith Wallace Tapped as Daily Beast Contributor
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Wine School of Philadelphia Local Philadelphian Tapped as Daily Beast Contributor July 23, 2009, Philadelphia, PA. The Daily Beast has contracted Philly’s own Keith Wallace to write …
Featured on The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast has published a new article by yours truly. Check it out and leave some (hopefully nice) comments: The Great Cabernet Ripoff. This is a great honor for me. …
Getting schooled at the Philly Beer School
“Philadelphia is to beer what Sonoma is to wine,” says Keith Wallace to anyone who’ll listen. Considering the source, the proclamation, perhaps incendiary outside Pennsylvania, might sound outright puzzling within city limits. That’s because in 2001, Wallace, a winemaker, wine columnist, and author of two upcoming wine books, founded and still runs Philly’s best-known vinology school. So why is he extolling his territory’s beer lust at the expense of its pursuit of viticultural knowledge?
Because, acknowledging a craft revolution, he’s invited beer to take a permanent seat at The Wine School‘s table.
Wallace’s partner, a burly bald man named Dean Browne, asserts the alliance as he introduces himself to a group assembled in one of The Wine School’s classrooms on an early March night.